Special End of Year 2020 News Quiz

The coronavirus continues to affect every region of the world, but some countries are experiencing high rates of infection, while others appear to have mostly controlled the virus.

The outbreak was initially defined by a series of shifting epicenters—including Wuhan, China; Iran; northern Italy; Spain; and New York.

Case numbers are currently spiking across most of the United States, leading to dire warnings about full hospitals, exhausted health care workers, and expanding lockdowns.

The commander, Major General Qassim Suleimani, was killed along with several officials from Iraqi militias when an American drone fired missiles into a convoy that was leaving the airport.

General Suleimani was the architect of nearly every significant operation by Iranian intelligence and military forces over the past two decades, and his death was a staggering blow for Iran at a time of sweeping geopolitical conflict.

While many Republicans said that the president had been justified in the attack, Trump’s most significant use of military force to date, critics said the strike could have drastic and unforeseen consequences that could ripple violently throughout the Middle East.

In a year of gut punches to Britain’s royal family, Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, delivered a jarring blow of their own on Jan. 8, announcing that they would “step back” from their official duties.

It was an extraordinary retreat by the popular prince and his American wife, who had grown increasingly isolated within the House of Windsor since their wedding in 2018.

In a statement, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as they are also known, said they planned to divide their time between Britain and North America and would “work to become financially independent.”

The helicopter was on its way from Orange County, California, where the Bryant family lives, to Bryant’s youth basketball academy northwest of Los Angeles, where he coaches his daughter Gianna, who died in the crash.

It was a moment of national mourning, coast to coast. Thousands of people converged at the Staples Center, the Lakers’ home arena in downtown Los Angeles; condolences poured in from presidents, celebrities, and sports luminaries; and several entertainers paid tribute to Bryant at the Grammy Awards, which took place at the arena hours later. 

Bryant, 41, a force of nature on the court who gave himself the nickname Black Mamba, retired in 2016 with five N.B.A. championship rings and a long list of N.B.A. records. Signing with the league right out of high school in 1996, he changed the way the N.B.A. identified, groomed, and developed its youngest stars.

The 62nd annual Grammy Awards anointed a new star in Billie Eilish, an 18-year-old with a moody and idiosyncratic sound. She was the first artist to sweep the top awards since 1981, besting competition from Lizzo, Lil Nas X, Ariana Grande, and others.

“Bad Guy,” a No. 1 hit, took record and song of the year—the latter prize recognizes songwriting—while “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” won album of the year as well as best pop vocal album. She is the youngest artist to win album of the year.

President Trump was charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for seeking to enlist a foreign power to tarnish a rival for his own political gain.

In a pair of votes whose outcome was never in doubt, the Senate fell well short of the two-thirds margin that would have been needed to remove the 45th president. The verdicts came down—after three weeks of debate—almost entirely along party lines, with every Democrat voting “guilty” on both charges and Republicans uniformly voting “not guilty” on the obstruction of Congress charge.

Only one Republican, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, broke with his party to judge Trump guilty of abuse of power.

It was the third impeachment trial of a president and the third acquittal in American history.

Epidemiologists have pointed to New York City’s density and its role as an international hub of commerce and tourism to explain why the coronavirus spread so rapidly.

By March 26, the United States officially became the country hardest hit by the pandemic, with at least 81,321 confirmed infections and more than 1,000 deaths. This was more reported cases than in China, Italy, or any other country at the time.

In just a few weeks, the pandemic put nearly 10 million Americans out of work, including a staggering 6.6 million people who applied for unemployment benefits in the last week of March.

The measure was unparalleled in its scope and size, touching on every aspect of the country in an effort to send help to desperate Americans, provide aid to hospitals combating the coronavirus, and bolster an economy forced to slow or shut down altogether to minimize the spread of the pandemic.

Trillions of dollars in federal aid to households and businesses allowed the U.S. economy to emerge from the first six months of the coronavirus pandemic in far better shape than many observers had feared last spring.

However, that spending has largely dried up, even as the virus persists and millions of Americans remain unemployed. No new stimulus package had been passed as of early December.

The board’s recommendations will be forwarded to the three N.C.A.A. divisions that govern the levels of competition in college sports. The divisions are expected by January to adopt rules that would take effect at the start of the 2021-22 academic year.

While the income potential is likely to be modest for most college athletes, the elite players—under the right circumstances—could see a windfall.

“The right athlete could be making millions,” says Leigh Steinberg, the agent who represents Tua Tagovailoa, who was selected by the Miami Dolphins with the fifth overall pick in the N.F.L. draft. “But I don’t think that’s trickling down to the other 100 players in the program. It’s a star system.”

