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Luke Joshua Letlow (December 6, 1979 – December 29, 2020) was an American politician from the state of Louisiana. A Republican, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives for Louisiana's 5th congressional district in 2020 but died of COVID-19 before he could take office. Before his election to Congress, Letlow served as chief of staff to Representative Ralph Abraham.
Bridgerton is an American streaming television period drama series created by Chris Van Dusen and produced by Shonda Rhimes. It is based on Julia Quinn's bestselling novels set in the competitive world of Regency London high society's Ton during the season, when debutantes are presented at court. It premiered December 25, 2020 on Netflix.
Wonder Woman 1984 (stylized as WW84) is a 2020 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character Wonder Woman. It is the sequel to 2017's Wonder Woman and the ninth installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The film is directed by Patty Jenkins from a script she wrote with Geoff Johns and Dave Callaham, based on a story by Johns and Jenkins.
Regé-Jean Page (born 1990) is a British-Zimbabwean actor. He played the role of Chicken George in the 2016 miniseries Roots and from 2018 to 2019 was a regular cast member on the ABC legal drama For the People. As of 2020, Page is starring in the Netflix period drama, Bridgerton as Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings.
Tina Louise (born Tina Blacker; February 11, 1934) is an American actress best known for playing movie star Ginger Grant in the CBS television situation comedy Gilligan's Island. She began her career on stage during the mid-1950s before landing her breakthrough role in 1958 drama film God's Little Acre for which she received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year.
Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr. (born February 20, 1942) is an American politician currently serving as Kentucky's senior United States senator and as Senate majority leader. McConnell is the second Kentuckian to serve as a party leader in the Senate, the longest-serving U.S. senator for Kentucky in history, and the longest-serving leader of U.S. Senate Republicans in history.
A rocking chair or rocker is a type of chair with two curved bands (also known as rockers) attached to the bottom of the legs, connecting the legs on each side to each other. The rockers contact the floor at only two points, giving the occupant the ability to rock back and forth by shifting their weight or pushing lightly with their feet. Rocking chairs are most commonly made of wood.
Soul is a 2020 American computer-animated fantasy comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Pete Docter and co-directed by Kemp Powers, the film stars the voices of Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Rachel House, Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, Phylicia Rashad, Donnell Rawlings, Questlove, and Angela Bassett.
The following deaths of notable individuals occurred in 2020. Names are reported under the date of death, in alphabetical order by surname or pseudonym. A typical entry reports information in the following sequence: Name, age, country of citizenship at birth, subsequent nationality (if applicable), what subject was noted for, cause of death (if known), and reference.
The Bible (from Koine Greek τὰ βιβλία, tà biblía, "the books") is a collection of religious texts or scriptures sacred to Christians, Jews, Samaritans, Rastafari and others. It appears in the form of an anthology, a compilation of texts of a variety of forms that are all linked by the belief that they are collectively revelations of God.
The Queen's Gambit (miniseries)
The Queen's Gambit is a 2020 American coming-of-age period drama miniseries based on Walter Tevis's 1983 novel of the same name. It was created for Netflix by Scott Frank and Allan Scott. Beginning in the mid-1950s and proceeding into the 1960s, the story follows the life of an orphaned chess prodigy on her rise to the top of the chess world while struggling with drug and alcohol dependency.
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, born 21 April 1926) is Queen of the United Kingdom and 15 other Commonwealth realms. Elizabeth was born in Mayfair, London, as the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth). Her father ascended the throne on the abdication of his brother King Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive.
Patrick Wayne Swayze (; August 18, 1952 – September 14, 2009) was an American actor, dancer, singer, and songwriter. Gaining fame with appearances in films during the 1980s, he became popular for playing tough and romantic male leads, giving him a wide fan base. He was named by People magazine as its Sexiest Man Alive in 1991.
Cleopatra VII Philopator (Koinē Greek: Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ; 69 – 10 or 12 August 30 BC) was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. As a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great.
The Midnight Sky is a 2020 American science fiction film directed by George Clooney, based on the 2016 novel Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton. It stars Clooney as a scientist who must venture through the Arctic Circle with a young girl to warn off a returning spaceship following a global catastrophe.
Gal Gadot-Varsano (Hebrew: גל גדות [ˈɡal ɡaˈdot]; born (1985-04-30)30 April 1985) is an Israeli actress, producer, and model. At age 18, she was crowned Miss Israel 2004. She then served two years in the Israel Defense Forces as a soldier, after which she began studying at the IDC Herzliya college, while building her modelling and acting careers.
