Occult Mosaic: January (2020)

January 1, 2020, Series Premiere of Messiah

January 1, 2020, Attack on the United States embassy in Baghdad: Supporters of Iraqi paramilitaries withdraw from the American embassy in Baghdad after being ordered to by the Popular Mobilization Forces, stating the "message has been heard".(Reuters)

January 2, 2020, Series Premiere of Deputy

January 3, 2020, Release of The Grudge

January 6, 2020, A 5.8 magnitude earthquake strikes Puerto Rico, causing small landslides, power outages, and severely cracking some homes. (Associated Press)

January 6, 2020, A court in the United Kingdom sentences 36-year-old Indonesian national Reynhard Sinaga to life imprisonment for sexually assaulting at least 48 young men in Manchester. Sinaga was convicted of a total of 159 sex offences, and is said to be Britain's most prolific serial rapist. (BBC News)

January 7, 2020, A magnitude 6.4 earthquake strikes Puerto Rico, killing one and injuring nine others. (NBC)

January 8, 2020, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan announce their plan to "step back as 'senior' members" of the British royal family. Buckingham Palace says discussions on the intended new role are "at an early stage". (UPI)

January 8, 2020, A Boeing 737-800 crashes while taking off from Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport, killing all 176 people on board. The incident, which took place amid the 2019–20 Persian Gulf crisis, is under investigation. (NPR)

January 8, 2020, Tesla, Inc. reports a stock market capitalization of US$88 billion in response to strong performances in the third- and fourth-quarter, surpassing General Motors and Ford Motor Company to become the most valuable automobile company in North America. (Reuters)

January 8, 2020, Scientists announce through the journal Nature the discovery of a repeating fast radio burst known as FRB 180916 coming from a nearby spiral galaxy around 500 million light years from Earth. It is the second repeating FRB to have been localized. (The Independent)

January 10, 2020, Release of film Underwater

January 10, 2020, Release of film Like a Boss

January 10, 2020, Release of Film Inherit the Viper

January 10, 2020, Series Premiere of The Owl House

January 11, 2020, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps admits it mistakenly shot down the Ukraine International Airlines plane as it took off from Tehran, killing all 176 aboard. (ABC News)

January 11, 2020, Winter Storm Isaiah brings widespread heavy snowfall and freezing rain to the midwestern and southern United States, killing at least 12 people. (Associated Press)

January 12, 2020, The Taal Volcano in southern Luzon, Philippines, spews an ash plume that measures approximately 10 to 15 kilometres (6.2 to 9.3 mi). The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology designates a "level 4" alert level, indicating "an imminent hazardous eruption". (The Guardian)

January 13, 2020, In American football, LSU defeats Clemson to win the national championship. (NBC News)

January 13, 2020, The nominees for this year’s Academy Awards are announced. Joker receives 11 nominations, including for Best Picture and Best Director, the most out of those nominated. (Hollywood Reporter)

January 13, 2020, Analysis of a meteorite found in Australia in 1969 reveals stardust formed 5 to 7 billion years ago, older than Earth's 4.6 billion year-old sun, making the meteor and its stardust the oldest solid material ever discovered on Earth. (MSN)

January 13, 2020, Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A. J. Hinch are suspended by Major League Baseball for the entire 2020 season after the league concludes its investigation into the team's illegal use of technology to steal signs during the team's championship 2017 season. They are also fired by the organization. (ESPN)

January 14, 2020, Microsoft officially ends support for the Windows 7 operating system. Microsoft says its Windows 7 users can still use their computers, but warns they will be at "greater risk for viruses and malware". (CNN)

January 15, 2020, Winter Storm Jacob makes landfall over the Pacific Northwest, bringing high winds and up to 22 inches (56 cm) of snow to the Olympic Peninsula and forcing widespread road closures and transport cancellations. (Weather.com)

January 16, 2020, Alphabet Inc., parent company of Google, becomes the fourth American company to hit a stock market capitalization of US$1 trillion. (Reuters)

January 17, 2020, Release of film Bad Boys for Life

January 17, 2020, Release of Dolittle

January 17, 2020, Release of Eminem album Music to be Murdered By

January 17, 2020, Release of Mac Miller album Circles

January 18, 2020, Megxit: Officials within Buckingham Palace announced that effective around Q2 2020, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex will retain, but will no longer publicly use, the style His/Her Royal Highness, and will no longer receive public funds for royal duties. (BBC)

-The couple will also repay £2.4 million of public money spent on renovating Frogmore Cottage. (RTÉ News)

-The couple will keep their titles as Duke and Duchess of Sussex. While Prince Harry will lose all his military appointments, he will remain a prince. (Sky News)

January 19, 2020, Series Premiere of Avenue 5

January 19, 2020, Storm Gloria: The tenth named storm of the 2019–20 European windstorm season makes landfall in northern Spain, killing at least 13 people. Heavy rainfall leads to widespread flooding, while high winds and coastal storm surges cause further damage. (BBC News)

