80 Fun Facts About 2024

Which party won the July 2024 UK general election in a landslide?

Labour under Keir Starmer took 411 seats, a 172-seat majority and its best result since 2001; the Conservatives fell to 121 seats, their worst ever.

Who was Donald Trump's running mate on the winning ticket in the November 2024 US presidential election?

JD Vance, the 40-year-old senator from Ohio, was Trump's running mate; the ticket defeated Kamala Harris and Minnesota governor Tim Walz.

Near which Pennsylvania town did Donald Trump survive an assassination attempt on July 13, 2024?

Trump was grazed by a bullet at a rally at the Butler Farm Show grounds in Butler, Pennsylvania; the gunman, Thomas Crooks, was killed by a Secret Service sniper, and spectator Corey Comperatore died.

On how many felony counts was Donald Trump convicted in New York on May 30, 2024?

A Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, the first criminal conviction of a former US president.

Which country elected Claudia Sheinbaum as its first woman president in 2024?

Mexico's Claudia Sheinbaum is also the first person of Jewish heritage to hold the office, taking over from her ally Andrés Manuel López Obrador in October.

Which prime minister won a third consecutive term in June 2024 but had to lead a coalition for the first time?

Narendra Modi's BJP won 240 seats, short of the 272 needed, so his third term rests on allies such as the Telugu Desam Party and Janata Dal (United).

Which country's president, Bashar al-Assad, fled to Moscow as his regime fell in December 2024?

Syria's Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow on 8 December 2024 as rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham entered Damascus after an offensive of under two weeks, ending 53 years of Assad family rule.

What did South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol declare on TV on 3 December 2024, triggering impeachment proceedings?

Yoon declared martial law late on 3 December 2024, accusing the opposition of anti-state activity; the National Assembly voted it down within hours, and he was impeached on 14 December.

The president of which country, Ebrahim Raisi, died in a helicopter crash on 19 May 2024?

Iran's Bell 212 came down in fog in East Azerbaijan province after Raisi had opened a dam with Azerbaijan's president that morning.

Which country formally became NATO's 32nd member on 7 March 2024?

Sweden deposited its instrument of accession in Washington on 7 March 2024, becoming the 32nd ally; Hungary's parliament had been the last to ratify, on 26 February. The Swedish flag was raised at NATO headquarters on 11 March.

What celestial event swept across North America on April 8, 2024?

The total solar eclipse of 8 April 2024 traced a path of totality from Mexico through Texas and the Midwest into Atlantic Canada, with up to 4 minutes 28 seconds of darkness.

In which US city did the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse on March 26, 2024, after the ship Dali struck it?

The Key Bridge carried Baltimore's I-695 beltway over the Patapsco River; the Singapore-flagged container ship Dali lost power and hit a pier, and six road workers were killed.

A faulty update from which cybersecurity company crashed 8.5 million Windows computers on 19 July 2024?

CrowdStrike's faulty Falcon Sensor update took down airlines, hospitals and broadcasters in what has been called the largest outage in IT history.

Which September 2024 Big Bend hurricane became the deadliest to hit the US mainland since Katrina?

Hurricane Helene came ashore near Perry, Florida on 26 September 2024 as a Category 4 with 140 mph winds, then caused catastrophic flooding in the Carolinas; its death toll passed 200.

Which October storm, 2024's strongest cyclone worldwide at 180 mph, hit Florida's west coast?

Hurricane Milton intensified from tropical storm to Category 5 in about a day, peaking at 180 mph, and made landfall at Siesta Key near Sarasota on 9 October 2024 as a Category 3.

A magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula on New Year's Day 2024. In which country?

It was the strongest quake to hit the peninsula since records began in 1885, and came at the end of a years-long swarm.

Which Paris cathedral formally reopened in December 2024, five years after a fire gutted its roof?

Notre-Dame reopened on 7-8 December 2024 after a restoration costing about 700 million euros; the spire was rebuilt to Viollet-le-Duc's design, and the Crown of Thorns relic returned on 13 December.

Which organisation of atomic-bomb survivors received the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize?

Nihon Hidankyo, the confederation of hibakusha from Hiroshima and Nagasaki founded in 1956, was honoured for testimony showing that nuclear weapons must never be used again.

Which South Korean novelist became the first Asian woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 2024?

Han Kang was the first Asian woman and the first South Korean to win; her novel The Vegetarian had won the International Booker Prize in 2016, the first Korean-language novel to do so.

Hopfield and Hinton won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for work in which field?

John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton won for foundational discoveries enabling machine learning with artificial neural networks: the Hopfield network (1982) and the Boltzmann machine.

Hassabis and Jumper won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for using AI to predict the structure of what?

Their AlphaFold system at DeepMind solved a 50-year-old problem in biology; David Baker shared the prize for protein design.