Phoebe Harriet Dynevor (born 17 April 1995) is a British actress, the daughter of Coronation Street actress Sally Dynevor. She began her career starring in the BBC One school-based drama series, Waterloo Road as Siobhan Mailey (2009–2010), and later appeared in Prisoners' Wives (2012–2013) and Dickensian (2015–2016).
Pierre Cardin (UK: , US: , French: [pjɛʁ kaʁdɛ̃]), born Pietro Costante Cardin (2 July 1922 – 29 December 2020), was an Italian-born naturalised-French fashion designer. He is known for what were his avant-garde style and Space Age designs. He preferred geometric shapes and motifs, often ignoring the female form.
Gilligan's Island is an American sitcom created and produced by Sherwood Schwartz. The show had an ensemble cast that featured Bob Denver, Alan Hale Jr., Jim Backus, Natalie Schafer, Tina Louise, Russell Johnson, and Dawn Wells. It aired for three seasons on the CBS network from September 26, 1964, to April 17, 1967.
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, (Margaret Rose; 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002) was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and the only sibling of Queen Elizabeth II. Margaret spent much of her childhood with her parents and sister. Her life changed dramatically at the age of six, when her paternal uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated to marry divorcée Wallis Simpson.
2021 PDC World Darts Championship
The 2020/21 PDC World Darts Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2020/21 William Hill World Darts Championship) is the 28th World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event is taking place at the Alexandra Palace in London from 15 December 2020–3 January 2021.
Alexander Rae Baldwin III (born April 3, 1958) is an American actor, writer, producer, comedian, and political activist. A member of the Baldwin family, he is the eldest of the four Baldwin brothers, all actors. Baldwin first gained recognition appearing on seasons six and seven of the CBS television drama Knots Landing.
Joshua David Hawley (born December 31, 1979) is an American lawyer and far-right politician serving as the junior U.S. Senator from Missouri. A member of the Republican Party, Hawley served as the 42nd Missouri Attorney General from 2017 to 2019, before defeating two-term Democratic incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill in the 2018 election. At age 40, he is the youngest current U.S. senator.
Pranab Kumar Mukherjee (Bengali pronunciation: [prɔnɔb kuːmaːr mukʰardʒi̯] (listen); 11 December 1935 – 31 August 2020) was an Indian politician who served as the 13th President of India from 2012 until 2017. In a political career spanning five decades, Mukherjee was a senior leader in the Indian National Congress and occupied several ministerial portfolios in the Government of India.
The Mandalorian is an American space Western streaming television series created by Jon Favreau for Disney+. It is the first live-action series in the Star Wars franchise, beginning five years after the events of Return of the Jedi (1983). It stars Pedro Pascal as the title character, a lone bounty hunter who is hired to retrieve "The Child".
Adolfo Gutierrez Quiñones or Adolfo Gordon Quiñones (sources differ) (May 11, 1955 – December 30, 2020), known professionally as Shabba-Doo, was an American actor, dancer, and choreographer of African American and Puerto Rican descent. Quiñones is perhaps best known for his role as Orlando "Ozone" in the 1984 breakdancing film Breakin' and its sequel, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo.
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland from her marriage to King George III on 8 September 1761 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which she was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until her death. As George's wife, she was also Electress and later Queen of Hanover.
Section 230 is a piece of Internet legislation in the United States, passed into law as part of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996 (a common name for Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996), formally codified as Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 at 47 U.S.C. § 230. Section 230 generally provides immunity for website publishers from third-party content.
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, 10 June 1921) is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms. Philip was born into the Greek and Danish royal families. He was born in Greece, but his family was exiled from the country when he was an infant.
José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal (born April 2, 1975) is a Chilean-born American actor. After guest starring on several television shows, he came to prominence for portraying Oberyn Martell on the fourth season of the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones (2014) and Javier Peña on the Netflix biographic crime series Narcos (2015–2017).
Tenet is a 2020 science fiction action-thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who produced it with Emma Thomas. A co-production between the United Kingdom and United States, it stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, and Kenneth Branagh.
George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter and philanthropist. He is the recipient of three Golden Globe Awards and two Academy Awards, one for acting in Syriana (2006) and the other for co-producing Argo (2012). In 2018, he was the recipient of the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award.
The sixth and final season of the historical drama television series Vikings premiered on December 4, 2019, on History in Canada. The series broadly follows the exploits of the legendary Viking chieftain Ragnar Lothbrok, his crew and later those of his sons. The first season of the series begins at the start of the Viking Age, marked by the Lindisfarne raid in 793 AD.
