2024 CE

From left to right, top to bottom:; The 2024 Summer Olympics are held in Paris, France; Flooded bridge in Kłodzko, Poland, as part of the European floods, which left at least 337 people dead; Speaker of the National Assembly Woo Won-shik signing the resolution to impeach South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol following the latter's declaration of martial law; Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei leading the funeral prayer for Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, who was assassinated in Tehran by an Israeli attack; Donald Trump, winner of the U.S. presidential election, pays respect to Corey Comperatore, who was killed in an assassination attempt on Trump; People cheering after the resignation of Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, ending the first ever successful Gen Z revolution; Krasnogorsk's Crocus City Hall music venue after a terrorist attack that killed 151 people and injured 609, the deadliest in Russia since the Beslan school siege in 2004; Syrians celebrate the fall of the President Bashar al-Assad's regime at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

January 1 – Ethiopia announces an agreement with Somaliland to use the port of Berbera. Ethiopia also says that it will eventually recognize Somaliland's independence, becoming the first country to do so.source
January 1 – The Republic of Artsakh is formally dissolved following the recapture of the Nagorno-Karabakh region by Azerbaijan.source
January 1 – Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates become BRICS members.source
January 15 – Following a brief political crisis in the aftermath of the 2023 elections, Bernardo Arévalo is inaugurated as the 52nd President of Guatemala.source
January 22 – Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha: The Ram Mandir is inaugurated by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.source
February 4 – 2024 Salvadoran presidential election: Incumbent President Nayib Bukele wins the election with over 80% of the vote, becoming the first president to be reelected in El Salvador since 1944.source
February 11 – 2024 Finnish presidential election: In the closest presidential election in Finnish history, Alexander Stubb is elected president in the second round.source
March 7 – As the final Nordic country to join the alliance, Sweden officially joins NATO, becoming its 32nd member after Finland a year earlier.source
March 15–17 – 2024 Russian presidential election: Incumbent Vladimir Putin is reelected for a fifth term.source
April 9 – Following Leo Varadkar's resignation, Fine Gael leader Simon Harris becomes Ireland's youngest Taoiseach after a Dáil vote of 88–69 and appointment by President Michael D. Higgins.source
April 10 – 2024 South Korean legislative election: The Democratic Party and Democratic Alliance wins 176 seats, while the People Power and People Future, to which President Yoon Suk Yeol belongs, wins only 108 seats.source
May 5 – 2024 Panamanian general election: José Raúl Mulino is elected president.source
May 15 – Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore since 2004, is succeeded by former Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong as prime minister, ahead of the next general election to be held by 2025.source
May 29 – 2024 South African general election: The ANC party fails to win a majority of the vote for the first time in South Africa's democratic history.source
June 6–9 – The 2024 European Parliament election is held. The EPP, of incumbent Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, retains its status as the largest group in parliament amid notable gains by far-right political groups.source
June 14 – 2024 South African general election: The ANC and other opposition parties agree to form a national unity government, with Cyril Ramaphosa being re-elected President of South Africa.source
June 14 – July 14 – UEFA Euro 2024 is held in Germany, and is won by Spain.source
July 4 – 2024 United Kingdom general election: Sir Keir Starmer leads the Labour Party to victory, returning the party to government for the first time in 14 years.source
July 23 – China brokers a unity agreement between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas to form a single government.source
August 14 – The Constitutional Court of Thailand dismisses the Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin for illegally appointing a minister to his cabinet who had a prison sentence. Paetongtarn Shinawatra succeeds him as Prime Minister of Thailand.source
September 29 – 2024 Austrian legislative election: Far-right Freedom Party secures a historical victory, but does not reach a majority in the National Council. The results are deemed the first far-right win since World War II.source
October 20 – Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka are inaugurated as the president and vice president of Indonesia.source
December 14 – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's powers and duties are suspended after MPs vote to impeach him, following his martial law declaration the previous week.source
December 27 – Acting President of South Korea Han Duck-soo is impeached by MPs for failing to promulgate two bills related to president Yoon's legal proceedings. He is succeeded by deputy prime minister Choi Sang-mok.source

