2020

January 21, 2020 - First case of Covid-19 is confirmed in the United States. The virus, Covid-19, pandemic had erupted in late 2019 as China denied gain of function research caused it at a Wuhan lab partially funded by the USA instead of a natural virus that transmuted to human beings from bats. By the end of the month, a travel ban is placed against China and six other nations with high rates of infection.

March 12, 2020 - Economy halts as the pandemic spreads to Europe and the United States at a rapid pace without knowledge of how to treat the infected or prevent residents from contracting it. Governors and federal offices begin to ban large gatherings. Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen by its large intraday drop ever, two thousand points, three days earlier. Then four days later exceeds that drop, dropping another two thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven points.

March 25, 2020 - House and Senate approve a two trillion dollar emergency spending bill, the Cares Act, to prop up the economy as people lose jobs and are told to stay home due to the pandemic. President Trump signs bill two days later as 3.2 million people during the week before had signed up for unemployment benefits, the highest amount in history.

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May 25, 2020 - Riots and protests erupt across the United States from the killing of a black citizen in Minneapolis, George Floyd, by a policeman. Millions of dollars in damages to small businesses in cities occur, taking advantage of the chaos, as groups like Black Lives Matter and like-minded residents call for a change in police structure and end to harsher treatment by authorities against black and brown citizens.

November 2, 2020 - Poor communication about the pandemic, which would take 385,000 lives by the end of December, and the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic filter into the race for President as President Trump, after a poor first debate performance, loses a contentious election to former Vice President Joe Biden.

December 11, 2020 - FDA announces emergency authorization to Pfizer to administer its Covid-19 vaccine. Seven days later it announced that Moderna has also been given emergency authorization for its vaccine.

2021

January 6, 2021 - Protests by Trump supporters who think the election of Joe Biden as President was illegitimate congregate at the behest of Trump in Washington, D.C. The event turns into a riot and breach of the capitol building by the unruly mob. More than four hundred and sixty-five people would eventually be arrested.

January 20, 2021 - Democrat Joe Biden is sworn in as President of the United States alongside Kamala Harris as Vice President, the first African American and woman to serve in that position. Biden immediately begins to rescind many of the previous President's policies and moves from his moderate stances during the campaign to a more leftist agenda.

February 7, 2021 - Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers win the Super Bowl, giving Brady a record tying number of championships, seven, with Otto Graham.

March 12, 2021 - The United States passes the 100 million vaccination mark. By April 16, the amount of vaccinated adults reaches 200 million. By August 7, over 70% of adults are vaccinated.

December 1, 2021 - The first Omicrom case of the Covid-19 variant in the USA is found in San Francisco from a traveler to South Africa. The Omicron variant would prove to be much more contagious, though less deadly, than the former Delta, creating a spike of new cases and deaths for the next several months. More people died of Covid-19 in 2021 than in its first year. In the United States alone, that number was 386,000 and worldwide, the number of deaths from the virus reached 5.1 million, both as of November 22, 2021.

2022

February 24, 2022 - Full scale invasion of the soveriegn nation of Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian troops entering from the west, north, and south causes mass migration from Ukraine, and propels western nations, including the United States, to send hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian and military aid to the non-NATO country.

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May 17, 2022 - House of Representatives holds first hearing on the existence of Unidentified Flying Objects, UFO's, in over fifty years, prompted by declassified photos and video of military pilots and others sighting objects in the sky that seemed to defy known flight capabilities. Footage of three Navy pilots sighting what are now called, "unidentified aerial phenomena" had been released on August 30, 2021, raising the concern.

June 24, 2022 - Roe versus Wade 1973 ruling legalizing abortion rights on the Federal level is overturned by the Supreme Court, which found that the Constitution does not contain a right to abortion. Ruling sends laws on abortion back to the states. Majority of Americans do not agree with overturning the 1973 act.

November 8, 2022 - Midterm elections of the House of Representatives and Senate end with Republicans taking control of the House of Representatives by a small margin, ending much of the agenda of President Biden who had control of both houses during the first two years of his Presidency. However, election results were not the expected Republican wave despite the trouble of high inflation hurting American families with much of the reason due to the issue of abortion rights.

December 31, 2022 - Social Security payments to recipients rise 8.7%, the highest in forty years, due to high inflation on almost all products and commodities, which hurt both senior citizens and all families. The Consumer Price Index showing some of the highest inflation in decades causes the Federal Reserve to raise its rates at large intervals during the summer and fall in an effort to combat inflationary pressure.

