2020 Current Events Study Guide

[Volante]

FinCEN Files : https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54226107

A leak of over 2,500 files, mostly reports sent from banks to US authorities of suspected criminal activity

Not sure if any of the individual shoutouts are worthy of mention, but the collection itself falls in the same group as the Pentagon Papers or Panama Papers.

[cinemaniax7]

Legendary Chicago Bears running back Gale Sayers has died at the age of 77. He spent seven seasons with the Bears from 1965 to 1971, although multiple injuries limited him to only four full seasons of play. One of the most difficult players to tackle, Sayers was known for his elusiveness, agility, and remarkable vision on the field.

Sayers was known as the "Kansas Comet" during his playing days as an All-American at the University of Kansas. He was the NFL's Rookie of the Year in 1965, a season in which he scored a record-tying six touchdowns in a game against the 49ers. No one has equaled the feat since.

Although he played in only 68 games due to injury, Sayers was named to the NFL's 50th, 75th and 100th Anniversary Teams. He was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977 as the youngest inductee in the hall’s history.

In 1971, the Emmy-winning TV movie Brian’s Song was made about the relationship between Sayers and fellow Bears running back Brian Piccolo, the first interracial roommates in the NFL. One of the greatest tearjerkers of all time, the movie starred James Caan as Piccolo and Billy Dee Williams as Sayers. Piccolo died of cancer in 1970, and his death inspired Sayers to write his autobiography I Am Third, which became the basis for the film. At the time, it was the most-watched movie ever made for television.

Brian's Song was remade in 2001 with Sean Maher as Piccolo and Mekhi Phifer as Sayers.

[cinemaniax7]

The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the first woman and the first Jewish person to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol.

[Bamaman]

President Trump has nominated Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court seat opened by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

[trainman]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Hockey League season was suspended on March 12. Action resumed in what was called the "Return to Play" plan on August 1, with a modified playoff format that saw players and essential support staff quarantined within "the bubble" -- actually 2 locations, sometimes referred to as "hubs" or "hub cities," Toronto and Edmonton. All games were played in those two cities with no spectators.

The Stanley Cup final series was played in Edmonton, and it ended with the Tampa Bay Lightning defeating the Dallas Stars 4 games to 2.

This was the first time since 1925 that the entire Stanley Cup playoffs were played in Canada, the first time since 1928 that the Stanley Cup finals took place in one location, the first time since 1950 that the Stanley Cup finals had neutral site games, the first time that teams representing two "sun belt" cities met in the Stanley Cup finals, and the first time the Stanley Cup finals were held in September.

[Bamaman]

Mark may be spared having to see the Vikings lose Sunday.


https://www.wsmv.com/news/local/titans- ... cf6a5.html

[cinemaniax7]

Helen Reddy, the Australian pop singer best known for her hit song “I Am Woman,” has died at the age of 78.

“I Am Woman” was a #1 hit in 1972, the first song by an Australian artist to reach the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. The song became an anthem for the women's liberation movement and won Reddy a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Reddy's other hit songs included "I Don't Know How to Love Him," “Delta Dawn,” “Angie Baby,” “Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress),” “You and Me Against the World” and “AIn’t No Way to Treat a Lady.”

She also starred in a self-titled network variety show that ran for eight episodes in 1973, and she appeared in the 1977 Disney film Pete's Dragon, for which she recorded the Oscar-nominated song "Candle on the Water."

Reddy wrote a 2006 memoir titled The Woman I Am. Her life story was turned into the 2019 film I Am Woman starring Tilda Cobham-Hervey.

[Bamaman]

Not a good day to be a 78 year old singer. Mac Davis, who wrote “In the Ghetto” for Elvis Presley as well as having a singing and acting career of his own, died Tuesday following heart surgery.

https://tasteofcountry.com/mac-davis-dead-dies/

[teapot37]

Longtime St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson died from pancreatic cancer today at age 84. He played 17 seasons (1959-1975) and was named an All-Star 9 times. (9 times in 8 years; MLB held two All-Star Games per season between 1959 and 1962, and Gibson was named to both of the 1962 squads.) The Cards won the World Series twice during his tenure (1964 and 1967) and Gibson was named MVP both times. He won the NL Cy Young Award for best pitcher twice, and was named NL MVP in 1968. His number 45 is retired by the team, and he was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981 in his first year of eligibility. His 3117 career strikeouts rank 14th all-time, and his 251 career wins have him tied with CC Sabathia for 47th-most all-time. He even pitched a no-hitter in 1971.

[cinemaniax7]

The Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) has voted to remove the name of Kenesaw Mountain Landis from the AL and NL Most Valuable Player plaques it awards each year. Landis was named the first MLB commissioner in 1920 in response to the Black Sox Scandal, in which eight members of the heavily favored Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series, won by the Cincinnati Reds.

