2020 – 2030s

Events in the 2020s 96

• 6500 BC – 2026 The Maya Four thousand years, and still here Four thousand years of Maya history, from the first maize farmers of the lowlands to the seven million Maya people alive today. Covers the great Preclassic cities, the Classic dynasties and their wars, the collapse that emptied the southern lowlands, the Spanish conquest and book burnings, the decipherment of the script, and the modern struggles in Guatemala and Chiapas. The Maya did not vanish.
• 1825 – 2026 First Railways of the World The year the railway arrived, country by country The first public railway opened in each country, from the Stockton and Darlington in 1825 to lines that did not arrive until the 21st century. Horse-drawn lines are included where they came first. Plotted together, the dates trace the spread of industrialisation and empire across the world.
• 1853 – 2026 Stadiums of the World Every ground built for 50,000 or more A global timeline of the world's largest stadiums — every ground built to hold 50,000 people or more, plotted by the year it opened. From the Victorian football fields of Britain to the mega-arenas of the 21st century, including the giants that no longer stand.
• 1853 – 2026 Top 10 Stadiums in the World The ten grounds that matter most The ten most significant stadiums on earth, shown side by side across their working lives. Between them they have hosted four World Cup finals, three Olympic Games, the largest crowd ever recorded at a football match and the largest at a cricket match. The oldest opened in 1853, the newest in 2020.
• 1923 – 2023 Henry Kissinger American Diplomat & Statesman German-born American diplomat and political scientist who served as US National Security Advisor (1969–1975) and Secretary of State (1973–1977) under Presidents Nixon and Ford. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for negotiating a ceasefire in the Vietnam War, one of the most controversial decisions in the award's history. He remained one of the most influential and divisive figures in American foreign policy for over five decades.
• 1925 – 2022 Angela Lansbury (1925-2022) British-American actress whose career spanned eight decades, from Gaslight to Broadway's Mame and television's Murder, She Wrote.
• 1927 – 2023 Gina Lollobrigida (1927-2023) Italian actress, one of the great European stars of the 1950s and 1960s, and later a photojournalist and sculptor.
• 1928 – 2023 Burt Bacharach American Songwriter & Composer American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist, widely regarded as one of the most important figures of 20th-century popular music. Working primarily with lyricist Hal David, he wrote dozens of hit songs including Walk on By, I Say a Little Prayer and Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head. He won six Grammy Awards, three Academy Awards, and charted 73 songs in the American Top 40.
• 1928 – 2026 Zhu Rongji Premier of China (1998-2003) Chinese politician and economic reformer who served as Premier of China from 1998 to 2003. Sharp-tongued and impatient, he earned the nickname 'Madman Zhu' for his demanding style and willingness to confront corruption and inefficiency. He overhauled China's state-owned enterprises at the cost of tens of millions of jobs, tamed double-digit inflation, steered the economy through the Asian financial crisis, and masterminded China's entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 — a decision that helped transform China into the world's second-largest economy.
• 1929 – 2026 Yayoi Kusama Japanese Artist Japanese contemporary artist whose immersive polka-dot installations, infinity mirror rooms and vibrant pumpkin sculptures made her one of the most celebrated and commercially successful artists in the world. Born into a seed-merchant family in Matsumoto, she began experiencing vivid hallucinations as a child — flashes of light, auras and dense fields of dots — and channelled these visions into an extraordinary body of work spanning painting, sculpture, installation, performance, fiction and fashion. She lived voluntarily in a psychiatric institution in Tokyo from 1977, walking to her nearby studio each morning to create. By the time of her death at 97, she was the world's top-selling living artist.
• 1929 – 2023 Milan Kundera Czech-French Novelist Czech-born French novelist, essayist and playwright. His novels, including The Unbearable Lightness of Being and The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, explored themes of identity, exile and the fragility of human existence under totalitarianism. Stripped of his Czechoslovak citizenship after the Soviet invasion, he lived in France from 1975 and became a French citizen in 1981.
