News you might have missed in crazy 2020
- Bruce Stambaugh: The Rural View
- December 23, 2020
- 989
I’m glad the year we would all like to forget is finally coming to an end. I know we still have a few days to go in 2020. I figured summing it up early would help us focus on the coming New Year.
As is my custom, I recorded some of the newsy pieces that didn’t make the headlines. Consequently, there’s no mention of the presidential election.
Jan. 1: Soot from raging wildfires in Australia turned glaciers black in New Zealand.
Jan. 22: It was so cold in Southern Florida that the National Weather Service warned citizens to be alert for stunned iguanas falling from trees.
Feb. 21: A published study identified a bird found in permafrost in Siberia as a horned lark that lived 46,000 years ago.
Feb. 29: Junior Heaven Fitch became the first female in North Carolina to become a high school state wrestling champion when she defeated seven boys to win the 106-pound division.
March 10: A driver in Slidell, Louisiana pulled over for license plates that expired in 1997 told police he was too busy to get them renewed.
March 12: Snopes.com reported the average American uses about 100 rolls of toilet paper a year, with most of it manufactured in Canada, Mexico and the U.S.
April 14: The organizer of a challenge to sew 1 million face masks for workers on the front line of the COVID-19 crisis reported global volunteers had sewn 20 million.
April 17: NASA satellite images showed a 30% drop in air pollution during the three weeks of stay-at-home orders on the U.S. East Coast.
May 1: The U.S. Census Bureau reported one-third of Americans already felt some depression and anxiety from the pandemic.
May 15: A new study published in the journal, Landscape and Urban Planning, found planting and caring for a garden boosts people’s mood as much as walking and cycling.
June 2: Irene Triplett, the last person still receiving benefits for being a dependent of a Civil War soldier, died.
June 5: A large asteroid swept by the Earth closer than the moon is to our planet, and it wasn’t detected until two days later.
July 17: Queen Elizabeth II knighted 100-year-old World War II veteran Tom Moore for raising more than $40 million for National Health Service charities by doing laps in his backyard garden.
July 26: Olivia de Havilland, the last surviving star of the classic film, “Gone with the Wind,” died at age 104 in Paris, France.
Aug. 20: A scientific report showed Greenland lost 586 billion tons of ice from an extremely warm 2019.
Aug. 28: Guinness World Records declared Julio Mora Tapia, 110, and Waldramina Quinteros, 105, of Quito, Ecuador as the world’s oldest married couple.
Sept. 1: Three different airline pilots reported seeing a man in a jetpack flying near their planes as they landed at Los Angeles International Airport.
Sept. 7: A 33-year-old Arkansas man found a 9.07-carat brown diamond at Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park.
Oct. 2: The Irish Supreme Court ruled Subway’s sandwiches contain too much sugar to be legally considered bread.
Oct. 5: British Lincolnshire Wildlife Centre had to separate five gray parrots because they kept swearing at visitors.
Oct. 26: NASA scientists announced they had discovered water in the form of ice on the moon.
Nov. 10: The National Hurricane Center reported 2020 was the most active year ever with 29 named storms.
Nov. 16: A 71-year-old Florida man was arrested for grand theft when he strapped a downed steel power pole to the top of his car and drove away, hoping to sell it for scrap metal.
Dec. 7: The International Olympic Committee announced that beginning at the 2024 summer Olympics in Paris, it would include breakdancing as a medal competition.
Dec. 9: A humpback whale made quite a splash in the Hudson River, breaching in front of the Statue of Liberty and other New York City icons.
Here’s hoping the New Year will be much better than 2020 in every way. How can 2021 not be?
Bruce Stambaugh writes about nature, weather, hobbies and people, often using personal experiences. Much to their dismay, he also writes about his family. He uses humor and pathos when he can’t think of anything else to include. To read more The Rural View, visit Stambaugh at www.thebargainhunter.com.