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These were CNN’s top 100 digital stories of 2020

You know it’s been a remarkable year when a devastating global pandemic isn’t the only major story capturing people’s attention.

In a look at CNN’s most-read digital stories of 2020, November’s historic US presidential election looms large. But the intensity of the year is reflected in the wide range of stories that captured the world’s interest.

From the very start of 2020, users flocked to CNN for news on the airstrikes in Iraq, the impeachment and Kobe Bryant’s tragic death.

March and April saw record global interest in the coronavirus, with people all over the planet turning to CNN for information. Throughout the year, readers wanted to know the basics: How many people were infected, when their stimulus checks were going to arrive, and what they could do to stay safe.

During the tense days following the election, people were glued to vote counts and projections. They experimented with electoral maps. They refreshed and reloaded as the latest results crept in.

Joining these overarching narratives are stories of the racial unrest that swept across the world over the summer, and the fallout from the explosion that rocked Lebanon’s capital city of Beirut.

In between it all, we said goodbye to beloved stars and mourned each new and terrible coronavirus milestone.

Looking back, the story coming in at #100 on this list, published in March, is a glimpse into an almost alien past: “Here’s what we know about the 100 people who’ve died in the US from coronavirus.”

Months later, as this dark year draws to a close, more than 100 people now die of Covid-19 in the US in a single hour. Across the globe, more than 1.7 million people have lost their lives; 317,000 and counting in the US alone.

The world we knew at the beginning of 2020 is gone.

Hopefully, in 2021, the stories we tell will be of a better one.

1. Live story: Election 2020 presidential results

2. Live story: 2020 presidential election eve

3. Live story: The morning after the presidential elections 2020

4. Live story: Where the race to 270 electoral votes stand

5. Live story: Joe Biden is elected president

6. Interactive: The road to 270

7. Interactive: Tracking Covid-19 cases in the US

8. US monitoring intelligence that North Korean leader is in grave danger after surgery

9. The 2020 presidential election polls

10. Live story: Kobe Bryant dies at 41

11. Live story: Beirut explosion rocks Lebanon’s capital city

12. Pentagon officially releases UFO videos

13. Live story: George Floyd protests spread nationwide

14. Jared Kushner, Melania Trump advise Trump to accept election loss

15. Live story: Iran attacks bases housing US troops

16. Robert Trump, the younger brother of President Trump, dies at 71

17. President Donald Trump and the First Lady test positive for Covid-19

18. ‘Glee’ actress Naya Rivera’s body is found

19. White woman who called police on a Black man bird-watching has been fired

20. When will you get your stimulus payment? Here’s how to check

21. Senate stimulus deal includes individual checks — but don’t expect the money right away

22. Infected people without symptoms might be driving the spread of coronavirus more than we realized

23. Stories from Anderson Cooper’s Full Circle

24. Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith confirm her involvement with August Alsina