Charles, Prince of Wales (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is the heir apparent to the British throne as the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II. He has been heir apparent, Duke of Cornwall, and Duke of Rothesay since 1952, and he is the oldest and longest-serving heir apparent in British history. He is also the longest-serving Prince of Wales, having held that title since 1958.
Peter William Sutcliffe (2 June 1946 – 13 November 2020), also known as Peter William Coonan, was an English serial killer who was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper (an allusion to Jack the Ripper) by the press. On 22 May 1981, he was found guilty of murdering 13 women and attempting to murder seven others between 1975 and 1980.
Casper (c. 1997 – 14 January 2010) was a male domestic cat who attracted worldwide media attention in 2009 when it was reported that he was a regular bus commuter in Plymouth in Devon, England. He appeared on BBC News, was the subject of a newspaper editorial in The Guardian, and had a book written about him, Casper the Commuting Cat.
On December 25, 2020, a suicide bomber detonated a recreational vehicle (RV) bomb in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, United States, injuring eight people and damaging dozens of buildings. It took place at 166 Second Avenue North between Church Street and Commerce Street at 6:30 am, adjacent to an AT&T network hub, resulting in days-long communication service outages.
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, (née Roberts; 13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013) was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold that office.
Jonathan Jay Pollard (born August 7, 1954) is a former intelligence analyst for the United States government. In 1987, as part of a plea agreement, Pollard pleaded guilty to spying for and providing top-secret classified information to Israel. He was sentenced to life in prison for violations of the Espionage Act.
YouTube is an American online video-sharing platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. Three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim—created the service in February 2005. Google bought the site in November 2006 for US$1. 65 billion; YouTube now operates as one of Google's subsidiaries.
Joe Louis Clark (May 8, 1938 – December 29, 2020) was the principal of Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey. He is also the subject of the 1989 film Lean on Me, starring Morgan Freeman. Clark gained public attention in the 1980s for his unconventional and controversial disciplinary measures as the principal of Eastside High.
Death to 2020 is a 2020 mockumentary by Black Mirror creators Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones under their Broke and Bones production company as a Netflix original production. The special features a series of fictional characters discussing U.S. and U.K. events of 2020 including the COVID-19 pandemic and U.S. presidential election. It was released on Netflix on 27 December 2020.
Wonder Woman is a 2017 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name, produced by DC Films in association with RatPac Entertainment and Chinese company Tencent Pictures, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is the fourth installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU).
Sweet Home (Korean: 스위트홈; RR: Seuwiteuhom) is an apocalyptic horror South Korean television series starring Song Kang, Lee Jin-wook and Lee Si-young. Based on the Line Webtoon of the same name by Kim Kan-bi and Hwang Young-chan, which recorded over 1. 2 billion net views, the series was released on Netflix on December 18, 2020.
Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketing term for an office suite (bundled set of productivity applications), the first version of Office contained Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint.
Jonathan Bailey (born 25 April 1988) is a British actor, known for his roles in the ITV drama Broadchurch, the BBC's Leonardo, W1A, Doctor Who, and Channel 4 comedy Campus. He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical for his portrayal of Jamie in the 2018 West End revival of Company. In 2020, Bailey starred in the Netflix period drama, Bridgerton.
Elon Reeve Musk ( EE-lon; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate, industrial designer and engineer. He is the founder, CEO, CTO and chief designer of SpaceX; early investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; co-founder of Neuralink; and co-founder and initial co-chairman of OpenAI. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018.
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh actor, composer, director and film producer. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, three BAFTAs, two Emmys and the Cecil B. DeMille Award. In 1993, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts.
Kelly Lynn Loeffler (; born November 27, 1970) is an American businesswoman and politician serving as the junior United States Senator from Georgia since 2020. A Republican, Loeffler was previously chief executive officer (CEO) of Bakkt, a subsidiary of commodity and financial service provider Intercontinental Exchange owned by her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher.
We Can Be Heroes is a 2020 American superhero film written and directed by Robert Rodriguez, serving as a stand-alone sequel to The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D (2005) and the Spy Kids franchise. Rodriguez was also cinematographer and editor of the film, which stars Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Pedro Pascal, YaYa Gosselin, Boyd Holbrook, Sung Kang, Taylor Dooley, and Christian Slater.
Richard Allensworth Jewell (born Richard White; December 17, 1962 – August 29, 2007) was an American security guard and law enforcement officer who was the hero of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. For a number of months, he was suspected of planting the bomb.
2020 United States presidential election
The 2020 United States presidential election was the 59th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and incumbent U.S. senator from California Kamala Harris defeated the Republican ticket of incumbent president Donald Trump and vice president Mike Pence.
