2024 In Review Fast Facts
CNN Editorial Research
(CNN) — Here is a look back at the events of 2024.
Notable US Events
January 3 – Hundreds of pages of unsealed documents from a lawsuit connected to accused sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein are publicly released. This is the first set of documents to be unsealed under a December 18, 2023 court order.
January 4 – Dylan Butler, 17, fatally shoots a sixth-grade student and wounds seven other people at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa. The wounded include four students and the school’s principal. Butler dies from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
January 5 – An Alaska Airlines flight headed from Portland to Ontario, California, returns safely to Portland International Airport shortly after takeoff after a panel of the fuselage, including the panel’s window, pops off. On January 6, the FAA grounds all Boeing Max 9 aircrafts. The aircrafts return to service on January 26.
January 5 – The Pentagon announces US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on New Year’s Day for complications from a medical procedure. Austin faces criticism as it is revealed that senior officials, including President Joe Biden, were left in the dark about his multiday hospital stay. On January 9, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center releases a statement revealing Austin is being treated for prostate cancer. The cancer was discovered in early December 2023. Austin is released from the hospital on January 15.
January 18 – The US Justice Department releases its Critical Incident Review, a scathing report on the 2022 Uvalde school shooting response. The 575-page report on the botched law enforcement response said the victims “experienced unimaginable horror” and “witnessed unspeakable violence” due to the lack of courage and “cascading failures of leadership, decision-making, tactics, policy, and training.”
January 25 – Alabama inmate Kenneth Smith is put to death by nitrogen hypoxia, marking the nation’s first known execution to be carried out using that method. Smith, 58, was sentenced to death for his role in a 1988 murder for hire and had previously survived a failed attempt to execute him by lethal injection in 2022.
January 26 – A jury says that former President Donald Trump should pay E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million in damages, the second time over the past year that a jury has awarded Carroll millions of dollars in damages from Trump for his defamatory statements disparaging her and denying her rape allegations.
February 6 – Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of the teenager who killed four students at an Oxford, Michigan, high school in 2021, is found guilty of all four counts of involuntary manslaughter in a novel legal case that stood as a test of the limits of who’s responsible for a school shooting. On March 14, James Crumbley, the father, is found guilty of the same charges. On April 9, Jennifer and James are both sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison.
February 14 – One person is killed, and more than 20 others are injured, including children, after a shooting occurs at the end of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory rally. The shooting stemmed from a dispute between several people.
February 16 – A judge orders Trump and his companies to pay nearly $355 million in a ruling in the New York civil fraud trial. Trump will also have to pay millions in interest on that money, be barred from serving as an officer or director of a New York corporation or other legal entities in the state for three years and cannot apply for loans from any financial institution registered in the state for three years for fraudulently inflating the values of his properties.
February 16 – In a first-of-its-kind ruling, Alabama’s Supreme Court says frozen embryos are children and those who destroy them can be held liable for wrongful death – a decision that puts back into national focus the question of when life begins and one that reproductive rights advocates say could have a chilling effect on infertility treatments and the hundreds of Alabamians who seek them each year. On February 23, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issues a statement, saying he “has no intention of using the recent Alabama Supreme Court decision as a basis for prosecuting IVF families or providers.”
February 28 – Mitch McConnell announces he will step down as GOP leader in 2025.
March 2 – Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James becomes the first player in NBA history to score 40,000 career points, accomplishing the milestone during the team’s 124-114 loss at home against the Denver Nuggets.
March 3 – Iowa Hawkeyes superstar guard Caitlin Clark become the NCAA’s Division-I all-time leading scorer in basketball – male or female – in a win over the Ohio State Buckeyes, passing Hall of Famer “Pistol” Pete Maravich.
March 6 – Nikki Haley announces she is ending her presidential campaign.
March 6 – Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the “Rust” film armorer, is found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in a New Mexico trial stemming from the 2021 on-set fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. On April 15, she is sentenced to 18 months in prison.
March 14 – Vice President Kamala Harris visits a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota, the first time a sitting US president or vice president is believed to visit an abortion provider.
March 25 – The Department of Homeland Security raids Sean “Diddy” Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and one in the Miami area in connection with an ongoing sex trafficking investigation. On September 16, Combs is arrested in New York. The federal indictment is unsealed the following day. Combs pleads not guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. Additional civil suits are filed in October, including two from accusers who say they were minors at the time they were allegedly drugged and assaulted by Combs.
