Historical Events in 2024

Events 1 - 200 of 315

• Jan 1 A magnitude 7.6 earthquake strikes Japan's western coast, killing an estimated 120 people and injuring more than 100
• Jan 1 Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE become BRICS members
• Jan 1 Ethiopia makes a controversial deal with Somaliland to lease part of its coastline, including becoming the first country to recognise it as a separate country from Somalia [1]

• Jan 2 Claudine Gay, Harvard University's first Black president, resigns following testimony to Congress on anti-semitism and amid plagiarism allegations [1]
• Jan 2 Japan Airlines Flight 516 crashes into Coast Guard plane and burns during landing at Haneda airport in Tokyo; all 379 passengers and crew on board the JAL Airbus evacuate safely, 5 of the 6 Coast Guard members are killed
• Jan 3 In an all-English final, Luke Humphries claims his first PDC World Darts Championship with a 7-4 win over 16-year-old prodigy Luke Littler at the Alexandra Palace, London
• Jan 3 Jeffery Epstein court documents listing his associates made public from 2015 defamation trial of Ghislaine Maxwell [1]
• Jan 3 Lowest January temperature of -43.6 C (minus 46.5 F), recorded in Sweden for 25 years in Kvikkjokk-Årrenjarka, Swedish Lapland, amid a very cold spell across Scandinavia [1]
• Jan 3 Two explosions kill at least 95 people during a commemorative ceremony marking the assassination of Qasem Soleimani in Kerman, Iran

• Jan 5 An Alaskan Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 makes emergency landing in Portland after a fuselage section blows out midair, with US regulator then grounding hundreds of planes [1]
• Jan 5 Nigerian film "A Tribe Called Judah", created by Funke Akindele, becomes the first Nollywood film to earn more than $1bn naira ($1.1m) domestically [1]
• Jan 6 Israeli army claims it has destroyed Hamas's command centre in northern Gaza and killed more than 8,000 militants [1]

• Jan 8 Electronics brand LG unveils their Signature OLED T, the world's first wireless TV with a transparent screen at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas [1]

• Jan 8 The decision to seize Andrew Tate's assets is overturned by Bucharest's Court of Appeal after a successful appeal, ordering a new trial over the assets
• Jan 8 US Army veteran Henry "Robby" Robinson (98) is awarded France's Medal of Honor for his service in WWII by French Ambassador to the US in a ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada; Robinson worked as a scout behind enemy lines, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, participated in the liberation of the Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps, and served as a guard during the Nuremberg Trials
• Jan 8 Vulcan, NASA's first commercially financed moon mission launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida but its lander Peregrine develops problems soon after [1]
• Jan 9 2023 confirmed as the world's warmest year on record - 1.48C warmer than the long-term average, driven by climate change and El Niño [1]
• Jan 9 Armed gunmen storm a Ecuador Television network in Guayaquil during a live broadcast, amid a state of emergency in the country after increasing attacks and abductions [1]
• Jan 9 Gabriel Attal named as France's youngest and first openly gay Prime Minister at 34, replacing Élisabeth Borne [1]
• Jan 9 St Pauls becomes the first large US city to swear in an all-female city council, with six out of seven women of colour and all under 40 [1]

• Jan 10 State of emergency declared in Papa New Guinea after 16 people die in violent riots and looting during a police strike [1]

• Jan 10 US Secretary of the Navy announces that a future destroyer will be named in honor of Charles J. French, known as 'the Human Tugboat' for heroic actions in the South Pacific in 1942 [1]