• 1930 – 2025 Gene Hackman -- the ordinary man in extraordinary roles Eugene Allen Hackman (30 January 1930 - c. 18 February 2025) was an American actor widely regarded as one of the greatest of his generation and a defining figure of the New Hollywood movement. Over a career spanning four decades and more than 100 films, he won two Academy Awards -- Best Actor for The French Connection (1971) and Best Supporting Actor for Unforgiven (1992) -- and received five Oscar nominations in total. He played detectives, villains, coaches, politicians and fathers with a naturalistic intensity that made him one of the most respected and versatile performers in American cinema. He retired from acting in 2004 and lived quietly in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he was found dead alongside his wife Betsy Arakawa at their home in February 2025, aged 95.
• 1933 – 2023 Wayne Shorter Jazz Saxophonist & Composer American jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of modern jazz. A 12-time Grammy Award winner, he was a foundational member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Miles Davis's Second Great Quintet, and co-founder of the fusion band Weather Report. His compositions, including Footprints, Speak No Evil and Nefertiti, became enduring jazz standards.
• 1934 – 2024 Dame Maggie Smith (1934–2024) Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (28 December 1934, Ilford, Essex – 27 September 2024, London) was a British actress whose career on stage and screen spanned more than seven decades. She won two Academy Awards -- Best Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and Best Supporting Actress for California Suite (1978) -- four Emmy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globes and a Tony Award, making her one of a handful of performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting. She worked with Laurence Olivier at the National Theatre, played Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, and the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1990. King Charles III described her as "a national treasure." She died on 27 September 2024 at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, aged 89.
• 1934 – 2025 Jane Goodall -- the woman who redefined our relationship with animals Dame Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall (3 April 1934 - 1 October 2025) was a British primatologist, ethologist and conservationist whose groundbreaking research on wild chimpanzees in Tanzania transformed scientific understanding of the relationship between humans and animals. Working without formal scientific training, she discovered that chimpanzees use tools, eat meat, and have complex social and emotional lives -- findings that challenged the very definition of what it means to be human. She spent the last three decades of her life as a tireless global advocate for conservation, animal welfare and environmental action. She died of natural causes aged 91 while on a speaking tour in California.
• 1934 – 2023 Barry Humphries Australian Comedian (Dame Edna) Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist best known for creating and performing the characters Dame Edna Everage, Sir Les Patterson and Sandy Stone. Over a career spanning more than seventy years, he won a Tony Award, was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia, and was made a CBE. He was also a respected painter, author and art collector.
• 1934 – 2025 Brigitte Bardot Cinema Icon Actress and fashion model who became a world-renowned sex symbol and later an animal rights activist.
• 1935 – 2024 Donald Sutherland (1935–2024) Donald McNichol Sutherland (17 July 1935, Saint John, New Brunswick – 20 June 2024, Miami, Florida) was a Canadian actor whose career spanned six decades and encompassed more than 200 films and television productions. From the countercultural cool of M*A*S*H and Klute in the early 1970s to the menacing President Snow in The Hunger Games four decades later, he was one of cinema's most protean and compelling performers -- tall, angular, unsettling, capable of shifting from warmth to menace within a single scene. He won an Emmy and two Golden Globes but was never nominated for a competitive Academy Award, a slight rectified in 2017 when the Academy presented him with an Honorary Oscar "for a lifetime of indelible characters, rendered with unwavering truthfulness." He died on 20 June 2024, aged 88.
• 1937 – 2026 Harald V of Norway King of Norway (1991-2026) King of Norway for 35 years, an Olympic yachtsman and the last European monarch born before World War II. Born at a time when no prince had been born in Norway for 567 years, he fled to the United States as a child during the Nazi occupation and returned to a country that would become one of the world's wealthiest. He defied convention by insisting on marrying a commoner, Sonja Haraldsen, after a nine-year courtship his father initially opposed. He modernised the Norwegian monarchy and was beloved for his warmth, humour and a landmark 2016 speech celebrating diversity that went viral worldwide.
• 1937 – 2026 David Hockney Painter, photographer, printmaker David Hockney was an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer, one of the most influential British artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. A leading figure in the 1960s pop art movement, he became famous for his sun-drenched depictions of Los Angeles swimming pools before returning to Yorkshire to paint the landscape of his youth, and later embraced digital tools including the iPad as a drawing medium.
