JANUARY
Capitol riots
Supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in a brazen show of force on Jan. 6, as Congress met to certify the 2020 election. Lawmakers were forced to run for safety as the building was ransacked by radicalized Trump backers from across the nation. The uprising set shockwaves around the country and around the world. Five people, including a police officer, died in the melee and Trump was quickly impeached for a second time.
Trump impeached, again
Outgoing President Donald Trump was impeached for the second time by the House of Representatives on Jan. 13, just a week after the Capitol riots that he inspired. Trump was charged with “incitement of insurrection.” He’s the only American president to be impeached twice.
Biden inauguration
After weeks of unrest and lies about the 2020 election, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were sworn in. "This is America's day. This is democracy's day, a day of history and hope, of renewal and resolve through a crucible for the ages," Biden said in his inaugural address. "America has been tested anew, and America has risen to the challenge."
NCAA football national championship
The Tide rolled again. Undefeated Alabama beat Ohio State 52-24 in the NCAA national championship game. It was Alabama’s sixth national title since 2009.
FEBRUARY
Senate votes to acquit Trump, again
A year after the Senate voted to acquit Donald Trump for allegedly seeking foreign interference to aid in his election, Trump was acquitted again. This time, the Senate voted 57-43 against Trump in the charge of inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
Texas blackouts
Frigid weather hit Texas in February, causing many people to go without electricity and water for days. The death toll topped 100.
Coronavirus deaths top 500,000
Coronavirus-related deaths in the United States topped 500,000, a number greater than the combined U.S. battlefield deaths in both world wars and Vietnam. “The people we lost were extraordinary. They spanned generations. Born in America, immigrated to America. But just like that, so many of them took their last breath alone in America,” President Joe Biden said in remarks marking the grim milestone. “We have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow. We have to resist viewing each life as a statistic.”
Super Bowl
Quarterback Tom Brady had a new team, but the same result. Brady joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the start of the 2020 season and they won the 2021 Super Bowl, beating Kansas City 31-9. It was Brady’s seventh Super Bowl victory.
MARCH
Spa attacks
The 21-year-old man accused of killing eight people at three metro Atlanta spas said it was a sexual addiction that led him to the alleged crime spree. Robert Aaron Long, accused in three shootings about an hour apart, told investigators he frequented the types of businesses he allegedly targeted: massage parlors. Six of those killed were Asian, and the violence came against the backdrop of other violence against Asian Americans nationwide.
Colorado grocery shootings
10 people, including a police officer, were killed when a man opened fire at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado.
More COVID relief
President Joe Biden signed a sweeping $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package into law, authorizing a massive infusion of federal aid aimed primarily at working families. “This historic legislation is about rebuilding the backbone of this country and giving people in this nation, working people, middle-class folks, the people who built this country, a fighting chance,” Biden said after signing the bill.
Biden assails new Georgia voting law: 'This is Jim Crow in the 21st century'
President Joe Biden denounced a new Georgia law that would make it harder to vote in the state, one of many Republican efforts across the country to restrict access to the ballot box. “Instead of celebrating the rights of all Georgians to vote or winning campaigns on the merits of their ideas, Republicans in the state instead rushed through an un-American law to deny people the right to vote,” he said in a statement. “This law, like so many others being pursued by Republicans in statehouses across the country, is a blatant attack on the Constitution and good conscience.”
Derek Chauvin trial begins
Attorneys in the Derek Chauvin murder trial on Monday each started making their case before jurors who will decide the fired Minneapolis police officer's fate in the killing of George Floyd in 2020. Floyd died after Chauvin held him down in a videotaped arrest that caused outrage around the world.
APRIL
Chauvin verdict
Jurors convicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin of all the counts filed against him — second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter — in the killing George Floyd, who died after being pinned under his knee for more than nine minutes in May 2020. Chauvin looked stern and glanced around the courtroom as the verdicts were removed from an envelope and read by the judge.
US Capitol Police officer killed in vehicle attack; suspect shot dead
A U.S. Capitol Police officer was killed after a car rammed a security barricade protecting the complex, locking down the building for two hours and reigniting tensions in a city still struggling to return to normalcy after the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection. The man drove his car into two officers and then crashed into the barricade. The driver exited the vehicle with a knife, “lunged” at one of the officers and was shot by police, officials said.
Daunte Wright death
A suburban Minneapolis police officer was charged with manslaughter after she shot and killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright – apparently by accident -- during a traffic stop for a minor violation. Video showed Kimberly A. Potter yell ‘Taser’ before killing Wright. The death came amid the Derek Chauvin trial, with tensions already high in the city and around the country.