The report underscored the speed and depth of the labor market’s collapse as the coronavirus pandemic took a devastating toll. In February, the unemployment rate was 3.5 percent, a half-century low.

The April job losses alone far exceeded the 8.7 million in the last recession, when unemployment peaked at 10 percent in October 2009. The only comparable period came when the rate reached about 25 percent in 1933, before the government began publishing official statistics.

If anything, the report understated the damage. The government’s definition of unemployment typically requires people to be actively looking for work. And the unemployment rate does not reflect the millions still working who have had their hours slashed or their pay cut.

The explosive footage, recorded by a bystander and shared widely on social media, led to community outrage, an F.B.I. civil rights investigation, and the firing and arrest of the officer, Derek Chauvin. The Minneapolis Police Department also fired three officers who were with Chauvin at the scene.

In June, Chauvin, 44, was charged with second-degree manslaughter and second-degree murder, a more serious charge than he had originally faced. If convicted, he could face up to 40 years in prison.

The other fired officers, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng, face aiding and abetting charges.

After Chauvin’s arrest in May was announced, Floyd’s relatives called the charges “a welcome but overdue step on the road to justice.”

The Black Lives Matter protests peaked on June 6, when half a million people turned out in nearly 550 places across the United States. That was a single day in more than a month of protests that continued through the summer.

Polls suggest that about 15 million to 26 million people in the United States participated in demonstrations over the death of George Floyd and others during the late spring and summer. These figures would make the protests the largest movement in the country’s history, according to interviews with scholars and crowd-counting experts.

The Supreme Court ruled on June 18 that the Trump administration may not immediately proceed with its plan to end a program protecting about 700,000 young immigrants known as Dreamers—who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their undocumented immigrant parents—from deportation, dealing a surprising setback to one of President Trump’s central campaign promises.

Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. wrote the majority opinion, joined by the court’s four more liberal members in upholding the executive action by President Barack Obama that established the program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. But the chief justice made clear that the decision was based on procedural issues and that the Trump administration could try to redress them.

And on June 15, the Supreme Court ruled that L.G.B.T. workers were protected by a landmark civil rights law. Chief Justice Roberts was in the majority in that decision too. The court said the language of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex discrimination, applies to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Conceived in secrecy and passed with intimidating speed, the law ignited uncertainty about the future of Hong Kong. 

The sweeping new national security law gives China’s central government in Beijing broad powers to crack down on a variety of vaguely defined political crimes. Its intent, experts say, is to silence pro-democracy protesters who have flooded the streets of Hong Kong for much of the past year.

California, Oregon, and Washington endured a fire season of historic proportions. Wildfires this year left at least 40 people dead and destroyed more than 7,000 structures, scorching more than five million acres across the three states.

Most of the fires in California were caused by people, like the El Dorado Fire, which grew to more than 10,000 acres and was ignited when a family used a “pyrotechnic device” at a gender-reveal party.

Many others were caused by more mundane human actions, such as driving a car that sends soot into dry vegetation.

Once the fires got started, fierce winds blew them out of control up and down the West Coast.

Federal data has revealed that Black and Latino people have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus in a widespread manner that spans the country, in urban, suburban, and rural areas, and across all age groups.

Latino and Black residents of the United States have been three times as likely to become infected as their white neighbors, according to the data.

The higher rate in deaths has been explained, in part, by a higher prevalence of underlying health problems. But the new C.D.C. data revealed a significant imbalance in the number of virus cases, not just deaths—a fact that scientists say underscores inequities unrelated to other health issues.

This “makes me angry, because this really is about who still has to leave their home to work, who has to leave a crowded apartment, get on crowded transport, and go to a crowded workplace, and we just haven’t acknowledged that those of us who have the privilege of continuing to work from our homes aren’t facing those risks,” said Dr. Mary Bassett, the Director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University.

In a surprise announcement at the White House after a three-way phone call with Israeli and Emirati leaders, President Trump said the deal would lead to greater cooperation on investment, tourism, security, technology, energy, and other areas while the two countries move to allow regular direct passenger flights, open embassies, and trade ambassadors for the first time.

If fulfilled, the agreement would make the Emirates the third Arab country to establish normal diplomatic relations with Israel after Egypt, which signed a landmark peace agreement in 1979, and Jordan, which signed a treaty in 1994. It could reorder the long stalemate in the region, potentially leading other Arab nations to follow suit.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a pioneering advocate for women’s rights, who in her ninth decade became a much younger generation’s unlikely cultural icon, died on Sept. 18 at her home in Washington, D.C.

