What has happened in the 2020s so far?
The 2020s so far: a pandemic, new space telescopes and the rise of artificial intelligence.
61 events, oldest first.
Timeline of The 2020s
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2020
AlphaFold cracks the protein-folding problem
The work later earned DeepMind's Demis Hassabis and John Jumper a share of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Science & technology history
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2020
Animal Crossing: New Horizons launches
It sold 11.77 million copies in its first 11 days as much of the world went into lockdown.
Pop culture history
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2020
COVID-19 is declared a pandemic
It was the first pandemic declared since swine flu in 2009.
Politics & society history
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2020
George Floyd's murder sparks global protests
Black Lives Matter marches were held in more than 60 countries.
Politics & society history
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2020
Parasite wins the Best Picture Oscar
It was the first film not in English to win Best Picture.
Art & literature history
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2020
SpaceX flies astronauts to the space station
It was the first time a private company had carried humans into orbit.
History of exploration
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2020
The first mRNA vaccine is approved
It was developed in less than a year.
Science & technology history
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2020
Whipped dalgona coffee goes viral
The frothy drink needs only instant coffee, sugar and hot water, beaten hundreds of times.
Food & brand history
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2021
A Beeple NFT sells for $69 million
Everydays combined 5,000 images the artist had made, one a day, over more than 13 years.
Art & literature history
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2021
A helicopter flies on Mars
Ingenuity was the first powered aircraft to fly on another planet.
History of exploration
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2021
El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
It was the first country in the world to adopt a cryptocurrency as official money.
Politics & society history
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2021
Facebook renames its company Meta
The name nods to the 'metaverse', a word coined in Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash.
Food & brand history
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2021
Italy beat England at Wembley to win the Euros
The tournament kept its original name even though it was played a year late, and Italy won the final on penalties.
History of sport
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2021
Max Verstappen wins his first F1 world title
He passed Lewis Hamilton on the final lap of the final race in Abu Dhabi.
History of sport
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2021
Squid Game becomes Netflix's biggest hit
Its creator had first written the story about a decade earlier.
Pop culture history
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2021
The Ever Given blocks the Suez Canal
The stuck ship held up hundreds of vessels for six days.
Modern history
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2021
The James Webb Space Telescope is launched
Its gold-coated mirror is 6.5 metres across.
History of exploration
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2021
Tokyo hosts the delayed Olympics without spectators
Its medals were made from metal recycled from millions of donated old phones and gadgets.
History of sport
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2021
William Shatner flies to space aged 90
Star Trek's Captain Kirk became the oldest person to reach space, aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard.
History of exploration
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2022
Argentina wins the World Cup in Qatar
The final against France ended 3-3 before Argentina won on penalties.
History of sport
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2022
ChatGPT is released
It reached an estimated 100 million users in about two months.
Science & technology history
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2022
Elon Musk buys Twitter
He walked into Twitter's headquarters carrying a sink, captioned 'let that sink in'.
Food & brand history
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2022
NASA's DART probe nudges an asteroid off course
The impact shortened the moonlet Dimorphos's orbit by about 32 minutes.
Science & technology history
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2022
OpenAI unveils the DALL-E 2 image generator
Its name blends the artist Salvador Dalí with Pixar's robot WALL-E.
Science & technology history
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2022
Queen Elizabeth II dies
She reigned for 70 years, longer than any other British monarch.
Politics & society history
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2022
Russia launches a full-scale invasion of Ukraine
It became the largest conventional war in Europe since the Second World War.
Modern history
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2022
Scientists achieve nuclear fusion ignition
At the US National Ignition Facility, a fusion reaction released more energy than the lasers delivered to the fuel pellet.
Science & technology history
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2022
The Hunga Tonga volcano erupts
Its pressure wave travelled around the world several times.
Natural history & deep time
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2022
The New York Times buys Wordle
Creator Josh Wardle originally made the game for his partner, who loved word puzzles.
Food & brand history
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2022
The world's population reaches 8 billion
The UN symbolically marked 15 November as the Day of Eight Billion.
Politics & society history
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2022
The wreck of Shackleton's Endurance is found
It lay about 3 km down in the Weddell Sea, remarkably intact.
History of exploration
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2022
Top Gun: Maverick is released
It became Tom Cruise's first film to gross more than $1 billion.