January 20, 2020, 2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak: Chinese premier Li Keqiang has urged decisive and effective efforts to prevent and control the epidemic. (China Daily)

-The National Health Commission of China reports a third death from coronavirus, the number of infected having increased by 136 during the weekend. The report comes as authorities confirmed that the virus spread from Wuhan to major cities, including Shenzhen, Beijing, and Hong Kong. (South China Morning Post)

January 21, 2020, The United Kingdom and United States governments announce they have agreed to protect the wreckage of the RMS Titanic. The agreement, signed by the British government in 2003, has come into effect after being ratified by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. An official also says the UK will work with Canada and France to bring "even more protection" to the wreckage. (BBC)

January 21, 2020, Rock musician Ozzy Osbourne announces that he has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. (ABC News)

January 21, 2020, After having announced it the previous month, Boeing temporarily stops production of the new 737 MAX planes. Already produced ones will remain grounded an additional month until June or July. (CNN)

January 21, 2020, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announces the first U.S. case of novel coronavirus in Snohomish County, Washington. (The Washington Post)

January 22, 2020, A small plane crashes shortly after takeoff from Corona Municipal Airport in California, killing all four on board. (CNN)

January 22, 2020, Chinese authorities quarantine the entire city of Wuhan to prevent the further spread of the novel coronavirus as the death toll rises to 17. Nobody in the city will be able to leave starting from 10 a.m. local time on January 23, and all public transport in the city is suspended. (The Guardian)

January 22, 2020, The United States Senate hears opening statements in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. (The Washington Post)

January 22, 2020, The European Union Withdrawal Agreement Bill passes the House of Lords and is now awaiting royal assent to become law, finalizing the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union on 31 January 2020. (BBC)

January 22, 2020, The NFL's Oakland Raiders officially relocate to Las Vegas, and are now known as the Las Vegas Raiders. (Business Insider)

January 23, 2020, Release of film Miss Americana

January 23, 2020, Series Premiere of Picard

January 23, 2020, Series Premiere of Outmatched

January 23, 2020, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advances the Doomsday Clock to 100 seconds before midnight, citing the threats to human survival posed by nuclear proliferation, climate change and "cyber-based disinformation." This is the closest to midnight that the clock has been since the project began in 1947. (BBC)

January 23, 2020, Heads of state and dignitaries from around the world attend the fifth World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz extermination camp and to address the resurgence of antisemitism worldwide. (The Washington Post)

January 23, 2020, Brexit: The European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 is given royal assent in the United Kingdom, formally making the bill law. (Vox)

January 24, 2020, Release of The Gentlemen

January 24, 2020, Release of The Turning

January 24, 2020, Release of The Last Full Measure

January 25, 2020, The Boeing 777X completes its first test flight near Seattle, Washington, United States, after two delayed attempts. (CNN)

January 26, 2020, Retired NBA player Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven other people are killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, U.S. (ABC News)

January 26, 2020, 62nd Annual Grammy Awards: Billie Eilish sweeps the major categories winning Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Best New Artist. (Los Angeles Times)

January 26, 2020, An unpublished manuscript of former National Security Advisor John Bolton's book The Room Where It Happened reveals that President Donald Trump told him that unfreezing military aid to Ukraine was conditional on their performing investigations into Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. (The New York Times)

January 28, 2020, A magnitude 7.7 earthquake is recorded off the coast of Jamaica. (KRON 4 News)

January 28, 2020, China's paramount leader Xi Jinping tells the World Health Organization he is confident about defeating the "devil virus". (Reuters)

January 28, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveil a peace plan developed by the Trump administration for three years. The plan recognizes Israeli sovereignty over major settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank, as well as the annexation of the Jordan Valley, in exchange for a freeze on new Israeli settlements in certain areas for four years. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas dismisses the plan as "nonsense", while Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz casts his support for the plan. (Associated Press)

January 29, 2020, Brexit: The European Parliament votes 621–49 to pass the 2020 Brexit agreement, making today the last day Britain will be represented in the EU Parliament. MEP and Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage applauds its passage by saying "we'd be better off out", while UK Labour MEP Judith Kirton-Darling tearfully states it "attacks the very foundation of our identity". (Reuters)

January 29, 2020, Facebook agrees to pay US$550 million to settle a class action lawsuit launched in 2015 over its mass harvesting of biometric data in the state of Illinois. (The New York Times)

January 30, 2020, The World Health Organization declares a "global emergency", a rare designation that helps the international agency mobilize financial and political support to contain the outbreak. (CNBC)

January 30, 2020,The U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that in August it discovered a 1,313 m (4,308 ft) smuggling tunnel running from Tijuana to San Diego, making it the longest tunnel of its type along the Mexico–United States border. It was possibly used by the Sinaloa Cartel. (BBC)

January 31, 2020, Release of film Gretel & Hansel