2020 illustrated: A timeline of a tumultuous year

The world has changed drastically in the past six months, and it’s become a challenge to keep 2020 straight. The Star and McClatchy presents a timeline to help make sense of the chronology of events this year, including the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the effects it has had on our communities and other major events surrounding it.

At the center of it all is President Donald Trump, who leads this illustration through the sequence of significant, and often tumultuous, developments that involved either direct involvement or commentary from the administration.

In this visual depiction of the year, Trump walks the viewer through the U.S. military strike in Iran, the death of George Floyd and protests across the nation, the arrival of mysterious “murder hornets” in North America, economic turmoil and a growing number of Americans infected by and dying from the new virus.

The team behind this project includes visual journalist Neil Nakahodo from The Star, Pulitzer-prize winning cartoonist Jack Ohman from The Sacramento Bee and motion graphics producer Sohail Al-Jamea from McClatchy.

And 2020 is only halfway over — so we will revisit this timeline as the presidential race comes to a close and the pandemic continues unabated.

This story was originally published August 17, 2020 at 5:00 AM.