March 26 – Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapses after a container ship loses power and collides with the bridge. There are eight construction workers on the bridge at the time of collision who fell into the Patapsco River during the collapse, only two survive.
April 8 – A total solar eclipse sweeps across Mexico, the United States and Canada. An estimated 32 million people are in the path of totality.
April 9 – The Arizona Supreme Court rules the state must adhere to a 160-year-old law barring all abortions except in cases when “it is necessary to save” a pregnant person’s life. The law can be traced to as early as 1864 – before Arizona became a state – and was codified in 1901.
April 15 – Trump’s criminal hush money trial begins in New York. On May 30, a Manhattan jury finds Trump guilty of falsifying business records in connection to a hush money scheme to silence adult film star Stormy Daniels about an affair. Trump is the first president in US history to be convicted of a felony.
April 25 – The New York Court of Appeals overturns the sex crimes conviction against Harvey Weinstein and orders a new trial. The court, by a 4-3 vote, rules the testimony of “prior bad acts” witnesses should not have been allowed because it “was unnecessary to establish defendant’s intent and served only to establish defendant’s propensity to commit the crimes charged.”
May 14 – The WNBA season opener between the Indiana Fever and Connecticut Sun draws an average of 2.1 million viewers, making it the most watched WNBA game in more than two decades.
May 16 – The New York Times reports an upside-down American flag – a symbol used by some supporters of Trump who challenged the legitimacy of Biden’s 2020 victory – hung outside the Alexandria, Virginia home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito after the election. On May 22, the Times reports another controversial flag that was on display during the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, was flown outside Alito’s vacation home in New Jersey.
June 5 – Boeing’s Starliner launches its first crewed flight test with two NASA astronauts aboard, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. It safely docks with the International Space Station on June 6. On August 24, it is revealed that Williams and Wilmore will remain on the International Space Station until early 2025. They will return on a SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle due to issues with the Starliner. On September 6, Boeing’s Starliner capsule returns to Earth with an empty cabin.
June 11 – A federal jury convicts Hunter Biden on all three federal felony gun charges he faced, concluding that he violated laws meant to prevent drug addicts from owning firearms.
June 19 – Republican Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, signs a law requiring Louisiana public schools to display the Ten Commandments in all classrooms. On November 2, a federal judge grants a preliminary injunction and says the law is “unconstitutional on its face.”
June 27 – The Supreme Court formally dismisses an appeal over Idaho’s strict abortion ban, blocking enforcement of the state’s law a day after the opinion was inadvertently posted on the court’s website in an astonishing departure from its highly controlled protocols.
June 27 – The first presidential debate between Biden and Trump takes place on CNN.
June 27 – A grand jury indicts two former Uvalde school police officers in the botched law enforcement response to the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead, two Texas state government sources with knowledge of the indictment tell CNN. The indictment is made public the following day.
July 1 – The Supreme Court rules that Trump may claim partial immunity from special counsel Jack Smith’s election subversion case.
July 7 – Boeing agrees to plead guilty to one charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States for its role in two fatal 737 Max crashes. It will pay up to $487 million in fines — a fraction of the $24.8 billion that families of crash victims wanted the aircraft maker to pay.
July 13 – Trump is injured in a shooting during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania in what the FBI says is an assassination attempt. One rally attendee is killed and two others are seriously injured. On September 25, a bipartisan Senate committee report reveals Secret Service agents failed to take charge of decision-making for security at the rally. The report says the failures were “foreseeable, preventable” and found that many of the problems identified by the committee “remain unaddressed” by the Secret Service.
July 15 – Judge Aileen Cannon dismisses the classified document case against Trump. She says the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith violated the Constitution. She does not rule on whether Trump’s behavior was legal.
July 15 – Trump announces Sen. JD Vance as his running mate during day one of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
July 16 – A jury finds Sen. Bob Menendez guilty on all counts in his federal corruption trial. Menendez, of New Jersey, was convicted of 16 counts — including bribery, extortion, wire fraud, obstruction of justice and acting as a foreign agent — for his role in a yearslong bribery scheme.
