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On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in Minneapolis, Minnesota after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pressed his knee to Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed face down in the street; two other officers further restrained Floyd and another stood by and prevented onlookers from intervening.
On March 13, 2020, Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African American woman, was fatally shot by Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers. Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly, Detective Brett Hankison, and Detective Myles Cosgrove entered her apartment in plainclothes in Louisville, Kentucky, while serving a "no-knock warrant".
Ghislaine Maxwell ( ghee-LAYN, -LEN; born 25 December 1961) is a British socialite and alleged procurer who is known for her association with Jeffrey Epstein. The youngest child of disgraced publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell, she moved to the United States after her father's death in 1991 and became a close associate of the financier and subsequently convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Steven Arnold King (born May 28, 1949) is an American politician and former businessman, serving as a U.S. Representative from Iowa since 2003. A member of the Republican Party, he represented Iowa's 5th congressional district until 2013, when redistricting renumbered it the 4th. This district is in northwestern Iowa and includes Sioux City.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, later shortened to Heavenly Kingdom (simplified Chinese: 天国; traditional Chinese: 天國; pinyin: Tīanguó) or Heavenly Dynasty (Chinese: 天朝), was an unrecognized oppositional state in China and Christian-Shenic theocratic absolute monarchy from 1851 to 1864, supporting the overthrow of the Qing dynasty by Hong Xiuquan and his followers.
George Soros, Hon (born Schwartz György; August 12, 1930) is a Hungarian-American billionaire investor and philanthropist. As of February 2018, he had a net worth of $8 billion, having donated more than $32 billion to his philanthropic agency, the Open Society Foundations. Born in Budapest, Soros survived Nazi Germany-occupied Hungary and emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1947.
Elizabeth Anne Broderick (née Bisceglia; born November 7, 1947) is an American woman and convicted murderer who was convicted of the killing of her ex-husband, Daniel T. Broderick III, and his second wife, Linda (Kolkena) Broderick on November 5, 1989. At a second trial on December 11, 1991, she was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder and later sentenced to 32-years-to-life in prison.
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. Trump was born and raised in Queens, a borough of New York City, and received a bachelor's degree in economics from the Wharton School.
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.
Disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Madeleine Beth McCann (born 12 May 2003) disappeared on the evening of 3 May 2007 from her bed in a holiday apartment at a resort in Praia da Luz, in the Algarve region of Portugal. Her whereabouts remain unknown. The Daily Telegraph described the disappearance as "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history".
Sandra Bland was a 28-year-old African American woman who was found hanged in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas, on July 13, 2015, three days after being arrested during a pretextual traffic stop. Her death was ruled a suicide. It was followed by protests against her arrest, disputing the cause of death, and alleging racial violence against her.
Race and ethnicity in the United States
Race and ethnicity in the United States is a complex topic because the United States of America has a racially and ethnically diverse population. At the federal level, race and ethnicity have been categorized separately.
On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner died in the New York City borough of Staten Island after Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer, put him in a chokehold while arresting him. Video footage of the incident generated widespread national attention and raised questions about the appropriate use of force by law enforcement.
Stephen Jesse Jackson (born April 5, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player who played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the New Jersey Nets, Indiana Pacers, Golden State Warriors, Milwaukee Bucks, Charlotte Bobcats, San Antonio Spurs, and Los Angeles Clippers. Jackson won an NBA championship with the Spurs in 2003.
Lea Michele Sarfati (; born August 29, 1986), known professionally as Lea Michele, is an American actress, singer, and author. She began her career as a child actress on Broadway, appearing in productions of Les Misérables (1995–1996), Ragtime (1997–1999), Fiddler on the Roof (2004–2005), and Spring Awakening (2006–2008).
James Norman Mattis (born September 8, 1950) is a retired United States Marine Corps general and former government official who served as the 26th United States Secretary of Defense from January 2017 through January 2019. During his 44 years in the Marine Corps, he commanded forces in the Persian Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan, and the Iraq War.
The Insurrection Act of 1807 is a United States federal law (10 U.S.C. §§ 251–255; prior to 2016, 10 U.S.C. §§ 331–335; amended 2006, 2007) that empowers the president of the United States to deploy U.S. military and federalized National Guard troops within the United States in particular circumstances, such as to suppress civil disorder, insurrection and rebellion.
Race and crime in the United States
United States Of America , the relationship between race and crime has been a topic of public controversy and scholarly debate for more than a century. The crime rate varies between racial groups. Most homicides in the United States are intraracial ——— the perpetrator and victim are of the same race.
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American soldier and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson gained fame as a general in the United States Army and served in both houses of the U.S. Congress.
F5 Networks, Inc. is a transnational company that specializes in application services and application delivery networking (ADN). F5 technologies focus on the delivery, security, performance, and availability of web applications, including the availability of computing, storage, and network resources.
