Ten Things You Forgot Happened This Year

A lot happened in January and February, not that anyone remembers any of it.

The last 10 months have had a way of erasing the first two months of 2020. But a lot of crazy stuff happened. Good luck remembering any of it.

1. Qasem Soleimani, the supposed “Shadow Commander” of the Iranian National Guard, was killed by a United States army drone strike on January 3. This was widely thought to be a potential act of war by the United States; the United Nations said the killing “violate[d] international human rights law.” Soleimani was mourned in the streets of Tehran for days after his death. (Fifty-six people were killed in a stampede at his funeral.) In the moment, it felt like a scrambling of the global order and a potential augur of widespread chaos ahead.
2. Unprecedented Australian brushfires rampage the continent, destroying more than 46 million acres of property and killing nearly 100 people. It was estimated that more than one billion animals were killed. The damage was so extensive that a huge concert, called Fire Fight Australia, was held in Sydney in February featuring the eclectic mix of Alice Cooper, Olivia Newton-John, Alice Cooper, k.d. lang and something called Grinspoon.
3. Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle decide to “step back as ‘senior’…