GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Unprecedented: A word heard so often in 2020 that it became a parody of itself.

But it was true. The year was intense, surreal and mind-numbingly tragic, defined by a pandemic that killed hundreds of thousands of people across the country and more than 12,000 in Michigan alone, a national reckoning with racism that drew huge crowds of protesters and sometimes erupted into riots, and a divisive presidential election that just wouldn’t end.

West Michigan often found itself at the center of it all.

Above, News 8 anchor Brian Sterling reports on what we’ll remember when we look back at 2020.

Below, see our Dec. 28, 2020, special looking back at the year that aired on the 7 on 8.