• Jan 11 Death toll from Zambia's cholera outbreak reaches 300 as the president urges people to move away from dense urban areas [1]
• Jan 11 Huge ancient city discovered in the Amazon, in Upano area of eastern Ecuador, capable of supporting 10,000 people with sophisticated roads and canals [1]
• Jan 11 Largest dam removal in US history enters crucial phase as reservoir on Iron Gate Dam lowered in Klamath River through California and Oregon [1]
• Jan 11 More than 300 people have died in flooding caused by the highest levels of River Congo in 60 years, especially in Kinshasa, DR Congo [1]
• Jan 11 New study finds largest great ape, Gigantopithecus blacki at 10 feet tall (3 meters), from southern China, went extinct because of climate change between 215,000 and 295,000 years ago [1]
• Jan 11 Rare copy of 'mint' first issue of "The Amazing Spider-Man" sells for $1.38 million and "Superman #1", goes for $2.34m at auction [1]
• Jan 11 South Africa begins its case accusing Israel of genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza and violating the 1948 genocide convention at the International Court of Justice in The Hague [1]
• Jan 11 The US and UK launch multiple air-strikes against Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen in retaliation for attacks on vessels in the Red Sea [1]
• Jan 12 The island nation of Cape Verde is the first sub-Saharan country to be declared malaria-free in 50 years by the WHO [1]
• Jan 12 “Wokery”, “safe word”, “forever chemical” and “swear box” added to the latest update of the Oxford English Dictionary [1]
• Jan 13 Artic blast affects large parts of the US, with 44 million people under winter weather advisory, with Montanan registering 60 degrees below zero i [1]
• Jan 13 Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party is re-elected for the third time led by vice president Lai Ching-te, amid Chinese warnings their election would increase conflict with China [1]
• Jan 14 Brunei's Prince Abdul Mateen (32) marries commoner Anisha Rosnah Isa-Kalebic, (29) at the culmination of a 10-day wedding at the Istana Nurul Iman palace [1]
• Jan 14 Dan Campbell leads the Detroit Lions to their first playoff win since 1991, defeating the Los Angeles Rams
• Jan 14 Frederik X becomes King of Denmark at Christiansborg Castle, Copenhagen, after the abdication of his mother Margrethe at 83, and the world's last reigning queen [1]
• Jan 15 75th Emmy Awards: "Succession" Best Drama, "The Bear" Best Comedy, "Beef" Best Limited Series

• Jan 15 Jamaican poet Jason Allen-Paisant wins the TS Eliot prize for his collection "Self-Portrait As Othello" [1]
• Jan 15 Joel Embiid ties Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's record with his 16th straight game with 30 or more points and 10-plus rebounds in a win over the Houston Rockets
• Jan 16 Iran carries out a missile attack on militant group Jaish al-Adl in Balochistan, Pakistan, killing two children and angering Pakistan [1]
• Jan 17 In a major victory, Fifth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals upholds a lower court decision to block key provisions of HB 900, Texas’s controversial book rating law [1]

• Jan 18 NASA’s trail-blazing Ingenuity helicopter, the first aircraft to fly on another world, dies after three years on Mars and 72 flights (only expected to make five flights) [1]
• Jan 18 US city of Lexington starts a new tourism campaign aimed at extraterrestrial travelers by beaming a welcome message into space via an infrared laser [1]

• Jan 19 At least 70 miners are killed in a gold mine collapses in Kangaba district, south-west Mali, the latest in a series of small-scale mine disasters [1]
• Jan 19 UK declares national incident over rise of measles cases due to lack of vaccination, WHO’s European region also reports 5-fold increase 2022-2023 [1]
• Jan 20 Japan is the fifth nation to land a spacecraft on the Moon with its SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) using "pinpoint landing" technology [1]
• Jan 20 Large weekend protests begin across Germany against far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), after group's 'master plan' for mass deportation of migrants revealed [1]
• Jan 21 A 'deep freeze' - nearly two weeks of frigid winter storms across the US claim the lives of at least 70 people, with Oregon, Tennessee and Kentucky declaring states of emergency [1]
• Jan 21 Dan Campbell's Detroit Lions secure a divisional playoff win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

