An image captured by the GOES-16 satellite shows a flash (purple) most likely caused by a bolide (exploding meteor) over New Hampshire on Oct. 10, 2021.
Credit: NOAA

A mysterious boom rattled houses, shook the ground, and frightened pets in southern New Hampshire around 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, October 10. Curious people in the Granite State took to the internet to find the cause. Was it an earthquake, an aircraft, a single thunderclap, a spaceship, or a meteor? There was nothing in the news about it, so one observer called the fire department, which also did not have any answers. Around 400 residents shared their observations on volcanodiscovery.com, an online forum where people report seismic activity (vibrations from earthquakes). What caused the boom?

While earthquakes do occur in the area of New Hampshire, the United States Geological Survey announced that there were no earthquakes in all New England on Sunday. The Geological Survey is a federal agency tasked in part with monitoring such hazards as earthquakes and volcanoes.

Ruling out an earthquake, many people kept researching. One cause of confusion was that even though there was an audible (able to be heard) boom and physical thud, there was no damage reported. Was it a powerful military plane? The Federal Aviation Administration announced there was no unusual military flight activity over the state. One concerned resident theorized that the sound came from the recently established New Boston Space Force Station, previously an air force base.

Meteorologists said the mystery blast was most likely a sonic boom caused by a meteor. A meteor appears when a piece of matter enters Earth’s atmosphere from space at high speed, causing it to heat up. A fireball is a meteor that burns brightly as it plunges through the atmosphere. If the fireball explodes at the end of its path, it is called a bolide.

Greg Cornwell, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said that a suspicious spot appeared in images from the weather satellite GOES-16, which in part maps lightning strikes, around the same time people reported the boom. Weather satellite images generally pick up storms and other weather patterns. Although it was overcast that morning, there were no thunderstorms to explain the blip. Bolides and fireballs have in the past appeared as false storms in satellite images. Cornwell also explained that this time of year is known for meteor showers.

Many experts considered it likely that a meteor explosion produced the mysterious boom. However, to officially pin the blast on a meteor, scientists need a direct eyewitness account or video evidence. No solid eyewitness account or video evidence has been brought forward, so residents may have to settle for a hunch.

A thriving Black neighborhood known as “Black Wall Street” lies in ruin following the Tulsa race riot of 1921.
Credit: Library of Congress

May 31, 2021, marked 100 years since the start of the Tulsa race riot of 1921. It was one of the deadliest acts of racial violence in United States history.

From May 31 to June 1, 1921, groups of armed white men attacked Black residents in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The riot began after white vigilantes gathered to lynch (put to death without a lawful trial) a Black man who had been accused of attacking a white woman. The riot probably caused about 300 deaths and destroyed Tulsa’s Black business district.

On May 30, 1921, Dick Rowland, a 19-year-old Black shoe shiner, entered an elevator in the Drexel Building in downtown Tulsa. He encountered Sarah Page, a 17-year-old white elevator operator. What occurred next is unclear. Many historians believe that Rowland may have either stepped on Page’s foot or tripped and grabbed Page’s arm to steady himself. Page screamed. A clerk from a nearby store, assuming that the girl had been the victim of an assault, called police. Rowland fled the scene and was arrested the next day.

Newspaper accounts and rumors about the incident led to widespread talk of lynching. On the evening of May 31, hundreds of white people, including many armed men, gathered near the courthouse where Rowland was held. Groups of armed Black men—many of them veterans of World War I—then arrived at the scene. They offered their services to the sheriff to help protect Rowland, but their offers were refused.

At around 10 p.m., shots were fired during a commotion near the courthouse. The Blacks who had gathered there were outnumbered, and they retreated. They went to Greenwood Avenue—the heart of the Black business district known as “Black Wall Street.” A white mob followed.

Scattered shootings then occurred near Greenwood Avenue in the early hours of June 1. Groups of armed Blacks assembled to hold off the white mob. Many Black residents fought to protect their businesses or families, while others fled to the countryside. Law enforcement officials deputized (appointed as agents of the law) hundreds of members of the mob. Members of the Oklahoma National Guard—all of whom were white—gathered near boundaries of Black and white neighborhoods. Among some whites, rumors attributed the violence to a “Negro uprising.” The mob grew to more than 5,000 white men.