Pop culture history
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2022
Will Smith slaps Chris Rock at the Oscars
Less than an hour later, Smith won Best Actor for King Richard.
Pop culture history
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2023
Barbie and Oppenheimer open on the same day
Fans dubbed it Barbenheimer, and Barbie became the year's highest-grossing film worldwide.
Pop culture history
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2023
Charles III is crowned
At 74, he was the oldest British monarch ever crowned.
Politics & society history
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2023
Hollywood writers and actors strike at the same time
It was the first time both unions had been on strike together since 1960.
Politics & society history
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2023
India lands near the Moon's south pole
Chandrayaan-3 made India the first country to land near the lunar south pole.
History of exploration
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2023
Lionel Messi joins Inter Miami
He scored a stoppage-time free-kick winner on his debut.
History of sport
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2023
OpenAI releases GPT-4
OpenAI said it scored around the top 10% of test takers on a simulated bar exam.
Science & technology history
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2023
Spain win the Women's World Cup
Spain became only the second country, after Germany, to win both the men's and women's World Cups.
History of sport
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2023
Twitter rebrands as X
The famous blue bird logo, nicknamed Larry after basketball star Larry Bird, was retired.
Food & brand history
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2024
A faulty update crashes millions of Windows PCs
A bad CrowdStrike update froze about 8.5 million computers, grounding flights worldwide.
Science & technology history
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2024
AI pioneers win the Nobel Prize in Physics
Geoffrey Hinton, a 'godfather of AI', shared it with John Hopfield for work on neural networks.
Science & technology history
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2024
Apple's Vision Pro headset goes on sale
Apple called it a 'spatial computer' and priced it from $3,499.
Science & technology history
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2024
Giant tower arms catch a returning Starship booster
The launch tower's arms, nicknamed 'chopsticks', caught the 70-metre booster on the first attempt.
Science & technology history
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2024
Han Kang wins the Nobel Prize in Literature
The author of The Vegetarian became the first South Korean to win the literature prize.
Art & literature history
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2024
Moo Deng the baby hippo goes viral
The pygmy hippo from a Thai zoo became famous for her grumpy, bitey videos.
Pop culture history
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2024
Paris opens the Olympics with a parade on the Seine
Athletes sailed along the river on boats instead of marching into a stadium.
History of sport
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2025
China's DeepSeek AI rattles global markets
Nvidia lost nearly $600 billion in market value in a single day, a US stock market record.
Science & technology history
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2025
India win the Women's Cricket World Cup
India beat South Africa in the final in Navi Mumbai to claim their first world title.
History of sport
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2025
KPop Demon Hunters becomes Netflix's most-watched film
Its song Golden, sung by the film's fictional girl group, topped the US Billboard Hot 100.
Pop culture history
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2025
Leo XIV becomes the first American pope
Born Robert Prevost in Chicago, he spent years as a missionary and also holds Peruvian citizenship.
Modern history
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2025
Oasis kick off their reunion tour
The Gallagher brothers played together for the first time since the band split in 2009.
Pop culture history
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2025
Paris Saint-Germain win their first Champions League
They beat Inter Milan 5-0, the biggest winning margin in a European Cup final.
History of sport
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2025
The Nintendo Switch 2 launches
It sold 3.5 million units in four days, the fastest-selling console launch ever.
Food & brand history
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2025
Thieves steal crown jewels from the Louvre
They used a furniture lift to reach the Apollo Gallery and were gone in under eight minutes.
Art & literature history
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2026
Artemis II flies four astronauts around the Moon
Its crew travelled farther from Earth than any humans before, beating Apollo 13's record.
History of exploration
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2026
Bad Bunny wins the Grammy for Album of the Year
Debí Tirar Más Fotos was the first Spanish-language album ever to win the top prize.
Pop culture history
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2026
Milan and Cortina host the Winter Olympics
Norway topped the medal table with 18 golds, while the US set a record with 12.
History of sport
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2026
Spain beat Argentina in the World Cup final
It was the first World Cup with 48 teams, hosted across the USA, Canada and Mexico.
History of sport
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2026
The USA celebrates its 250th birthday
The Semiquincentennial marked 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
Politics & society history
Think you know your history?
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