Yearender 2020: Captain Tania Shergill becomes first Indian woman parade adjutant for Republic Day parade and other firsts this year

On January 26, 2020, Captain Tania Shergill became first Indian woman parade adjutant for the Republic Day parade. She led an all-man contingent during the ceremonial Republic Day parade at Rajpath, New Delhi. An officer with Army's Corps of Signals, she was the first woman parade adjutant for the Republic Day parade. A parade adjutant is responsible for the parade. Shergill is the first woman army officer to become parade adjutant for Republic Day. Commissioned in March, 2017, from Chennai's Officer Training Academy, Shergill is an electronics and communications graduate.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the first time paid his tributes to the fallen soldiers at the newly built National War Memorial (NWM) at the India Gate on Republic day. Newly-appointed Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and three service chiefs — Army chief General M M Naravane, Navy chief Admiral Karambir Singh and Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria also accompanied him. 

US President-elect Joe Biden became the first person in America's history to surpass 80 million votes in a US presidential election. 

Kamala Harris has made history as the first woman, the first Black American and the first Asian American Vice President of America. Harris, whose mother and father emigrated from India and Jamaica, competed against Biden and others for their party's 2020 nomination but dropped out of the race in December 2019. 

For the first time ever, a tri-service formation, comprising three ALH (Advanced light helicopters), took place on Republic Day. It was a Vic formation and the formation was devised during World War 1. Three or more aircraft fly in close formation with the leader at the apex and the rest flying to left and right. The entire arrangement looks like a V.

Apple Inc. became the first publicly traded U.S. company in history to be worth $2 trillion.

Parasite became the first non-English language film to win best picture in the 92-year history of the Academy Awards. Bong Joon Ho's masterfully devious class satire also won best director, best international film and best screenplay.

The UN Security Council on March 24 met for the first time in its history via videoconference due to the coronavirus crisis -- but diplomats said the meeting was not without technical difficulties. On March 31, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted four resolutions, voting for the first time remotely as diplomats and United Nations staff work from home due to the coronavirus outbreak in New York.

Greece elected its first-ever female president, Katerina Sakellaropoulou. The swearing-in ceremony for Sakellaropoulou, a former high court judge, took place in a nearly empty parliament as a preventative measure to try to stop the spread of the coronvirus.

Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna became the first two women to ever jointly win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Charpentier, who is French, and Doudna, an American, were awarded the prize for developing the CRISPR-cas9 genetic scissors.

Inventor and scientist Gitanjali Rao was named Time magazine's first-ever "Kid of the Year". Time Magazine in its cover of December 14, 2020 issue, featured a 15-year-old Colorado high school student and young scientist who has been named the magazine's first-ever "Kid of the Year." Gitanjali Rao has used artificial intelligence and created apps.

Margaret Keenan became the first person to receive a COVID-19 vaccine approved for the general public. The grandmother who was 90 when she got the shot, received it at University Hospital Coventry in the U.K. on December 8.