If we’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: 2020 sucked. Indeed, this year – the one with the peculiar palindrome 02/02/2020 (first since Nov. 11, 1111), and an equally rare celestial convergence – really had it all it all, including fire, flood, plague, and pestilence.
Collectively for the good citizens of our little blue planet third from the sun, this year has been the biggest bust ever thanks to a microscopic virus called COVID-19. But there was also plenty of other head-scratching (head-burying?) news that equally deserves forgetting.
To name just a few line items: unprecedented economic and travel collapse; climate crisis; resurgent racism (escalating the Black Lives Matter resistance movement); uncivil libertarianism; and, of course, the you-can’t-make-this-spit-up exploits of Donald (don’t let the door hit you too!) Trump, ahead of, during, and after a never-ending American election that commanded the world’s attention like a car crash.
And doesn’t it seem like a lifetime ago that we lived in a pre-pandemic world – albeit one that was certainly not without its issues? Was it really this past January, for example, that Australia was in flames with catastrophic wildfires, a tourism delegation on the road doing damage control in Toronto in Feb.? The middle east was on the edge of erupting (again) and Iran inexplicably shot down a commercial plane that included, amongst others, dozens of Canadians.
So, lest we forget, here’s a brief monthly synopsis – a calendar of calamity if you will – of some of the things we may have forgotten in the tumult of 2020. Apologies in advance for the reminder.
JANUARY
Australia launched one of the largest evacuations in its history, as more than 200 wildfires burned across the country.
Portending a future no one could have predicted, an outbreak of a mysterious infectious disease in Wuhan, China, revived memories of the SARS epidemic.
Iran launched its most direct assault on America since the 1979 seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran, firing 22 ballistic missiles at an airbase near Baghdad and American troops in the city of Irbil in retaliation for the US killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani in an airstrike.
At least 57 Canadians and dozens more who were on their way to Canadian destinations were among the 176 people killed when a Ukrainian passenger plane on route to Kyiv crashed minutes after takeoff from Tehran’s main airport. Iran later admitted the plane had been “accidentally” shot down.
The Ontario government issued a province-wide emergency alert “in error” about an incident at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station.
The US House of Representatives voted to send two articles of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate for only the third impeachment trial of a president in American history.
The capital of Newfoundland and Labrador was hit by a so-called “bomb cyclone” that lasted for 18 hours, dropping nearly a metre of snow.
Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant died along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others when their helicopter went down in Calabasas, Calif., due to bad weather.
A Toronto man in his 50s who returned from the Chinese city of Wuhan – the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak – became the first presumptive case of the disease in Canada.
The European Parliament overwhelmingly approved the departure terms of the United Kingdom from the European Union. The so-called “Brexit” withdrawal agreement ended Britain’s 47-year membership in the bloc.
The World Health Organization declared a global health emergency over the new coronavirus.
FEBRUARY
The new coronavirus global emergency sent financial markets tumbling.
Parts of Kenya reported their worst outbreak of locusts in 70 years, as billions of the insects descended on communities.
Japan quarantined the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which was carrying more than 3,700 people – including 251 Canadians – after several people on board tested positive for the new coronavirus.
The US Senate acquitted Donald Trump on both impeachment charges against him.
The World Health Organization said the new coronavirus would be called COVID-19 (an acronym for coronavirus disease 2019). The name, and its abbreviation, was chosen because it didn’t refer to a specific geographic location, a specific animal, or a specific group of people. It also had to be easy to pronounce and related to the disease. (Trump later called the disease the China virus and kung flu).
The Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy protection amid an avalanche of new sex-abuse lawsuits.
The World Health Organization said the number of new coronavirus cases reported outside China had exceeded the number of new cases in China for the first time.
MARCH
Canada recorded its first COVID-19 death in British Columbia.
The World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
The Canada-US border was closed to all but essential traffic in both directions in an attempt to contain the spread of COVID-19 (by the end of the year the border would still be shuttered).
The 2020 Summer Olympics were officially postponed due to the pandemic.
Prince Charles contracted COVID, one of the highest profile people to do so. Also testing positive was Canadian first lady Sophie Grégoire Trudeau
APRIL
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was hospitalized after contracting COVID-19.
The Bank of Canada confirmed that the economic downturn tied to COVID-19 will be the worst on record.
A tiny community in rural Nova Scotia was torn apart by the worst mass murder in modern Canadian history. Twenty-two people were killed by 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, who impersonated a police officer and was later killed by police.
A new study showed a malaria drug widely touted by Donald Trump as a treatment for COVID-19 had no benefits against the virus. The president, who consistently denied the severity of the global crisis, later faced more criticism after asking if disinfectants could be injected into COVID-19 patients to treat them.
Flooding in Fort MacMurray, Alberta, forced 13,000 people from their homes. One man drowned, 1,320 buildings were damaged, and hundreds of vehicles swamped.
MAY
A video captured Minneapolis police pinning unarmed black man George Floyd to the ground with a white officer pressing a knee against his neck for several minutes as he pleaded that he couldn’t breathe. Floyd’s death would eventually set off mass demonstrations against systemic racism and police brutality in US, prompting protests, many violent, across the country and elsewhere in the world.