Around 5 a.m., a whistle sounded, and thousands of armed white men marched into the Black business district. They burned and looted homes and businesses. National Guardsmen led thousands of Blacks at gunpoint to makeshift detention centers. Many who resisted were shot. Police did little to stop the arson and violence, and they spent most of their resources protecting white neighborhoods. In many instances, local members of the state National Guard joined in the attacks. Black eyewitnesses recalled white pilots firing on Black neighborhoods from airplanes above.

Thousands of armed white men burned and looted Black homes and businesses during the riot.
Credit: Library of Congress

Around 9 a.m., members of a National Guard regiment from Oklahoma City arrived in Tulsa. Locals called them the “state troops.” Order was restored around 11:30 a.m., when Governor James B. A. Robertson declared martial law (emergency military rule) in Tulsa County. By the time the riot ended, more than 1,200 structures—nearly the entire “Negro Quarter”—had been destroyed by fires.

There is documented evidence of at least 40 deaths in the Tulsa riot. Of this number, about two-thirds were Black. However, many historians estimate that around 300 people were killed. Some unidentified Black victims may have been interred in mass graves.

Authorities never brought criminal charges against Rowland. Authorities also brought no charges against white rioters. Neither the City of Tulsa nor insurance companies compensated Black property owners for losses. The Greenwood business district was eventually rebuilt, but many of its residents remained homeless for months.

Rebuilding begins in the Black neighborhood destroyed by the riot.
Credit: Library of Congress

Newspapers reported on the riot in the days and weeks after the event. Over time, however, the incident received little coverage. The riot was omitted from most Oklahoma history books and classroom lessons.

Blacks displaced by the neighborhood’s destruction line up outside a refugee camp at the Tulsa fairgrounds.
Credit: Library of Congress

In 1997, state officials formed the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. The commission released an extensive report about the event in 2001. Tulsa’s John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park commemorates the victims of the riot. The park, named for a leading Black scholar whose own father survived the riot, officially opened in 2010.

Indian-born American astronaut Kalpana Chawla
Credit: NASA

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature AAPI pioneers in a variety of areas.

In 1997, the American astronaut Kalpana Chawla (1962-2003) became the first Indian-born woman to travel into space. Chawla served on two missions aboard the United States space shuttle Columbia as a mission specialist and robotic arm operator.

Chawla was born on March 17, 1962, in Karnal, northern India. Karnal was part of the state of Punjab at that time. Today, it is part of the state of Haryana. She graduated from the Punjab Engineering College in 1982. That same year, she immigrated to the United States. In 1984, she earned a master’s degree from the University of Texas in Austin. She married Jean-Pierre Harrison, an aviation teacher and author, in 1983. She received her doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1988. She then went to work at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In 1994, she was selected for training as an astronaut candidate.

In 1997, Chawla flew her first mission on the shuttle Columbia. She was the second person of Indian descent to travel in space, following the Indian-born cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma, who traveled on a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in 1984. Chawla’s duties involved conducting experiments in microgravity, sometimes called zero gravity or weightlessness, and launching a satellite using the shuttle’s robotic arm. Her second mission was on the same shuttle in 2003. However, on Feb. 1, 2003, as the Columbia was returning to Earth after the 16-day mission, the spacecraft broke apart high over Texas. Chawla and six other crew members were killed.

Chawla received many honors for her work in space. They include the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, the NASA Space Flight Medal, and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. In addition, an asteroid that orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter is named the 51826 Kalpanachawla in her honor.

A candlelit vigil on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 19, 2021, honored the hundreds of thousands of Americans killed by COVID-19.
Credit: © Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

One year ago, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus disease COVID-19 a pandemic—that is, a disease that spreads over an extremely wide geographic area. In one year, the deadly respiratory disease has infected nearly 115 million people and killed more than 2.5 million people worldwide.

The first COVID-19 cases occurred in Wuhan, China, near a seafood and live animal market. This fact suggested to scientists that the disease may be zoonotic (spread from animals to people). Researchers proposed that, like the related diseases MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) and SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), COVID-19 may have its origin in bats. Further analysis of the virus SARS-CoV-2 showed that it had clearly originated in bats. SARS-CoV-2 stands for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. How the virus crossed over into human beings has not been determined. After the virus entered humans, human-to-human transmission became the chief way in which the disease spread.