• 1937 – 2023 Bobby Charlton English Footballer English footballer widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the game. A survivor of the 1958 Munich air disaster, he spent his entire club career at Manchester United, scoring 249 goals in 758 appearances. He won the Ballon d'Or in 1966, the same year he helped England win the World Cup. He was knighted in 1994 and became a director of Manchester United.
• 1939 – 2026 Susumu Tonegawa Japanese Molecular Biologist Japanese molecular biologist who was awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering V(D)J recombination, the genetic mechanism by which the immune system generates millions of different antibodies from a limited set of genes. Born in Nagoya, he solved one of biology's oldest puzzles while working in Switzerland, then spent over 40 years at MIT, where he reinvented himself as a neuroscientist pioneering the use of optogenetics to identify and manipulate memory cells in the brain.
• 1939 – 2023 Tina Turner Queen of Rock 'n' Roll American-born singer, songwriter and actress widely known as the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll. She rose to fame in the 1960s as part of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, then rebuilt her career as a solo artist in her forties with the landmark album Private Dancer (1984). She won twelve Grammy Awards, sold over 100 million records worldwide, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice.
• 1940 – 2023 Raquel Welch American Actress & Icon American actress and cultural icon who rose to international fame in the 1960s. Born Jo Raquel Tejada to a Bolivian father and American mother, she became one of the defining sex symbols of her era following her appearance in One Million Years B.C. (1966). She won a Golden Globe for The Three Musketeers and had a career spanning over fifty years.
• 1940 – 2023 Michael Gambon Irish-English Actor Irish-English actor who enjoyed a six-decade career spanning theatre, film and television. Knighted in 1998 for services to drama, he won three Olivier Awards, four BAFTAs and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He is best known internationally for playing Albus Dumbledore in six of the eight Harry Potter films.
• 1941 – 2021 Charlie Watts The Rolling Stones' drummer for 58 years Charlie Watts (June 2, 1941 – August 24, 2021) was the drummer and a co-founder of the Rolling Stones. Known for his understated jazz-influenced style, he was the heartbeat of the band for 58 years. He died peacefully in London on August 24, 2021, aged 80.
• 1944 – 2023 Jerry Springer American TV Host & Politician British-born American television host, lawyer and politician. Born in a London Underground station during the Blitz, he emigrated to the United States as a child. He served as Mayor of Cincinnati before becoming host of The Jerry Springer Show, a ratings phenomenon that ran for 27 years and became a defining artefact of 1990s American pop culture.
• 1946 – 2025 David Lynch -- filmmaker, painter, surrealist David Keith Lynch (20 January 1946 - 15 January 2025) was an American filmmaker, visual artist, musician and actor whose surrealist vision of America made him one of the most influential directors in the history of cinema. In a career spanning more than fifty years he directed only ten feature films, but among them were works -- Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive -- widely regarded as masterpieces. He co-created Twin Peaks with Mark Frost, transforming American television. His distinctive style gave rise to the adjective 'Lynchian', denoting a quality of uncanny menace beneath surfaces of normality. He received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, the Palme d''Or at Cannes, and an Honorary Academy Award in 2019. A lifelong smoker, he died of cardiac arrest caused by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, five days before his 79th birthday.
• 1946 – 2026 Dolly Parton Queen of Country American singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman and philanthropist widely known as the Queen of Country. Born the fourth of twelve children in a one-room cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, she rose from poverty to become one of the most beloved figures in American life. Over a career spanning six decades, she wrote over 3,000 songs, sold more than 100 million records, won eleven Grammy Awards and was inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Beyond music, she created the Dollywood theme park, founded the Imagination Library — which has provided nearly 308 million free books to children worldwide — and helped fund the development of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
• 1946 – 2026 Tim Curry English Actor & Singer English actor, singer and voice actor whose powerful baritone voice, expressive eyes and fearless performances made him one of the most distinctive screen presences of his generation. He originated the role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show on stage in 1973 and reprised it in the 1975 film, which became one of the most enduring cult phenomena in cinema history. Over a career spanning five decades, he received three Tony Award nominations, a Daytime Emmy Award, and created an extraordinary gallery of eccentrics and villains including Pennywise the Clown, Darkness, Wadsworth the butler, Long John Silver and Nigel Thornberry.