NCAA tournaments crown winners
Baylor knocked off previously undefeated Gonzaga to win the men’s NCAA basketball tournament. Stanford topped Arizona for the women’s title.
MAY
Trump critic sidelined
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, a critic of former President Donald Trump, was removed from her GOP leadership post because of her continued opposition to Trump. She was replaced by Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Trump loyalist.
San Jose rail yard mass shooting
In California’s largest mass shooting this year, a gunman killed nine people at a San Jose light rail yard before dying of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said. The gunman set his house on fire before he drove to a Valley Transportation Authority union meeting and began shooting, law enforcement sources said. Officials said the victims were shot in two different buildings.
Mideast turmoil
Israel and Hamas militants announced a cease-fire after 11 days of cross-border fighting that killed scores of people, the vast majority of them Palestinian, and threatened to destabilize the volatile region.
Supreme Court agrees to hear major abortion case challenging Roe v. Wade
The Supreme Court said that it would hear a major challenge to the reach of the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion ruling and decide whether states may bar nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of a pregnancy.
Senate Republicans block Jan. 6 commission to study Capitol insurrection
Senate Republicans blocked an independent, bipartisan commission to study the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. Eager to put the events of that day and former President Donald Trump’s role in it behind them, Republicans blasted the commission proposal as a partisan attempt by Democrats to keep both in the news during next year’s pivotal midterm elections.
Ransomware attack prompts shutdown of major US gas pipeline
A major U.S. fuel distributor shut down its pipeline system after being targeted in a cybersecurity attack. Gas supplies and prices were affected across the Southeastern United States.
JUNE
Florida condo collapse
A 12-story beachfront condo building in Surfside, Florida, near Miami, collapsed early on June 24. Nearly 100 people were killed. Serious structural problems were revealed in the investigation of the collapse.
Biden honors victims of Tulsa Race Massacre
President Joe Biden traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to mark a shameful and largely forgotten part of American history, calling for racial reconciliation on the 100th anniversary of the violent destruction of the city’s thriving Black community by a white mob. Biden became the first president to participate in a public remembrance of the 1921 race riot that left hundreds of Black people dead, and burned what was known as “Black Wall Street” to the ground.
Facebook says Trump ban may expire in 2023 ‘if conditions permit’
Facebook set a potential time limit on its previously indefinite ban of Donald Trump: two years. Responding to a mandate from a semi-independent oversight committee that reviews its content moderation and policy enforcement decisions, the company said the former U.S. president will be eligible to resume posting to his Facebook and Instagram accounts on Jan. 7, 2023, two years after riots at the U.S. Capitol that Trump encouraged, resulting in his suspension. The timing means Trump could regain his social media megaphone in time for the 2024 presidential campaign.
Juneteenth now a national holiday
Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19 to mark the end of slavery, became an official federal holiday.
JULY
Coronavirus surge
The highly contagious delta variant fueled a second wave of coronavirus cases in the United States. Government officials called the resurgence a “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” as the vast majority of serious illnesses and deaths were happening among people who had not received a COVID vaccine.
Tokyo Olympics
A year late and devoid of fans because of the pandemic, the 2020 Summer Games were finally held in Tokyo. The United States topped the medal count.
Democratic lawmakers flee Texas
Democrats in the Texas legislature left the state to delay a vote on a voting bill that they found discriminatory. Many decamped for Washington, D.C. Eventually they returned to Texas and to the state Capitol and the voting restrictions became law.
Haiti president assassinated
Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in his home in a brazen overnight attack. The violence added more uncertainty for the troubled country.
AUGUST
Chaotic end to Afghan war
After nearly 20 years of fighting, the United States withdrew its troops from Afghanistan and their longtime adversaries, the Taliban, quickly took over. The U.S. presence came to a quick, chaotic end, with desperate Afghans clinging to the side of planes leaving the country. A bombing at the Kabul airport killed more than 180 people, including 13 U.S. service members.
N.Y. Gov. Cuomo quits
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo quit amid a sex scandal. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul became the state’s first female governor.
Vaccine mandates
Vaccine mandates started becoming the rule across the United States, constricting the places that people who have shunned the shots could work or gather. CVS, Disney and Delta Air Lines were among the employers requiring vaccinations.
SEPTEMBER
20th anniversary of 9/11 attacks
A somber nation marked 20 years since the terror attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York, seriously damaged the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and resulted in the Flight 93 crash in rural Pennsylvania.
Texas abortion ban
For the first time since 1973, a state law banning most abortions took effect, in Texas. A sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court declined to halt it.
