2020 in Belgium

Incumbents

• Monarch: Philippe
• Prime Minister: Sophie Wilmès

  Events

• 1 January — Two Belgian soldiers serving with UN forces in Mali injured by an improvised explosive device.
• 19 January – First international sleeper train service to leave Belgium since 2003 launched.
• 4 February – First confirmed case in the 2020 coronavirus outbreak in Belgium, carried by a Belgian repatriated from China three days previously.
• 23 February – Under international media scrutiny, the Carnival of Aalst features groups costumed as caricatures of Jews, with participants insisting that their intent was satirical rather than anti-semitic.
• 4 March – Archaeological discovery of a Roman ironworks in Ninove publicised: the only such find so far in Belgium.
• 17 March – Prime Minister broadcasts stricter social distancing measures in response to the 2020 coronavirus outbreak in Belgium, with non-essential travel prohibited, non-essential shops to close, gatherings banned, and penalties to force companies and individuals to abide by the rules coming into effect at noon the following day.
• 7 June – About 10,000 people demonstrate in Brussels in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and against all forms of police brutality and racial discrimination.
• 30 July – Public prosecutors in Limburg conclude the judicial investigation into Belgium's first recorded death by hazing, recommending charges of negligent homicide, degrading treatment, and premeditated administration of dangerous substances against 18 former members of dissolved student fraternity Reuzegom.

  Births

Deaths

• 3 January – Gérard de Sélys, journalist
• 6 January – Michel Didisheim, aristocrat and royal secretary
• 9 January – Marc Morgan, singer-songwriter
• 19 January – Leon van de Velde, cartoonist
• 27 January – Bernard de Give, Trappist monk

• 3 February – Jacques Delelienne, Olympic athlete
• 9 February – Délizia, singer
• 11 February – Jean-Pierre Gallet, journalist

• 14 March – René Follet, illustrator, comics writer and artist
• 17 March
• * Patrick Nothomb, diplomat
• * Johny Voners, actor
• 31 March – Valeer Peirsman, sculptor

• 18 June – Georges Octors, conductor
• 29 June – Paula Marckx, pilot

• 24 July – Jan Verroken, politician

  Links