Conflict & Security

January 12 – Operation Prosperity Guardian: A U.S.-led coalition launches airstrikes at Houthi militant locations in Yemen, marking a retaliation to the Houthis' attacks on ships in the Red Sea.source
January 26 – Gaza war: The UN's International Court of Justice rules that Israel must take all measures to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, but stops short of ordering an immediate halt to operations.source
February 29 – Gaza war: Soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces open fire on a crowd of civilians in Gaza City, killing more than 100 people, as the Palestinian casualties of the war exceed 30,000.source
March 11 – Haitian acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry announces his pending resignation from both offices amid an ongoing crisis marked by gang warfare in the country.source
March 14 – The United Nations estimates that at least 56% of Palestinian civilians killed in the Gaza war were women and children.source
March 22 – Islamic State-affiliated gunmen attack concertgoers at Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, Russia, killing at least 151 people and injuring 609.source
March 25 – The UN Security Council passes a resolution calling for an "immediate ceasefire" in the Gaza war and demanding the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.source
April 13 – Iran launches retaliatory strikes against Israel after an Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus earlier in the month.source
April 17 – Gaza war protests at universities escalate across the globe and allege Israel is committing genocide.source
May 15 – Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico is shot and hospitalized while meeting with supporters at an event in Handlová.source
May 19 – A coup d'état attempt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo reportedly led by Christian Malanga leads to unrest in Kinshasa. Government soldiers quickly intervene, arresting the coup leaders and reportedly restoring calm.source
May 24 – The UN's highest court, the ICJ, rules that Israel must halt its military offensive in Rafah, southern Gaza.source
June 12 – The United Nations' first inquiry into the October 7 attacks and resulting conflict finds that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes.source
July 13 – While campaigning for the 2024 United States presidential election, former President Donald Trump is shot in the right ear in an assassination attempt at a rally he held near Butler, Pennsylvania.source
July 31 – Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, is assassinated at his residence in Tehran, Iran.source
August 5 – Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina announces her resignation and flees to India following nationwide protests.source
August 11 – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announces that the Ukrainian military is conducting a cross-border offensive inside Russia's western Kursk Oblast. Russia says that 76,000 people have been evacuated from the region.source
August 25 – The Israel Defense Forces begin a series of preemptive strikes against targets in the south of Lebanon.source
September 15 – Ryan Wesley Routh is accused of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump in Florida. Routh is later captured and arrested, and a trial date has been set for 2025.source
September 17–18 – Thirty-two people are killed and more than 3,200 are injured after pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah militants and medics explode in two massive cyberattacks. Israel is the presumed perpetrator.source
October 1 – The Israel Defense Forces invade southern Lebanon, escalating its conflict against Hezbollah.source
November 30 – Syrian civil war: Opposition forces seize control of most of Aleppo, Syria, prompting the first Russian airstrikes on the city since 2016.source
December 3 – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declares martial law during a late-night address broadcast live on YTN television, accusing the country's main opposition Democratic Party of sympathizing with North Korea and engaging in anti-state activities.source
December 8 – Syrian civil war: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flees from Damascus to Moscow after being overthrown, ending his presidency and the Ba'athist Syria regime after a total of 61 years. The Syrian opposition forms the Syrian transitional government as a provisional government.source

Exploration & Expansion

March 31 – Bulgaria and Romania become members of the Schengen Area through sea and air routes.source
August 1 – 2024 American–Russian prisoner exchange: 26 individuals are released from Ankara Esenboğa Airport in the largest prisoner exchange between the United States and Russia since the Cold War.source

Religion & Belief

June 30 - Daniil Nikolov is elected as the 29th Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.source
November 12 – Justin Welby announces his resignation as Archbishop of Canterbury following the publication of a report critical of his handling of the abuse of children within the Church of England by John Smyth.source
December 7 – The Notre-Dame Cathedral reopens to the public after previously being damaged by a structural fire in 2019.source

Economy & Finance

September 2 – The Brazilian Supreme Court upholds a decision to block the social media platform X (also known as Twitter) over what the Brazilian government determined to be rampant disinformation and Elon Musk's failure to name a legal representative to the country.source
November 5 – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismisses FDP leader Christian Lindner from his position as finance minister, leading to two other FDP ministers resigning and the collapse of the governing coalition.source

Technology & Infrastructure

February 22 – American company Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander becomes the first commercial vehicle to land on the Moon.source
March 13 – The Artificial Intelligence Act, the world's first comprehensive legal and regulatory framework for artificial intelligence, is passed by the European Union.source
September 30 – The UK becomes the first G7 country to phase out coal power for electric generation, after 142 years of using the energy source.source
November 9 – A suicide bombing at the Quetta railway station in Balochistan, Pakistan kills at least 26 people. The bombing was orchestrated by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), and is the first time that the organization had attacked the center of Quetta.source
December 29 – A truck carrying passengers falls off a bridge over the Ganale Doria River in Bona Zuria, Sidama Region, Ethiopia, killing 71 people and injuring 4 others.source