• 1948 – 2025 Ozzy Osbourne -- the Prince of Darkness John Michael 'Ozzy' Osbourne (3 December 1948 - 22 July 2025) was an English singer, songwriter and media personality who co-founded Black Sabbath and helped create heavy metal music. His wailing vocals on songs like Paranoid, Iron Man and War Pigs defined the genre, while his solo career produced further classics including Crazy Train and Mr. Crowley. His drug-fuelled exploits, outrageous stage antics and later reinvention as a reality television star made him one of the most recognisable figures in popular culture. He sold over 100 million albums worldwide. Diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, he performed a final reunion show with Black Sabbath in Birmingham on 5 July 2025 and died seventeen days later, aged 76.
• 1950 – 2025 Formula 1 World Champions Every World Drivers' Champion since 1950 A year-by-year record of every Formula One World Drivers' Champion from the inaugural 1950 season to the present day. The championship has been won by 35 different drivers from 15 countries, with Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton sharing the record of seven titles each. The sport has evolved from gentleman amateurs racing on public roads to a global spectacle watched by hundreds of millions, but the title of World Champion remains the ultimate prize in motorsport.
• 1958 – 2023 Benjamin Zephaniah British Poet & Writer British writer, poet and activist of Jamaican heritage who became one of the most widely recognised poets in Britain. Known for his dub poetry and energetic performance style, he brought poetry to audiences far beyond the literary establishment. He declined an OBE in 2003, citing the British Empire's legacy of slavery and colonialism. He was also a prominent vegan, martial arts practitioner and campaigner for social justice.
• 1959 – 2025 Val Kilmer -- the intense, transformative actor Val Edward Kilmer (31 December 1959 - 1 April 2025) was an American actor known for his intense, immersive performances and his willingness to disappear completely into roles. The youngest student ever admitted to the Juilliard School drama division, he became a major star through Top Gun, The Doors, Tombstone and Batman Forever before his reputation for difficult on-set behaviour and his refusal to compromise artistically led to a gradual retreat from mainstream Hollywood. Diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, he lost the ability to speak clearly but continued working, documenting his life in a celebrated 2021 documentary. He died of pneumonia in Los Angeles at 65.
• 1960 – 2026 Franco Baresi (1960–2026) Franco Baresi (born Franchino Baresi, 8 May 1960, Travagliato, Brescia – 31 July 2026) was an Italian footballer who spent his entire 20-year professional career at AC Milan, making 719 appearances and captaining the club for 15 seasons. Widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders in the history of the game, he combined extraordinary positional intelligence, anticipation and the ability to read play with the authority of a natural leader. He won six Serie A titles, three European Cups/Champions Leagues and the 1982 FIFA World Cup with Italy. His number 6 shirt was retired by AC Milan upon his retirement in 1997 -- the first player in the clubs history to receive that honour. He died on 31 July 2026, aged 66; AC Milan announced his passing with the words "The entire history of AC Milan is in tears."
• 1960 – 2026 Rod Liddle (1960–2026) Rod Liddle (born 1 April 1960, Sidcup, Kent – 2 August 2026, Middlesbrough) was an English journalist, broadcaster and author who served as editor of BBC Radio 4s Today programme (1998-2002) and spent 24 years as associate editor and columnist at The Spectator. He also wrote weekly columns for The Sunday Times and The Sun and presented a Saturday morning show on Times Radio. A provocateur who delighted and infuriated in equal measure, he was one of the most widely read opinion writers in British journalism -- a sharp, funny, frequently inflammatory voice from the political tradition he described as old Labour: socially conservative, economically interventionist, instinctively suspicious of metropolitan liberalism. He died on 2 August 2026 at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, aged 66, following a short illness.