The cause was complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer, the Supreme Court said.

Justice Ginsburg not only changed the law, she also transformed the roles of men and women in society. Her pointed and powerful dissenting opinions earned her late-life rock stardom and the nickname “the Notorious R.B.G.,” derived from the late rapper the Notorious B.I.G., who, like Ginsburg, was born in Brooklyn, New York. 

Political leaders from both sides of the aisle and the chief justice of the United States offered tributes to Justice Ginsburg remembering her as a trailblazer and a warrior for justice.

The fall champions:

The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Dallas Stars, 2-0, on Sept. 28, more than two months after they entered the N.H.L. bubble in Toronto, to leave Edmonton as the winners of the 2020 Stanley Cup finals.

A full 355 days after the Lakers played their season opener before a packed crowd at Staples Center in Los Angeles, they toppled the Miami Heat, four games to two, to finish off their playoff run.

The Seattle Storm’s title win—which was cemented by the largest margin of victory in finals history (33 points)—capped a 6-0 run through the playoffs. It also concluded a W.N.B.A. season like no other.

And the Los Angeles Dodgers finally became champions, again, beating the Tampa Bay Rays, 3-1, in Game 6 of the World Series on Oct. 27 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, ending 32 years of disappointment.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative appeals court judge, was confirmed on Oct. 26 to the Supreme Court, capping a lightning-fast Senate approval that promised to tip the court to the right for years to come.

Republicans overcame unanimous Democratic opposition to make Judge Barrett the 115th justice of the Supreme Court and the fifth woman. The vote was 52 to 48, with all but one Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, supporting her.

It was the first time in 151 years that a justice was confirmed without the support of a single member of the minority party, a sign of how bitter Washington’s war over judicial nominations has become.

The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87, in September created the open seat on the Court.

In a much-anticipated lawsuit, the agency accused Google of locking up deals with giant partners like Apple and throttling competition through exclusive business contracts and agreements.

Google’s deals with Apple, mobile carriers, and other handset makers to make its search engine the default option for users accounted for most of its dominant market share in search, the agency said.

“For many years,” the agency said, “Google has used anticompetitive tactics to maintain and extend its monopolies in the markets for general search services, search advertising, and general search text advertising—the cornerstones of its empire.”

The lawsuit, which may stretch on for years, could set off a cascade of other antitrust lawsuits. At least one has already begun: In December, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which enforces antitrust laws, and more than 40 states accused Facebook of becoming a social media monopoly. 

Biden’s victory was delivered by an alliance of women, people of color, old and young voters, and a relatively small number of Republicans voting against their party’s nominee. With more than 81 million votes, Biden, who turned 78 in November, fulfilled his decades-long ambition in his third bid for the White House, becoming the oldest person elected president. With decades of experience in Washington, Biden, who prefers political consensus over combat, will lead a nation that’s become far more ideological since his arrival in the capital in 1973.

Trump, who received more than 74 million votes, has not yet conceded the election, and his campaign launched legal challenges related to counting ballots in several battleground states. But most legal experts have said that these challenges, most of which have already been dismissed by courts, are very unlikely to alter the result.

Kamala Harris, the daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father, has risen higher in the country’s leadership than any woman ever before her.

When she takes the oath of office as vice president, Harris will become the first woman, the first Black American, and the first Asian American to hold that office, a milestone for a nation grappling with its history of racial injustice. Harris, 56, embodies the future of a country that is growing more racially diverse, even if the person whom voters picked for the top of the ticket is a 78-year-old white man.

In her victory speech on Nov. 7, Harris spoke of her mother and the generations of women of all races who paved the way for this moment. “While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last,” she told a cheering audience in Wilmington, Delaware. “Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities.”

On Nov. 9, the drug maker Pfizer announced that an early analysis of its coronavirus vaccine trial suggested the vaccine was robustly effective in preventing Covid-19, a promising development as the world has waited anxiously for any positive news about a pandemic that has killed more than 1.5 million people.

The drug maker Moderna announced on Nov. 16 that its coronavirus vaccine was 94.5 percent effective, joining Pfizer as a front-runner in the global race to contain the pandemic. 

Both companies then applied to the Food and Drug Administration for authorization to begin vaccinating the public. Officials said the two companies could produce enough vaccine for a little more than 20 million people in the United States by sometime in December, with the first doses going to people with the highest risk, such as health care workers, emergency medical workers, and frail residents of nursing homes.

But a vaccine that would be widely available to the public is still months away, while the need for one is becoming increasingly urgent.