Which Russian opposition leader died on 16 February 2024 in an Arctic penal colony?

Alexei Navalny, 47, died at the IK-3 'Polar Wolf' colony in Kharp, Yamalo-Nenets, to which he had been moved in December 2023; Boris Nemtsov had been shot dead in Moscow in 2015.

Which former US president died on December 29, 2024, having become the first to reach the age of 100?

Jimmy Carter died at home in Plains, Georgia, aged 100, the first US president to reach the century; he had turned 100 on 1 October 2024 and voted in the November election.

Which former One Direction singer died after a balcony fall in Buenos Aires in October 2024?

Liam Payne, 31, died on 16 October 2024 after falling from a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires; his single Teardrops was released posthumously the following month.

Which producer of Michael Jackson's Thriller died on November 3, 2024, aged 91?

Quincy Jones produced Off the Wall, Thriller (1982) and Bad for Michael Jackson and won 28 Grammys; he had studied composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger in 1957.

Which creator of Dragon Ball died on March 1, 2024, aged 68?

Akira Toriyama, who launched Dragon Ball in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1984, died of an acute subdural hematoma; he also designed the characters for the Dragon Quest games and Chrono Trigger.

Which Dame, Downton's Dowager Countess and Hogwarts' Professor McGonagall, died on 27 September 2024?

Maggie Smith died aged 89; she had won Oscars for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and California Suite (1978) long before Downton Abbey and Harry Potter.

Which actor, the voice of Darth Vader and Mufasa, died on September 9, 2024?

James Earl Jones, 93, voiced Darth Vader from 1977 and Mufasa in The Lion King (1994); he won Tony Awards for The Great White Hope and Fences.

Which country topped the Paris 2024 Olympic medal table for a fourth straight Summer Games, with 40 golds?

The United States topped the table with 40 golds and 126 medals in all; China matched the 40 golds but won 91 medals overall.

Which French swimmer won four individual golds in Paris, a first for France at a single Games?

Leon Marchand won the 400 m and 200 m individual medley, 200 m butterfly and 200 m breaststroke; his fourth gold, in the 200 m medley, came in an Olympic record 1:54.06.

Which pole vaulter cleared a world-record 6.25 m to win gold at Paris 2024?

Armand Duplantis first set an Olympic record of 6.10 m and then cleared a world-record 6.25 m on his third attempt, the ninth world record of his career.

Who won the Paris 2024 men's 100 m by five thousandths of a second over Jamaica's Kishane Thompson?

His 9.784 was a personal best; both men were given 9.79 on the scoreboard before the photo finish was read.

Which Dutch runner won the Paris 2024 women's marathon after 5,000 m and 10,000 m bronzes the same week?

Sifan Hassan won the marathon in an Olympic record 2:22:55 after bronzes in the 5,000 m and 10,000 m in Paris; with her Tokyo 2020 5,000 m and 10,000 m titles she holds Olympic gold in all three events.

Boxer Cindy Ngamba won a bronze in Paris that was the first-ever medal for which delegation?

Cindy Ngamba's bronze in the women's 75 kg was the first Olympic medal for the Refugee Olympic Team, which debuted at Rio 2016; born in Cameroon, she trains in Britain but lacked the citizenship to compete for it.

Who sang 'Hymne a l'amour' from the Eiffel Tower to close the Paris 2024 opening ceremony?

Celine Dion sang Edith Piaf's 'Hymne a l'amour' from the first level of the Eiffel Tower, her first public performance since revealing her stiff-person syndrome diagnosis in December 2022.

Which nation won Euro 2024 in Germany, beating England 2-1 in the final for a record fourth title?

Spain beat England 2-1 in Berlin with Mikel Oyarzabal's 86th-minute winner for a record fourth European title; they had also knocked out hosts Germany in the quarter-finals.

Which 16-year-old became the youngest player ever to score at a European Championship in 2024?

Lamine Yamal turned 17 the day before the final, was named the tournament's Young Player, and Spain won a fourth title.

Which team won a record 16th Copa America in July 2024, beating Colombia 1-0 after extra time?

Argentina won a record 16th Copa America with Lautaro Martinez's extra-time goal against Colombia at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, where kick-off was delayed more than an hour by a crush of ticketless fans.

Which team lost Super Bowl LVIII to the Chiefs 25-22 in only the second Super Bowl overtime?

The San Francisco 49ers led 10-0 before losing 25-22 to the Chiefs on Mecole Hardman's touchdown catch in overtime, a rematch of Super Bowl LIV four years earlier.

Which team won its first Stanley Cup in 2024, beating Edmonton in seven after nearly blowing a 3-0 lead?

The Florida Panthers won Game 7 2-1 on 24 June 2024 for their first Stanley Cup, the first Final since 1945 in which a team forced a seventh game from 3-0 down; Connor McDavid won the Conn Smythe Trophy.