• 1960 – 2020 Diego Maradona Footballer, manager, 1960-2020 Diego Armando Maradona (1960-2020) — widely regarded as the greatest footballer who ever lived. The Hand of God and the Goal of the Century in a single match; two World Cup finals; two Serie A titles with Napoli; a life of extraordinary brilliance, devastating addiction, improbable comebacks and unconditional love from the people of Argentina and Naples. He died aged 60 on 25 November 2020.
• 1963 – 2020 Brian "Licorice" Locking's later years Jehovah's Witness work After leaving the Shadows in 1963, Brian "Licorice" Locking devoted his life to work as a Jehovah's Witness, making occasional appearances at reunions and on recordings with former bandmates over the following decades. He died peacefully on 8 October 2020 at the age of 81.
• 1966 – 2023 Tatjana Patitz German Supermodel German supermodel who was one of the original supermodels of the late 1980s and early 1990s. She appeared on the cover of over 200 magazines and was featured in George Michael's iconic Freedom! '90 music video alongside Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington. Known for her natural beauty and understated elegance, she later became an advocate for animal rights.
• 1966 – 2023 Sinéad O'Connor Irish Singer-Songwriter Irish singer-songwriter and activist whose powerful voice and outspoken nature made her one of the most distinctive artists of her generation. She achieved worldwide fame with her 1990 cover of Prince's Nothing Compares 2 U and won a Grammy for Best Alternative Album. She was also known for her advocacy on issues including child abuse, women's rights and religious reform.
• 1968 – 2025 Black Sabbath English heavy metal band Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward — the Birmingham band that created heavy metal.
• 1975 – 2023 Lee Sun-kyun South Korean Actor South Korean actor best known for playing the wealthy patriarch Park Dong-ik in Bong Joon-ho's Oscar-winning film Parasite (2019). Acclaimed across film and television in South Korea, he won a Screen Actors Guild Award with the Parasite cast and was nominated for an International Emmy Award for Dr. Brain.
• 1976 – 2021 Peyton Manning Five-time NFL MVP and two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Peyton Manning is widely regarded as one of the greatest quarterbacks in National Football League history, spending 18 seasons with the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos. He won five NFL Most Valuable Player awards, a record matched by no other player, and led his teams to victory in two Super Bowls (XLI and 50). Known for his exceptional command of the game at the line of scrimmage, obsessive preparation, and record-setting passing statistics, Manning redefined the quarterback position before retiring in 2016 and being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2021.
• 1982 – 2022 Dan Carter All Blacks fly-half and one of rugby union's greatest playmakers Daniel William Carter is a former New Zealand rugby union first five-eighth widely regarded as the greatest fly-half in the sport's history. Over a 13-year international career with the All Blacks he won two Rugby World Cups (2011, 2015), three World Rugby Player of the Year awards, and retired as the leading points scorer in Test rugby history. After leaving the All Blacks he continued at club level with Racing 92 in France and the Kobelco Steelers in Japan, capping a career defined by precision goal-kicking, vision, and composure under pressure.
• 1989 – 2026 Hayden Panettiere -- child star, breakout actress, advocate Hayden Lesley Panettiere (21 August 1989 - 16 August 2026) was an American actress who began performing before her first birthday and became one of the most recognisable faces on American television through her roles as cheerleader Claire Bennet in Heroes and country music star Juliette Barnes in Nashville. A two-time Golden Globe nominee, she also appeared in Remember the Titans, the Scream franchise, and the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove. Her later years were marked by candid revelations about addiction, postpartum depression, and the pain of giving up custody of her daughter. She died five days before her 37th birthday in Greenville, South Carolina.
• 1989 – 2026 Lauren Bennett (1989–2026) Lauren Diane Bennett (24 June 1989 – 29 May 2026) was a British singer, dancer and model who rose from talent contests in Kent to become an internationally recognised pop voice. She was a founding member of the girl groups Paradiso Girls and G.R.L., and is best known worldwide as the featured vocalist on LMFAO's 2011 global number-one hit "Party Rock Anthem" -- one of the defining pop songs of the early 2010s, which topped the charts in more than 20 countries and sold over five million digital downloads in the United States alone. Throughout her career she collaborated with LMFAO, CeeLo Green, will.i.am, Pitbull, Robin Antin and the Pussycat Dolls. She died in Kent, England, on 29 May 2026, aged 36. Her death was not publicly announced until 6 July 2026, when her G.R.L. bandmates shared the news on Instagram. An inquest is scheduled for 30 October 2026.
