Second person cured of HIV

Although HIV—otherwise known as the human immunodeficiency virus—can be treated, until 2020, only one person had ever been cured of it. In March 2020, United Kingdom citizen Adam Castillejo was declared cured of the virus after 30 months with no need for treatment after a stem cell transplant. His case was first publicized in 2019,  but his identity has since been revealed and he has been declared officially cured.

Historic Parasite Oscar sweep

In February 2020, Korean film Parasite became the first international film and first non-English language film to win the Best Picture Academy Award. The film won four Academy Award in total—Best Picture, Best Director, Best International Feature Film and Best Original Screenplay.

Accomplishments from the BLM protests

The 2020 Black Lives Matter protests were triggered with the death of George Floyd on May 25, and are still occurring today. The protests have made advancements for racial equality across the United States, whether it is laws or promoting Black history. Breonna’s Law, named after police brutality victim Breonna Taylor, was passed in Louisville, Kentucky on June 11 to ban no-knock search warrants. The Department of Justice announced on Oct. 20 their initiative to combat excessive use of violence by the police, named The Bureau of Justice Assistance’s (BJA) Law Enforcement Training and Technical Assistance Response Center.

NASA headquarters named after first Black female engineer

The NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. were renamed on June 24 after Mary W. Jackson, their first Black female engineer. Jackson was recruited by NASA in 1958 after working with its predecessor, and was featured in the 2016 film Hidden Figures. The new name is another step in honoring the historical contributions of Black people that bettered the country, despite them previously being unacknowledged.