According to a statement issued by the BBWAA, the vote to remove Landis's name from the awards was taken because he "notably failed to integrate the game during his tenure." Jackie Robinson became the first Black player in Major League Baseball in 1947, three years after Landis's death.

Here's the CBS Sports story.

[MinnesotaMyron]

One of the great trivia facts of this age just got a little closer to being out-of-date.

Lyon Tyler, grandson of president John Tyler, passed away September 26 at the age of 95. John Tyler still has one living grandson, Harrison Tyler.

(For anyone not familiar with this piece of trivia, these are plain old son-of-son grandsons, not "great-grandsons" or anything.)

ETA: Fixed the first name. Thanks Sg.

[Volante]

Ahh, Nobel Week has started. First up, Medicine/Physiology.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54418463

Three scientists who discovered the virus Hepatitis C have won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology.

The winners are British scientist Michael Houghton and US researchers Harvey Alter and Charles Rice.

[Bamaman]

Eddie Van Halen dies of throat cancer.

[Volante]

Nobel in Physics which I legit have not seen any of my RSS feeds pick up yet. (And it seems my BBC feeds haven't added anything since early Monday...LOVELY! That still doesn't explain Giz or Ars dropping the ball though...)

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2020/summary/

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 was divided, one half awarded to Roger Penrose "for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity", the other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy."

*looks over Penrose's list of accomplishments* Well, that seems long overdue.

The "supermassive compact object" referred to is SgrA* ... which I think I've mentioned here before, too...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_A*

Edit: Ars released their writeup:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/10 ... hole-work/

[MarkBarrett]

The new name for Eskimo Pie will be Edy's Pie.

Uncle Ben's rice will be Ben's Original.

[Volante]

Gene splicing (specifically CRISPR) wins the 2020 Nobel for Chemistry
https://gizmodo.com/gene-editing-crispr ... 1845299757

On Wednesday, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to scientists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna for their pivotal roles in discovering CRISPR/Cas9, an ancient bacterial defense system that’s been adapted into a cheap and revolutionary gene-editing technology. This is the first Nobel in Chemistry to be shared exclusively by two women.

[Volante]

Nobel Week day 4 of 5: Literature

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-54447291

This year's Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to the US poet Louise Glück.
...
She is the fourth woman to win the prize for literature since 2010, and only the 16th since the Nobel prizes were first awarded in 1901. The last American to win was Bob Dylan in 2016.

Gluck won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for her collection The Wild Iris and the National Book Award in 2014. Her other honours include the 2001 Bollingen Prize for Poetry, the Wallace Stevens Award, given in 2008, and a National Humanities Medal, awarded in 2015.

Safe to say you'll probably want to know this one. Two mentions doesn't necessarily canon make, but they're not unfamiliar with her. Probably going to be bottom row, too given the infrequency:

#7442, aired 2017-01-10 WOMEN POETS $800: In 2003 & 2004 Louise Glück held this esteemed position
#6505, aired 2012-12-21 AMERICAN POETRY $1200: "I never turned anyone into a pig. Some people are pigs", Louise Gluck wrote in this enchantress' "Power"

[triviawayne]

Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass by singer Lana Del Rey is on the NY Times best-seller list.

While this book will probably not be significant in the world of books, it does give writers another way to ask about her and her songs.

[davey]

Nobel Week day 4 of 5: Literature

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-54447291

This year's Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to the US poet Louise Glück.
...
She is the fourth woman to win the prize for literature since 2010, and only the 16th since the Nobel prizes were first awarded in 1901. The last American to win was Bob Dylan in 2016.

Gluck won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for her collection The Wild Iris and the National Book Award in 2014. Her other honours include the 2001 Bollingen Prize for Poetry, the Wallace Stevens Award, given in 2008, and a National Humanities Medal, awarded in 2015.

Safe to say you'll probably want to know this one. Two mentions doesn't necessarily canon make, but they're not unfamiliar with her. Probably going to be bottom row, too given the infrequency:

#7442, aired 2017-01-10 WOMEN POETS $800: In 2003 & 2004 Louise Glück held this esteemed position
#6505, aired 2012-12-21 AMERICAN POETRY $1200: "I never turned anyone into a pig. Some people are pigs", Louise Gluck wrote in this enchantress' "Power"

Worth noting - maybe to alert the vowel police should her name ever come up - is that the Swedish Academy and other sources like NPR agree that her name is pronounced Glick, despite the umlaut...

[Volante]

And finally...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-54476569

The 2020 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

Seems self explanatory enough.

(Also, BBC feeds started working the next day so it was just a hiccup on their end. *sigh of relief*)