February

February 1, 2020, Apple Inc. announces it will close all of its stores and offices in China until February 9 due to the outbreak. (Gizmodo)

February 2, 2020, In American football, the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the San Francisco 49ers 31–20 to win Super Bowl LIV, the team's first Super Bowl win since 1970. (ESPN)

February 2, 2020, Punxsutawney Phil doesn't cast a shadow and predicts an early spring. (Fox News)

February 2, 2020, The first coronavirus death outside China is reported in the Philippines. The victim was a Chinese tourist, also infected with Streptococcus pneumoniae and influenza B, who recently arrived in the country. (CNN Philippines)

February 3, 2020, The global Cruise Lines International Association bans trips to mainland China and says that it "will deny boarding to any individual, whether guest or crew, who has travelled from or through mainland China within the previous 14 days". (Al Arabiya English)

February 3, 2020, The United States National Institutes of Health stops its trial of an experimental HIV vaccine (HVTN 702) amidst poor results. The trial involved more than 5,000 people in South Africa. (BBC)

February 3, 2020, A mass shooting on a Greyhound bus headed from Los Angeles to San Francisco leaves one dead and five wounded; the motive remains unknown. (CBS News)

February 3, 2020, A shooting at a dormitory at Texas A&M University–Commerce, leaves two dead and one wounded. (Politico)

February 3, 2020, Closing statements are delivered before the United States Senate. (The New York Times)

February 4, 2020, 2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying reports the death toll has surpassed 400 with over 20,000 people infected, and requests the United States "not to overreact". (Reuters)

-The Diamond Princess cruise ship is quarantined and tested for coronavirus cases as it is docked in Yokohama, Japan. Passengers and crew are now required to stay on board until at least Tuesday night. Between 3,500 and 3,700 passengers are tested. (CNN International)

-The second coronavirus death outside mainland China is reported in Hong Kong. The victim was a 34-year-old Hongkonger who had recently travelled to Wuhan, the center of the outbreak. The Hospital Authority said the victim suffered from "preexisting health conditions", but did not give details. (Los Angeles Times)

February 4, 2020, A magnitude 5.0 earthquake hits 20 kilometers south of Guánica, Puerto Rico. (CNN)

February 4, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump delivers his third State of the Union Address to the 116th United States Congress in the chamber of the House of Representatives. (CNN)

February 5, 2020, The United States Senate votes on whether to acquit U.S. President Donald Trump. By a vote of 52–48 almost entirely along party lines, the Republican-majority Senate acquits Trump on the first article of impeachment, abuse of power, and acquits him on the second charge, obstruction of Congress, in a separate 53–47 vote. Utah Senator Mitt Romney casts the sole Republican guilty vote, against party lines, on the first article. (The New York Times)

February 5, 2020, 2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak: Around 3,700 people aboard a cruise ship named Diamond Princess are quarantined after ten passengers test positive for the illness at the port of Yokohama, Japan. (Reuters)

-A baby is diagnosed with the virus 30 hours after birth, in the first recorded case of the virus in a newborn. (New Straits Times)

February 5, 2020, Winter Storm Kade brings heavy snowfall to much of the United States, with 14 inches of snow recorded as far south as Texas. Dozens of car accidents are reported in Oklahoma City as a result of difficult driving conditions due to the storm. (Weather.com)

February 6, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump announces that the United States military has killed al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leader Qasim al-Raymi in a drone strike in Yemen. (BBC)

February 6, 2020, Several tornadoes are reported across the southern United States as Winter Storm Kade continues to cross the country, with more than 200 reports of damaging winds across Mississippi, Alabama and North Carolina. (Weather.com)

February 6, 2020, Christina Koch returns to Earth from the International Space Station after a continuous 328 days in space, longer than any woman in history. (CNN via MSN)

February 7, 2020, Release of Birds of Prey

February 7, 2020, Release of The Lodge

February 7, 2020, Release of Horse Girl

February 7, 2020, 2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak: General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping declares "people's war" on the coronavirus outbreak.(Reuters)