• Jan 21 Tara VanDerveer (70) becomes winningest college basketball coach with 1.203rd victory as Stanford University defeats visiting Oregon State Beavers, 65-56 [1]
• Jan 22 Joel Embiid sets NBA 76ers franchise record with 70 points in a single game during 133-123 win over visiting San Antonio Spurs, in Philadelphia; previous record of 68 set by Wilt Chamberlain in 1967
• Jan 22 New Hindu temple to the god Ram inaugurated by Indian PM Narendra Modi in Ayodhya city in a grand ceremony, on site of a mosque razed to the ground by Hindi militants in 1992 [1]
• Jan 22 World's first mass vaccine program against Malaria begins in Yaoundé, Cameroon, after successful trials of RTS,S vaccine showed it saved one in three lives [1]
• Jan 23 Kawhi Leonard records his second career triple-double in a win against the Los Angeles Lakers
• Jan 23 The Doomsday Clock remains set 90 seconds to midnight by the by Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, siting threat of a new nuclear arms race, the Ukraine war and climate change [1]
• Jan 24 Israeli forces expand their ground offensive into central Gaza's urban refugee camps saying it will last "many months" [1]
• Jan 24 Russian military plane shot down by Ukrainian forces in Russia kills all 74 on board including 65 Ukrainian Prisoners of War, prompts accusations on both sides [1]
• Jan 24 Sri Lanka passes controversial law to regulate online content, with critics claiming it will limit free speech [1]
• Jan 24 UK confirms 3-year loan of Ghana's "crown jewels" belonging to the Asante monarch to the Manhyia Palace Museum, Kumasi, 150 years after they were looted [1]
• Jan 25 British researchers Christopher Marsh and Angela McShane launch website 100Ballads.org detailing top-selling broadside ballads of 17th century England, including images of original lyric sheets, and new musical recordings of the very old pop songs [1]
• Jan 26 US Federal jury says Donald Trump must pay $83 million in damages to E. Jean Carroll after he denied raping her [1]
• Jan 27 Australian Open Women's Tennis: Aryna Sabalenka defeats China's Zheng Qinwen 6–3, 6–2 to retain the title; wins her second major title without dropping a set
• Jan 27 World's largest cruise ship Icon of the Seas, able to house 7,600 passengers, at 365 meters (1,198 ft) 5x larger than the Titanic, sets sail from Miami on its maiden voyage [1]
• Jan 28 100 Ballads names "The Wandring Prince of Troy" the most popular ballad of the 17th century in project documenting “the earliest form of commercial pop music in England" [1]
• Jan 28 AFC Championship, M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore, Maryland: Kansas City Chiefs beat Baltimore Ravens, 17-10

• Jan 28 Drone attack on US military base in Jordan kills three American soldiers and injures 40 [1]
• Jan 28 England cricket spin bowler Tom Hartley follows Ollie Pope's 196 with stunning debut figures of 7/62 as the tourists upset India by 28 runs in the 1st Test in Hyderabad
• Jan 28 Environmental protesters throw soup at Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" - protected by glass at the Louvre in Paris [1]
• Jan 28 NFC Championship, Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara, California: SF 49ers beat Detroit Lions, 34-31
• Jan 28 The West Indies win their first cricket Test match in Australia in 27 years in Brisbane; rookie fast bowler Shamar Joseph takes 7/68 to guide Windies to an 8 run victory and a 1-1 series tie
• Jan 29 "Suits" was the most-streamed show in 2023 withu 57.7 billion minutes, followed by "Bluey" then "NCIS" according to Nielsen [1]
• Jan 29 Chinese property giant Evergrande with more than $300 billion in debt is ordered to liquidate by a Hong Kong court [1]
• Jan 29 Elmo the Muppet posts "Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?" on X - receives thousands of brutally honest replies [1]

• Jan 30 Around 400 people have died due to drought-induced starvation in Ethiopia’s Tigray and Amhara regions confirm local authorities raising fears of famine [1]

• Jan 31 Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar sworn in as 17th Yang di-Pertuan Agong, (King of Malaysia) for five years under country's system of rotational monarchy, at a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur [1]