July 19 – Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is found guilty of spying and sentenced to 16 years in prison by a Russian court in Yekaterinburg, in a case that the US government, his newspaper and supporters have denounced as a sham. On August 1, Gershkovich is released along with Paul Whelan and Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva as part of a sweeping prisoner swap deal that involves seven countries.
July 21 – Biden ends his reelection bid and endorses Harris to succeed him.
August 6 – Harris names Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota as her running mate.
August 19 – The Democratic National Convention begins in Chicago.
August 23 – Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces he is suspending his independent campaign for president and endorsing Trump.
August 27 – Special Counsel Jack Smith files a superseding indictment in the election interference case against Trump, slimming down the allegations against Trump in light of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling.
August 29 – Harris sits down with CNN for her first major TV interview since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee. She is interviewed alongside Walz.
September 4 – Two students and two teachers are killed and nine others injured in a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. The suspected gunman, 14-year-old Colt Gray, is arrested and later indicted on 55 counts, including four counts of felony and malice murder. Gray’s father is later arrested and indicted on 29 counts, including involuntary manslaughter, second-degree murder and cruelty to children.
September 5 – Hunter Biden pleads guilty to all nine charges in his federal tax case.
September 12 – A Manhattan grand jury indicts Harvey Weinstein in connection to new sexual assault allegations. On September 18, he pleads not guilty to one count of a criminal sex act in the first degree.
September 15 – Trump is playing golf at Trump international Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, when a Secret Service agent spots a man with a rifle along the perimeter of the golf course. The suspect, Ryan Routh, flees but is later detained. On September 30, Routh pleads not guilty to all five charges, including the assassination attempt, gun charges and assaulting an officer.
September 19 – CNN’s KFile reveals Mark Robinson, the North Carolina GOP nominee for governor and current lieutenant governor, made dozens of disturbing comments on a porn forum. On November 5, Robinson loses the gubernatorial race.
September 24 – Tropical Storm Helene forms over the Caribbean. It strengthens into a hurricane the following day. It makes landfall near Perry, Florida, on September 26 as a Category 4 storm. The death toll from Helene is at least 232 people across six states, making it the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States mainland since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Large sections of western North Carolina, hundreds of miles from the coast, are unrecognizable following historic flooding.
September 26 – An indictment against New York City Mayor Eric Adams is unsealed, alleging bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy and soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals. He later pleads not guilty to all charges.
September 29 – The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, chosen by NASA to carry stranded astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore back to Earth next year, arrives at the International Space Station. On board the SpaceX vehicle are NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
October 1 – The first and only vice presidential debate between Vance and Walz takes place in New York. The debate is moderated by Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan of CBS.
October 1 – Former US President Jimmy Carter turns 100 years old. He is the oldest living president in history.
October 5 – Tropical Storm Milton forms. It strengthens into a hurricane the following day and makes landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, on October 9. Milton delivers a lethal storm surge, torrential rains and dozens of tornadoes, and is believed to be responsible for at least 24 deaths across Florida.
October 6 – During the Los Angeles Lakers’ preseason game against the Phoenix Suns, Lebron James and Bronny James become the first father-son duo to play together on an NBA team. On October 22, they make NBA history as the first father-son duo to appear together in an NBA game.
Notable International Events
January 1 – Over 200 people are killed after a 7.5-magnitude earthquake strikes the west coast of Japan.
January 3 – At least 84 people are killed and 284 are injured in twin explosions near the burial site of slain military commander Qasem Soleimani in southern Iran. It is the deadliest attack in Iran since its 1979 revolution. ISIS later claims responsibility.
January 14 – Denmark’s King Frederik X takes the throne after the abdication of his mother Queen Margrethe II.
January 17 – Kensington Palace says the Princess of Wales will spend up to two weeks recovering in the hospital after undergoing abdominal surgery. On March 22, the Princess of Wales reveals she has been diagnosed with cancer and is in the “early stages” of treatment. On September 9, she announces she has completed chemotherapy.
January 17 – Buckingham Palace announces King Charles will go into the hospital for treatment for an enlarged prostate. He is discharged from the hospital on January 29. On February 5, Buckingham Palace announces Charles has been diagnosed with a form of cancer, not prostate cancer. During his recent hospitalization a separate issue was identified.
