the year 2020

What is special about the year 2020? 2020 is like 1616, 1717, 1818, and 1919, because the first two digits match the second two digits. ... Being alive in 2020 is special because that is the only year you are likely to live through wherein the first two digits will match the second two digits. The next year that follows this pattern is 2121.Jan 20, 2020. (from the internet)

 what a year it has been so far. pandemic of covid-19 which caused businesses closures,school closures, no where to go and confine to the home. on top of that its an election year. 

 2020 also has broken the record of the most named storms to hit the USA. 10 named storms which includes tropical storms and hurricanes. breaking an old record made in 1916.

 only 2 months left of this year this has been a year we will want to forget.

 https://www.insider.com/shocking-things-that-have-happened-this-year-100-days-2020-4 has the complete list of what has happened so far.

if we even want to remember them.

1. Hong Kong protests
2. Australia declares a state of disaster amid large bushfires that have killed as many as 500 million animals.
3. A U.S. drone strike at Baghdad International Airport kills Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis
4. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announces that Turkish troops will be deployed to Libya on behalf of the United Nations-backed Government of National Accord.
5. Taal Volcano in Luzon erupts, leading to the evacuation of thousands of people
6. The impeachment trial of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, begins in the U.S. Senate.
7. The United Kingdom and Gibraltar formally withdraw from the European Union, beginning an 11-month transition period.
8. The World Health Organization (WHO) names the disease COVID-19.
9. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) plunges by 1,190.95 points, or 4.4%, to close at 25,766.64, its largest one-day point decline at the time. This follows several days of large falls, marking the worst week for the index since 2008, triggered by fears of the spreading COVID-19.
10. Italy places 16 million people in quarantine, more than a quarter of its population, in a bid to stop the spread of COVID-19.[32] A day later, the quarantine is expanded to cover the entire country, becoming the first country to apply this measure nationwide.
11. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) plunges more than 2,000 points, the largest fall in its history up to that point. Oil prices also plunge by as much as 30% in early trading, the biggest fall since 1991.
12. The World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.
13. A passenger train derails near Chenzhou, China, killing one person and leaving 127 injured.
14. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 1 million worldwide.
15. The Democratic Republic of the Congo reports the first case of Ebola since February.
16. U.S. President Donald Trump announces that the U.S. is suspending funding of the World Health Organization (WHO) pending an investigation of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and its relationship with China.
17. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it expects the world economy to shrink 3%, the worst contraction since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
18. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 2 million worldwide.
19. Oil prices reach a record low, with West Texas Intermediate falling into negative values.
20. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 4 million worldwide.
21. Nearly 1 million people are affected and at least 24 people have died in the flash floods that hit Beledweyne and Jowhar, Somalia
22. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announces the termination of all agreements, including security ones, with Israel and the United States in response to Israel’s plans to annex the Jordan Valley.
23. Cyclone Amphan makes landfall in eastern India and Bangladesh, killing over 100 people and forcing the evacuation of more than 4 million others. It causes over US$13 billion in damage, making it the costliest cyclone ever recorded in the North Indian Ocean
24. Flight PK8303, a Pakistan International Airlines passenger aircraft, crashes in a residential area near Karachi, in Pakistan, killing 97 of the 99 total people on board and injuring dozens on the ground.
25. Protests caused by the killing of George Floyd break out across hundreds of cities in the U.S. and around the world.
26. The World Health Organization reports six new cases of Ebola, and UNICEF reports five deaths
27. Russian President Vladimir Putin declares a state of emergency after 20,000 tons of oil leaked into the Ambarnaya River near the Siberian city of Norilsk within the Arctic Circle
28. A 7.5-magnitude earthquake strikes the coast of Oaxaca, Mexico, and kills at least four people. It is felt more than 640 kilometers (400 mi) away in Mexico City.
29. Russian voters back a constitutional amendment that, among other things, enables Vladimir Putin to seek two further six-year terms when his current term ends in 2024, potentially allowing him to remain in power until 2036.
30. China reports 141 dead or missing in floods since June; 28,000 homes have been damaged.
31. The Twitter accounts of prominent political figures, CEOs, and celebrities are hacked to promote a bitcoin scam.
32. Flooding of the Brahmaputra River kills 189 and leaves 4 million homeless in India and Nepal.
33. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 15 million worldwide.
34. Multiple explosions caused by unsafely stored ammonium nitrate kill over 135 people, injured thousands, and severely damage the port of Beirut, Lebanon. Damage is estimated at $10–15 billion, and at least 300,000 people are left homeless.
35. The worldwide death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 700,000.
36. Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape and sexual assault in New York.
37. NBA legend Kobe Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash
38. The 2020 Summer Olympics, which were supposed to take place in Tokyo, are postponed until 2021.
39. A Ukrainian flight crashes in Tehran, Iran, killing all 176 passengers on board.
40. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announce they are stepping down from their duties as senior royals in Buckingham Palace.

https://medium.com/@taraschaus/all-bad-and-shocking-things-happened-in-2020-list-affe9631506d

and how was your day?

composers

#A composer literally "one who puts together") is a musician who is an author of music in any form, including vocal music (for a singer or choir), instrumental music, electronic music, and music which combines multiple forms. A composer may create music in any music genre, including, for example, classical music, musical theatre, blues, folk music, jazz, and popular music. 

Composers often express their works in a written musical score using musical notation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Composer​s    I have of late getting to know classical composers from over the many centuries they have existed. we all know Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Debussy, Chopin, Brahms and a few others. 

 i been checking out other composers that are not known to me until here recently.

 names like Antonin Dvorak 1841-1904,bela Bartok 1881-1945, Richard Strauss 1864-1949,

Sergei prokofiev 1891-1953, Franz listz 1811-1886, Robert Schumann 1810-1865,  jean Sibelius 1865-1957,igor Stravinsky 1882-1971,  alexander  Scriabin 1872-1915. and so many others. I found a lot of theses composers did not have long lives and they still put out a lot of great music.

the composers from different countries and some of the oppression some of them had to go through

 you have to deeply respect theses composers the diseases and disabilities they had to suffer through. 

they didn't have the things we have today to make our lives easier.

 to hear their music being conducting and played today thanks to having their music preserved over the centuries for us today. 

 to hear great conductors today like Herbert von Karajan 1908-1989, Simon rattle, Claudio abbado 1933-2014,

Georg Solti 1912-1997 

Bernard haitink,  Daniel Barenboim to name a few. there has been several who has played theses different pieces from these composers over the years.

 Sarah chang has done great with her violin on several pieces from the likes of Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and Sibelius to name a few.

 Zoltan Kocsis who played piano on works from Bartok and Rachmaninoff. 

Vladimir Ashkenazy who has done solo piano works on Chopin and Rachmaninov. 

Stefan veselka played piano works of dvorak.

Valentina lisitsa who played piano works of Tchaikovsky and Scriabin. to name a few.

 the above names also did other works i just named the ones that were on top of my head. i still love other types of music this just something different i wanted to see how early music was done and enjoy the work they put into their works. this has been a wonderful journey listening to this. my journey has not ended it is just beginning.