2020 will go down as one of the most eventful years in our lifetimes, even though we sat at home for most of it. It wreaked havoc regardless. So much so, that some pretty significant things that happened this year actually somehow were swept aside from our memories.
1. Arnab Goswami rants angrily about John Oliver as the satirist keeps trolling him on his HBO show.
In March, John Oliver spoke about Indian media and its role in the Modi government and pointed out that Arnab Goswami was the ‘Tucker Carlson of India’. Goswami, of course, didn’t like it and went on to call out Oliver on his prime time show, most notably referring to him as ‘Olivier’ for some reason. This was followed by Oliver ribbing on Goswami again in his next episode.
2. Parasite became the first non-English film to bag the Best Motion Picture Award at the Oscars.
The genre-bending South Korean movie about the gross class divide across Korea was a mirror to the world. It was not only highly entertaining but also bagged the best film at the Oscars this year.
3. Taika Waititi throws shade at Joker director Todd Philips in a tweet about edgy comedies and then beats him to an Oscar.
Joker director Todd Phillips in an interview with Vanity Fair had said that people could not make edgy comedies due to the woke culture anymore. To which Taika had replied:
A year later, Taika made Jojo Rabbit, an edgy comedy about Hitler and Nazi Germany, and beat Phillips’ Joker for the Best Screenwriter award at the Oscars.
4. Beirut explosion
On 4th August, a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the port of the city of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, exploded killing at least 205 people and injuring 6,500 people. People in the city, many of whom seemingly became victims, were shooting the fire and the smoke when the explosion took place.
5. General Secretary of Kodagu Tourism Association made a couple of tourists travel back 80 km to pick up pizza boxes they threw on the road.
The GM, along with Kadagadalu gram panchayat members, found the tourists’ number on a bill inside the pizza boxes and rang them up to come back and pick up their waste. When they refused, they called the police up but the youths still refused to oblige. Following this, they went ahead and created an entire social media campaign to get the tourists back and clean the mess they created. The duo was so embarrassed that they returned and picked up the trash.
6. Harvey Weinstein was finally sentenced
After years of allegations, film producer Harvey Weinstein was finally adjudged guilty of rape and sexual assault and was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
7. Australian bushfires, colloquially known as the Black Summer, raged through the continent and killed or displaced about 3 billion animals.
The fires that started in June of 2019 razed till February 2020 and destroyed life and property on an unfathomable scale. The bushfires burned more than 46 million acres of land. At least 80% of the Blue Mountains World Heritage area in NSW and 53% of the Gondwana world heritage rainforests in Queensland (QLD) were also burned.
8. The internet weirdly stanned Kim Yo-jong, Kim Jong-un’s sister in April.
When the rumours of North Korean dictator Kim Jon-un hitting the dirt emerged, it appeared that he would be replaced by his sister and what would have been the first woman dictator of the world – Kim Yo-Jong. While that might seem like a victory for feminism, it really wasn’t. That being said, it was really weird that Yo-jong was stanned by idiots around the world like she was a K-Pop star.
9. Elon Musk named his kid X Æ A-12 Musk and then claimed to have a problem remembering people’s pronouns
Elon Musk became a father this year and stayed true to his ‘edgelord’ image by naming his kid X Æ A-12 Musk. Later in the year, however, the eccentric billionaire ironically claimed that he did not want pronouns. His exact words, ‘I absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an aesthetic nightmare’. Well, well, well, he thought we wouldn’t notice, but we did.
10. The Pentagon actually released official UFO videos
These last four years have been really weird for Americans. That being said, 2020 took the cake and ate it too. Videos of what would be called UFOs were released from The Pentagon raising a bunch of questions and more importantly, keeping Twitter occupied for a few days.
11. US President Donald Trump almost started a WW III.
The United States of America killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani via drone strike on the command of President Donald Trump which brought the world to the precipice of another war.
12. Murder Hornets were an actual terrifying thing for a major part of the year.
These giant Asian hornets (Vespa mandarinia) were found to have invaded North America and caused some panic amongst its citizens. However, it turned out that they weren’t that deadly but by the time that happened, Twitter was already in panic mode.
13. A gigantic star that used to shine over 2 million times brighter than the sun just disappeared into the cold dark night.
Generally, when stars that big go cold, they do so with a bang. Meaning, they go Supernova, something we could observe. But this star that shone over 2 million times brighter than the sun just went dark without causing any scene, which as I mentioned earlier, is unusual for a celestial object of it’s mass.
14. Venus became a planet that could harbour life and everyone suddenly forgot about Mars.
Back in September, scientists had reported that they had discovered evidence of a toxic gas called phosphine in the planet’s atmosphere. Phosphine can’t last for very long in Venus’ dense atmosphere, meaning, if it was found, something must be creating it. One of the reasons for its existence could be a chemical reaction not yet known to humans or there could be living in the clouds of Venus.
15. Cyclone Amphan makes landfall in eastern India and Bangladesh, killing over 100 people and forcing the evacuation of more than 4 million others.
Amphan, the most powerful cyclone to strike eastern India and Bangladesh in 20 years, killed at least 85 people, as it damaged through India and Bangladesh and rendered many others homeless.
16. Twitter bans Kangana Ranaut’s sister Rangoli Chandel.
Rangoli Chandel had long been posting communally inciting posts on Twitter. But, when she shared fake news and called for Muslims to be shot, people mass reported her account and Twitter was quick to suspend it.
17. Britain finally said goodbyes to the European Union.
On the 1st of February 2020, 4:30 am IST, Britain finally exited the European Union. However, it seems like neither the British people nor their government still know what it exactly means for the country.
18. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle separated from the Royal Family.
After years of severe media scrutiny and a very racist British media repeatedly going after Meghan Markle, the couple finally decided to call it quits on their royal duties and gave up their royal titles.
19. FC Barcelona was accused of hiring influencers to troll its own players.
Arguably the biggest football club in the world, FC Barcelona was accused of hiring internet influencers to troll its own players. Of course, the European club denied said allegations but god damn!
20. Nickelodeon kinda confirmed that Spongebob Squarepants is a gay icon.
The popular children’s network took to Twitter on 13th June to share a tweet about Pride while shouting out a few familiar faces, one of whom was Spongebob Squarepants.
21. Scientists told us that the Milky Way contains 36 contactable alien civilisations.
For the longest time, we have thought ourselves to be special. It turns out, that might just be a very egocentric thing to say. Scientists have claimed that our very own galaxy, The Milky Way could be home to 36 contactable alien civilisations.
22. Locust attacks destroyed about 90,000 hectares across 20 districts in Rajasthan.
These swarms entered several districts of Rajasthan via Pakistan’s Sindh province. Few days later, they entered the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh. Before that, they destroyed about 90,000 hectares of land in Rajasthan.
23. One fine day, people woke up in California and looked up to see orange skies from a post apocalyptic dystopian world.
Residents of San Francisco and several other cities across the US’ West Coast woke to orange skies after clouds of smoke from wildfires blocked all sunlight and triggered a downpour of ash.
24. A giant, 2,000-year-old cat drawing was accidentally discovered in Peru.
In the month of October, archeologists discovered a faded carving on the desert hillside. After a thorough cleaning, the figure, which had previously been barely visible, revealed itself to be a 120-foot-long cat.
25. Hacker group ‘Anonymous’ came back into the limelight with a message for the Minneapolis police department.
The hacker group resurfaced after being quiet for a very long time. It released a video addressed to the Minneapolis police department in light of the murder of George Floyd.
Nobody will blame you for forgetting about now or all of these events. To be fair, it’s been a long and bloody year.