February 16 – The Russian prison service announces that jailed Russian opposition figure and outspoken Kremlin critic, Alexey Navalny, has died. His death sparks protests worldwide, with many gathering outside Russian embassies in European capital cities, waving banners reading “Putin is a killer” and chanting “Putin to the Hague.”
February 29 – At least 112 people are killed and 760 injured in an incident where Israel Defense Forces troops used live fire as Palestinian civilians were gathering around food aid trucks, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.
March 8 – Former President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernández is found guilty of drug trafficking by an American jury after a two-week trial in Manhattan federal court. Prosecutors had accused Hernández, 55, of conspiring with drug cartels during his tenure as they moved more than 400 tons of cocaine through Honduras toward the United States. In exchange, prosecutors said, Hernández received millions of dollars in bribes that he used to fuel his rise in Honduran politics. In June, Hernández is sentenced to 45 years in prison.
March 18 – The Central Election Commission reports Vladimir Putin won 87.3% of the vote on a record turnout of 77.5%. Russia’s longest-serving leader since Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, Putin secures a third full decade of rule. On May 7, Putin formally begins his fifth term as Russia’s president in a carefully choreographed inauguration ceremony.
March 22 – At least 139 people are killed in an attack on Crocus City concert hall in Russia. ISIS claims responsibility for the assault in a short statement published by the ISIS-affiliated Amaq news agency on Telegram. The attack was the deadliest to hit Russia since the Beslan school siege of 2004.
April 1 – Seven aid workers, including foreign nationals, from the non-profit World Central Kitchen are killed in an Israeli military strike as they were delivering food to starving civilians in Gaza. World Central Kitchen says its aid workers were traveling in a “deconflicted zone” in two armored cars branded with the charity’s logo as well as “a soft skin vehicle.”
April 3 – At least nine people are killed and more than 900 others are injured after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake strikes the east coast of Taiwan, the strongest in 25 years.
April 13 – Six people are killed and several others injured, including a nine-month-old baby, in a mass stabbing at a busy shopping mall in Sydney, Australia. The suspect is killed by police.
May 19 – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is killed, along with his foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and seven others in a helicopter crash in Iran’s remote northwest. He is confirmed dead by state media on May 20.
June 2 – Mexico elects its first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist, and Mexico City’s former mayor. Sheinbaum will also be Mexico’s first Jewish leader. She is sworn in on October 1.
June 8 – The Israeli military rescues four Israeli hostages. At least 274 Palestinians are killed and hundreds are injured in the operation, according to Gazan authorities.
June 17 – An Israeli official tells CNN Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved his war cabinet.
June 26 – Julian Assange lands back home in Australia a free man following a 14-year legal battle, after a US judge signs off on his unexpected plea deal.
July 4 – The Labour Party wins Britain’s general election by a landslide, ending a 14-year era of Conservative rule. Labour leader Keir Starmer is the new prime minister, replacing Rishi Sunak.
July 29 – Protests break out in several Venezuelan cities after Nicolas Maduro is formally declared the winner by the county’s electoral authority in a presidential race marred by accusations of electoral fraud. On August 1, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken says “it is clear” that Maduro lost the popular vote.
September 1 – Israel’s military announce the bodies of six hostages held by Hamas have been recovered in an underground tunnel. The captives, including Israeli American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, were among the more than 200 people taken on October 7.
September 18 – Walkie-talkies detonate in Lebanon, killing at least 20 people and wounding hundreds, a day after pager blasts killed at least 12 people, including children, and injured thousands. Israel is behind the attacks. On September 30, the Israeli military says it has begun a “limited ground operation” in southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah.
October 10 – Tennis legend Rafael Nadal announces he is retiring from the sport.
October 29 – Spain is hit with its deadliest floods in decades, after a year’s worth of rain falls in just hours in the country’s southern and eastern regions. Over 200 people are killed.
Awards and Winners
January 7 – The 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards are presented live on CBS.
January 8 – The Michigan Wolverines defeat the Washington Huskies 34-13 in the College Football Playoff National Championship game in Houston.
January 14-28 – The 112th Australian Open takes place. Jannik Sinner overcomes a two-set deficit to defeat Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in a five-set final and claims the men’s Australian Open title, becoming the first Italian man to win a grand slam since 1976. Aryna Sabalenka successfully defends her Australian Open women’s title, defeating China’s Zheng Qinwen in the final.
