SALT LAKE CITY — In many ways, 2020 was a year unlike any other.
If there was one headline in the news that could possibly sum it up, it was a CNN guest column with the headline “1918 + 1929 + 1968 = 2020,” published back in the thick of protests over police brutality during a pandemic that also resulted in economic calamity.
Of course, 2020 didn’t produce something as quite as deadly as the 1918 pandemic or as financially devastating as Black Thursday, or even as violent as 1968. Having those moments in one year, however, was unique. And 2020 produced hardships that those other years didn’t, like some of the worst wildfires ever recorded.
In Utah, there was a large earthquake and a massive windstorm in the middle of the pandemic.
That’s not to say there weren’t positives in 2020. Utahns quickly rushed to help each other during the worst moments. People donated time, effort and money to help out their neighbors as the pandemic hit. That spirit continued throughout the year as times got tough. For example, many trees destroyed by the windstorm in September ended up being donated as firewood to Navajo Nation community members.
There were odd stories inside Utah that caught attention during the year that also made 2020 memorable. It’s possible that nobody will think of a monolith the same way after this year.
So as we say goodbye — or good riddance — to 2020, here’s a look back at some of the most memorable moments that happened inside and outside of Utah during this strange year.
January-May — An extreme Australian bushfire season carries over from 2019. By the time the season ends, more than 46 million acres of land burned and nearly three dozen people are killed as a direct result of the fires. The fires also destroyed about 3,500 homes; an estimated three billion animals are displaced or killed; and the fires cost the Australian government an estimated $103 billion in Australian currency (about $78 billion U.S.).
Jan. 3 — Iranian general Qassem Soleimani is assassinated during a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad International Airport in Iraq. The fallout of the attack sparked international tension and briefly led to the term “World War III” to trend on social media before those tensions eased.
Jan. 20 — The first confirmed case of COVID-19 on U.S. soil is discovered near Seattle.
Jan. 26 — Soon-to-be Hall of Fame basketball legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter, Gianna, and seven others are killed after the helicopter they were in crashed into a Southern California mountainside in dense fog. While a rival player during his Lakers career, Utah fans honored Bryant with a makeshift vigil at the J-Note outside of Vivint Arena.
Feb. 5 — The U.S. Senate votes to acquit President Donald Trump following his 2019 impeachment in the House of Representatives regarding communications with Ukraine. While the vote ended up split on almost all party lines, Sen. Mitt Romney became the first senator in U.S. history to vote to convict a sitting president within the same political party.
Feb. 20 — Lori Vallow Daybell is arrested in Hawaii after a judge in Idaho issued a warrant for her arrest for child desertion. The arrest is in relation to a missing persons case launched in late 2019 involving her 17-year-old daughter Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old son J.J. Vallow. The case ends up drawing local, regional and even worldwide attention.
Feb. 24 — Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, the vilified face of the #MeToo movement, is convicted in New York of rape and sexual assault of two women. A judge sentenced Weinstein to 23 years in prison on March 10.
Feb. 25 — LDS Business College gets a name change: Ensign College. It wasn’t the school’s first name change in its history but it had been LDS Business College for 89 years.
Feb. 26 — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirm the first U.S. case of COVID-19 not linked to travel outside of the country. The spread occurred in California earlier in the month.
March 6 — Gov. Gary Herbert issues a state of emergency as state officials prepare for impacts of COVID-19. The first case in the state is confirmed on this day as well.
March 11 — Utah Jazz star Rudy Gobert tests positive for COVID-19 ahead of a Jazz game at Oklahoma City. The positive test was discovered just before the game was set to begin, which led team officials to run onto the court with the news that led to the cancellation of the game. The NBA announced later that night that it was postponing its schedule. Other sports leagues would follow suit in the coming days.
March 12 — Herbert announces a 100-person limit on public gatherings for two weeks.
March 13 — Breonna Taylor is shot and killed by police conducting a search warrant in Louisville, Kentucky, after her boyfriend fired at police believing they were intruders. The incident would end up drawing global outrage in the coming months. Ultimately, one officer was later fired and indicted with wanton endangerment. The city also agreed to pay Taylor’s family $12 million in a settlement.
March 13 — Herbert announces the “soft closure” of all Utah K-12 schools for two weeks. The closure, which would end up being extended the rest of the school year, pushes school learning online.
March 16 — Dine-in options at Salt Lake County restaurants are closed off for the first time. A similar statewide measure ended up in place not too long after.
March 18 — A 5.7 magnitude earthquake centered near Magna rattles the Wasatch Front, causing many millions of dollars in damage. It was the state’s largest earthquake in 28 years. Hundreds of aftershocks would leave Utahns on edge for days after the quake.
March 18 — As people process the earthquake and strong aftershocks, a wave of COVID-19 developments are announced. Megaplex Theaters and Loveland Living Planet Aquarium were two of the larger businesses to close on this date. Utah’s colleges announced they would all postpone commencement ceremonies. Later in the day, Rep. Ben McAdams announced he tested positive for COVID-19 and congress approved a COVID-19 spending relief bill.
March 22 — Utah health officials confirm the state’s first known death as a result of COVID-19.
