With 2024 quickly coming to a close, it’s a perfect time to look back at the pop culture high points and, at times, low points of the year. There was no shortage of celebrations, awards, anniversaries and antics throughout the year — many which provided inspiration for the annual mammoth crossword puzzle appearing in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s print edition on Sunday, Dec. 22. Our annual holiday gift to readers fills two whole pages in the Living & Arts section. If you want an early glimpse at some hints for the puzzle, or perhaps just a review of some memorable moments, read on for a quick stroll down 2024′s memory lane.
For starters, remember eclipse fever? A total solar eclipse across a huge swath of the United States, Canada and Mexico was the most buzzworthy event of the spring. Other nuggets of space news abounded, too: Three new moons were discovered in our solar system; a billionaire took the first commercial spacewalk; and Japan became the fifth country to reach the moon.
Noteworthy accomplishments were happening back here on earth, too. Gymnast Simone Biles and swimmer Katie Ledecky each won four more medals at the Paris Olympics. Shohei Ohtani became the first MLB player to steal over 50 bases and hit over 50 home runs in a season. Caitlin Clark broke the all-time NCAA Division 1 college basketball career scoring record. Speaking of basketball, the Boston Celtics captured the NBA championship. Other teams raising their league’s ultimate trophies were NHL’s Florida Panthers, World Series winners Los Angeles Dodgers and Super Bowl Champs Kansas City Chiefs.
The Super Bowl also gave all those Swifties out there a chance to see the mega-successful Taylor Swift cheer on her Chiefs boyfriend Travis Kelce while taking a quick pause from her record-breaking Eras tour. By the time Swift’s tour ended, she had performed 149 shows on five continents leading Eras to become the highest grossing tour of all time and the first to exceed $1 billion in revenue.
Of course, no year of pop culture news would be complete without a look back at some of the more bizarre events that occurred. At 58, former heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson “fought” 27-year-old Jake Paul. More than 40 monkeys escaped from a research lab in South Carolina. And, the marriage of the first Golden Bachelor became tarnished and ended after just three months.
Now you’re ready! Test your trivia knowledge by checking out the 2024 mammoth crossword in the print edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sunday, Dec. 22.