Heat records started in May – Montreal registered nearly 37 C – and lasted until Labour Day. Hundreds of records fell from the Maritimes to Manitoba and parts of the Great Lakes were up to five degrees warmer than normal.
Dubbed “swarmageddon,” the worst plague of locusts in decades continued to decimate agriculture in parts of Africa as well as India, Pakistan, and Arabia.
Millions of people in India and Bangladesh were displaced due to flooding from Cyclone Amphan, said to be only the fourth “super cyclone” on record and first since 1942.
JUNE
As Donald Trump called protesters “terrorists,” a large peaceful gathering of people outside the White House were tear-gassed and forcibly removed so that the president could walk across Lafayette Square for a photo op holding a bible.
Demonstrations intensified across the US resulting in what is believed to the largest sustained protest movement in the country’s history.
Beijing approved a controversial law that would allow authorities to crack down on “subversive and secessionist activity” in Hong Kong.
A hailstorm in Calgary shook houses, broke windows, downed trees and damaged 32,000 cars. Insured damages totaled $1.4 billion.
JULY
An armed member of the Canadian Armed Forces rammed a truck through the gates of Rideau Hall, the official residences that house Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Gov. Gen. Julie Payette before police intervened. Neither was in residence at the time.
Temperature screening stations were set up to test passengers at airports in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal to help curb the spread of COVID-19.
AUGUST
An explosion in Beirut’s port caused by the accidental detonation of a stockpile of explosive chemicals that had been improperly stored there for years killed more than 200 people, injured thousands, and destroyed entire neighbourhoods of the capital.
Despite an authoritarian crackdown, hundreds of thousands of people in Belarus protested the landslide re-election of strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko, a result that was questioned by observers both inside and outside the country.
California declared a state of emergency over wildfires that would ultimately prove to be the worst in the state’s modern history and burn 4% of the state’s land.
SEPTEMBER
Hundreds of thousands of children and teenagers across Canada re-entered classrooms for the first time in six months.
The second wave of COVID-19 was acknowledged to be underway.
The Canada Emergency Response Benefit, or CERB, ended after paying out nearly $80 billion to 8.8 million people.
American Intelligence reports surfaced that Russia was offering a bounty for American and coalition troops in Afghanistan. Donald Trump called the CIA assessment ‘a hoax’.
September was the busiest month ever for hurricanes with 10, including three forming on the same day (Wilfred, Alpha, and Beta on Sept. 18)
OCTOBER
Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19.
Two separate plots to kidnap Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer – a political adversary of Donald Trump – and overthrow the state government were thwarted by the FBI.
France went on emergency alert after two women and a man were murdered at Notre Dame Basilica in Nice. The murders came during high tensions over the re-publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad by the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo that ignited anger among Muslims around the world.
A person wearing medieval clothing and wielding a sword went on a rampage in Quebec City, killing two people and wounding five others.
NOVEMBER
War broke out between Ethiopia’s central government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, rulers of the country’s most northern region, forcing tens of thousands of civilians to flee.
One of the strangest and most contentious US presidential campaigns in history came to an end with the election of Joe Biden, yet the refusal of Donald Trump to concede. Kamala Harris became the first woman and first person of colour to be elected vice-president. More than 40 Republican lawsuits contesting the results of the election had failed by late December.
DECEMBER
The first vaccines for COVID-19 were administered – offering hope that there is a “light at the end of the tunnel,” despite global cases and deaths hitting new heights daily. The fast-track development of the vaccine, in less than a year, is considered a medical miracle.
French president Emmanuel Macron tested positive for COVID.
2020 officially shattered the record for named hurricanes with 30, more than double the average number (12-13).
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared that 2020 will likely be the hottest on record – a distinction already confirmed by NASA.
Called a “stunning feat of espionage,” Russia is blamed for the largest cyber attack ever on US federal institutions.
Scientists in Britain and South Africa discovered that the COVID-19 virus had mutated into new strains more infectious than their predecessor. The world held its breath (though, unfortunately, not really).
With some considering the celestial rarity a sign of hope and others an indicator of the end of the world, Saturn and Jupiter aligned in the early evening sky on Dec. 21, creating (for those who could see it) the brightest star since the outer planets last converged in 1623. Astronomers mused that an earlier version of the event may have been construed as the biblical star of Bethlehem. (Ed. note: the world didn’t end.)
COVID-19 finally made its way to sparsely populated Antarctica, ensuring that every continent on earth had been affected by the virus.
AND IN THE END
At the time of writing (Dec. 28), the coronavirus pandemic had afflicted more than 80 million people around the world and caused 1.77 million deaths. The COVID-19 virus arrived early in the year and doubled down at the end. Notable to the travel business, it was reported at one point that every country on earth had restricted border entries, which was a dubious first.
So, as quickly as we flee 2020, 2021 can’t arrive soon enough. If the former is a year of civil decay and death, let’s hope the new one is a year of rebirth and growth. Then again, it can’t be any worse.
Happy New Year! We really mean it!