• 1996 – 2025 Diogo Jota -- Liverpool and Portugal forward Diogo Jose Teixeira da Silva, known as Diogo Jota (4 December 1996 - 3 July 2025), was a Portuguese professional footballer who played as a forward for Liverpool and the Portugal national team. Known for his intelligent movement, clinical finishing and tireless work rate, he scored 65 goals in 182 appearances for Liverpool, helping them win the Premier League, League Cup and FA Cup. He won 49 caps for Portugal and was part of two UEFA Nations League-winning squads. He died at 28 in a car accident in Spain alongside his brother Andre, just two weeks after his wedding.
• 2001 – 2025 Oscar Best Picture Winners 2001–2025 The Academy's top film of each year Twenty-five years of Best Picture winners, from A Beautiful Mind to One Battle After Another — blockbusters, silent films, a Korean thriller and a streaming first.
• 2005 – 2022 President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine In 2005 Bubka is elected President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine (NOC Ukraine), a position he holds into the 2020s. The role makes him Ukraine's most senior sports administrator and its primary representative in international Olympic governance. After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he becomes one of the most prominent Ukrainian voices in international sports organisations, advocating for Ukraine's right to compete and for sanctions on Russian and Belarusian athletes.
• 2020 – 2021 Return to the playoffs Under Thibodeau, the Knicks make the playoffs for the first time since 2013.
• 2020 Tom Thibodeau hired as head coach Thibodeau takes over as head coach, immediately instilling a defensive culture.
• 2020 Star Trek: Picard — Season 1 Patrick Stewart returns as Jean-Luc Picard, now retired and haunted by the Federation's abandonment of the Romulan evacuation. The most sophisticated Star Trek since DS9's peak years. Introduces new characters and deepens the mythology of the TNG era. Brent Spiner, Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) and Jonathan Del Arco (Hugh) reprise their roles.
• 2020 Kobe Bryant dies Basketball legend killed in helicopter crash Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California on January 26, 2020, along with his daughter Gianna and seven others.
• 2020 Brexit completed UK formally leaves European Union The United Kingdom formally left the European Union at 11pm on January 31, 2020, ending 47 years of membership.
• 2020 COVID-19 pandemic declared WHO declares global pandemic The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. The disease, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, had spread to over 100 countries.
• 2020 French Open 2020 — postponed by COVID Men: Rafael Nadal · Women: Iga Świątek Held in October due to COVID. Nadal won his 13th Roland Garros. 19-year-old Iga Świątek won her first Grand Slam without dropping a set.
• 2020 George Floyd protests Black Lives Matter goes global The murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020 sparked global Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020, the largest civil rights movement in US history with over 15 million participants.
• 2020 US Open 2020 — held during COVID Men: Dominic Thiem · Women: Naomi Osaka Held at a bubble in Flushing Meadows without fans during the pandemic. Thiem came back from 2 sets down to win. Osaka wore masks bearing names of victims of racial injustice.
• 2020 Duplantis breaks the outdoor record -- Rome, 17 September 2020 On 17 September 2020 in Rome, Sweden's Armand Duplantis clears 6.15m to break Bubka's outdoor world record of 6.14m, which had stood since Sestriere 1994 -- 26 years. Duplantis subsequently raises the outdoor record repeatedly and also breaks the indoor record. The end of the Bubka era in the record books is acknowledged as the passing of an extraordinary landmark: no individual world record in any athletics event had stood longer than Bubka's outdoor mark.
• 2020 Star Trek: Discovery — Season 3 Discovery arrives in the 32nd century, 930 years after its own time, to find the Federation in ruins after a catastrophic event called "The Burn." The show reinvents itself — the best season to date — exploring a Federation without power and without certainty.