Who became the first MLB player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in one season, in 2024?

Shohei Ohtani finished 2024 with 54 homers and 59 steals for the Dodgers, the first 50-50 season; he did not pitch all year while recovering from elbow surgery and was the unanimous NL MVP.

India won the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup unbeaten. Which team did they beat by seven runs in the final?

It was the first time any side had gone through a T20 World Cup without losing a match.

Who beat Novak Djokovic in straight sets to retain the 2024 Wimbledon men's title?

Carlos Alcaraz beat Djokovic 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(4) to retain the title, a month after winning the French Open; it was his fourth major title at the age of 21.

Which Italian won his first two Grand Slam titles in 2024, at the Australian Open and the US Open?

Jannik Sinner was the first man to win his first two majors in the same year since Guillermo Vilas in 1977.

Which club won a record 15th Champions League in 2024, beating Dortmund 2-0 at Wembley?

Real Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund 2-0 at Wembley with goals from Dani Carvajal and Vinicius Junior, a sixth European title in eleven seasons and a record 15th overall.

Which club became the first to go through an entire Bundesliga season unbeaten, in 2023-24?

Bayer Leverkusen, under Xabi Alonso, went 28 wins and six draws for a first Bundesliga title, ending Bayern Munich's run of eleven straight; their only defeat all season came in the Europa League final.

Which driver clinched his fourth consecutive Formula One world title at the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix?

Max Verstappen finished fifth in Las Vegas to clinch a fourth straight title; he had won seven of the first ten races, then only two of the remaining 14 as McLaren and Ferrari caught up.

Which 18-year-old beat Ding Liren in 2024 to become the youngest undisputed world chess champion?

Gukesh Dommaraju, 18, won the 14-game match in Singapore 7.5-6.5 after Ding Liren blundered in the final game; he had become a grandmaster at 12 years 7 months.

Which team drafted Caitlin Clark first overall in the 2024 WNBA draft?

The Indiana Fever took Caitlin Clark first overall; she had left Iowa as NCAA Division I's all-time leading scorer and was named WNBA Rookie of the Year.

Which cyclist did the first Giro-Tour double since 1998 in 2024, then added the world title?

Tadej Pogacar won six stages at both the Giro and the Tour, the first double since Marco Pantani in 1998, then took the world road title in Zurich, the third rider after Merckx and Roche to complete the Triple Crown.

Which spacecraft's eight-day 2024 test left Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams stuck on the ISS for nine months?

Boeing Starliner's thruster problems meant they finally came home in March 2025 on a SpaceX Crew-9 capsule that had launched with two empty seats.

NASA's largest interplanetary spacecraft, a 'clipper' launched in October 2024, is headed for which moon of Jupiter?

Europa Clipper rode a Falcon Heavy and is due to enter Jupiter orbit in 2030 and begin flybys of the icy moon in 2031.

Which country's Chang'e 6 mission returned the first samples from the Moon's far side in June 2024?

China's Chang'e 6 brought back 1,935 grams from the South Pole-Aitken basin on 25 June 2024; every previous lunar sample, from Apollo to Chang'e 5, had come from the near side.

What did the crew of the Polaris Dawn mission accomplish in September 2024?

Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis leaned out of the Crew Dragon hatch on 12 September 2024 in the first commercial spacewalk; all four crew were exposed to vacuum at once, a record, and the capsule had reached 1,400 km altitude.

What did SpaceX's launch tower do with the returning Starship booster on the fifth flight test in October 2024?

Caught it with two mechanical arms, nicknamed chopsticks, on the tower called Mechazilla after the booster slid sideways into position.

Which Intuitive Machines lander made the first commercial soft Moon landing in February 2024?

Odysseus, Intuitive Machines' IM-1 lander, touched down near the lunar south pole on 22 February 2024, the first US Moon landing since Apollo 17, but tipped onto its side and shut down for good a week later.

Which hurricane became the earliest Category 5 Atlantic storm on record in early July 2024?

Beryl reached Category 5 on 2 July 2024, the earliest on record, after devastating Carriacou and Union Island; it went on to hit Texas near Matagorda as a Category 1.

Which disease did the WHO declare a public health emergency of international concern on 14 August 2024?

The WHO declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern over the clade Ib outbreak centred on the Democratic Republic of the Congo; the Africa CDC had declared its own continental emergency the day before, on 13 August.

Which chipmaker briefly became the world's most valuable company on June 18, 2024?

Nvidia's market value passed $3.3 trillion on 18 June 2024, edging past Microsoft and Apple on demand for its AI processors, before slipping back to third within days.

Which Apple headset went on sale in the US on February 2, 2024?

The Vision Pro, Apple's first new product category since the Apple Watch, had been announced at WWDC in June 2023 and went on sale priced from $3,499.

