2020 has been a wild ride. Nobody’s quite sure exactly what has happened, the time has somehow flown by. So in case you have forgotten, here are some of the tragic, bizarre, and amazing (yes, some good things happened too!) highlights from 2020.
Throughout the year, we saw an influx of Baby Yoda (his actual name is Grogu, by the way) memes, despite his arrival being in November 2019.
We have also seen horrible natural fires in Australia, running from September 2019 until March 2020 when they eventually got put out. We all clubbed together as a society to raise money and awareness for our friends down under, with a whopping $30+ million raised in charitable donations.
As if this wasn’t already enough, this is the year when we were met with the uncertainty of Everything Is Cake. People began to question everything around them, and whether it was actually just an expertly designed tasty treat.
In May we suffered the loss of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, and the world was thrown into massive Black Lives Matter protests, resulting in statues being cast into rivers and Churchill’s statue being hidden. These did so much good, raising awareness, starting conversations, and even catalysing the creation of new laws in the US.
And then, on a slightly bizarre note, 2020 has led to the creation of the Ratatousical. A Ratatouille musical created by a huge community of TikTok creators, what was once just an idea is now being performed, for one night only, as a streaming musical. It’s even got actual stars like Tituss Burgess!
But of course, there was so much more that happened, including wildlife baby booms in Kenya and Uganda! So let’s take a look. Warning: if you don’t want to think about the bad bits of the year, check out our Memes that sum up 2020 instead!
January
In the first week of January: American troops almost cause WW3 by shooting an Iraqi general
January 9th: Megan and Harry announce their intentions to leave the Royal Family
January 26th: The Grammy’s see Billie Eilish win both Album and Record Of The Year
January 26th: In a tragic crash, American basketball star Kobe Bryant passes away
January 28th: Locust swarms in Africa
January 31st: EU lowers Union Jack as a sign of Brexit
January also saw an attempt to impeach Donald Trump (which failed).
What a great start to the year! We all thought that it couldn’t really get much worse. January is always the worst month anyway – right?
Oh, boy, we were wrong.
February
February 9th: The Oscars! Bong Joon Ho wins Best Screenplay, Best International Film, Best Director and Best Picture. (So, Parasite is a good film then? Maybe?)
February 13th: Love is Blind is released on Netflix, and Jessica floods the internet as a chaotic meme, mainly for letting her dog drink wine from her glass.
February 14th: Sonic The Hedgehog is finally released to cinemas, but thankfully not with the original animation design!
February 24th: Harvey Weinstein sentenced to prison at last
February, short but sweet, was one of the better months of 2020. However, it feels a little bittersweet when shortly after we were all locked indoors!
March
The main events in March all relate to the COVID-19 pandemic. The UK was thrown into a national lockdown on March 16th, and we all suddenly had to become hermits. We also went out and bought all the toilet roll we could. Literally. All of it.
Oh, and don’t forget Tiger King! Netflix released this just in time on 20th March. And we all lapped it up, every second of it. Everyone knows who Carole Baskin and Joe Exotic are now.
April
A quiet month, with us all locked indoors, making banana bread and having Zoom parties.
Well, quiet except for the Pentagon releasing UFO videos, that is.
And the rumours of Kim Jong Un’s death.
There was also the beloved Captain Tom walking to raise money to help the NHS. Bless his heart. And, Britian broke records for going without coal power!
May
May started the same as April, quiet. And then suddenly the internet lit up with the news of Elon Musk and Grimes’ baby boy. X AE A12. Because that’s a name.
To top off the bizarre billionaire baby, May also featured headlines about murder hornets in the US! Surely nothing else can go wrong? Oh wait, there was also the shooting of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. May they rest in peace.
June
Other than Anonymous returning to support the BLM movement, there was no huge news in June. Some restrictions were lifted, but mostly we stayed indoors and enjoyed the slightly warmer gardens.
July
July 4th: Kanye West announces his presidential campaign.
Middle of July: an online conspiracy is started about the furniture company Wayfair being involved in a sex trafficking ring. It was baseless and has since been disproved.
July 22nd: Ghislaine Maxwell is arrested for her association and crimes with Jeffrey Epstein
August
August 4th: A horrible explosion causes grief and chaos in Beirut, Lebanon
August 7th: Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion release hit single WAP
August 28th: Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman passes away
In August, the internet also got to see Dave Grohl compete online in a drum-off against a young girl called Nandi. And lose!
Africa was declared free of wild Polio!
September
September 15th: Captain America actor Chris Evans accidentally reveals a nude photograph on an Instagram story, but uses the attention to urge people to vote
September 18th: the internet and world floods with tributes for Ruth Bader Ginsburg following her death
October
This month saw a brief moment of Ebola trending online, and everyone panicking even more. But luckily nothing seems to have come of it.
October 12th: The UK government release the Retrain Rethink Reskill adverts, and the internet rips them apart to create thousands of memes.
October 23rd: Borat 2 is released, and causes political controversy over scenes at White Pride festival and Rudy Guilliani
End of October: NASA finds microbes on mars and water on the moon!
Well, at least if 2021 follows the same trend, we have a chance at survival on the moon now!
November
November was full of focus on the US election, and also on Donald Trump’s attempts to ban TikTok… again.
But not only did he lose that battle, but the election!
December
Actor Elliot Page comes out as transgender and is met with a huge flood of acceptance and support on Twitter and TikTok.
December 8th: Margaret Keenan receives the first-ever dose of the Pfizer COVID vaccine.
December 14th: The laws regarding gay and bisexual men giving blood are changed at last
December 19th: The UK government introduce Tier 4 and change the Christmas rules
December 31st: We say Good Riddance to 2020!
If, like us, you are excited to start anew, then check out our tips on how to make and keep New Year’s resolutions, or maybe you want to reflect on everything you’ve learnt this year?