• Feb 1 Auction of British musician Mark Knopfler's guitar collection auction of realizes $11.27 M USD (8.8M GBP). with 25% earmarked for his favorite charities at Christies Auction House in London, England
• Feb 2 Wildfires begin burning in Chile, east of Viña del Ma, spread to Quilpué and Villa Alemana, killing at least 131 with hundreds missing. Chile's greatest natural disaster since 2010. [1]
• Feb 4 President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, the self-titled "world's coolest dictator", wins re-election in a landslide [1]

• Feb 5 Brazil warns it is expecting a very bad year of dengue fever with over 4.2 million cases - with Rio de Janeiro already declaring a public health emergency [1]

• Feb 5 One of Los Angeles' rainiest days causes mudslides and flooding, brought by the "Pineapple Express", an atmospheric river from Hawaii [1]
• Feb 6 'Godfathers of Wind' Henrik Stiesdal and Andrew Garrad awarded QEPrize, the 'Noble of Engineering' for pioneering wind energy [1]

• Feb 6 Jennifer Crumbley is the first American parent of a school shooter to be found guilty of manslaughter, held responsible for her teenager killing four at Oxford High School (2021) [1]
• Feb 6 King Charles III diagnosed with cancer according to Buckingham Place, Queen Camilla takes on his public duties while he receives treatment [1]
• Feb 6 Landslide kills at least 68 with more missing, amid torrential rain, in Maco town, Davao de Oro, southern Philippines [1]
• Feb 6 Swedish automaker Polestar introduces its Polestar 4 - first mass-market car with no rear window, an electric SUV coupé with a rear-mounted camera instead [1]
• Feb 7 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects Hamas's ceasefire proposal, saying he will continue till "total victory", saying forces will push further south into city of Rafah [1]

• Feb 8 Pakistan election: In an upset independents backed by imprisoned Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party win the most seats with 97, PML-N win 76, PPP 54 [1]
• Feb 10 Donald Trump says he threatened a NATO ally over their defense spending "No, I would not protect you. I would encourage them (Russia) to do whatever the hell they want" at South Carolina rally [1]
• Feb 10 Hungarian President Katalin Novak resigns after pardoning a man involved in a child sexual abuse case [1]
• Feb 11 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final; hosts Ivory Coast defeat Nigeria 2-1 at Alassane Ouattara Stadium, Abidjan [1]
• Feb 11 Argentina's first female saint María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa, (Mama Antula) canonised at a ceremony attended by President Javier Milei at the Vatican [1]
• Feb 11 Former Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb wins the presidential election over the Green Party [1]
• Feb 11 Super Bowl LVIII is the most-watched TV program in US history, averaging 123.4 million viewers across television and streaming platforms [1]

• Feb 12 Oldest known 11,000 Stone Age megastructure, used for hunting, revealed submerged in Bay of Mecklenburg, off the German coast [1]
• Feb 14 Indonesian presidential election: Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto appears to win by significant margin (full results 20 March) [1]
• Feb 14 Israel launches air strikes in Lebanon in an escalation of conflict along the border, killing four, in a retaliation after a Hezbollah rocket killed an Israeli soldier in Safed [1]
• Feb 14 Korean scientists say they have created "meaty rice", with beef grown inside rice grains in a lab, adding 8% more protein [1]
• Feb 14 Shooting at a rally to celebrate the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory kills one and injures more than 20 in downtown Kansas City, Missouri [1]
• Feb 14 Technology and AI company, Nvidia's market capitalization reaches $1.83 trillion, overtaking Alphabet and Amazon [1]
• Feb 15 Caitlin Clark becomes the NCAA Division I women's career scoring leader in a game for Iowa against Michigan, scoring a career-high 49 points
• Feb 15 Germany becomes the world's third-largest economy after Japan slips into recession [1]
• Feb 15 Greece is the first Christian Orthodox county to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption [1]
• Feb 15 Private company Intuitive Machines’ lunar lander Odysseus launches aboard SpaceX’s Falcon from the Kennedy Space Center [1]
• Feb 16 Alabama Supreme Court rules frozen embryos can be considered children as part of a wrongful death case where frozen embryos were accidentally destroyed at a clinic [1]
• Feb 16 Donald Trump and Trump Organization ordered to pay $354 million in fines in NY civil fraud case - one of the largest corporate sanctions in NY history [1]
• Feb 17 Donald Trump launches his “Never Surrender High-Tops” footwear (US$399) at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia [1]
• Feb 17 Ukraine withdraws its troops from the key eastern town of Avdiivka, blaming a lack of western-supplied weapons [1]
• Feb 18 77th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) "Oppenheimer" Best Film, Christopher Nolan Best Director, Emma Stone, Cillian Murphy acting awards [1]
• Feb 18 Massacre leaves 49 dead after tribal fighting in Papa New Guinea's Enga Province [1]

