2024

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

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 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, who had held power for 15 years, following the first ever successful Gen Z revolution; Krasnogorsk's Crocus City Hall music venue after a terrorist attack that killed 145 people and injured 551, the deadliest in Russia since 2004; Syrians celebrate the fall of the president Bashar al-Assad's regime at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.

2024 (MMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2024th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 24th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 5th year of the 2020s decade.

The year saw the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russo-Ukrainian war, the Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war, and the Islamist insurgency in the Sahel. The Gaza war led to widespread protests and spillover conflicts into numerous other countries, most notably Lebanon, which was invaded by Israel in October. This followed an intensification of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. In September, Israel escalated an offensive against the group, which resulted in the killing of the Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah. Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, had also been assassinated in the Iranian capital Tehran in July, and his successor Yahya Sinwar was killed by the Israel Defense Forces in October. In November, heavy fighting resumed in the Syrian civil war, leading to the toppling of Ba'athist Syria, with Bashar al-Assad fleeing Syria in December. The year also saw a rise in activity by the Houthi movement which contributed to a crisis in the Red Sea that impacted global shipping.

Approximately 80 countries, representing around 4 billion people, conducted national elections throughout the course of the year, including eight out of the ten most populous countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, Pakistan, Russia, India, Mexico, Indonesia, and the United States) as well as France, the United Kingdom, and Japan. The European Parliament also held elections. Among democracies, over 80% saw the incumbent party lose support compared to the last election, including many significant losses. In countries like Japan, Botswana, and South Africa, incumbent parties that had dominated domestic politics for decades lost their majorities and either relinquished power or are holding on through coalitions with minor parties. Bassirou Diomaye Faye won the 2024 Senegalese presidential election, becoming the first opposition candidate to win in the first round since the country's independence. In Sri Lanka, voters delivered a landslide victory to the National People's Power, previously a minor party. On November 5, 2024, Republican Donald Trump won the 2024 United States presidential election, becoming the first U.S. president to be elected to a nonconsecutive second term since 1892. The French and German governments lost votes of no confidence. In December, South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol's attempt to declare and impose martial law was thwarted by members of parliament, sparking a political crisis that led to his impeachment.

Events

January

Damage caused by the 7.5 magnitude earthquake and subsequent fires in the city of Wajima, Japan

February

Sebastián Piñera, former President of Chile, died in a helicopter crash on February 6

March

Vladimir Putin was re-elected in the 2024 Russian presidential election, held from March 15 to 17.
MV Dali under collapsed segments of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26 in Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Sixteen people were killed in an Israeli attack in Damascus on April 1

April

The solar eclipse of April 8, 2024 is visible across North America.
Simon Harris becomes Ireland's youngest Taoiseach on April 9 after Leo Varadkar resigned
Persian Gulf floods as seen in Manama, Bahrain, on April 16
Aerial photographs of the Rio Grande do Sul floods in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on May 5

May

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 on May 19.
Halla Tómasdóttir wins the 2024 Icelandic presidential election on June 1.

June

Donald Trump's ear was injured in an assassination attempt on July 13.

July

Blue screens caused by a worldwide faulty CrowdStrike software update on July 19 at LaGuardia Airport, New York City
Twenty-six individuals are released on August 1 from Ankara Esenboğa Airport in the largest prisoner exchange between the United States and Russia since the Cold War.

August

Tô Lâm succeeds Nguyễn Phú Trọng as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam on August 3
Infrared satellite imagery of Typhoon Yagi making landfall over Hainan on September 6

September

Rising smoke in Beirut after the assassination of Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah on September 27
Iran attacks Israel with ballistic missiles as a response to Israel's offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon on October 1

October

Donald Trump won the 2024 United States presidential election on November 5

November

December

Births

Deaths

Nobel Prizes

Nobel medal
Nobel medal

Notes