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A Year In New Hampshire News: NHPR's Top Stories of 2020

It was a year that made us hold our breath, shake our heads, laugh and cry, and shout and pray.

The year of the Zoom call. The year of not taking things for granted.

A year that began with intense scrutiny of the 2020 New Hampshire presidential primary and then veered wildly to the coronavirus. The pandemic sucked the air out of the room - and out of many an office. It changed how we work, how we play, how we greet family, friends and neighbors.

The simplest things, like grocery shopping, became something of a masked undertaking.

Coronavirus coverage quickly emerged as a most-viewed story, or stories, in 2020. It dominated the headlines on NHPR.org starting in February. NHPR’s coronavirus blog had several million page views and counting, but New Hampshire’s news climate offered so many more issues to report.

Scroll down to view some of the most-read and most-engaged-with stories on NHPR.org this year. They are broken down by month, with some of the most-read COVID-19 stories removed from the lists in order to make room for other stories our audience loved - stories we want you to remember.

It wasn’t all bad news, of course - take, for example, Sam Evans-Brown's post, Why Do Hummingbirds Fight Each Other?

In 2020, NHPR also launched Document, a new narrative-driven reporting project; By Degrees, a climate change reporting project; a COVID & The Classroom series; Que Hay de Nuevo, New Hampshire?, a new Spanish language newscast; and Ask Civics 101, a 2020 series led by the Civics 101 Podcast.

Related: From Primary to Pandemic: The Year in NHPR Photos

Do you have a favorite that didn't make the list? Email us or share it on the NHPR Facebook page.

A Year in New Hampshire News

New Hampshire voters in January 2020
Credit Daniela Allee / NHPR
Joshua Lambert with his wife and mom at a candidate event in Claremont on Jan. 4, 2020.

JANUARY top stories

Bernie Sanders photo
Credit Sam Evans-Brown / NHPR
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders won the 2020 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary.

FEBRUARY top stories

Dr. Ben Chan photo
Credit Dan Tuohy / NHPR
Dr. Benjamin Chan, N.H. state epidemiologist, discusses COVID-19 community transmission during a March 2020 news conference.

MARCH top stories

UNH Wildcat statue with a mask
Credit Dan Tuohy / NHPR
In mid-April, a mask was applied to the UNH Wildcat statue in Durham to highlight CDC guidance.

APRIL top stories

Grocery store clerk with mask
Credit Annie Ropeik / NHPR
Grocery store clerks donned masks - as did shoppers - along with one-way aisles in stores.

MAY top stories

Black Lives Matter march in Portsmouth, N.H.
Credit Dan Tuohy / NHPR
Black Lives Matter march in Portsmouth, N.H., in June 2020.

JUNE top stories

Appreciation for essential workers.
Credit Annie Ropeik / NHPR
Sign in Durham, N.H., showing appreciation for essential workers and front-line safety and health care workers.

JULY top stories

President Trump
Credit Dan Tuohy / NHPR
/
NHPR
President Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Manchester, N.H. in August of 2020

AUGUST top stories

Local election official in Portsmouth
Credit Dan Tuohy / NHPR
A ward election official in Portsmouth, N.H., during the state primary in September.

SEPTEMBER top stories

New voters in Plymouth New Hampshire
Credit Sean Hurley / NHPR
First-time voters in Plymouth, N.H.

OCTOBER top stories

Voters in line in Stratham
Credit Todd Bookman / NHPR
Voters in Stratham line up, with masks and social distancing, to cast ballots in the 2020 presidential election.

NOVEMBER top stories

ICU nurse gets COVID-19 vaccine shot in Manchester
Credit Jordyn Haime / NHPR
Elliot ICU nurse Jennifer O'Neill was among the first in New Hampshire to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

DECEMBER top stories

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