2021 in Review: Day-by-Day Look at News That Reshaped Our World

A year ago, it was a viral social media phenomenon to praise the end of a year that introduced the COVID-19 pandemic, George Floyd riots, and more political division. Here's what was lost on this last trip around the sun under President Joe Biden: 2021 made everything worse.

COVID has killed more people under Biden – that with vaccines widely deployed – political division gave us the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol and more political bloviating sucking up Congress' resources, and "expondential" inflation threatens to make Americans broke again.

And, not to remain even more pessimistic, but 2022 hits the ear a lot like the sound of: 2020, too.

"It's very sad to see what's happening, but our country will survive it, and I really believe we're going to be greater than ever before," former President Donald Trump told host Mike Huckabee on Newsmax's "Christmas in America" special to close out 2021 with a message of optimism.

"We will be bigger and better than ever before. Good things will happen."

Here is a chronological walk through the year that was:

Jan. 5, 2021: Democrats win both Senate runoffs in Georgia, blocking Republicans from a majority and giving Democrats 48 seats with their two independents that caucus with them.

Jan. 6: As President Donald Trump's Stop the Steal rally is wrapping up, protesters breach the Capitol grounds, leading to a deadly storming of the Capitol that leaves unarmed Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt shot by an unnamed Capitol Police officer, who would later be revealed as Lt. Michael Byrd.

Jan. 7: Facebook shoots a major shot across the bow of the First Amendment, banning the sitting president of the United States from its social media platform.

Jan. 8: Twitter follows Facebook's lead and bans Trump.

Jan. 13: The House votes on the fastest-filed articles of impeachment in U.S. history, including 10 Republicans.

Jan. 20: Joe Biden in inaugurated as the oldest president in history to assume the Oval Office, and Kamala Harris becomes both the first Black and first woman vice president.

Jan. 23: Broadcast legend Larry King died at age 87.

Jan. 28: GameStop short squeeze guided by WallStreetBets temporarily makes dent in U.S. stock market hedgefunds.

Feb. 7: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers win the Super Bowl, giving Tom Brady his seventh ring.

Feb. 9: The second failed Senate impeachment trial of Trump begins.

Feb. 13: The Senate votes to acquit Trump, but seven Republicans did vote to remove a sitting president who was no longer a sitting president.

Feb. 16: A deep freeze in Texas knocks out power, exposing weaknesses of the state's electrical grid. Democrats blame global warming.

Feb. 17: Conservative radio icon Rush Limbaugh dies at 70.

Feb. 22: U.S. COVID-19 death toll surpasses 500,000.

March 11: President Joe Biden signs $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law, takes no questions.

March 16: Biden Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas calls climate change a crisis, but not the mass migration across the southern border.

March 17: A key domino falls on New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo as a special prosecutor is assigned to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct.

March 18: Biden sued by states for his blocking of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

March 20: The security fence around the U.S. Capitol is finally removed, drawing down the enhanced security measures are Jan. 6.

March 22: Warning alarms on inflation are sounded by economist Stephen Moore.

March 24: Biden blames Trump for the border crisis and shifts border czar responsibility to VP Harris.

March 28: Ever Given is unblocked from the Suez Canal, which caused backlogs on the trade route for six days, escalating global supply chain woes.

March 29: Trial of former Minnesota Police officer Derek Chauvin begins.

March 31: Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., alleges a Justice Department extortion scheme.

April 1: Biden calls for Major League Baseball to pull its All-Star Game out of Atlanta because the state passed election integrity laws, dropping the famed "Jim Crow on steroids" quip.

April 2: Baseball moves All-Star Game out of Atlanta.

April 4: Hunter Biden admits infamous 2020 October surprise laptop "absolutely" could be his.

April 11: Minneapolis police officer Kim Potter accidentally shots and kills Daunte Wright, 20, when mistaking her gun for a taser as he tried to flee a traffic stop.

April 14: Justice Department closes its investigation into Lt. Michael Byrd, keeping his identity sealed, in the investigation of Ashli Babbitt's shooting death on Jan. 6

April 20: Jury finds Chauvin guilty in the trial of George Floyd's death.

April 25: U.S. begins final withdrawal from Afghanistan.

April 28: FBI raids home and office of former Trump personal attorney and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and refuses to take Hunter Biden's laptop.

May 1: COVID-19 vaccines become available to all Americans.

May 11: Trump endorses GOP primary candidate Glenn Youngkin for Virginia governor.

May 12: Israel-Palestinian fighting escalates, alarming the State Department.