January 15 – The 75th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony takes place with Anthony Anderson as host. It was originally scheduled for September 18, 2023, but was postponed due to the writers’ and actors’ strikes in Hollywood.
February 4 – The 66th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony takes place in Los Angeles at the Crypto.com Arena.
February 11 – Super Bowl LVIII takes place at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. The Kansas City Chiefs defeat the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime. The Chiefs become the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowls in 19 years.
February 19 – William Byron wins the 66th Annual Daytona 500. Originally scheduled to take place on February 18, the race was delayed a day due to heavy rain.
March 10 – The 96th Annual Academy Awards ceremony takes place, with Jimmy Kimmel hosting.
March 12 – Dallas Seavey wins his sixth Iditarod, breaking the record for most wins.
April 7 – NCAA Women’s Basketball Finals – The South Carolina Gamecocks defeat the University of Iowa Hawkeyes 87-75 in Cleveland, to complete a perfect 38-0 season and win a third national championship.
April 8 – NCAA Men’s Basketball Finals – The University of Connecticut Huskies defeat the Purdue Boilermakers 75-60 in Glendale, Arizona, to win their second successive men’s basketball national championship title and sixth overall.
April 11-14 – The 88th Masters tournament takes place. Scottie Scheffler wins, claiming his second Masters title.
April 15 – The 128th Boston Marathon takes place. The winners are Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia in the men’s division and Hellen Obiri of Kenya in the women’s division.
May 4 – Mystik Dan wins the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby in a dramatic photo finish.
May 13-14 – The 148th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show takes place at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York. GCHG CH Surrey Sage “Sage”, a miniature poodle, wins Best in Show.
May 18 – Seize The Grey wins the 149th running of the Preakness Stakes.
May 19 – Xander Schauffele wins the 106th PGA Championship at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.
May 26-June 9 – The French Open takes place at Roland Garros in Paris. Carlos Alcaraz wins his third grand slam title and first French Open title, defeating Alexander Zverev. Alcaraz becomes the youngest man to claim a grand slam title on every surface having won the US Open in 2022 and Wimbledon in 2023. Iga Świątek wins her third consecutive French Open title with a victory against Italy’s Jasmine Paolini.
May 26 – Josef Newgarden wins the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500. He is the sixth driver to win back-to-back races in Indianapolis.
June 8 – Dornoch, co-owned by 2008 World Series champion Jayson Werth, wins the Belmont Stakes.
June 16 – The 77th Tony Awards take place, with Ariana DeBose hosting for the third time.
June 16 – American golfer Bryson DeChambeau wins his second US Open title, finishing one stroke ahead of Rory McIlroy in a nerve-shredding finale at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina.
June 17 – The Boston Celtics defeat the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 in Game 5 to win the NBA championship and secure their league-record 18th title.
June 24 – The Florida Panthers defeat the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 to capture the first NHL championship in franchise history.
June 29-July 21 – The 111th Tour de France takes place. Tadej Pogačar wins his third Tour de France title.
July 1-14 – Wimbledon takes place in London. Carlos Alcaraz defeats Novak Djokovic in the men’s final, becoming the first Spaniard to successfully defend his Wimbledon crown. Barbora Krejčíková defeats Jasmine Paolini in the women’s final, to win her first Wimbledon title.
July 18-21 – Xander Schauffele wins the 152nd Open Championship at Royal Troon Golf Club in Scotland.
July 26-August 11 – The 2024 Olympic Games take place in Paris.
August 26-September 8 – The US Open Tennis Tournament takes place. Aryna Sabalenka defeats Jessica Pegula and Jannik Sinner defeats Taylor Fritz.
September 15 – The 76th annual Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony takes place with Dan and Eugene Levy as hosts.
October 7-14 – The Nobel Prizes are announced. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots Japanese organization of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its efforts “to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.”
October 20 – WNBA Finals – The New York Liberty defeat the Minnesota Lynx 67-62 in Game 5. After five previous Finals appearances, this is the franchise’s first title.
October 30 – The Los Angeles Dodgers win the World Series, defeating the New York Yankees 7-6 in Game 5.
November 3 – The New York City Marathon takes place. The Netherlands’ Abdi Nageeye wins the men’s race. Kenya’s Sheila Chepkirui wins the women’s race.
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