Science & Discovery

January 19 – Japan becomes the 5th country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, with its SLIM mission.source
April 8 – A total solar eclipse is visible across North America.source
June 5 – Starliner Crewed Flight Test launches atop an Atlas V rocket to the ISS.source
September 12 – The first commercial spacewalk is conducted by entrepreneur Jared Isaacman as part of the Polaris Dawn mission, which also includes the highest altitude orbit by a human crew since the Apollo program.source
October 12 – The long-period comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS), described as the "comet of the century", makes its closest approach to Earth.source
October 13 – SpaceX achieves the first successful return and capture of a Super Heavy booster from Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever to fly.source
October 14 – The Europa Clipper spacecraft is launched to investigate Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter.source
November 15 – The spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) Is rediscovered in the Elba Protected Area of Southeast Egypt, 5,000 years after the species was believed to have been extirpated from the region.source
November 21 – Researchers using the Very Large Telescope announce the first-ever "close-up" image of a star outside the Milky Way Galaxy, WOH G64.source
December 24 – The Parker Solar Probe breaks the previous record set in 2018 for the closest artificial object to the Sun by 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million miles), becoming the closest and first man-made object to approach and "touch" the Sun.source

Health & Medicine

July 19 – Global IT outages impact a variety of businesses and organisations across the world.source
August 14 – The World Health Organization (WHO) declares mpox a public health emergency of international concern for the second time in two years, following the spread of the virus in African countries.source
October 24 – The first case of the 2024 Kwango province disease outbreak is reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.source

Crime & Justice

May 20 – The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court seeks arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar over alleged war crimes.source
May 30 – Former United States President Donald Trump is found guilty on 34 counts in his hush money trial, the first time any American president had been found guilty of a crime.source
June 24 – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leaves the United Kingdom after being freed from prison in a plea deal with the United States. He returns to his native Australia two days later.source
July 31 – Moussa Dadis Camara, the former military ruler of Guinea, is found guilty of crimes against humanity in the massacres that occurred in 2009 and is sentenced to twenty years in prison by a Guinean court.source
August 13 – 2024 Kolkata rape and murder: Thousands of doctors and students take part in protests and rallies against domestic violence in cities across the world after the rape and murder of a 31 year old post-graduate trainee doctor in Kolkata on 9 August.source
August 23 – In Solingen, Germany, a Syrian immigrant stabs three people to death, which leads to the intensification of the debate on migration in Germany.source
October 16 – Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas, is killed in a gunfight with Israeli forces in Rafah.source
December 19 – The Hungarian government of Viktor Orbán has granted political asylum to Polish MP of Law and Justice Marcin Romanowski, who is wanted on the European Arrest Warrant for being accused of defrauding 100 million zł from the Fundusz Sprawiedliwości (Justice Fund) when he was deputy minister of justice during the PiS government.source
December 19 – Mazan rapes trial: The Judicial Court in Avignon, France, finds Dominique Pelicot guilty of the aggravated rape of his ex-wife Gisèle Pelicot and imposes the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The 50 other defendants in the case are also convicted of crimes ranging from attempted rape to aggravated rape, and receive prison sentences ranging from three to 15 years.source

Disasters & Accidents

January 1 – A 7.5 M ww earthquake strikes the western coast of Japan (Noto Peninsula), killing at least 504 people and injuring 1,389 others. A further 5 are killed the next day when a Coast Guard aircraft carrying humanitarian aid was involved in a collision with a Japan Airlines Airbus A350-900 aircraft, destroying both aircraft. All 379 people aboard the passenger jet are evacuated safely.source
January 24 – 2024 Korochansky Ilyushin Il-76 crash: A Russian Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane carrying (according to Russia) 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, 6 crew members, and 3 guards crashes in Russia's Korochansky District, near the Ukrainian border, killing everyone on board.source
April 1 – Israel attacks the Iranian embassy in Damascus, killing 16 people.source
May 19 – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian are killed, along with seven other passengers and crew, in a helicopter crash near the Azerbaijan–Iran border.source
June 10 – A plane crash near Chikangawa, Malawi, kills nine people, including Vice President of Malawi Saulos Chilima.source
June 29 – 2024 Borno State bombings: 30 people are killed and 100 are injured when three separate bomb blasts occur in the town of Gwoza in Borno State, Nigeria.source
August 9 – Voepass Flight 2283, an ATR 72, crashes near Vinhedo, São Paulo, Brazil, killing all 62 people on board.source
August 31 – A helicopter crashed in Kamchatka Krai, Russia, killing all 22 occupants on board.source
December 20 – Six people are killed, while over 300 are injured, after a car is driven into a crowd at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany.source
December 25 – Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243, an Embraer ERJ-190AR, crashes in Kazakhstan. Twenty-nine out of the 67 on board survive the crash.source
December 29 – Jeju Air Flight 2216, a Boeing 737-800 passenger flight from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, to Muan International Airport in Muan, South Korea, veers off the runway at Muan International Airport and crashes into a barrier, killing 179 people. Two injured survivors are reported.source