• 2020 Biden wins US election Trump defeated after one term Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump in the US presidential election on November 3, 2020, winning 306 electoral votes. Trump refused to concede.
• 2020 Star Trek: Lower Decks — Season 1 The franchise's first animated adult comedy series, created by Mike McMahan (formerly of Rick and Morty). Set aboard the USS Cerritos, one of Starfleet's least important ships. Irreverent, fan-service-rich and surprisingly emotionally sophisticated. A genuine creative departure for the franchise.
• 2021 Jalen Brunson pursued; cap-clearing moves begin The front office, led by president Leon Rose, begins a series of contract and trade maneuvers aimed at clearing space to sign Jalen Brunson.
• 2021 US Capitol stormed Trump supporters attack Congress Supporters of President Trump stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, attempting to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden's electoral victory. Five people died.
• 2021 Perseverance lands on Mars Most sophisticated Mars rover arrives NASA's Perseverance rover successfully landed in Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, 2021. It carried the Ingenuity helicopter, which made the first powered flight on another planet.
• 2021 Iditarod 2021 Winner: Dallas Seavey — 7 days 14h (record) Dallas Seavey won his fifth Iditarod, tying Rick Swenson's all-time record, and shattered the course record with a time of 7 days 14 hours — nearly a full day faster than the previous record.
• 2021 Star Trek: Picard — Season 2 Picard and Q return for a time-travel season set largely in 2024 Los Angeles. The season is troubled in production and uneven in execution — Q's farewell is deeply moving; much of the rest is not. Annie Wersching plays the Borg Queen.
• 2021 Wimbledon 2021 Men: Novak Djokovic · Women: Ashleigh Barty Wimbledon returned after COVID cancellation in 2020. Djokovic won his 6th title. Barty claimed her first Wimbledon.
• 2021 US Open 2021 Men: Daniil Medvedev · Women: Emma Raducanu Emma Raducanu, 18 and ranked 150th, won without losing a set — an unprecedented achievement in Grand Slam history.
• 2021 Star Trek: Discovery — Season 4 The fourth season of Discovery faces a galaxy-threatening anomaly and continues to refine the show's 32nd-century identity. Critical reception is mixed but the show commands a devoted audience.
• 2021 Taliban retakes Afghanistan Kabul falls as US withdraws The Taliban captured Kabul on August 15, 2021, as US forces completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years. The Afghan government collapsed within hours.
• 2021 Charlie Watts dies Drummer dies peacefully aged 80 — August 24, 2021 Charlie Watts, the Rolling Stones' drummer since 1963, died peacefully in London on August 24, 2021, aged 80, surrounded by his family. His death shocked the music world. Steve Jordan replaced him on the Hackney Diamonds tour.
• 2021 No Time to Die — Daniel Craig Craig's final Bond film — and the first in which Bond dies. After retirement, Bond is drawn back into service to stop a rogue MI6 agent wielding a devastating nanobody weapon. The emotional arc begun in Casino Royale reaches its conclusion. Billie Eilish contributes one of the finest Bond themes in the franchise's history. Budget: $250 million. Box office: $774.2 million.
• 2021 Star Trek: Prodigy — Season 1 An animated series aimed at younger audiences, following a group of alien kids who find an abandoned Starfleet vessel and discover the Federation. Kate Mulgrew reprises her voice role as Janeway. Created by Dan and Kevin Hageman, it is the most accessible entry point for new audiences the franchise has ever produced.
• 2021 mRNA vaccine technology proven COVID vaccines transform medicine The success of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna validated a new platform for vaccine development. mRNA technology can be adapted rapidly to any pathogen and may transform treatment of cancer and other diseases.
• 2021 Spider-Man: No Way Home #1 film of 2021 — $1.90bn worldwide Directed by Jon Watts. Peter Parker asks Doctor Strange for help after his identity is revealed, leading to the multiverse colliding.
• 2021 James Webb Space Telescope launched Most powerful telescope ever built The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on December 25, 2021, the most powerful space telescope ever built. Its first images, released in July 2022, showed the deepest views of the universe ever captured.