-Li Wenliang, the doctor who tried to issue the first warnings about the coronavirus outbreak, dies after contracting the virus. (BBC)

-Royal Caribbean Cruises bans China, Hong Kong or Macau passport holders from boarding its ships amid concerns over the coronavirus outbreak. (Reuters)

 February 7, 2020, Apple Inc. is fined €25 million by French regulatory agency General Directorate of Competition, Consumption & Repression of Frauds for deliberately slowing down older iPhone models. The fine amounts to less than 0.003% of Apple Inc.'s current worth. (BBC)

February 7, 2020, High winds, gusting up to 90 miles per hour, strike New England as Winter Storm Kade intensifies upon its exit into the Atlantic Ocean. (Weather.com)

February 7, 2020, Five people are killed in a plane crash in Western Alaska, United States. (NBC News)

February 7, 2020, Esperanza Base on the Antarctic Peninsula reaches a temperature of 18.3 °C (64.9 °F), the hottest on record for continental Antarctica. (The Guardian)

February 7, 2020, It is reported January 2020 was the warmest January ever on record in Europe. (The Washington Post)

February 7, 2020, Manish Shah, a general practitioner in the United Kingdom, is given three life sentences at the Old Bailey for 90 sexual assaults on 24 of his female patients. (BBC)

February 7, 2020, Patrick Crusius, accused of perpetrating the 2019 El Paso shooting, is charged with 90 counts of federal hate crimes. Under the new charges, he could face the death penalty. (BBC)

February 8, 2020, A soldier opens fire in a military camp and a shopping center in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, killing 29 people and injuring 58 others before being shot dead by police the next day. It is considered the deadliest mass shooting in the country's history. (Bangkok Post)

February 8, 2020, Two people – one Japanese and one American – die from coronavirus in Wuhan. They are the first foreigners (excluding Hong Kong and Macau) to die from it. (NBC News)

February 9, 2020, 92nd Academy Awards: At this year's Oscars, South Korean film Parasite wins the most awards, including Best Picture and Best International Film. It becomes the first foreign-language film to win Best Picture. (The Hollywood Reporter)

February 9, 2020, Storm Ciara: Winds gusting up to 100 miles per hour have been recorded over much of the United Kingdom and Ireland, causing widespread damage and disruption. (BBC)

February 9, 2020, 2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak: The death toll of the coronavirus outbreak surpasses the death toll of the 2002–03 SARS outbreak, at 910 deaths. (The Guardian)

February 9, 2020, The United Launch Alliance successfully launches the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter (SolO) satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The probe will study the Sun, and in particular its inner heliosphere. (BBC)

February 10, 2020, 2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, warns that overseas cases of the virus could be the "tip of the iceberg". (Yahoo! News)

-In a rare public appearance and wearing a mask, Xi Jinping visits a hospital in Beijing, and urges "more decisive measures" to combat the virus. (BBC)

February 11, 2020, Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show: Siba, a standard Poodle, wins Best in Show Award. (Fox News)

February 11, 2020, Victor Marrero, a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York, approves the $26 billion USD merger of T-Mobile US and Sprint Corporation. (NBC)

February 11, 2020, The death toll of the coronavirus outbreak in China has surpassed 1,000. Hubei province reported 103 deaths in a single day, the highest single-day toll of the outbreak. (DW)

February 11, 2020, 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2020 New Hampshire Democratic primary: Registered Democrats and independents in the U.S. state of New Hampshire vote in the first official Democratic presidential primary of the election year. It comes after the controversial Iowa caucuses that occurred a week earlier. (CBS News)

-Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders narrowly defeats former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg to win the primary. (Vox)

February 12, 2020, Release of To All the Boys: PS I Still Love You

February 12, 2020, Pope Francis rules against ordaining married men as priests, a possible measure to counter the shortage of Catholic priests. He also ruled against allowing women to be ordained as deacons. (BBC)