• Feb 18 Singaporean chess prodigy Ashwath Kaushik at eight years old is the youngest player to defeat a grandmaster in a classic tournament game at the Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open, Switzerland [1]
• Feb 19 66th Daytona 500: William Byron takes the lead on a restart with 4 laps to go and then wins after Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric crash to bring out a race-ending caution; Hendrick Motorsports record-tying 9th win
• Feb 19 Brightest known object in the universe identified as a quasar, 500 trillion x brighter than the sun, powered by a supermassive black hole that devours a sun-sized mass every day [1]
• Feb 19 Investigation into 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise charges his wife, the former PM and ex-chief of police [1]
• Feb 20 Australia announces plans to double its naval fleet of warships to create its largest fleet since WWII [1]

• Feb 20 Former Youtuber Ruby Franke and her business partner sentenced to up to 60 years in prison for physically and emotionally abusing her children [1]
• Feb 22 Japan’s benchmark stock exchange, the Nikkei average reaches its highest-ever level at 39,098, breaking its 1989 record [1]
• Feb 22 Odysseus is the first private spacecraft to land on the moon though on its side, 1st US moon landing since 1972 [1]
• Feb 23 German parliament votes to legalize cannabis 407 votes to 226, with restrictions [1]

• Feb 24 Senegalese-French director's Mati Diop’s documentary "Dahomey" is the surprise winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin film festival [1]

• Feb 25 President Volodymyr Zelensky says 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died fighting in the two years since Russia invaded [1]
• Feb 25 The Great Mosque of Algiers is opened by Algeria's President Abdelmadjid Tebboune - third largest mosque in the world, able to hold 120,000 worshippers [1]
• Feb 27 First confirming sighting of a sexual encounter between humpback whales, and the first homosexual coupling, published in "Marine Mammal Science" [1]
• Feb 27 Quickly spreading wildfires across Texas Panhandle propel Governor Greg Abbott to issue a disaster declaration for 60 counties [1]

• Feb 28 Ghana passes new legislation making it illegal to identify as LGBTQ+ [1]
• Feb 28 Lewis Koumas makes his first team debut for Liverpool and scores his first senior goal against Southampton in the FA Cup fifth round

• Feb 28 Wisconsin records 60-degree temperature swing in 24 hours, with Madison registering 70 degrees (21.11 C) Tuesday, plunging to 11 degrees (-11.67 C) Wednesday morning [1]
• Feb 29 At least 112 Palestinians killed as they desperately swarm aid convoys in north Gaza [1]
• Feb 29 The Smokehouse Creek Fire in the Texas panhandle, home to most of the state's cattle ranches, becomes the second-largest fire in US history, burning over 1.1 million acres [1]

• Mar 2 Cargo ship Rubymar sinks in the Red Sea after being hit by Houthi rebels (Feb 18), prompting concerns for local ecology [1]