April 4-5 — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds its general conference sessions in a virtual-only setting for the first time ever instead of holding the annual event at the Conference Center. Fall sessions would also end up being held via streaming and broadcasting platforms.
April 18-Sept. 20 — State and federal firefighters deal with at least one new fire every day during a 156-day stretch of an active wildfire season in Utah. The fire season, which would last until November ended up resulting in over 1,500 fires and about $60 million in costs.
April 30 — Hill Air Force Base’s 388th Fighter Wing conducts a flyover over Utah as a salute to health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
May 1 — Following a sustained plateau in new COVID-19 cases, Utah begins to ease statewide restrictions tied to the COVID-19 pandemic.
May 4 — Scientists confirm that Asian giant hornets, otherwise referred to as “murder hornets” on the internet, were found in the U.S. for the first time.
May 5 — A Utah Highway Patrol trooper pulls over an erratic driver on I-15 only to find out it’s a 5-year-old boy behind the wheel. The boy, Adrian Zamarripa, was safe. He ended up receiving a ride in a Lamborghini, as well as meeting Shaquille O’Neal and Jamie Foxx in the weeks afterward.
May 15 — The U.S. announces “Operation Warp Speed,” which is an attempt to create a COVID-19 vaccine faster than a vaccine for any other disease created before.
May 22 — Hall of Fame coach and Utah Jazz legend Jerry Sloan dies at 78. Sloan won 1,223 games at the helm of the Jazz during his tenure between 1988 and 2011.
May 25 — George Floyd dies not long after he was detained by police in Minnesota. A video of the incident that showed an officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly 9 minutes as Floyd pleads for help would quickly emerge on social media. It led to protests against the incident and social injustice globally
That officer, Derek Chauvin, was ultimately charged with murder in the case. Three other officers were also charged as a result of inaction as the incident unfolded.
May 28 — Utah Department of Health reports 215 new cases of COVID-19 in the state. The rise ushers in the beginning of Utah’s first big uptick in coronavirus cases since the beginning of the pandemic that would lead to the first mask mandates and first worries about intensive care unit bed space inside Utah hospitals.
May 30 — A SpaceX rocket ship successfully sends two astronauts into space setting up a new era of commercial space travel in the U.S.
May 30 — A riot begins in downtown Salt Lake City after protests over Floyd’s death take a dangerous turn. Ultimately, a police squad car is destroyed, while windows of other police vehicles, a TRAX station and some nearby businesses are destroyed as well. Herbert would go on to issue a curfew for the city that lasted for a few days. Utah National Guard troops were also deployed to the area.
The weeks afterward would be filled with more peaceful protests in the city.
June 5 — Salt Lake City police release body camera footage that showed officers shooting and killing 22-year-old Bernardo Palacios-Carbajal during an encounter on May 23. Officers would eventually be cleared of wrongdoing in the case but the video prompted further protests in Salt Lake City against how police handled the incident.
June 5 — Former Vice President Joe Biden secures enough delegates to win the Democratic Party nomination for the 2020 Presidential Election.
June 9 — Authorities uncover the remains of Tylee Ryan and J.J. Vallow in a grave at Chad Daybell’s property in Idaho. Daybell, the husband of Lori Vallow, is arrested. Both are later charged with two felony counts of conspiracy to commit destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence, and two felony counts of destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence in the case.
June 27 — Salt Lake and Summit become the first counties in Utah to have public mask mandates as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
June 30 — After the season was already delayed, Minor League Baseball announces that the entire season — including the Salt Lake Bees, Orem Owlz and Ogden Raptors — is canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
July 3 — The NEOWISE comet becomes visible to the world for the first time in thousands of years.
July 5 — Broadway star Nick Cordero dies at 41 from complications of COVID-19 after a much-publicized 95-day hospitalization stay due to coronavirus.
July 6 — Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox narrowly edges out former governor Jon Huntsman Jr. for the Republican gubernatorial nomination following days of vote counting after a primary election.
July 9 — E-commerce company Wayfair is accused of human trafficking by QAnon conspiracy theorists. The accusation, which was quickly debunked, would go virtual nevertheless in perhaps the most prominent moment in the sudden rise of the QAnon conspiracy movement, which drew headlines throughout 2020.
July 17 — Georgia representative and civil rights icon John Lewis dies from complications of pancreatic cancer at the age of 80.
July 30 — Following a lengthy pause, the Jazz play New Orleans in their first game of the 2019-2020 season since Gobert’s positive COVID-19 test on March 11. The game, as well as the rest of the season, was played inside a “bubble” at Disney World in Orlando.
Aug. 1 — Temperatures reach 105 degrees at Salt Lake City International Airport as a result of one of two record-breaking heatwaves along the Wasatch Front during August. It wound up the hottest August in Utah’s history.
Aug. 16-17 — Lightning sparks the August Complex in California. In a rough fire year in the West outside of Utah, this series of wildfires provided the most damage of any wildfire in the U.S. during the year. Federal officials estimated that it scorched 1.032 million acres of land in northern California.
