US History/Biden

Early Presidency
On January 20th, 2021 Joseph Biden was sworn in as President of the United States of America. President Biden inherited a nation in crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic still raged on, where over 400,000 American lives had already been lost before he took office. President Biden also inherited an economy that had lost over 3 million jobs since President Trump had taken office in 2017.

COVID-19 Response
As the COVID-19 pandemic continued, so did hate speech and attacks on Asian Americans,  and leading the White House to issue a memorandum condemning such acts on January 26th, 2021. The vaccine rollout that began under the Trump administration continued into 2021. The Delta strain created a surge of infections in Summer of 2021. By May 17, 2022 the American death toll of the COVID-19 pandemic had reached one million lives.

Domestic


The Biden Administration saw the first African American to serve as Defense Secretary.

On February 12th, 2021, Biden halted further construction of the southern border wall.

Following the second impeachment of President Trump by the House on January 13th, 2021, the Senate continued the trial on February 9th, 2021. Despite a bipartisan 57-43 vote in favor of convicting former President Trump, as a 2/3 majority was not reached Trump was acquitted for a second time by the Senate on February 13th, 2021.

A winter storm created an emergency in Texas in February 2021, as infrastructure buckled under the storm.

On June 17th, 2021 legislation was signed which made Juneteenth a federal holiday.

On June 24th, 2022 the Supreme Court overturned their prior decision on Roe v. Wade when deciding Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. President Biden condemned the decision, and two weeks after the ruling issued an executive order to partially restore limited abortion access.

Economy
In early 2022 gas prices reached very high levels due to global supply issues with crude oil. A number of measures were employed to control the price of gas, leading to a slow decline in gas prices. Even so, the high oil prices increased the costs of many items. This was made worse, as a combination of general reduced supply and increased demand for consumer goods over the pandemic caused inflation to rise sharply. In 2022 the Inflation Reduction Act was passed in order to not only to save money, but also to fight climate change. However there was criticism that the bill did not do enough.

In August of 2022, it was announced that holders of federal student loans would have $10,000 to $20,000 dollars of their debt forgiven, and that the student loan pause would end at the conclusion of the year.

Withdraw from Afghanistan
Honoring a previous commitment made by the Trump administration to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, America began to withdraw Troops from the country, leading the Taliban to quickly overrun much of Afghanistan outside of Kabul in Summer of 2021. This resulted in an evacuation of Kabul. , which ended on August 30th, 2021 with over 122,000 evacuees, many dead, and many Afgan allies left behind.

Ukraine
On February 24th, 2022 a war began between Ukraine and Russia.

In February 2023 President Biden visited Kyiv.

Balloon Incident
In February 2023 an unusual balloon was sighted traveling over the continental United States, and was later shot down off the coast of South Carolina. Some of the debris of the Balloon were recovered for inspection.

Technology and Science
2021 saw the first Science advisor to be appointed to the cabinet level, which was in addition to a number of appointments of notable scientists to leadership positions.

On February 18th, 2021 the Perseverance rover successfully landed on Mars.