• Mar 3 Iowa's Caitlin Clark becomes the NCAA Division I all-time career scoring leader, surpassing Pete Maravich's career total of 3,667; her 35 points in win over visiting Ohio State brings her total to 3,685 and counting
• Mar 3 Violence increases further in ungoverned areas of Burkina Faso as around 170 people were executed by armed groups in three northern villages [1]
• Mar 4 France is the first country in the world to enshrine access to abortion in its constitution, voting in an amendment [1]
• Mar 4 Haiti explodes in new wave of violence as armed gangs attempt to seize the main international airport, amid 72 hour state of emergency after gangs freed thousands of prisoners from jails [1]
• Mar 4 Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira pleads guilty for leaking US security secrets on social media site Discord in a deal that includes at least 11 years in prison [1]
• Mar 4 US Supreme Court rules states can't bar federal candidates, including Donald Trump, from a ballot under 14th Amendment clause prohibiting those who “engaged in insurrection” [1]
• Mar 5 Japanese architect Riken Yamamoto wins 2024 Pritzker Architecture Prize for buildings that are a "background and foreground to everyday life" [1]

• Mar 7 More than 300 children kidnapped from their school in Kuriga town, northwest Nigeria, the latest in a run of kidnappings to the area [1]
• Mar 7 Sweden officially joins NATO as the alliance's 32nd member, abandoning its 200-year policy of neutrality [1]
• Mar 7 US President Joe Biden gives a fiery state of the union speech to Congress, addressing the question of his age head on [1]
• Mar 8 A report by the Pentagon into UFOs since 1945 finds no evidence of aliens or extraterrestrial intelligence [1]

• Mar 10 96th Academy Awards: Best Film "Oppenheimer"; Best Director Christopher Nolan, acting Cillian Murphy, Emma Stone, Robert Downey Jr, Da'vine Joy Randolph; Ryan Gosling sings "I'm Just Ken" [1]
• Mar 10 First pig liver transplanted into a clinically dead human for 10 days, in milestone test for animal organ transplants into people, at Xijing Hospital, Xi’an, China [1]

• Mar 11 Fertilizer spill in Red Oak, Iowa, kills an estimated 789,000 fish along a 60-mile stretch of river after valve was left open at NEW Cooperative [1]
• Mar 11 Romanian police detain Andrew Tate and his brother following the prosecutor of the Bucharest Court of Appeal's order for a one-day detention
• Mar 12 A Romanian court rules that Andrew Tate and his brother can be extradited to the UK only after the Romanian trial for human trafficking
• Mar 13 US House of Representatives votes to force TikTok owner China-based ByteDance to sell the social media platform or face a ban in the US [1]
• Mar 14 A series of storms strike parts of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Arkansas, with tornadoes leaving at least 40 injured and three people dead [1]
• Mar 14 At least 60 migrants die from dehydration and hunger with 25 rescued after their dinghy engine breaks down off the coast of Libya [1]
• Mar 14 HMS Tyger, a sunken British warship, that ran aground 1742, identified lying off Garden Key, Dry Tortugas National Park [1]
• Mar 14 Philippine police rescue over 500 people from a scam centre north of Manila, forced to pose as lovers online to defraud people [1]
• Mar 15 First ship arrives in Gaza to deliver aid from Cyprus, amid a deteriorating humanitarian crisis [1]

• Mar 17 "Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV" documentary detailing the toxic nature of some Nickelodeon shows, especially under Dan Schneider during the 1990s, early 2000s, premieres

• Mar 17 Rio de Janeiro posts record heat index of 62.3 C (144.1 F) - i.e. taking into account humidity, highest in Brazil in a decade (actual temperature 42 C) [1]
• Mar 19 China launches Queqiao-2 relay satellite for the far side of the moon to support its Chang’e-6 lunar sample return mission [1]
• Mar 19 Finland is ranked the happiest country in the world by the UN for the seventh year in a row, with Afghanistan the lowest ranked [1]
• Mar 19 Hong Kong parliament passes tough new security law Article 23 focusing on sentences for external interference and insurrection [1]

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