February 12, 2020, Brazilian scientists announce the discovery of a new amoebic "Yaravirus" in Lake Pampulha. The strain was found to be significantly smaller than any known amoebic virus, and 90% of its genome appears to be genes that have never been seen before in any life-form. (The Independent)

February 12, 2020, WhatsApp hits two billion users, becoming the second largest social media platform in terms of userbase behind Facebook. (Reuters)

February 13, 2020, The entire board of France's César Awards resigns following controversy over the Academy giving Roman Polanski's An Officer and a Spy 12 award nominations, the most out of any film this year. (BBC)

February 13, 2020, American newspaper publisher McClatchy, whose assets include the Miami Herald and The Sacramento Bee, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. (The Hill)

February 14, 2020, Release of Sonic The Hedgehog 

February 14, 2020, Release of Fantasy Island

February 14, 2020, Release of The Photograph

February 14, 2020, Release of Downhill

February 14, 2020, Facebook and Instagram amend their advertising policies so that politicians are allowed to use influencers to promote their campaigns, in response to U.S. presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg using them to advertise his candidacy without being subjected to both sites' regulations on political ads. (Politico)

February 14, 2020, Twenty-one U.S. states reject a US$18 billion settlement offer by pharmaceutical manufacturers, such as McKesson Corporation and Johnson & Johnson, for their role in the opioid crisis. (Al Jazeera)

February 14, 2020, The first case of coronavirus infection in the African continent is reported in Egypt. (Al Jazeera)

February 14, 2020, Manchester City F.C. is banned from European club competition, among which the UEFA Champions League, for two seasons, and is fined €30 million, for deliberately inflating the value of their sponsorship deals to get around the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations. The club says it will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. (BBC)

February 15, 2020, The first death from the disease inside Europe occurs in France. He was an 80-year-old Chinese tourist who had arrived in Paris with symptoms of the illness on January 16. (BBC)

February 17, 2020,  Denny Hamlin wins his second consecutive Daytona 500, and his third overall, becoming the first driver to win the race consecutively since Sterling Marlin did so between 1994 and 1995. Ryan Newman is hospitalized with serious but non-life threatening injuries after an airborne crash coming to the finish. (WESH)

February 18, 2020, An empty sarcophagus is discovered by archeologists while excavating the Roman Forum. It appears to be dedicated to Romulus, the founder of Rome. (Fox News)

February 18, 2020, The Boy Scouts of America file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as the result of multiple sex abuse lawsuits. (The Wall Street Journal)

February 18, 2020, Chinese state media reports that the director of the central Wuhan Wuchang Hospital has died from the coronavirus. (Reuters)

February 18, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump grants clemency to former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich for attempting to sell former president Barack Obama's Senate seat in 2008, and pardons former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, junk bond salesman Michael Milken, and former San Francisco 49ers owner Edward J. DeBartolo Jr. for their numerous felonies and frauds. (CNN)

February 18, 2020, Archeologists announce an articulated Neanderthal skeleton was unearthed in Shanidar Cave, Iraq, the first discovery of its type in over a decade. They argue the find provided further proof that Neanderthals buried their dead, as it was next to a site where similar bodies were found surrounded by pollen clumps. (BBC)

February 19, 2020, 2019–20 coronavirus outbreak: The Tokyo Marathon reduces the number of runners from 38,000 to an elite group of 200 due to the rising coronavirus fear. (NOJ)

-Iran reports its first two cases of the virus. Hours later, it was announced both infected people have died. (Times of Israel) (Al Jazerra)

-Hundreds of passengers aboard the Diamond Princess are allowed to disembark the ship. The vessel has been quarantined since docking in Yokohama on 4 February. Criticism mounts against the Japanese government's handling of the quarantine. (Reuters)

February 19, 2020, Nine people are killed and five others injured in two mass shootings at shisha bars in Hanau, Hesse, Germany. The attacker also kills his mother and then himself in their apartment. He expressed far-right views in a letter of confession and video. (The Guardian)

