Table of contents for December 21, 2020 in TIME Magazine

IN THE FALL OF ANY NORMAL YEAR, we pack a conference room at TIME’s headquarters in New York City with reporters, producers and editors to debate who should be selected as Person of the Year, one of the most-watched franchises in journalism, one that has endured world wars and depressions, periods of conflict and years of peace—and now a global pandemic. This year, we held the meeting from our homes in cities around the world. Like so many of you, we’ve been working remotely and collaborating virtually. We met one another’s families and pets as they popped into the camera; shared joys, concerns and anxieties; cared for and sometimes lost loved ones to this terrible disease. Some things did stay the same. As we’ve done for the past 93 years,…

‘George’s calls for help were ignored. Please listen to the call I’m making to you now.’—PHILONISE FLOYD, in a speech to Congress on June 10, asking lawmakers to hold law enforcement accountable for instances of police brutality and misconduct, following the killing of his brother George Floyd ‘THE PRESIDENT IS GUILTY OF AN APPALLING ABUSE OF PUBLIC TRUST.’—MITT ROMNEY, Senator (R., Utah), in a Feb. 5 speech confirming he would vote to convict President Donald Trump on one of two charges of impeachment brought by the House; on an otherwise party-line vote, Trump was acquitted in the Senate on both charges that day ‘My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new President is installed.’—RUTH BADER GINSBURG, the late Supreme Court Justice, to her…

TO GET PAST THE STAGE-DOOR ENTRANCE OF THE QUEEN THEATER, you need a negative COVID-19 test and a particular type of N95 mask. You have to promise not to eat or drink inside, and answer a questionnaire about your recent whereabouts, and then comes the Secret Service protocol (the sweep, the wands). Once you’re in, the floors normally sticky with spilled drinks are instead dotted with distance-marking tape for reasons that are obvious: this is where President-elect Joe Biden is basing his transition, and President-elect Biden takes COVID-19 very, very seriously. “They told me we were gonna lose the campaign because of all this, remember?” Biden says in a Dec. 7 interview, gesturing at the precautions from a brown leather chair in a room above the stage. But “the good…

AT 11:58 A.M. ON JUNE 8, LEBRON JAMES LOGGED ON TO A VIDEO CALL FROM THE LIVING ROOM OF HIS LOS ANGELES–AREA HOME. As the clock hit noon, James, who abhors tardiness, took command of a virtual meeting that included more than 20 top athletes, entertainers and political pros. He set a serious tone: across the country, people were filling the streets to march against racial injustice and demand systemic change. What could this group do about it? James had the answer, and it wasn’t another celebrity PSA: an all-star coalition committed to pushing back against the suppression of Black voters. To lay out the severity of the problem, Michigan secretary of state Jocelyn Benson detailed how disinformation campaigns attempt to lower turnout. Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green expressed…

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AMERICAN SCIENTISTS, 1960 Fifteen scientists were recognized as “Men of the Year” for advancements across a range of fields that TIME predicted would shape society in years to come. U.S. scientists, along with scientists around the globe, are working with incredible speed to develop several promising COVID-19 vaccines. TWENTY-FIVE AND UNDER, 1966 TIME tapped a generation of eager young people as inheritors of a transforming world, describing them as uniquely prepared to “embrace change as a virtue in itself.” Gen Z also find themselves calling for sociocultural change, with young adults protesting racism, demanding climate action and navigating a fragile job market. THE MIDDLE AMERICANS, 1969 At the close of the tumultuous ’60s, TIME argued “Middle Americans” who felt overlooked by their government had begun to “shape the course…

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI AND FRONTLINE HEALTH WORKERS RACIAL-JUSTICE ORGANIZERS GUARDIANS PUT THEMSELVES ON THE LINE TO DEFEND THE IDEALS SACRED TO DEMOCRACY. In 2020, they fought on many fronts. In Washington, Dr. Anthony Fauci led not only the battle against COVID-19 but also the fight for truth—clear, consistent messaging being fundamental to public health. With steadfast integrity, Fauci nudged, elided and gently corrected a President used to operating in a reality of his own construction, buoyed by the fervent repetition of lies. On the front line against COVID-19, the world’s health care workers displayed the best of humanity—selflessness, compassion, stamina, courage—while protecting as much of it as they could. By risking their lives every day for the strangers who arrived at their workplace, they made conspicuous a foundational principle of…