Which milestone price did bitcoin pass for the first time in December 2024?

Bitcoin first topped $100,000 on 5 December 2024, lifted by Donald Trump's election win and his promise to make the US the 'crypto capital of the planet'; it had begun the year near $42,000.

A law signed by President Biden in April 2024 required which app to be sold or banned in the US?

TikTok briefly vanished from app stores in January 2025 before enforcement was delayed by executive order.

A federal judge ruled in August 2024 that which company held an illegal monopoly in online search?

Judge Amit Mehta found Google had used its dominance to lock in default deals with phone makers and browsers.

What blew out of a Boeing 737 MAX 9 on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 in January 2024?

A door plug covering an unused emergency exit blew out at 16,000 feet over Oregon; investigators found the four bolts securing it had never been reinstalled after work at Boeing's Renton factory.

At the February 2024 Grammys, who became the first artist to win Album of the Year four times?

Taylor Swift's Midnights took the prize, following Fearless, 1989 and Folklore; she used her earlier Best Pop Vocal Album speech to announce The Tortured Poets Department.

Which Miley Cyrus single won Record of the Year at the 2024 Grammys?

Flowers, Miley Cyrus's self-empowerment hit, won Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance; Song of the Year went to Billie Eilish and Finneas for What Was I Made For?

Which country won the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 with Nemo's song 'The Code'?

Switzerland's Nemo won in Malmo with 591 points, the contest's first non-binary winner; 'The Code' topped the jury vote comfortably but finished only fifth in the public televote.

Where did Julian Assange plead guilty in June 2024 under the deal that freed him?

Assange pleaded guilty to one espionage charge in the federal court in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, chosen so he need not set foot on the US mainland before flying home to Australia a free man.

Who became Ireland's youngest ever Taoiseach at 37 in April 2024?

Simon Harris, Fine Gael's new leader, succeeded Leo Varadkar, who had announced his resignation unexpectedly in March 2024; at 37 he was the youngest Taoiseach, and he handed over to Micheal Martin in January 2025.

Which French prime minister fell to a no-confidence vote in December 2024 after the Fifth Republic's shortest tenure?

Michel Barnier, the EU's former Brexit negotiator, lost a no-confidence vote on 4 December 2024 after forcing through a social security budget; his roughly three months in office were the shortest of any Fifth Republic prime minister.

Which Kenyan marathon world-record holder died in a car crash on 11 February 2024?

Kelvin Kiptum, 24, died with his coach when his car left the road near Eldoret; he had run 2:00:35 at the 2023 Chicago Marathon, taking 34 seconds off Eliud Kipchoge's world record.

Which Spanish tennis great retired after playing for his country at the 2024 Davis Cup Finals?

Rafael Nadal lost his singles match to Botic van de Zandschulp in Malaga as Spain went out to the Netherlands; he retired with 22 majors, two Olympic golds and five Davis Cup titles.

How many Academy Awards did Oppenheimer win at the March 2024 ceremony, including Best Picture?

It was the first Best Picture winner to also take both male acting awards since Ben-Hur in 1959.

In which city did Taylor Swift's Eras Tour play its final show on 8 December 2024?

After 149 shows in 21 countries it became the first tour ever to gross over $1 billion, and then $2 billion.

Which producer made the beat for Kendrick Lamar's 2024 Drake diss track "Not Like Us"?

Mustard, the Los Angeles producer behind hits for YG and Tyga, built the beat; 'Not Like Us' went on to win all five of its Grammy nominations in February 2025, including Record and Song of the Year.

On what date in 2024 did Joe Biden announce he was withdrawing from the presidential race?

Biden announced on Sunday 21 July 2024, in a letter posted on X, that he would not seek re-election, weeks after a faltering debate performance, and endorsed Kamala Harris the same day.

Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister of which country in August 2024 and fled by helicopter to India?

Sheikh Hasina fled Dhaka for India on 5 August 2024 after weeks of student-led protests over job quotas, ending fifteen years as Bangladesh's prime minister; Muhammad Yunus then led an interim government.

On which platform was the November 2024 Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight streamed to 65 million concurrent viewers?

Netflix streamed the bout live from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, where Paul beat the 58-year-old Tyson by unanimous decision; the company reported 65 million concurrent streams despite widespread buffering.

Which 2024 sequel ended 2024 as the highest-grossing animated film of all time?

Inside Out 2 took $1.699 billion worldwide, Pixar's biggest hit and the top-grossing animated film of all time until China's Ne Zha 2 passed it in early 2025.

Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter is framed as a radio broadcast hosted by Dolly Parton, Linda Martell and which singer?

Willie Nelson hosts the album's 'Smoke Hour' interludes on the fictional KNTRY Radio Texas; Cowboy Carter made Beyonce the first Black woman to top the Top Country Albums chart and won Album of the Year at the 2025 Grammys.