Aug. 28 — Actor Chadwick Boseman, star of movies like “42,” “Marshall” and “Black Panther,” dies at the age of 43. It is revealed publicly for the first time that he had battled colon cancer for four years prior to his death.
Sept. 8 — A massive windstorm primarily strikes Davis and Salt Lake counties, causing thousands of trees to topple and millions of dollars in damage. One gust was reportedly registered at 112 mph near the University of Utah campus.
Sept. 9 — After a steady decline in COVID-19 cases beginning in mid-August, the Utah Department of Health reports 346 new cases of COVID-19 in the state. This was the beginning of a large spike in COVID-19 spread that led to Utah’s largest numbers of COVID-19 cases to date and a surge in COVID-19-tied hospitalizations that hospitals in the state are still dealing with months later.
Sept. 18 — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies from complications of pancreatic cancer at 87. The trailblazing justice had served at the U.S.’s highest court for 27 years prior to her death. President Trump would go on to name Amy Coney Barrett her replacement days later, drawing partisan responses. Barrett ended up being confirmed on Oct. 26.
Oct. 2 — Trump tweets in the early morning hours that he and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for COVID-19; later in the day, he is moved to a military hospital. The positive test, which came days after a ceremony where he announced Barrett as his nominee for the Supreme Court, would ultimately lead to the cancelation of what would have been the second presidential debate.
Oct. 7 — Ayoola Ajay pleads guilty to murdering University of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck in 2019. He is later sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Oct. 7 — Salt Lake City formally adopts a new city flag designed by 18-year-old Arianna Meinking and 17-year-old Ella Kennedy-Yoon. The new flag is now visible at city buildings.
Oct. 7 — Despite growing concerns of COVID-19 in the White House, the lone vice presidential debate between Vice President Mike Pence and California Sen. Kamala Harris is held on the University of Utah campus.
Oct. 10 — Kyle Burgess, a 26-year-old Utah man, encounters a mountain lion while heading down Slate Canyon in Provo. His video of the tense 6-minute situation would go viral and earn praise from wildlife experts on how he handled it.
Oct. 22 — On the two-year anniversary of her murder, the family of the slain University of Utah track star Lauren McCluskey and the university reach an agreement on a $13.5 million settlement over how campus police handled McCluskey’s case prior to her death.
Oct. 28 — Gail Miller announces she will sell majority ownership of the Utah Jazz to Qualtrics co-founder and former CEO Ryan Smith. The sale would ultimately be finalized on Dec. 18. Larry H. Miller had purchased the team in 1985.
Nov. 3 — Cox wins the state’s gubernatorial race after University of Utah professor Chris Peterson concedes; however, election night results in no clear winner for president in the race between President Trump and Joe Biden, as many races in other states are too close to call.
Nov. 7 — After days of vote counting and waiting, the Associated Press projects Joe Biden to win the presidential race after it projects Pennsylvania to swing to the Democratic candidate. At the Utah State Capitol, dozens of Trump supporters demonstrated against the results of the election while Biden supporters celebrated. Biden would wind up with a 306-232 edge in the electoral college after courts dismissed several lawsuits against election results and all of the states’ electors voted in December.
Nov. 8 — Alex Trebek, television legend and host of the long-time running game show “Jeopardy!,” dies from complications of pancreatic cancer at the age of 80.
Nov. 16 — After nearly two weeks of counting votes, Republican candidate and former NFL player Burgess Owens flips Utah’s fourth congressional district as McAdams concedes.
Nov. 18 — Utah Department of Public Safety and Division of Wildlife Resources employees stumble across a bizarre monolith within a remote location in San Juan County while conducting bighorn sheep counts in the area. The finding draws international attention after DPS officials shared images of the monolith. The work of aliens? Unlikely. But the internet-breaking monolith was quickly destroyed and removed by a group of individuals that weren’t fans of its presence on Earth.
Dec. 7 — Utah Royals FC announces it will relocate to Kansas City, Missouri after just three seasons played at Rio Tinto Stadium.
Dec. 10 — Utah’s death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic surpasses 1,000.
Dec. 11 — Following months-long studies in the race for a COVID-19 vaccine, federal regulators make the final approval to allow a vaccine created by Pfizer-BioNTech to be administered to Americans.
Dec. 14 — Dixie State University trustees vote to remove “Dixie” from the school name after 107 years. The move followed a similar decision by Intermountain Healthcare over the summer to rename Dixie Regional Medical Center. DSU’s new name is still to be determined.
Dec. 15 — Christy Mulder, a University of Utah Health intensive care unit nurse, is the first Utahn given the COVID-19 vaccine outside of a clinical trial. Thousands of front-line health care workers would soon also receive the vaccine across the state.
Dec. 21 — Jupiter and Saturn align in the sky for a conjunction that had last happened in 1623.
Dec. 26 — University of Utah football announces the death of Ty Jordan, a star freshman running back. Jordan’s death, the result of an apparent accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound, happened days after he was named the top offensive freshman in the Pac-12.
Dec. 28 — After announcing it would go public earlier in the year, Qualtrics announces a $12 billion to $14.4 billion IPO valuation — which would shatter Silicon Slopes records.
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Photos
Carter Williams