• 2022 Jalen Brunson signs with the Knicks New York signs point guard Jalen Brunson to a four-year, $104 million contract with a uniquely descending salary structure — a deal that reshapes the franchise.
• 2022 Australian Open 2022 Men: Rafael Nadal · Women: Ashleigh Barty Nadal came back from two sets down to win his 21st Grand Slam. Barty won on home soil, then retired at 25. Both stories dominated global sports coverage.
• 2022 Russia invades Ukraine Largest European war since WWII Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the largest military attack in Europe since World War II. Ukrainian forces mounted fierce resistance.
• 2022 Iditarod 2022 — 50th anniversary Winner: Brent Sass — 8 days 14h The 50th running of the Iditarod was won by Brent Sass of Eureka in 8 days 14 hours. The race celebrated five decades of "The Last Great Race on Earth."
• 2022 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds — Season 1 Spun off from the overwhelmingly positive reception to the Anson Mount / Ethan Peck / Rebecca Romijn appearances in Discovery Season 2, Strange New Worlds is a deliberate return to episodic storytelling. Each episode is self-contained. Critics and fans respond with near-unanimous enthusiasm — the best-received Star Trek premiere in decades.
• 2022 Top Gun: Maverick #2 film of 2022 — $1.49bn worldwide Directed by Joseph Kosinski, starring Tom Cruise. After 30 years, Pete "Maverick" Mitchell trains a group of Top Gun graduates for a specialised mission.
• 2022 French Open 2022 Men: Rafael Nadal · Women: Iga Świątek Nadal's 14th and final Roland Garros title — the most titles any player has won at a single Grand Slam ever.
• 2022 US Open 2022 Men: Carlos Alcaraz · Women: Iga Świątek Alcaraz, 19, became the youngest US Open champion and world number 1.
• 2022 Queen Elizabeth II dies Longest-reigning British monarch, age 96 Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully at Balmoral Castle on September 8, 2022, aged 96, after 70 years on the throne — the longest reign in British history.
• 2022 Roger Federer announces retirement Laver Cup, London — final match On 15 September 2022, Roger Federer announced his retirement from professional tennis after 24 years and 1,500+ matches. His final match was a doubles match at the Laver Cup alongside Rafael Nadal. Both were in tears at the end. Federer retired with 20 Grand Slam titles, 103 ATP titles, and 310 weeks as world number 1.
• 2022 Elon Musk buys Twitter $44 billion acquisition Elon Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter on October 27, 2022, immediately firing its CEO and board. He later renamed the platform X.
• 2022 FTX cryptocurrency exchange collapses $32 billion lost Cryptocurrency exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11, 2022, in one of the largest financial frauds in history. Founder Sam Bankman-Fried was later convicted of fraud and sentenced to 25 years.
• 2022 ChatGPT launched AI chatbot transforms technology OpenAI launched ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, a conversational AI that reached 1 million users in 5 days and 100 million users in 2 months — the fastest-growing app in history. It triggered a global AI race.
• 2022 Nuclear fusion ignition achieved NIF produces more energy than input The National Ignition Facility announced on December 5, 2022 that it had achieved nuclear fusion ignition for the first time — producing more energy from fusion than the laser energy used to trigger it, a 60-year goal.
• 2022 Avatar: The Way of Water #1 film of 2022 — $2.32bn worldwide Directed by James Cameron. Jake Sully and Neytiri must leave their home and explore the regions of Pandora to keep their family safe.
• 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake 60,000 killed in twin earthquakes Two powerful earthquakes struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6, 2023, killing over 60,000 people in the deadliest natural disaster in the region in over a century.
• 2023 Barbie #1 film of 2023 — $1.44bn worldwide Directed by Greta Gerwig, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. After a series of events in Barbieland, Barbie and Ken travel to the real world.
• 2023 Oppenheimer Oscar Best Picture 2023 — $952m worldwide Directed by Christopher Nolan, starring Cillian Murphy. The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.
• 2023 Hamas attacks Israel 1,200 killed in deadliest day for Jews since Holocaust Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages. It was the deadliest day for Jewish people since the Holocaust.