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2022 was a year both heartbreaking and hopeful, as the country felt the loosening of the grasp of COVID-19, while inflation ran rampant along with the tragic loss of too many innocent lives. This year was remarkable not only politically, but pop-culturally, spotted with celebrity drama and the passage of landmark legislation likely to change the course of history. In case you forgot what happened, here’s a look back at 2022.
January
- Jan. 1: Wildfires continue to burn through Boulder, Colorado, leading to the evacuation of over 30,000 people and the destruction of homes across Boulder County.
- Jan. 3: The U.S. reaches a record number of COVID-19 cases, with the omicron variant making up 95% of the cases.
- Jan. 30: Joe Rogan’s podcast garners controversy due to his alleged spread of misinformation about COVID-19. Several artists, as well as users, boycott Spotify in response to the streaming service keeping the podcast on the platform.
February
- Feb. 4: The 2022 Winter Olympics begin in Beijing, China.
- Feb. 6: Queen Elizabeth II celebrates 70 years on the throne as Britain’s longest-serving monarch.
- Feb. 17: Brittany Griner is detained in Russia in possession of marijuana cartridges.
- Feb. 22: Russian President Vladimir Putin announces a “special military operation” in Ukraine, sending troops to the country. The U.S. and other countries begin sanctions against Russia.
March
- Mar. 7: Global COVID-19 death toll surpasses 6 million.
- Mar. 23: The Taliban reverses the decision to let high school-aged girls attend school in Afghanistan.
- Mar. 27: Will Smith slaps Chris Rock at the Academy Awards after Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife.
- Mar. 31: The U.S. releases oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an attempt to curb rising fuel prices.
April
- April 25: Twitter announces that it will sell to Elon Musk for $44 billion.
- April 26: The U.S. leaves the pandemic phase, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci.
May
- May 2: The U.S. Supreme Court’s draft opinion of the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is leaked to the public.
- May 14: A gunman shoots 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
- May 16: Karine Jean-Pierre is the first black woman and LGBTQ person appointed as U.S. press secretary.
- May 17: U.S. records 1 million COVID-19 deaths.
- May 18: Finland and Sweden begin the process of joining NATO.
- May 24: Gunman kills 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
- Supply chain delays cause baby formula shortages across the U.S.
June
- June 1: John Hinckley Jr., former President Ronald Reagan's attempted assassin, is released from prison.
- June 1: Amber Heard and Johnny Depp are awarded money in a settlement due to a defamation suit between the couple.
- Inflation peaks at 9.1%, a record high since the 1980s.
- Travel numbers return to pre-COVID rates.
- June 9: The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol begins to hold hearings.
- June 11: A Google engineer claims that the company’s Lamda Artificial Intelligence may have a sentient mind and the company places him on leave.
- June 24: The U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.
- June 28: A former Trump White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, gives testimony of former President Donald Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, alleging he knew about the threat of violence that day and did not attempt to stop it.
- June 30: Ketanji Brown Jackson is sworn in as the first black woman in the U.S. Supreme Court.
July
- The U.S. sees a record-breaking heatwave, with the highest temperatures since the early 1900s.
- July 4: A gunman kills seven people at a 4th of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois.
- July 7: Boris Johnson resigns as Britain’s prime minister.
- July 12: Twitter sues Elon Musk after he pulls out of a deal to purchase the site for $44 billion.
- July 23: World Health Organization declares monkeypox a public health emergency.
- July 26: Russia announces it will withdraw from the International Space Station at the end of 2024.
- July 31: Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who aided in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the United States, is killed by a CIA drone strike.
August
- Aug. 4: The U.S. attorney general announces charges against the four officers involved in the death of Breonna Taylor.
- Aug. 8: The FBI conducts a search of Donald Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, seizing multiple boxes of classified documents.
- Aug. 16: President Joe Biden signs the Inflation Reduction Act, a bill meant to curb the effects of climate change.
- Aug. 22: Anthony Fauci announces that he will step down as the U.S. adviser to the president and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
- Aug. 24: Biden announces plan to cancel student loan debts up to $20,000.
September
- Sept. 6: Liz Truss is appointed as the new British prime minister.
- Sept. 8: Queen Elizabeth II dies at the age of 96.
- Sept. 16: Civil rights protests erupt in Iran as a response to strict morality laws that target women.
- Sept. 19: Adnan Syed is released after over 20 years in prison, with all murder charges against him dropped.
- Sept. 21: Russia suffers losses in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin announces partial mobilization of 300,000 reservists, drafting up to 1.2 million men.
- Sept. 21: New York Attorney General Letitia James files a lawsuit against Donald Trump, alleging financial fraud.
- Sept. 26: NASA completes the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, the organization’s first planetary defense test.
- Sept. 28: Hurricane Ian — a Category 4 storm — sweeps across Florida and other southern states.
October
- Oct. 9: Rapper Kanye West makes anti-semitic remarks, resulting in major companies withdrawing from deals with the rapper.
- Oct. 13: Parkland shooter sentenced to life in prison without parole.
- Oct. 20: British Prime Minister Liz Truss announces resignation, serving for only 44 days — the shortest term served by a British prime minister in history.
- Oct. 27: Elon Musk takes ownership of Twitter, immediately firing large numbers of employees.
- Oct. 28: U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, is assaulted by a home intruder, resulting in severe injuries.
- Oct. 31: South Korean Halloween crowd surge kills over 150 people.
November
- Nov. 8: The 2022 midterm elections take place across the U.S.
- Nov. 13: Four University of Idaho students are murdered in their apartment in Moscow, Idaho.
- Nov. 15: Trump announces plans to run for a second presidency in 2024.
- Nov. 17: Nancy Pelosi announces that she will step down as the U.S. Speaker of the House.
- Nov. 18: Elizabeth Holmes is sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for fraud.
- Nov. 19: Five people are killed in a shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
- Thousands protest in China over strict COVID-19 restrictions.
- Inflation rates begin to slow from record rates in the summer.
December
- Dec. 8: Brittney Griner is released from a Russian prison in a prisoner exchange.
- Dec. 19: The U.S. House Jan. 6 committee refers Trump for criminal charges.
- U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts places a hold on the termination of Title 42, a pandemic-era immigration law.
- Dec. 20: Taliban announces ban on women’s higher education.
- China eases COVID-19 restrictions for the first time in over two years.
- The 2022 World Cup takes place in Qatar.