Keith Maurice Ellison (born August 4, 1963) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the 30th Attorney General of Minnesota. A member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Ellison was the U.S. Representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district from 2007 to 2019. He also served as the titular Deputy Chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2017 to 2018.
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to a temporary emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Martial law can be used by governments to enforce their rule over the public, as seen in multiple countries listed below.
1989 Tiananmen Square protests
The Tiananmen Square protests or the Tiananmen Square Incident, commonly known as the June Fourth Incident (Chinese: 六四事件; pinyin: liùsì shìjiàn in mainland China, literally the six-four incident), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing during 1989.
Westley Sissel Unseld (March 14, 1946 – June 2, 2020) was an American professional basketball player, coach and executive. He spent his entire National Basketball Association (NBA) career with the Baltimore/Capital/Washington Bullets. Unseld played college basketball for the Louisville Cardinals and was selected with the second overall pick by the Bullets in the 1968 NBA draft.
National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive
The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive (National Security Presidential Directive NSPD 51/Homeland Security Presidential Directive HSPD-20, sometimes called simply "Executive Directive 51" for short), signed by President of the United States George W. Bush on May 4, 2007, is a Presidential Directive establishing a comprehensive policy on the federal government structures and operations in the event of a "catastrophic emergency".
Barack Hussein Obama II ( (listen); born August 4, 1961) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama was the first African-American president of the United States. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004.
Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American former professional basketball player and the principal owner of the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played 15 seasons in the NBA, winning six championships with the Chicago Bulls.
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Arabic: ٱلْحَاجّ مَالِك ٱلشَّبَازّ, romanized: al-Ḥājj Mālik ash-Shabāzz; born Malcolm Little; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), better known as Malcolm X, was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a popular figure during the civil rights movement.
On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile, a 32-year-old African American man, was stopped while driving and fatally shot by Jeronimo Yanez, a 29-year-old Hispanic-American police officer from St. Anthony, Minnesota. Castile was driving with his partner Diamond Reynolds and her four-year-old daughter when at 9:00 p. m.
John Adedayo Bamidele Adegboyega (born 17 March 1992), better known as John Boyega, is a British-Nigerian actor and producer. He initially rose to prominence for his role as Moses in the sci-fi comedy film Attack the Block (2011) and later became best known for playing Finn in the Star Wars sequel trilogy films The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017), and The Rise of Skywalker (2019).
Just Mercy is a 2019 American legal drama film directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, and starring Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Rob Morgan, Tim Blake Nelson, Rafe Spall, Karan Kendrick and Brie Larson. It tells the true story of Walter McMillian, who, with the help of young defense attorney Bryan Stevenson, appeals his murder conviction.
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (; born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 47th vice president of the United States from 2009 to 2017 and represented Delaware in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, Biden is the presumptive Democratic nominee for president in the 2020 election.
2020 United States presidential election
The 2020 United States presidential election is scheduled for Tuesday, November 3, 2020. It will be the 59th quadrennial presidential election. Voters will select presidential electors who in turn will vote on December 14, 2020, to either elect a new president and vice president or reelect the incumbents Donald Trump and Mike Pence respectively.
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country mostly located in central North America, between Canada and Mexico. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3. 8 million square miles (9. 8 million km2), it is the world's third- or fourth-largest country by total area.
The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385, original at 20 Stat. 152) signed on June 18, 1878, by President Rutherford B. Hayes. The purpose of the act – in concert with the Insurrection Act of 1807 – is to limit the powers of the federal government in using federal military personnel to enforce domestic policies within the United States.
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.
Fascism () is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, as well as strong regimentation of society and of the economy which came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe. The first fascist movements emerged in Italy during World War I, before spreading to other European countries.
List of punishments for murder in the United States
Murder, as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent (or malice aforethought), and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide (such as manslaughter).
Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage (né Schreibvogel; born March 5, 1963), better known by his stage name Joe Exotic, is an American former zoo operator and convicted felon. The former owner and operator of the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park (a. k. a. G. W. Zoo) in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, Maldonado-Passage had claimed to be the most prolific breeder of tigers in the United States.
Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States. All were enacted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by white Democratic-dominated state legislatures to disenfranchise and remove political and economic gains made by blacks during the Reconstruction period. The Jim Crow laws were enforced until 1965.
The Tulsa race massacre (also called the Tulsa race riot, the Greenwood Massacre, or the Black Wall Street Massacre) of 1921 took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents attacked black residents and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has been called "the single worst incident of racial violence in American history".
Ashley Nicolette Frangipane ( FRAN-jih-PAH-nee; born September 29, 1994), known professionally as Halsey ( HAWL-zee), is an American singer, songwriter and activist. Gaining attention from self-released music on social media platforms, she was signed by Astralwerks in 2014 and released her debut EP, Room 93, later that year.