May 13: House Republicans remove Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., from her leadership position. Cheney makes call for a House Jan. 6 Select Committee.

May 19: Gov. Abbott signs Texas' heartbeat law, permitting individuals to sue abortion providers on abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected.

May 20: Reports reveal Chris Cuomo helped New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo craft his sexual harassment response.

May 21: VP Harris and first lady Jill Biden share a public embrace after reports bring to light Jill Biden said "Go F*** Yourself" on Harris' attacking then-candidate Joe Biden at a Democrat presidential primary debate.

May 23: Economist Stephen Moore warns of inflation "storm clouds forming."

May 31: Mothers accuse Black Lives Matter of profiting off their dead sons.

June 1: Chinese state media urges preparing for nuclear war with the U.S.

June 2: Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott launches effort to do "Biden's job at the border."

June 6: Trump foreshadows "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace eventual exit.

June 7: VP Harris visits Northern Triangle before the U.S. border, now telling migrants: "Do not come." It would be the last time she would speak directly with Guatemalan leadership.

June 12: Anti-government protests erupt in Cuba over COVID-19 lockdowns and an ensuing silencing by the government leads to Republicans to call for internet freedom in Cuba.

June 16: Biden meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time, where Republicans said Putin "tested what he can get away with."

June 19: Biden's "cherished" first dog Champ dies.

June 20: Economist Stephen Moore says the "Fed is behind the curve" on Biden inflation.

June 21: A watchdog blows the whistle on anonymous buyers deal with the White House for Hunter Biden's artwork.

June 22: Dr. Anthony Fauci declares delta variant greatest threat to eradicating COVID-19.

June 23: California Democrat Gov. Newsom announced to officially face a recall election.

June 24: A Surfside, Florida, condo collapses in the early morning hours, and a massive search and rescue operation begins for more than 100 missing.

June 25: The Biden Justice Department files a lawsuit against Georgia for passing election integrity laws.

June 26: A back and forth between Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Newsmax begins on her dealing with a crime wave.

June 28: A long-awaited government report on UFO studies panned as a dud.

June 30: Trump visits the U.S. border and the unfinished wall before VP Harris does.

July 1: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., adds Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., to the Jan. 6 Select Committee as a vice chair, rejecting her own party's calls to not participate in a partisan witch-hunt.

July 3: Trump returns to campaign-style rallies with an event in Sarasota, Florida.

July 4: On Independence Day, The New York Times claims the American flag is a divisive symbol.

July 4: Biden declares independence from COVID-19.

July 5: After U.S. military left in the dark of night, looters ransack Bagram Air Base, which would wind up being a regrettable and deadly move in the Afghanistan withdrawal process, experts say.

July 6: Taliban forces are reported to ramp up a surge to claim Afghanistan territory amid the U.S. withdrawal.

July 7: Haiti President Jovenel Moïse assassinated in his home, which would spark a Haitian migrant crisis at the U.S. southern border.

July 10: Trump's set to recap CPAC, telling the world: "You won't silence us."

July 11: Richard Branson became the first civilian aboard his own rocket ship to reach space.

July 12: Texas Democrats flee to Washington, D.C., to avoid Gov. Abbott's special session of the legislature and a sure Republican-led vote to pass election integrity measures.

July 13: 9% Black Denver hosts baseball's All-Star Game after it moved from 51% Black Atlanta because Biden rebuked Georgia election integrity laws as "Jim Crow 2.0."

July 17: Gov. Andrew Cuomo grilled by investigators for 11 hours.

July 22: Bob Dole comes out and says he's "still a Trumper."

July 23: The delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics begin.

July 27: The Jan. 6 Select Committee holds first public hearings. Republicans repeat calls to hold Pelosi accountable for failing to secure the Capitol.

Aug. 9: CNN's Chris Cuomo takes a week off for a "planned vacation" amid the scandal of advising his embattled brother.

Aug. 10: Gov. Cuomo resigns as New York governor effective at the end of the month.

Aug. 15: The Taliban seizes control of Kabul, Afghanistan, in just 10 days after U.S. military operations end and evacuation phase began. Biden was on vacation.

Aug. 18: Pelosi joins the Pentagon contention that leaving military equipment behind is what happens in an operations withdrawal.

Aug. 22: Trump delivers remark at an Alabama rally: I warned you of disastrous consequences of Biden.

Aug. 26: An ISIS-K suicide bombing outside the Kabul airport gates during a chaotic Biden administration evacuation in Afghanistan claims the lives of hundreds, including 13 U.S. service members.

