WHAT ELSE HAPPENED IN 2024

If things like wars and elections made you less inclined to read the news in 2024, we've done the hard yards and dug around the back pages of all the newspapers to find some of the stranger stories you might have missed from around the world over the past 12 months.

JANUARY

A tough piece of tech

A good luck story kicked off the year: when an Alaska Airlines plane lost a panel at an altitude of 16,000 feet, one passenger’s iPhone was sucked out of the hole. It would later be found by a stranger, lying under a bush on a roadside in the US state of Washington, with no scratches on the screen, and 44 percent of its battery life remaining.

FEBRUARY

Blaspheming birds

Lincolnshire Wildlife Park in the UK was forced to move eight parrots into isolation because of their penchant for swearing loudly. The worry was that dozens of other parrots in the park would copy the behaviour, making for one big potty-mouthed aviary. Zoo officials aren’t certain if their efforts will work, so they’re not planning on taking down the signs that warn visitors of the potential for foul language. Fowl language, even.

MARCH

Medieval mishap

A 33-year-old university academic who lives in an old medieval tower at the University of Cambridge – once the home of 16th-century philosopher Erasmus – found herself stuck in the tower’s bathroom for seven hours when the lock failed. Nobody could hear her cries for help because of the thick stone walls. She was finally able to escape by using an eyeliner and a cotton swab to move the locking mechanism away from the door frame.

APRIL

Cold and gold