‘Our patience is wearing thin’: Biden extends vaccine mandates
Facing rising frustration over the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, President Joe Biden escalated his administration’s efforts to require Americans to get vaccinated and make coronavirus testing more widely available. Tens of millions of Americans were expected to be affected by Biden’s announcement. Employees at companies with at least 100 workers will be required to get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.
California recall
California Gov. Gavin Newsom easily survived a recall vote, with more than 60 percent of the state’s voters rejecting the effort to have him removed from office. Newsom had drawn criticism from Republicans in the state for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. But Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1 in the state.
Simone Biles says FBI ‘turned a blind eye’ to sexual abuse
Star gymnast Simone Biles denounced the FBI for turning “a blind eye” to the sexual abuse she and other young athletes suffered at the hands of former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar in emotionally powerful testimony before a Senate panel. Biles testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee alongside three other women who were abused by Nassar.
OCTOBER
Vaccine mandate for Calif. school kids
In the first such action in the nation, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a mandate Friday requiring all eligible public and private schoolchildren in California to be vaccinated against COVID-19, a policy the state expects to affect millions of students by fall 2022. The mandate would take effect for grades 7 through 12 the semester following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s full authorization of the vaccine for children ages 12 and over.
Fauci says US is turning the corner on COVID surge
Early in October, infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci declared that the U.S. was turning the corner on the most recent surge in COVID-19 cases and more people needed to get vaccinated to keep infections on a declining trend. Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said that while the full vaccination rate had reached 55%, the key risk is the 70 million eligible people in the U.S. who haven’t gotten a shot.
Ex-Facebook employee tells Congress social media giant endangers users, democracy
Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee turned whistleblower, testified before Congress on that lawmakers need to regulate the social media giant because its products harm children and democracy. “The company’s leadership knows ways to make Facebook and Instagram safer and won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people,” said Haugen, a former Facebook data scientist who has provided reams of internal company records to news organizations and regulators that has led to sharp criticism of the company.
Alec Baldwin prop gun death
Actor and producer Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on a New Mexico movie set that killed the director of photography and injured the director.
NOVEMBER
Kyle Rittenhouse: not guilty
A Wisconsin jury acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse of all charges against him, finding the teenage gunman acted in self-defense when he fatally shot two men and wounded a third during anti-police protests in 2020.
Vaccines approved for children as young as 5
Elementary-age children became eligible for vaccination when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave emergency use authorization to vaccines for kids 5 to 11.
Climate summit
197 countries took part in the United Nations Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland. Critics said the modest agreements reached would not be enough to combat climate change.
COVID boosters approved for all adults, just before Thanksgiving
U.S. health officials approved coronavirus vaccine boosters for all adults, just before millions headed out for Thanksgiving travel.
Atlanta Braves win World Series
The Atlanta Braves topped the Houston Astros in six games. It was Atlanta’s first title since 1995.
Virginia governor election
Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the race for Virginia governor. The victory was seen as a bad omen for Democrats nationally, heading into the 2022 elections.
DECEMBER
Supreme Court hears abortion case
The Supreme Court’s conservatives sounded ready to severely restrict a woman’s right to choose abortion and possibly overturn Roe vs. Wade entirely. The court now has six justices who are deeply skeptical of abortion rights. And during arguments about a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, only Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. seemed interested in finding a narrow ruling.
Bob Dole — war hero, senator, presidential candidate — dies at 98
Bob Dole, a son of the Kansas Dust Bowl who survived a crippling barrage of Nazi fire on an Italian hillside to lead his party in the U.S. Senate, but who fell short of his highest ambition, the presidency, died Sunday.
Surgeon general warns of emerging youth mental health crisis in rare public advisory
Citing mounting evidence of ongoing harm, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy on Tuesday issued a public health advisory on the mental health challenges confronting youth, a rare warning and call to action to address what he called an emerging crisis exacerbated by pandemic hardships. Symptoms of depression and anxiety have doubled during the pandemic, with 25% of youth experiencing depressive symptoms and 20% experiencing anxiety symptoms, according to Murthy’s 53-page advisory.
Tornadoes kill dozens
Tornadoes ripped across several U.S. states, killing dozens in Kentucky, which was hardest hit. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard in the aftermath of storms that killed people in at least five states.
Manchin says he cannot support Biden's social spending plan, imperiling ambitious agenda
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III appeared to pull the plug on the centerpiece of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, saying that he cannot support the House-passed version of his party’s massive social spending package, prompting a sharp rejoinder from the White House and sending delicate negotiations into a spiral of bitter accusations.
