80 Fun Facts About 2024

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

Keir Starmer's party took 411 seats for a 172-seat majority, its best result since 2001.

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

The Ohio senator was 40 on election day; 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?

A local Emergency Service Unit officer fired at the gunman four seconds after the first shot and hit his rifle.

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

The counts were for falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels.

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

She is also the first person of Jewish heritage to hold the office, and took over from her ally Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in October.

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

His BJP fell short of a majority, leaving him reliant on 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?

He left from Latakia airport in the early hours after an opposition offensive that took Damascus in less than two weeks.

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

Lawmakers voted to overturn it within hours; the episode has been described as an attempted self-coup.

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

The 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?

Hungary was the last ally to ratify the accession, doing so on the same day; the flag went up at NATO headquarters four days later.

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

The path of totality ran through Texas, the Midwest and up into Atlantic Canada, drawing millions of visitors.

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

The 1.6-mile bridge carried the city's beltway over the Patapsco River; the Singapore-registered ship had lost power.

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

Airlines, hospitals and broadcasters went down 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?

It made landfall near Perry at Category 4 with 140 mph winds, then caused catastrophic flooding inland in the Carolinas.

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

It exploded from tropical storm to Category 5 in about a day and came ashore at Siesta Key.

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?

The restoration cost an estimated $739 million; the Crown of Thorns relic returned on 13 December.

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

The confederation of hibakusha, survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was honoured for showing through testimony 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?

Her novel The Vegetarian had already 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?

Hopfield said afterwards that, as a physicist, he was very unnerved by an AI technology which has no control.

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?

He had been moved two months earlier to the Polar Wolf colony in Kharp, in Russia's Far North.

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

His last public appearance was a military flyover for his 100th birthday on October 1.

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

He was 31; his single Teardrops, which had not charted on release, entered the UK chart after his death.

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

He had studied composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen back in 1957.

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

He also designed the characters for the Dragon Quest video games and Chrono Trigger.

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

She had won two Oscars decades earlier, for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and California Suite.

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

He once worked as a janitor in New York to support himself while studying at the American Theatre Wing.

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

The runners-up matched the 40 golds but took 91 medals overall; it was the 19th time the Americans had finished top.

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

His fourth came in the 200 m individual medley in an Olympic record 1:54.06.

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

He had already broken the Olympic record at 6.10 m before taking three attempts at the new mark.

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?

She is the only woman to have won Olympic gold in all three of those events, having taken the track titles in Tokyo.

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

Born in Cameroon and based in Britain, she remains the only refugee-team athlete to have won an Olympic medal.

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

It was her first live performance since revealing her stiff-person syndrome diagnosis in 2022.

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

They also knocked out the hosts in the quarter-finals; defending champions Italy had gone out in the round of 16.

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

He turned 17 the day before the final and was named the tournament's Young Player.

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

Kick-off at Hard Rock Stadium was delayed by more than an hour after fans without tickets tried to force their way in.

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

It was a rematch of Super Bowl LIV four years earlier, which the Chiefs had also won.

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

It was the first Final since 1945 in which a team forced a seventh game from 3-0 down, and the fifth straight Final with a Florida team.

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

He did it without pitching 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?

He became only the second man of the Open Era, after Roger Federer, to win his first four major finals.

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

He 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?

It was their sixth European title in eleven seasons.

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

Their 28 wins and six draws ended Bayern Munich's run of eleven straight titles.

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

He won seven of the first ten races, but a record six other drivers also took multiple wins that season.

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

He won the 14-game match 7.5-6.5, having become a grandmaster at 12.

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

She had left Iowa as the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer and was named Rookie of the Year.

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

He won 12 stages across the two Grand Tours, becoming only the third rider to complete cycling's Triple Crown.

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

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?

It rode a Falcon Heavy and is due to begin its 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?

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?

Four people were exposed to vacuum at once, a record, and Sarah Gillis at 30 became the youngest spacewalker.

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

The booster slid sideways into the 'chopstick' arms of the tower nicknamed Mechazilla.

What was the Intuitive Machines lander that made the first commercial soft Moon landing in February 2024?

It tipped onto its side on touchdown and shut down for good on February 29 when the lunar night began.

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

It caused more than $9 billion of damage from the Windward Islands to Texas.

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

Africa's CDC had declared its own emergency two days earlier as cases and deaths grew across the continent.

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

Its market value had just passed $3.3 trillion on the back of demand for AI processors.

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

It had been announced at WWDC eight months earlier, priced from $3,499.

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

The rally followed the election of a president-elect who promised to make the US the crypto capital of the planet.

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

Enforcement was later delayed by executive order after the app briefly vanished from stores in January 2025.

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

Judge Amit Mehta found it 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?

Investigators traced the failure to four missing bolts and a systemic breakdown in Boeing's manufacturing process.

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

Midnights took the prize, and she used an earlier acceptance speech to announce The Tortured Poets Department.

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

Song of the Year went to Billie Eilish and Finneas for What Was I Made For? from the Barbie soundtrack.

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

Nemo won 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?

The hearing was held in the Northern Mariana Islands so he would not have to set foot on the US mainland before flying home to Australia.

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

He succeeded Leo Varadkar, who had announced his resignation unexpectedly the previous month.

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

The former Brexit negotiator had been in office for only three months.

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

He set the mark at the 2023 Chicago Marathon, taking 34 seconds off the previous record.

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

He left 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"?

He imagined what Dr. Dre would make in a studio with Lil Jon; the song later swept all five of its Grammy nominations.

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

He had already won an overwhelming majority of delegates in the Democratic primaries before stepping aside.

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

Months of student-led protests over job quotas ended her fifteen-year rule.

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

Paul won by unanimous decision at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, in what was then the most-streamed sporting event ever.

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

Pixar's film took $1.699 billion worldwide, making it the studio's biggest hit ever and the top-grossing animated film until Ne Zha 2 passed it in 2025.

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

It became Beyoncé's first album to top the Top Country Albums chart and later won her Album of the Year at the Grammys.