Aug. 26: That night amid the stinging criticism of the Biden administration, Lt. Byrd goes public in an interview as the unnamed Capitol Police officer who shot and killed the unarmed Babbitt at the broken door of the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Aug. 27: Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller delivers his first public rebuke of Biden administration military leaders, which would lead to his incarceration and ultimate

Aug. 29: The U.S. strikes alleged terrorist targets in Afghanistan in retaliation for the suicide bombing days earlier.

Aug. 31: Biden's withdrawal evacuation of Afghanistan comes to a close and the last evacuation phase plane leaves the Kabul airport.

Sept. 5: Shipping logjams reach crisis stage amid the burgeoning supply chain crisis.

Sept. 8: In a continued purge of Trump administration appointments, Biden demands Kellyanne Conway, among others, to resign from an Air Force advisory board, sparking Conway to tell Biden: "I'm not resigning, but you should."

Sept. 9: Reeling from the Afghanistan withdrawal, surging COVID infections, and cratering poll numbers, Biden calls it a "pandemic of the unvaccinated" and blames Republican governors for keeping their states open and mandate-free.

Sept. 11: On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Trump tells NYPD officers they could end crime in New York City in one week if Democrats let them.

Sept. 13: The White House cuts Biden's feed during a briefing before he can take questions.

Sept. 16: Gabby Petito reported missing after boyfriend Brian Laundrie returns home alone to Florida from a cross-country trip in her van.

Sept. 17: The first indictment is handed down from special counsel John Durham's investigation, as Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann pleads not guilty to a charge of lying to the FBI.

Sept. 18: Laundrie goes missing, sparking a nationwide manhunt.

Sept. 20: The Biden administration sparks outrage over a fake news story Texas mounted Border Patrol agents where using horse reins to whip Haitian migrants.

Sept. 21: Petito's remains are found and positively identified.

Sept. 28: Lt. Col. Scheller breaks a gag order and enters the brig, pending a hearing.

Oct. 2: "Let's go Brandon!" is born as an NBC reporter mistakes a crowd chanting "F*** Joe Biden" for the phase that would become a proxy for anti-Biden sentiment in the U.S.

Oct. 4: Attorney General Merrick Garland releases a Justice Department memo seeking to mobilize the FBI and DOJ prosecutors to investigate and prosecution school board protests.

Oct. 8: An alleged Texas high school shooter was released on bail just days after a school shooting, facing three counts of deadly assault. Republican critics note Jan. 6 pretrial defendants, many still uncharged, remain incarcerated.

Oct. 9: Dr. Fauci predicts COVID-19 deaths will go down this winter.

Oct. 11: Las Vegas Raiders NFL coach Jon Gruden is forced to resign after embarrassing emails are leaked

Oct. 12: Coroner rules Petito's death to be by strangulation 3-4 weeks before she was reported missing.

Oct. 14: Lt. Col. Scheller pleads guilty to all charges of in speaking out publicly against the Afghanistan withdrawal and violating a subsequent gag order.

Oct. 15: A report surfaces Transportation Secretary Peter Buttigieg has been on paternity leave since mid-August and amid a massive supply chain crisis.

Oct. 17: Dr. Fauci says the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine should have been two doses.

Oct. 19: Reports surface the Biden administration is shipping border migrants in the dead of night around the U.S., including providing them with free travel and instruction packets.

Oct. 20: Remains of Laundrie found in Florida swamp.

Oct. 20: Trump starts a new media company and plans a new social network called Truth Social.

Oct. 21: House Democrats and nine Republicans vote to send a recommendation to the DOJ for contempt of Congress for his refusal to appear before the Jan. 6 Select Committee to talk about communications with then-president Trump, who has claimed executive privilege.

Oct. 22: The National School Boards Association apologizes for using the term "domestic terror threat" in a letter to Biden that sparked AG Garland's DOJ memo on local school board protests.

Oct. 23: Hunter Biden's ballyhooed art show garners modest interest.

Oct. 24: Fox News' Chris Wallace praises Jen Psaki as one of the best White House press secretaries ever.

Oct. 31: Intelligence picks up Russian troop movements at the Ukraine border.

Nov. 1: Trial of Kenosha self-defense shooter Kyle Rittenhouse begins.

Nov. 2: Baseball's Cleveland Indians officially complete a mascot change to Guardians in the latest cancel culture move.