Climate & Environment

April 3 – A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 strikes off the eastern coast of Taiwan, with small tsunamis reaching heights of 20 – 30 hitting Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.source
April 16 – 2024 Persian Gulf floods: At least 32 people are killed when heavy rainfall strikes the Middle East, causing flash flooding. This caused many disruptions for the airline Emirates at Dubai International Airport.source
April 29 – Floods in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul cause dozens of deaths and leave thousands homeless.source
May 8 – In North Macedonian elections, the right-wing party VMRO-DPMNE wins in a landslide in the parliamentary elections, while its presidential candidate Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova is elected as the first female president of the country in the second round of the presidential election.source
May 10 – A series of solar storms and intense solar flares impact the Earth, rated G5 by NOAA, creating aurorae at more southerly and northerly latitudes than usual. This was the first G5 storm since 2003.source
May 24 – A major landslide in Papua New Guinea kills 160–2,000+ people, with many more buried.source
May 26 – 2024 Lithuanian presidential election: Incumbent president Gitanas Nausėda wins a landslide victory for a second term in office.source
July 1 – Hurricane Beryl becomes the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record after devastating the island of Carriacou, Grenada.source
July 22 – Landslides kill 257 people and bury two villages in Geze Gofa, Gofa Zuria, Ethiopia.source
July 30 – At least 334 people are killed, over 200 injured, and 281 missing following landslides in Wayanad district, Kerala, India.source
September 12 – Heavy rainfall in Central Europe triggers the worst flooding in the region since 2010.source
September 26 – Hurricane Helene, the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Maria in 2017, makes landfall in Florida as a category four hurricane. It has a death toll of 236 and leaves more than 685 missing.source
October 7 – Hurricane Milton becomes the fourth most intense hurricane in the Atlantic Basin, and the most intense storm in the Gulf of Mexico tying with Hurricane Rita in 2005. Milton is also the first hurricane to reach a pressure below 900 millibars in nearly 20 years.source
October 29 – 2024 Spanish floods: Spain experiences its worst flooding in half a century, with over 200 killed and many more missing, as a year's worth of rain falls in eight hours.source
December 14 – Cyclone Chido makes landfall in Mayotte, causing at least 172 deaths and bringing devastating damage to the island.source
December 17 – The capital of Vanuatu, Port Vila, suffers extensive damage after a 7.3 earthquake. At least 16 people are killed.source

Culture & Society

January 31 – Sultan of Johor Ibrahim Iskandar ascends the throne as the 17th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.source
May 7–11 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 is held in Malmö, Sweden. Swiss contestant Nemo wins with the song "The Code".source
June 1–29 – The 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup is co-hosted by the West Indies and the United States, and is won by India.source
June 20 – July 14 – The 2024 Copa América is held in the United States, and is won by Argentina.source
July 26 – August 11 – The 2024 Summer Olympics are held in Paris, France. The controversial opening ceremony and the boxing match of Luca Hámori and Imane Khelif spark international debate.source
August 28 – September 8 – The 2024 Summer Paralympics are held in Paris, France.source
October 3–20 – The 2024 ICC Women's T20 World Cup is held in the United Arab Emirates, and is won by New Zealand.source
November 11–22 – COP29 is held in Baku, Azerbaijan.source
December 11 – FIFA announces that Morocco, Portugal and Spain will jointly host the 2030 World Cup, with anniversary matches to be held in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, while Saudi Arabia is confirmed as the host for 2034.source
December 12 – Indian chess prodigy Gukesh Dommaraju defeats former world champion Ding Liren in the 2024 World Chess Championship, breaking the previous age record of 22 set by Garry Kasparov by becoming champion at 18 years, 195 days old.source
December 24 – The 2025 Jubilee in the Catholic Church begins.source

Deaths

February 4 – President of Namibia Hage Geingob dies at the age of 82, and is succeeded by his vice-president Nangolo Mbumba.source
February 6 – Former President of Chile Sebastián Piñera dies in a helicopter crash at the age of 74.source
February 16 – Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader, dies under mysterious circumstances at the age of 47.source
March 26 – A container ship collides with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, causing a total collapse of the bridge and the deaths of six people.source
April 29 – 50 people are killed, and 84 are reported missing, when a railway embankment fails near Mai Mahiu, Kenya, adding to the devastation caused by wider floods in Kenya and Tanzania which have caused the deaths of 488 people and the displacement of 503,000.source
June 23 – 2024 Hajj disaster: More than 1,300 people are reported to have died due to extreme heat during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.source
August 3 – The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam elects Tô Lâm as the new General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, succeeding Nguyễn Phú Trọng, who died on July 19.source
December 21 – Thirty-nine people died and another seven are injured after a multiple-vehicle collision occurs on the BR-116 highway in Teófilo Otoni, Minas Gerais, Brazil. It is the deadliest traffic accident on federal highways in Brazil since 2007, when numbers were first monitored.source