As the pandemic progressed, some authorities closed schools and such nonessential businesses as restaurants, movie theaters, and hair salons. Some officials issued stay-at-home orders. The orders forbade people from leaving their homes except for such necessary activities as working at an essential job, buying food, or seeing a doctor.

To pass time over the long year and help stay cheerful while stuck at home, many people turned to baking treats, reading books, and making arts and crafts. For instance, some people recreated famous paintings. Such museums as the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, provided people with prompts. Then, using household products and costumes buried at the bottom of toy chests, people recreated famous works of art. Emanuel Leutze’s “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” for example, became “Wagon Crossing the Street.” Re-enacting masterpieces was a great way to past the time, while you waited for your treats to bake.

Sandra Lindsay, left, a Black nurse, is injected with the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer on Dec. 14, 2020, in the Queens borough (section) of New York City. The rollout of the vaccine, the first to be given emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration, begins the biggest vaccination effort in U.S. history.
Credit: © Mark Lennihan, Getty Images

In December 2020, hope began to arrive in the form of vaccines. Vaccines are special medicines that can help make a person immune to a particular disease. The long-awaited “V-Day,” short for Vaccine Day, arrived in the United States on Monday, Dec. 14, 2020. Sandra Lindsay—a nurse at a hospital in the Queens borough (section) of New York City—was hailed as the first person in the United States to receive an authorized COVID-19 vaccination.

Not everyone who wants a vaccine has been able to get one right away. The first doses were given to healthcare workers. Then, frontline workers (workers likely to encounter the disease) followed, along with people vulnerable to the virus, including the elderly and those with such risk factors as obesity or diabetes.

Since December, nearly 10 percent of the U.S. population has received the vaccine. Tens of thousands more get vaccinated each day, raising hopes that the end of the pandemic is near.

Credit: © Atstock Productions, Shutterstock

Friday, January 1, is New Year’s Day, the first day of the calendar year. People in almost every country celebrate this day as a holiday. The celebrations are both festive and serious. Many people make New Year’s resolutions to break bad habits or to start good ones. Some think about how they have lived during the past year and look forward to the next 12 months.

In a typical year, New Year’s celebrations may include visiting friends and relatives, giving gifts, and attending religious services. Celebrations usually start on New Year’s Eve, December 31. In the United States, many people go to New Year’s Eve parties. Crowds gather in Times Square in New York City, on State Street in Chicago, and in other public places. At midnight, bells ring, sirens sound, firecrackers explode, and everyone shouts, “Happy New Year!”

Of course, 2020 has not been a typical year, and 2021 New Year’s festivities are likely to look a little different. Efforts are being made to prevent the spread of the pandemic (global outbreak) of the coronavirus disease COVID-19. Such efforts often include social distancing, meant to limit contact among people and thus the spread of germs. So, gone are the large crowds in Times Square. In addition, such traditional New Year’s Day celebrations as visiting friends and relatives or attending religious services might be limited to virtual events this year.

Many people may be particularly excited to say good-bye to 2020. The year was largely overshadowed by the pandemic. COVID-19 was first recognized in human beings in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. By January 30, COVID-19 had caused 170 deaths among some 8,000 confirmed cases. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern. WHO recommended urgent containment measures as the number of cases and deaths continued to climb. On March 11, WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

As the pandemic progressed, some authorities closed schools and such businesses as restaurants, movie theaters, and barber shops and hair salons. Some officials issued stay-at-home orders. The orders forbade people from leaving their homes except for such necessary activities as working at an essential job, buying food, or seeing a doctor.

As of late December, COVID-19 has caused more than 1.7 million deaths worldwide, and more than 82.1 million cases had been confirmed. More than 185 countries have reported cases of COVID-19.

However, the new year offers hope in the form of vaccines, special medicines that can help make a person immune to a particular disease. The long-awaited V-Day, short for Vaccine Day, arrived in the United States on Monday, December 14, with the beginning of widespread vaccination against COVID-19. The first vaccine doses were given to health care workers. Next in line are frontline workers (workers likely to encounter the disease) and people who are vulnerable to the virus, including the elderly and people with such risk factors as obesity or diabetes. Some of these people have already received the vaccine, but most people may have to wait to be vaccinated until the spring of 2021.

