The Model City Times
Biden was inaugurated on January 20 as the 46th president of the United States. Kamala Harris became the nation’s first female, Black and South Asian vice president. Shortly after taking office, Biden spoke at a candle-lighting ceremony to mark 500,000 U.S. deaths from COVID-19.
In March, he signed into law a $1.9 trillion economic relief package designed to support workers, families, small businesses and schools struggling to recover from the pandemic’s impact.
On January 6, a mob of pro-Trump demonstrators stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to stop lawmakers from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. Five people died in the chaos either shortly before, during or following the event, including a Capitol police officer. Lawmakers from both political parties, including Vice President Mike Pence, were forced to flee the congressional chamber for safety. Accused of inciting his supporters to riot, Trump became the first president to be impeached (and acquitted) twice.
In April, President Biden announced a plan for the full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. As the withdrawal proceeded, the Muslim fundamentalist group the Taliban took advantage of a crumbling Afghan government to seize control of much of the country. After a chaotic final stretch in which some 120,000 people were evacuated to safety, the last U.S. military forces left Afghanistan on August 30, ending the nearly 20-year-long conflict that resulted in the deaths of 2,500 U.S. service members and more than 100,000 Afghans, including many civilians.
2021 began with New Cache Order in full swing and it lasted all year long. Events, new caches and tons of events made the year full of fun and adventures.
Launched in late July 2020, the NASA rover Perseverance spent months traveling through space, covering some 292.5 million miles before touching down on Mars on February 18. As the space agency’s most sophisticated rover yet, Perseverance spent the rest of the year exploring Jezero Crater, the site of an ancient lake, collecting rock and soil samples for possible return to Earth and probing for evidence of whether life ever existed on the planet.
