"For most people in the US, it was March 11, 2020," Buzzfeed News says in introducing its oral history of one year ago today. "By that night, COVID-19 had transformed from a blurry threat to a divorce from normal life. Schools and entertainment began to close. Then-president Donald Trump addressed the nation, announcing a suspension of travel from Europe. The National Basketball Association halted its season. Tom Hanks got it. So many forces of history years in the making converged on March 11 and were all subsumed by something few thought possible just weeks earlier. Suddenly there was no escape. The sentencing of Harvey Weinstein and the last moments of Bernie Sanders' failing campaign against Joe Biden — huge milestones for the #MeToo movement and American politics — were abruptly overtaken. Even the experts at the World Health Organization would agree March 11 was a turning point — that was the date they officially declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic."
TOPICS: Tom Hanks, Coronavirus, NBA, Trump Presidency