So, it will take some time for things to return to normal. But, here’s wishing you a happier and healthier 2021!

Sandra Lindsay, a Black nurse, is injected with the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer on Dec. 14, 2020, in the Queens borough (section) of New York City. The rollout of the vaccine, the first to be given emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration, begins the largest vaccination effort in U.S. history.
Credit: © Mark Lennihan, Getty Images

The long-awaited V-Day, short for Vaccine Day, arrived in the United States on Monday, December 14, with the beginning of widespread vaccination against the coronavirus disease COVID-19. Vaccination involves the administration of special medicines called vaccines, which can help make a person immune to a particular disease. Sandra Lindsay—a nurse at a hospital in the Queens borough (section) of New York City—became the first person in the United States to receive the authorized COVID-19 vaccination. COVID-19 has killed more than 1 million people and infected more than 60 million people around the world. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted an emergency use authorization for the vaccine, by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, on December 11. V-Day provided a moment of hope against the COVID-19 pandemic (worldwide outbreak of disease) even as the U.S. death toll topped 300,000.

The fact that Lindsay—a Black health care worker—was first in line to receive the vaccine is significant. In the United States, COVID-19 has disproportionally affected Black Americans, and medical workers have been on the front line of the fight against the disease. Lindsay said it was important for her to take the vaccine, in part because of the history of unequal and racist treatment of minorities in the medical system. In particular, she mentioned the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, a notorious medical experiment involving Black Americans. Beginning in 1932, medical workers conducted blood tests among 4,000 Black men in Tuskegee, Alabama, and selected for the study about 400 who were found to be infected with the sexually transmitted disease syphilis. The participants in the study were not informed that they were infected with syphilis or told about the expected outcomes of the experiment. Lindsay hoped to inspire Black people and other minorities who may be skeptical about the vaccine. After receiving the first of two doses, she said, “It feels surreal. It is a huge sense of relief for me, and hope.”

The first doses of the Pfizer vaccine to be given to Americans were shipped on Sunday, December 13. The United States is not the first country to approve the vaccine. On December 8, Margaret Keenan of the United Kingdom became the first person in the world to receive the authorized vaccine. Canada has also approved the vaccine, administering its first dose the same day as the United States.

In many cases, administration of a COVID-19 vaccine will be voluntary. But, it will be a while until everybody who wants a vaccine can get one. In the United States, the first doses will be given to health care workers. Frontline workers (workers likely to encounter the disease) and people who are vulnerable to the virus, including the elderly and people with such risk factors as obesity or diabetes will be next. Some of these people may receive the vaccine by the end of 2020. But, most people will have to wait until the spring of 2021.

Most vaccines are administered into the body by injection. A vaccine contains substances that stimulate the body’s immune system to produce molecules called antibodies. The immune system uses antibodies to fight against germs that enter the body. Antibodies produced in response to a vaccine can protect a person who is exposed to the actual disease-causing organism. The process of protecting the body in this way is called immunization. Vaccines have been successful in fighting many other diseases, including chickenpox, meningitis, and yellow fever.

Pfizer and Moderna began clinical trials in July. During these trials, participants were given either the vaccine or a placebo. A placebo is a substance that contains no active ingredient. Comparing infection rates in subjects who received the placebo with those among subjects who got the vaccine can help determine if the vaccine is effective. In the Pfizer and Moderna clinical trials, half the participants were given a placebo of salt water, and half were given the vaccine. The researchers then waited to see who might get sick. The results were very promising—both vaccines were about 95 percent effective in preventing COVID-19. By contrast, commonly administered influenza vaccines (known as flu shots) are 40 percent to 60 percent effective.

In late November, the companies Pfizer and Moderna each applied for emergency approval from the FDA for their COVID-19 vaccines.  The two companies are among dozens of drugmakers that have worked tirelessly to develop a vaccine against the deadly virus.

Motorists stop to observe the Walbridge fire, part of the larger LNU Lightning Complex fire, from a vineyard in Healdsburg, California, on Aug. 20, 2020. A series of massive fires in northern and central California forced evacuations as flames quickly spread, darkening the skies and polluting the air.
Credit: © Josh Edelson, AFP/Getty Images

Wildfires have ravaged the U.S. state of California, killing at least 5 people and forcing thousands to evacuate (leave) their homes. Fueled by a heat wave and sparked by lightning strikes, the wildfires have set the state ablaze and covered the air in thick smoke.