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, he had previously served as the 46th governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. Born into the Bush family, his father, George H. W. Bush, served as the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993.
A boule is a single crystal ingot produced by synthetic means. A boule of silicon is the starting material for most of the integrated circuits used today. In the semiconductor industry synthetic boules can be made by a number of methods, such as the Bridgman technique and the Czochralski process, which result in a cylindrical rod of material.
Demographics of the United States
The United States is the third-most populous country in the world, with an estimated population of 329,227,746 as of January 28, 2020. The United States Census Bureau shows a population increase of 0. 75% for the twelve-month period ending in July 2012. Though high by industrialized country standards, this is below the world average annual rate of 1. 1%.
Reginald Oliver Denny (born (1956-01-22)22 January 1956) was a white construction truck driver pulled from his truck and severely beaten during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, by a group of black men who came to be known as the "L.A. Four". The attack was captured on video by a news helicopter, and broadcast live on US national television.
Colin Rand Kaepernick ( KAP-ər-nik; born November 3, 1987) is an American civil rights activist and American football quarterback who is a free agent. He played six seasons for the San Francisco 49ers in the National Football League (NFL). He is also a political activist, best known for kneeling during the national anthem in protest of police brutality and racial inequality in the United States.
The Central Park jogger case was a criminal case in the United States based on the assault and rape of Trisha Meili, a 28-year-old white woman who was jogging in the park, and attacks on eight other people, in areas ranging from the North Woods to the Reservoir of Manhattan's Central Park, on the night of April 19, 1989. Three of the victims were black or Latino.
On January 18, 2016, Daniel Leetin Shaver of Granbury, Texas was shot dead by police officer Philip Brailsford in the hallway of a La Quinta Inn & Suites hotel in Mesa, Arizona. Police were responding to a report that a rifle had been brandished at the window of Shaver's hotel room. After the shooting, the rifle, which remained in the room, was determined to be a pellet gun.
The United States National Guard is part of the reserve components of the United States Army and the United States Air Force. It is a military reserve force composed of National Guard military members or units of each state and the territories of Guam, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, for a total of 54 separate organizations.
List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States
Wikipedia has articles on most of the major episodes of civil unrest. This list does not include the numerous incidents of destruction and/or violence associated with various sporting events.
Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) was an American blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians. He is now recognized as a master of the blues, particularly the Delta blues style.
Diriliş: Ertuğrul (transl. "Resurrection: Ertuğrul") is a Turkish historical fiction and adventure television series created by Mehmet Bozdağ, starring Engin Altan Düzyatan in the title role. It was filmed in Riva, a village in the Beykoz district of Istanbul, Turkey, and premiered on TRT 1 in Turkey on December 10, 2014.
Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was a 14-year-old African American who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman in her family's grocery store. The brutality of his murder and the fact that his killers were acquitted drew attention to the long history of violent persecution of African Americans in the United States.
2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries
The 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries and caucuses are a series of electoral contests organized by the Democratic Party to select the approximately 3,979 pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention. Those delegates will elect the Democratic nominee for president of the United States in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Bradley John Walsh (born 4 June 1960) is an English actor, comedian, television presenter, singer, and former professional footballer. He is known for his roles as Danny Baldwin in Coronation Street (2004–2006), as DS Ronnie Brooks in Law & Order: UK (2009–2014), and as Graham O'Brien in Doctor Who (2018–present).
Lists of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States
Below are lists of people killed by law enforcement in the United States, both on duty and off duty. Although Congress instructed the Attorney General in 1994 to compile and publish annual statistics on police use of excessive force, this was never carried out, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation does not collect these data either.
Héctor Suárez Hernández (October 21, 1938 – June 2, 2020) was a Mexican actor, comedian, and director. He featured in about a hundred films and television shows in a career that spanned 60 years. He was noted for satirizing those in power and for touching on controversial social issues, at a time when it was still taboo in his country to do so.
James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 – April 23, 1998) was an American white supremacist, fugitive, and felon convicted of assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. Ray was convicted in 1969 after entering a guilty plea (thus forgoing a jury trial and the chance of a death sentence) and was sentenced to 99 years' imprisonment.
Tear gas, formally known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (from the Latin lacrima, meaning "tear"), sometimes colloquially known as mace, is a chemical weapon that causes severe eye and respiratory pain, skin irritation, bleeding, and blindness. In the eye, it stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland to produce tears.
COVID-19 pandemic by country and territory
This article provides a general overview and documents the status of locations by continents and conveyance of the world affected by the coronavirus responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the first outbreak of which started in Wuhan, Hubei, China. It may not include all the most up-to-date major responses and measures by individual countries and territories.