IT’S LATE OCTOBER, AND SUGA IS SITTING ON A COUCH STRUMMING A GUITAR. His feet are bare, his long hair falling over his eyes. He noodles around, testing out chords and muttering softly to himself, silver hoop earrings glinting in the light. “I just started learning a few months ago,” he says. It’s an intimate moment, the kind you’d spend with a new crush in a college dorm room while they confess rock-star ambitions. But Suga is one-seventh of the Korean pop band BTS, which means I’m just one of millions of fans watching, savoring the moment. BTS isn’t just the biggest K-pop act on the charts. They’ve become the biggest band in the world—full stop. Between releasing multiple albums, breaking every type of record and appearing in these extemporaneous…

‘I cried. About the women I did not know about. The women I forgot about. Accomplishments my children did not know about. History we have missed.’—BETH HALAAS, Cheney, Wash., on the March 16/March 23 100 Women of the Year issue ‘The world is longing for, and depending on, a benevolent and wise America to return to the world stage.’—CHRISTER ALBACK, Vasteras, Sweden, on Charlotte Alter’s Feb. 3 feature about millennial leaders in the U.S. ‘WHEN I SAW THIS COVER, I CALLED MY MOM AND SAID, “MA, I LOVE YOU!”’—DIRON FORD, Newport News, Va., on Titus Kaphar’s painting of a Black mother and missing child, the cover of TIME’s June 15 issue on racial-justice protests in the U.S. ‘BRYANT’S BIOGRAPHY MAY BE COMPLICATED, BUT IT WILL BE FULL OF ADJECTIVES…

JANUARY Jan. 31 The last day the U.K. remains a member of the European Union, ahead of an 11-month Brexit transition period FEBRUARY Feb. 9 Bong Joon Ho’s biting class satire Parasite is the first foreign-language film to win Best Picture, at the 2020 Oscars MARCH March 9 Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend their last public engagement as working members of the British royal family March 18 The Eurovision Song Contest is canceled for the first time in the international music competition’s 64-year history, over coronavirus concerns APRIL April 8 Last day of an 11-week lockdown in Wuhan, China, the original epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic April 12 With sports worldwide on pause because of the pandemic, Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League is the first major professional sports…

JOE BIDEN & KAMALA HARRIS A year marked by multiple crises, all at once, all over the world: A once-in-a-century plague. Brutal racial injustice. Glaring inequality. Apocalyptic wildfires. Democracy under fire. It was a particularly humbling year for the most powerful nation on earth—a wake-up call for those more accustomed to seeing America, despite its flaws, as a beacon for the world. The U.S. has seen by far the most confirmed cases of COVID-19 of any country, and some of the worst fatality rates. The killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade and many more brought about a reckoning with systemic racism, long overdue and extraordinary in scale. Economic inequality deepened. Almost 1 in 8 American adults reported that their household didn’t have enough to eat at…

WHEN MILO MCCABE’S DAUGHTER WAS BORN, HE COULD SEE SHE HAD 10 FINGERS, 10 TOES AND DARK SWIRLS OF HAIR; HE COULD HEAR HER PIERCING CRY. But he couldn’t make out the color of her eyes and, heartbreakingly, he couldn’t hold her. He was watching over Zoom. McCabe had never considered not being in the delivery room. But in early April, he fell ill with COVID-19 and was rushed to a hospital in Southern California. When his wife Roxanne went into labor more than a week later at the same hospital, he was still there—but could barely get out of bed. A video call was the next best thing: they wanted to see each other’s faces, record the proceedings and stay on for hours for free without technical glitches. So…