Wildfire is the uncontrolled burning of large areas of vegetation. Wildfires may be ignited by human activities or by natural causes. Such natural causes include lightning, volcanic activity, or even intense sunlight. Wildfires occur on every continent except Antarctica. They are most common in the temperate forests and grasslands midway between the equator and the poles. They are less common in tropical and desert ecosystems.

These are far from California’s deadliest wildfires. Numerous major wildfires occurred in California in the early 2000′s. In 2003, wildfires in southern California destroyed thousands of homes and killed more than 20 people. In 2007, deadly wildfires forced the evacuation of about 500,000 people in San Diego County. In 2013, the so-called Rim Fire burned large areas of the Stanislaus National Forest near Yosemite National Park. Some of the largest wildfires in California history burned during the summer of 2018.

The unhealthy air quality caused by the wildfires is especially concerning, because of the pandemic (global outbreak) of the respiratory disease COVID-19. Smoke-polluted air can weaken lung function, reducing the body’s ability to fight infection.

The current round of fires was made worse by an intense heat wave baking the American Southwest. On August 16, temperatures in California’s Death Valley reached 130 °F (54.4 °C). If these measurements are confirmed, they would be the hottest surface air temperatures ever recorded on Earth.

Smoke rises above the devastation in Beirut, Lebanon, on Aug. 4, 2020. Two explosions, the second much bigger than the first, rocked the city’s port area, killing at least 100 and injuring thousands.
Credit: © Houssam Shbaro, Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

On August 4, two deadly explosions rocked Beirut, Lebanon. More than 100 people were killed, and thousands were injured. The blasts were compared in power to an earthquake, because people hundreds of miles or kilometers away felt the explosions.

No one knows exactly how the first blast occurred. It may have been caused by stored fireworks. The second explosion was likely caused by a highly explosive chemical called ammonium nitrate. There was a 2,750-ton (2,500-metric ton) stockpile of ammonium nitrate in a warehouse in the area, near the city’s port. The chemical is often used in fertilizer. Fertilizer is a substance that is added to soil to help plants grow.

Lebanon is a small country at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea and the western end of Asia. It has been a center of transportation and trade for over 100 years. Beirut is Lebanon’s capital and largest city. About half of the country’s people live in the Beirut area.

The blasts damaged many businesses and homes. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced (forced to leave their homes). The devastation and destruction reminded many residents of the country’s decades-long civil war. A civil war takes place between people of the same country. Political differences between groups of Lebanese Christians and Muslims erupted into civil war in the mid-1970′s. Other rival groups also engaged in fighting. The conflicts caused much death, destruction, and damage to the country’s economy. A peace plan ended most of the fighting in 1991.

The explosions occurred while the entire world was struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic (global outbreak of disease). Hospitals that were reserved for patients suffering from coronavirus shifted to treating people injured by the blasts. In the explosion zone and elsewhere, people continued to search for missing friends, family, and others.

April 15, 2020

Today, April 15, is an important day on the calendar, and it is known for some momentous events in history. To many people in the United States, April 15 brings to mind taxes, as it is generally the final day income taxes can be filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Two other April 15 events do not brighten the mood: the U.S. President Abraham Lincoln died on that day in 1865; and the ocean liner Titanic sank on April 15, 1912. But a number of other events, including the births of the artists Henry James and Leonardo da Vinci and Jackie Robinson’s breaking the racial barrier in Major League Baseball (MLB), make April 15 a not altogether gloomy day.

The U.S. President Abraham Lincoln died on April 15, 1865, after being shot by an assassin the night before. Credit: Library of Congress

On the evening of April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln attended a performance of the comedy Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. At 10:22 p.m., a shot rang through the crowded house. John Wilkes Booth, a Southern sympathizer and well-known actor, had shot the president in the head from the rear of the presidential box. Lincoln was carried unconscious to a boarding house across the street. The president died there at 7:22 a.m. on April 15.