February 19, 2020, American fast fashion chain Forever 21 is purchased by real estate companies Simon Property Group and Brookfield Property Partners, and brand management firm Authentic Brands Group in a deal to save it from bankruptcy. (Reuters)

February 20, 2020,

February 20, 2020, An 18th-century Ethiopian ceremonial crown, one of the 20 in existence, is returned to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. It was discovered in the Netherlands in 1998, and was held by Dutch authorities until now so it could be returned when the country was more politically stable. (BBC)

February 20, 2020, Morgan Stanley purchases electronic trading firm E-Trade for US$13 billion, in the largest banking deal since the 2008 financial crisis. (The Guardian)

February 20, 2020, South Korea reports its first death from COVID-19. (Sputnik)

February 20, 2020, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentences Roger Stone, long-time adviser and ally to the President of the United States Donald Trump, to 40 months in federal prison for seven charges of obstruction, lying to Congress and witness tampering. (CNN)

February 21, 2020, Release of Call of the Wild

February 21, 2020, Release of Emma

February 21, 2020, Release of The Last Thing He Wanted

February 21, 2020, Release of Night Clerk

February 21, 2020, Release of Brahms: The Boy II

February 21, 2020, Release of Impractical Jokers: The Movie

February 21, 2020,

February 21, 2020,  A seven-day "reduction of violence" between United States troops, Afghan troops, and the Taliban is due to start at midnight local time (19:30 UTC). If the partial truce is successful, a US–Taliban agreement on withdrawing American troops would be signed on February 29. (NBC News)

February 21, 2020, Israel and Lebanon report their first cases of 2019-nCoV coronavirus. (Al Jazeera)

February 21, 2020, North Korea cancels this year's Pyongyang Marathon due to concerns about coronavirus. (Al Jazeera)

February 21, 2020, Wells Fargo is set to pay $3 billion over their 2016 scandal of creating fake accounts in customers' names. (NBC News)

February 22, 2020,

February 22, 2020, Daredevil and flat Earth conspiracy theorist Mike Hughes dies after crashing in his homemade rocket near Barstow, California. He was attempting to prove the Earth was flat as part of a documentary series with Science Channel. (BBC)

February 22, 2020, Senator Bernie Sanders wins the Nevada Caucus. (CNN)

February 23, 2020, An earthquake in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran, kills at least nine people and injures more than a hundred others. (Daily Sabah)

February 24, 2020, U.S. film producer Harvey Weinstein is found guilty of rape, and not guilty of predatory sexual assault. (The New York Times)

February 24, 2020, The Dow Jones Industrial Average drops more than 3% as the coronavirus outbreak spreads outside China. This follows benchmark indices falling sharply in Europe after steep declines across Asia. (Barrons)

February 24, 2020, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Oman and Bahrain confirm their first cases of coronavirus. (Gulf News)

February 24, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump visits India and meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the sale of American military jets to India. (NPR)

February 24, 2020, The United States wants the United Kingdom to extradite WikiLeaks creator Julian Assange, who might face American espionage charges. (NBC News)

February 25, 2020, 

 

February 25, 2020, 

February 25, 2020, 



February 25, 2020, Bob Iger steps down as CEO of The Walt Disney Company, and is succeeded by Bob Chapek, former chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products. Iger will continue to serve the company's "creative endeavors" as executive chairman. (Reuters)

February 26, 2020, 2019–20 coronavirus outbreak:

-In California, San Francisco declares a public emergency. Santa Clara and San Diego counties have made similar declarations. (News AU)

-Greece confirms its first case in Thessaloniki. (Reuters)

-The first case in Latin America is confirmed by the Ministry of Health of Brazil in São Paulo. (Al Jazeera)

-Romania and Georgia report their first cases. (Reuters)

February 26, 2020, Six people, including the shooter, are killed in a mass shooting at the Molson Coors Beverage Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. The perpetrator, who committed suicide, was an employee who was fired earlier in the day. (USA Today)