2023

January 8, 2023 - Presient Joe Biden visits the crises at the United States/Mexican border for the first time in his presidency. The crises continues throughout the year with two million five hundred thousand encounters with immigrants as they poured across the southern border due to policies that allow asylum seekers to remain in the country while waiting for their hearings. This causes release and transportation into not only cities along the border, but to northern and sanctuary cities such as New York, which immediately struggle to handle the influx, leading the homelessness, large government expenditures, and crime.

February 1, 2023 - The Federal Reserve begins its quick raise of interest rates with the first quarter point increase from 4.5 to 4.75 percent. This begins the year long struggle to keep mortgage rates under control with additional rate hikes while the housing market booms in inflationary terms despite the increases and a housing shortage caused, in part, by homeowners with low mortgage rates refusing to move into higher rated loans at a next home. By November 2023, the average 30 year fixed mortgage had risen to 7.44%.

March 30, 2023 - Former President Donald J. Trump is the first President charged with a crime in the hush money trial involving Stormy Daniels. This prosecution begins a series of civil and criminal proceedings against the former President, who considers each a political witch hunt to prevent him from winning reelection. On June 8, Jack Smith indicts the former President on the handling of top secrets documents after his Presidency. On August 1, Trump is indicted for attempting to overturn the 2020 election results which resulted in the January 6 riots. On August 14, the former President is indicted in Georgia on counts including racketeering involving efforts to overturn the election. Despite the mounting legal troubles, his ratings within his supporters remains steady and does not diminish.

October 7, 2023 - Palestinian government and terror group Hamas attacks and kidnaps Israeli civilians in a surprise attack across the Israeli border. About 1,200 civilians were killed at a variety of locations, including rocket attacks and individual attacks at a music festival. Over two hundred people were kidnapped. This attack prompted a counterattack by the Israeli Defense Force, upon Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu, to eradicate all Hamas militants. The impact of the attacks caused eleven thousand Palestinian civilian deaths, causing some in the world to question the severity of the attacks, and the west's backing of their traditional ally Israel. Hamas has systematically threatened the viability of the state of Israel since the 1967 war.

December 8, 2023 - The Eras Tour by country and pop music star Taylor Swift grosses over one billion dollars. This was the first time the tour of a music act had reached that amount of gross receipts.

2024

January 1, 2024 - Violent acts by domestic terrorists, foreign terrorists, and school shootings by adults and children tear at the social fabric of the nation, starting with a vehicle attack on New Year's Day in Rochester, New York and continuing through December 16 when a school student killed three in a mass shooting in a Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin. There were eighty-four school shootings during 2024.

February 15, 2024 - United States sends six missile-detecting satellites into outer space to counter Russian effort to nuclearize space. Severe cyber security and spy agency activities by the Communist Chinese and Russian governments continue throughout the year. In the fall, unidentified night drones over Northeast U.S. skies cause concern to the public; on December 30, there was a cyber attack with the hacking of the Treasury by Chinese backed entities. The purchase of farmland near military bases by Chinese entities also defies logic as U.S. Government seems unfazed by security concerns.

July 5, 2024 - Statistics released that the immigration crises continues from 2023-2024 with an additional estimated 5.3 million illegal immigrants (released and sent back) crossing the southern border with Mexico alone, a total of 11 million plus in the USA estimated. The lack of handling the situation with firm policy by the Biden Administration leads to many illegals coming in as hardened criminals, sellers of fentinyl, human trafficking, and other offenses. Although most of the illegal immigrants were just seeking a better life in the United States, the lack of handling their asylum claims, which often result in a 90% denial of entry, spread the crises throughout all of the states.

July 13, 2024 - The first of two assasination attempts on the life of Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump occurs in Butler, Pennsylvania; the second attempt on September 15 in West Palm Beach, Florida. His response of defiant strength assists in his run for the Presidency, but causes concern about the ability of the Secret Service to protect each candidate after mistakes were uncovered.

September 25, 2024 - Surge of Artificial Intelligence and its impacts causes the United States, the European Union, Great Britain, and seven other nations to sign treaty over its use. Debate over whether its use is positive or negative for the mainstream of American life causes pause in the effect it will have on the workforce, on education, on accuracy, and the ability of AI to displace workers and inhibit citizens to live a private life in the age of high tech.

November 5, 2024, Donald Trump pulls off a second victory as President, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris, after she was handpicked, with no primary for other candidates, when an ailing President Joe Biden pulled out of the race in July.

History Photo Bomb

President Joe Biden, 2021, Adam Schultz. Courtesy Executive Office, Official Portrait, via Wikipedia Commons.

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