Nov. 2: Newsmax becomes the first cable news network to declare Glenn Youngkin the winner in the Virginia gubernatorial race that rocked Washington, D.C., and flipped the governor's mansion to red.

Nov. 3: GOP senators lead and effort to block a discussed $450,000 settlement between the Biden DOJ and illegal migrant families who had been separated at the border after being warned to not come.

Nov. 4: OSHA announces on Biden's order a vaccine mandate policy on businesses with more than 100 employees nationwide.

Nov. 4: Florida GOP Gov. DeSantis continues his public sparring with Biden and keeps the "Let's go Brandon!" rally cry going.

Nov. 4: The Justice Department raids Project Veritas in an investigation of Ashley Biden's diary.

Nov. 5: Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, make a visit to the Jan. 6 "political prisoners," a visit that reveals alleged abuses of pretrial defendants.

Nov. 5: Astroworld Festival tragedy strikes as multiple die in a deadly stampede at a rap concert in Houston, Texas.

Nov. 12: Federal grand jury indicts Bannon for contempt of Congress.

Nov. 12: The Washington Post issues corrections on years-old Steele dossier reports.

Nov. 15: Biden signs the $1.9 infrastructure deal that had taken most of the year to pass the House and Senate.

Nov. 15: Rittenhouse's closing arguments conclude, sending the trial to jury.

Nov. 19: Rittenhouse acquitted on all charges, as a jury rules his shooting of three men, killing two, was done in self-defense.

Nov. 19: VP Harris briefly sits as temporary president as Biden has a minor medical procedure.

Nov. 21: Darrell Brooks speeds through a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, killing six and injuring at least 48, leading to multiple counts of murder.

Nov. 23: Lawyer says Laundrie shot himself in the head.

Nov. 23: Biden orders strategic oil reserves to be deployed to address rising inflation and supply issues.

Nov. 25: Biden tells Thanksgiving Day Parade TV audience "America is back."

Nov. 27: Fauci says he would not be surprised if the omicron COVID-19 variant is in the U.S. already.

Nov. 30: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell retires the Biden administration claim "inflation is transitory."

Nov. 30: CNN suspends host Chris Cuomo indefinitely over alleged new allegations.

Dec. 1: Trump rejects news spinning a false positive into allegations he took an active COVID-19 case into the first, and only, debate with Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign.

Dec. 3: The omicron variant has been found in at least 10 states.

Dec. 4: Bob Dole dies in his sleep at 98.

Dec. 5: CNN fires Chris Cuomo.

Dec. 7: Chris Cuomo forced off satellite radio, too.

Dec. 9: Jury finds actor Jussie Smollett guilty of racial attack hoax.

Dec. 10: Updated Congressional Budget Office score projects the Build Back Better Act cost to be far greater than roughly $1.7 trillion billed and would add $3 trillion to the national debt if the included social programs were to remain permanent.

Dec. 11: Deadline tornadoes ripped through Kentucky and the midwest, leaving more than 75 dead and reducing their paths to rubble.

Dec. 13: In a hearing to secure a Jan. 6 panel vote on recommending Mark Meadows for contempt of Congress, Rep. Cheney reads personal text messages from Donald Trump Jr. urging the White House chief of staff to get the president to make an Oval Office address to condemn the storming of the Capitol.

Dec. 14: Billionaire Elon Musk mocks Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as a "Karen" after she suggested he does not pay his fair share in taxes. Musk would later note he will pay an estimated $11 billion in taxes this year, the most in the U.S.

Dec. 15: Congress votes to raise the debt limit to $31.4 trillion, a move Trump blamed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for "folding" his cards on.

Dec. 16: The Supreme Court finishes hearing the Texas heartbeat law case, but kicks it back to the lower courts.

Dec. 17: After years of praising the Senate parliamentarian for being nonpartisan, Biden and Democrats lament the ruling immigration amnesty cannot be included in a budget reconciliation bill.

Dec. 19: Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., official sinks 2021 White House hopes to pass Build Back Better, refusing to give into a pressure campaign to join Democrats on the vote.

Dec. 19: Fauci now predicts omicron will cause a record number of cases and deaths in the U.S.

Dec. 20: Scoffing off boos, Trump comes out to say he has received his booster shot, warning the unvaccinated to protect themselves against COVID-19.

Dec. 22: Jury deliberating on the allegations against Ghislaine Maxwell being involved in the late Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse takes a recess for the Christmas weekend.

Dec. 23: Jury finds Kim Potter guilty of manslaughter of Daunte Wright.

Dec. 24: Lt. Col. Scheller officially discharged from duty.