February 26, 2020, The re-election campaign of U.S. President Donald Trump files a libel suit against The New York Times over a 2019 editorial piece that accused the Trump campaign of striking a deal with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. (Reuters)

February 26, 2020, The U.S. House of Representatives votes 410–4 to pass the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which designates lynching a federal crime. This is the first time that anti-lynching legislation has ever passed Congress. (NPR)

February 26, 2020, Astronomers at the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona, United States, say an object known as 2020 CD3 has been captured by Earth's gravitational field and has been in orbit since 2017, becoming a temporary natural satellite of Earth. The Minor Planet Center confirms the findings and says "no link to a known artificial object has been found", implying the object is an asteroid. (New Scientist)

February 27, 2020, Socio-economic impact of the 2019–20 coronavirus outbreak: The Dow Jones Industrial Average enters correction territory after plunging 700 points at opening. (USA Today)

-Markets are on pace for their worst week since the 2008 financial crisis. (Market Watch)

February 27, 2020, Astronomers discover the largest known explosion ever in the history of the Universe, which occurred in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster. It replaces MS 0735.6+7421. As space and ground telescopes that study radio emissions improve (which are better than X-ray observations for detecting these), more similar explosions, or "giant radio fossils", may be found. (Phys)

February 28, 2020, Release of The Invisible Man

February 28, 2020, Release of All The Bright Places

February 28, 2020, Release of Wendy

February 28, 2020, Release of Guns Akimbo

February 28, 2020, Socio-economic impact of the 2019–20 coronavirus outbreak: Global stock markets have lost US$6 trillion in value over the last six days. (CNBC)

-The Dow Jones Industrial Average drops 800 points at opening, continuing the worst week since the financial crisis of 2007–08. This week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped 13% and 4,000 points. (MSNBC)

February 28, 2020, Roman Polanski wins three César Awards, also for best director, for his movie An Officer and a Spy (French: J'accuse). Several women walk out in protest. Les Misérables wins four Césars, one of them for best film. (Reuters)

February 28, 2020, American investment management firm Elliott Management Corporation buys a significant stake in Twitter, and announces it will seek to make several changes to their management, including possibly replacing CEO Jack Dorsey. (Bloomberg)                                                                  

February 28, 2020, Belarus, Monaco, Iceland, Azerbaijan, New Zealand, Lithuania, Mexico and Nigeria confirm their first cases of coronavirus. (BNO News)

February 28, 2020, Chinese Olympic Swimmer Sun Yang is banned from swimming for eight years after being found guilty of doping by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. (News AU)

February 28, 2020, Hong Kong Police arrest entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, owner of the newspaper Apple Daily, and former lawmakers Yeung Sum and Lee Cheuk-yan for their involvement in anti-government protests. (SCMP) 

February 28, 2020, Pope Francis, in tandem with IBM and Microsoft, calls for AI technologies that risk violating human rights, such as facial recognition software, to be regulated. (Reuters)

February 28, 2020, A meteor explodes over Croatia. The Croatian Astronomical Union say the meteor disintegrated at an altitude of at least 30 kilometers above sea level. The meteor was likely roughly 2 meters across. (Xinhuanet)

February 29, 2020, American and Afghan Taliban leaders will meet at the Sheraton Grand Doha Resort & Convention Hotel in Doha, Qatar, ahead of a signing ceremony to bring an end to the 18-year war in Afghanistan, which is now the longest war in U.S. history. Taliban Deputy leader Sirajuddin Haqqani says "everyone is tired of war, it has exhausted everyone", while the longest-serving NATO Commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson describes the situation as a "stalemate". (Al Jazeera)

February 29, 2020, 2020 coronavirus outbreak in the United States: The first death from coronavirus in the United States is confirmed when a man dies at a hospital in the Seattle area. (NY Times)

February 29, 2020, Joe Biden wins the South Carolina primary. (NPR)