25. Trump’s photo op raises new questions about how seriously he takes the virus

26. Podcast: Coronavirus – Fact vs. Fiction

27. Live story: Trump’s Covid diagnosis

28. When will you get your stimulus cash, and how?

29. Trump continues to break the polling

30. A reporter’s reaction when a bison herd approaches has the internet in stitches

31. Lebanon explosion: Thousands injured across capital Beirut

32. Why does Russia, population 146 million, have fewer coronavirus cases than Luxembourg?

33. Is it allergies, the flu or the coronavirus? How to tell the difference

34. Interactive: This is where all 50 states stand on reopening

35. Live story: March 22 coronavirus news

36. What this coronavirus survivor learned when she was sick

37. CNN crew released from police custody after they were arrested live on air in Minneapolis

38. Senate approves historic $2 trillion stimulus deal amid growing coronavirus fears

39. Live story: The 2020 Iowa caucuses

40. Live story: May 30 George Floyd protests

41. ‘Black Panther’ star Chadwick Boseman dies at 43

42. Black light experiment shows how quickly a virus like Covid-19 can spread at a restaurant

43. From pandering to Putin to abusing allies and ignoring his own advisers, Trump’s phone calls alarm US officials

44. Live story: March 25 coronavirus news

45. Researchers created a test to determine which masks are the least effective

46. Melania Trump’s messaging frustrating the West Wing, source says

47. Live story: March 21 coronavirus news

48. Live story: October 4 Trump Covid-19 news

49. These states have implemented stay-at-home orders. Here’s what that means for you

50. Cady Groves, pop and country singer, dead at 30

51. Trump taken to Walter Reed medical center and will be hospitalized ‘for the next few days’

52. Biden uses ‘inshallah’ in response to Trump during debate, lighting up Twitter

53. Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, among 9 killed in a helicopter crash in California

54. CNN anchor Chris Cuomo diagnosed with coronavirus; he will continue working from home

55. Worried about coronavirus? If your loved one is over 60, read this

56. Live story: March 20 coronavirus news

57. White House sows confusion about Trump’s condition as source tells reporters next 48 hours will be critical

58. Wuhan shows the world that the end of lockdown is just the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis

59. Live story: October 3 Trump Covid-19 news

60. The number of US coronavirus cases has topped 13,000 as testing becomes more available

61. NTSB details the final moments of the helicopter before it crashed, killing Kobe Bryant and 8 others

62. Here’s a list of disinfectants you can use against coronavirus

63. Jared and Ivanka are poised to return to a Manhattan social scene that no longer welcomes them

64. Attorney who was found dead named as primary suspect in fatal shooting at federal judge’s home

65. ‘Glee’ actress Naya Rivera is presumed dead after disappearing at a lake in California

66. Live story: May 31 George Floyd protests

67. Live story: Super Tuesday 2020

68. Experts say it may be time for grocery stores to ban customers from coming inside because of Covid-19

69. Chinese authorities confirm case of bubonic plague in Inner Mongolia

70. The psychology behind why toilet paper, of all things, is the latest coronavirus panic buy

71. All four former officers involved in George Floyd’s killing now face charges

72. Sioux tribe rejects South Dakota governor request to remove Covid-19 checkpoints

73. 12-year-old girl with coronavirus is on a ventilator and fighting for her life

74. 750 million genetically engineered mosquitoes approved for release in Florida Keys

75. Live story: March 26 coronavirus news

76. Biden widens lead over Trump in critical Pennsylvania

77. Trump says ‘Iran appears to be standing down’ following its retaliatory attacks against Iraqi bases housing US troops

78. A Florida man dies days after hundreds of people exposed to coronavirus walked around the world’s busiest airport

79. Live story: April 5 coronavirus news

80. The world’s new Covid-19 epicenter could be the worst yet

81. Her husband died. Then his family shaved her head and made her strip beside his grave

82. Corona beer stops production

83. She’s been falsely accused of starting the pandemic. Her life has been turned upside down

84. Siya Kakkar, teenage TikTok star, has died, her manager confirms

85. Live story: March 12 coronavirus news

86. This city disbanded its police department 7 years ago. Here’s what happened next

87. Trump abruptly ends ’60 Minutes’ interview before planned taping of joint appearance with Pence

88. Trump walks out of news conference after reporter asks him about Veterans Choice lie he’s told more than 150 times

89. Live story: Crowds swarm Tehran to mourn slain Iran military leader Soleimani

90. Trump has told people he has no plans to concede even if his path to victory is blocked

91. Kelly Preston, actress and wife of John Travolta, has died following a two-year battle with breast cancer

92. 5 reasons you may not have gotten your stimulus money yet

93. Live story: March 8 coronavirus news

94. Only two US states are reporting a decline in new coronavirus cases

95. Hiker missing for two weeks found in Zion National Park, family says

96. Here’s who’s still waiting for stimulus money

97. Trump signs executive order targeting social media companies

98. Secretly recorded tapes show Melania Trump’s frustration at criticism for family separation policy and her bashing of Christmas decorations

99. Live story: March 27 coronavirus news

100. Here’s what we know about the 100 people who’ve died in the US from coronavirus

Article Topic Follows: National-World

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