The “unsinkable” ocean liner Titanic was believed to be the safest ship afloat. But on April 15, 1912, Titanic sank after striking an iceberg. Credit: © AP/Wide World

Just before midnight on April 14, 1912, the British ocean liner RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean. The disaster occurred on the ship’s maiden (first) voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City. The ship struck the iceberg at about 11:40 p.m. and sank bout two and a half hours later, on April 15. The huge ocean liner broke in half and sank into the icy water, killing more than 1,500 people.

On Feb. 3, 1913, the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States authorized Congress to levy a federal income tax. The amendment allows Congress to levy an income tax on individuals and businesses without dividing it equally among the states or basing it on the U.S. census. The deadline for paying taxes from the previous year was originally March 1, and then March 15. In 1954, to give people a little more time to deal with the often complicated burden, the tax deadline settled on April 15.

Jackie Robinson beame the first African American to play modern Major League Baseball when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. Credit: © MLB Photos/Getty Images

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first African American to play in the major leagues since the 1880’s. Robinson’s impact on segregation in sports went far beyond the Dodgers. After baseball desegregated, other professional sports quickly followed, and a number of previously segregated hotels and restaurants began to admit blacks.

Aside from Leonardo da Vinci (1452) and Henry James (1843), notable April 15 birthdays include the U.S. painter Charles Willson Peale (1741); the U.S. Blues singer Bessie Smith (1894); the first African American mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington (1922); the Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi (1978); the Canadian-American actor Seth Rogan (1982); and the British actress Emma Watson (1990).

April 8, 2020

Today, April 8, Behind the Headlines was originally scheduled to cover this year’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball championships in the United States. However, the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments were canceled in March because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The tournaments were not alone: nearly all sports leagues and sporting events have been suspended or canceled because of COVID-19, putting sports on hold in all corners of the globe. COVID-19 is a pneumonia-like disease caused by a coronavirus, a type of virus that also causes the common cold and other diseases of the upper respiratory system. To date, COVID-19 has killed more than 80,000 people among nearly 1.5 million confirmed cases.

Dodger Stadium sits empty in Los Angeles, California. Baseball stadiums, usually teeming with people at this time of year, are going unused throughout the world as leagues have been suspended or canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: John McCoy/Getty Images

All collegiate and high schools sports in the United States were suspended or canceled because of COVID-19 (the schools were then closed), and Little League Baseball, too, had to put off the start of its season. In professional sports, Major League Baseball, which had begun its annual spring training, canceled all exhibition games on March 12 and indefinitely delayed the start of the regular season. Minor League Baseball shut down, as did baseball leagues in Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and other countries. The National Basketball Association suspended its season on March 11, and basketball leagues in other countries were also shut down. The recently launched XFL football league suspended its first season on March 12, and the fledgling Basketball Africa League also lost its inaugural season, which had been scheduled to start on March 13.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo until 2021. Credit: Pakpoom Phummee/Shutterstock

Major League Soccer and the National Hockey League suspended their seasons in March, and other hockey and soccer leagues around the world were forced to do the same. Rugby and cricket leagues and tournaments were suspended, as were the upcoming Masters Tournament, PGA Championship, U.S. Open, and British Open golf competitions. In tennis, Wimbledon was canceled for the first time since World War II (1939-1945), and the French Open was postponed. The Kentucky Derby horse race and the Indianapolis 500 auto race were postponed, and the Monaco Gran Prix auto race was canceled. (All three races are usually run in May.) Marathons around the world have been canceled or postponed, and athletes of all types will have to wait for the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, which were postponed a year until July 2021.

This illustration of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) shows the spikes on the outer surface of the virus that appear as a corona, giving the virus its name. Credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of sports continued to be played without fans in attendance, but fears for the safety of athletes quickly led to the canceling of the competitions themselves. Suspended and postponed sports leagues and events have issued optimistic timelines about when they will resume or take place. All timelines, however, depend on the containment or continued spread of COVID-19.

The sports cancellations are part of social distancing, also known as physical distancing, an effort to slow or stop the spread of a contagious disease by limiting contact between people. Social distancing is most effective against illnesses that can be transmitted by coughing or sneezing, direct or indirect physical contact, or through the air. Typical social distancing measures call for the closing of such public places as sports arenas, schools, restaurants, museums, and many offices and stores. They may also call for people to maintain a distance of around 6 feet (2 meters) between them in public places.