Narendra Damodardas Modi (Gujarati pronunciation: [ˈnəɾendrə dɑmodəɾˈdɑs ˈmodiː] (listen); born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. He was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament for Varanasi.
Elaine Lan Chao (born March 26, 1953) is an American politician who serves as the United States Secretary of Transportation, having assumed office on January 31, 2017. A member of the Republican Party, Chao was previously Secretary of Labor under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Chao immigrated to the United States when she was eight years old.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, army officer, and writer. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, Churchill was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies.
Eric Robert Rudolph (born September 19, 1966), also known as the Olympic Park Bomber, is an American terrorist convicted for a series of bombings across the southern United States between 1996 and 1998, which killed three people and injured 150 others, including the Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904 – November 29, 1986) was an English-born American actor, who was one of classic Hollywood's definitive leading men. He was known for his transatlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. Grant was born in Horfield, Bristol, England.
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is the 45th and current president of the United States. Before entering politics, he was a businessman and television personality. Born and raised in Queens, New York City, Trump attended Fordham University for two years and received a bachelor's degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
LeBron Raymone James Sr. (; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely considered one of the greatest NBA players in history, James is frequently compared to Michael Jordan in debates over the greatest basketball player of all time.
AstraZeneca plc () is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company with its headquarters in Cambridge, England. AstraZeneca has a portfolio of products for major disease areas including cancer, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, infection, respiratory and inflammation. AstraZeneca AB, the Swedish arm of the company, is a subsidiary of AstraZeneca plc.
True Beauty (South Korean TV series)
True Beauty (Korean: 여신강림; Hanja: 女神降臨; RR: Yeosin-gangnim; lit. The Advent of a Goddess) is a South Korean television series starring Moon Ga-young, Cha Eun-woo, Hwang In-yeop, and Park Yoo-na.
The Penthouse: War in Life (Korean: 펜트하우스; lit. Penthouse) is a South Korean television series starring Lee Ji-ah, Kim So-yeon, Eugene, Um Ki-joon, Park Eun-seok and Yoon Jong-hoon. The series, directed by Joo Dong-min and written by Kim Soon-ok, spins the story of real estate and education war, a desire to be number one.
Robert Harper (28 January 1944 – 28 October 2020), known professionally as Bobby Ball, was an English comic, actor and singer. He was best known as a member of the comic double act Cannon and Ball, with Tommy Cannon (real name Thomas Derbyshire). They hosted their own ITV show, The Cannon and Ball Show, for nine years between 1979 and 1988.
Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell ( EYE-lish; born December 18, 2001) is an American singer-songwriter. She first gained attention in 2015 when she uploaded the song "Ocean Eyes" to SoundCloud, which was subsequently released by the Interscope Records subsidiary Darkroom. The song was written and produced by her brother Finneas O'Connell, with whom she collaborates on music and live shows.
Vikings is a historical drama television series created and written by Michael Hirst for the History channel. Filmed in Ireland, it premiered on March 3, 2013, in Canada. The series concluded on December 30, 2020, when the second half of the sixth season was released in its entirety on Prime Video in Ireland, ahead of its broadcast on History in Canada.
COVID-19 pandemic by country and territory
This article provides a general overview and documents the status of locations affected by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The first human cases of COVID-19 were identified in Wuhan the capital of the province of Hubei in China in December 2019.
Harshad Shantilal Mehta was an Indian stockbroker. Mehta’s involvement in the 1992 Indian securities scam made him infamous as a market manipulator. Although, as reported by Economic Times, some financial experts believe that Harshad Mehta did not commit any fraud; he had "simply exploited loop holes in the system".
Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apocalyptic action series Mad Max and as Martin Riggs in the buddy cop film series Lethal Weapon.
Google LLC is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, a search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware. It is considered one of the Big Five technology companies in the U.S. information technology industry, alongside Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft.
Lindsey Caroline Vonn (née Kildow ; born October 18, 1984) is an American former World Cup alpine ski racer on the US Ski Team. She won four World Cup overall championships—one of only two female skiers to do so, along with Annemarie Moser-Pröll—with three consecutive titles in 2008, 2009, and 2010, plus another in 2012.
Boston Dynamics is an American engineering and robotics design company founded in 1992 as a spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, Boston Dynamics is owned by the Hyundai Motor Company since 2020. Boston Dynamics is best known for the development of a series of dynamic highly-mobile robots, including BigDog, Spot, Atlas, and Handle.
The Crown is a historical drama streaming television series about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, created and principally written by Peter Morgan, and produced by Left Bank Pictures and Sony Pictures Television for Netflix. Morgan developed it from his drama film The Queen (2006) and especially his stage play The Audience (2013).