JANUARY 31: In an emotional moment on Capitol Hill, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stood up and directly addressed the families of kids who’ve been harmed by social media, telling them, “I’m sorry for everything you have all been through. No one should have to go through the things your families have suffered.” Zuckerberg and four other tech execs were grilled by the Senate Judiciary Committee about the negative impacts of social media on kids.

But it wasn’t the US that took the most aggressive action in this arena. In November, Australia became the first country to ban social media for kids under 16. It goes into effect next year.

FEBRUARY 2: Days before the Grammy Awards at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, more than a dozen people broke into the Oceanwide Plaza development next door and tagged at least 27 floors with graffiti. (Construction on the $1 billion project has been stalled since its Chinese developer ran out of money in 2019.) It made for some spectacular shots.

MARCH 26: In the early hours of a cold March morning, the cargo ship Dali left the Port of Baltimore, lost power, and struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, killing six construction workers and destroying a route that was used by about 30,000 people daily. It also cut off access to one of the US’ busiest ports, temporarily disrupting supply chains.

The incident sparked lawsuits and a frantic cleanup effort that culminated in the Port of Baltimore being reopened 78 days after the bridge collapsed. Rebuilding the Key Bridge is expected to start next year and be completed in 2028.

APRIL 8: Amateur astronomers watch the total solar eclipse at the Southern Illinois University football stadium. In the US, 31 million people lived inside the “path of totality,” and millions more traveled to the 115-mile-wide swath that cut from Texas to Maine. The eclipse was estimated to deliver a $6 billion infusion to the US economy—not far off the combined impact of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and the 2023 Super Bowl. A total solar eclipse won’t be visible in the US again until 2044.

Here’s a bonus picture of the eclipse over the Washington Monument:

MAY 16: Jacinto Rodriguez works the ridiculously hot grill (680 degrees Fahrenheit) while preparing tacos at Mexico City’s Tacos El Califa de León. It became the first Mexican taco stand to be awarded a Michelin star.

JULY 19: This display in the Dubai Metro was one of many around the world that were hit with the “blue screen of death” after a defective software update released by CrowdStrike caused a massive global IT outage. Among the impacts: Tens of thousands of flights were affected, banks couldn’t execute transfers, and Starbucks’s mobile ordering went down. Delta Air Lines and CrowdStrike both sued each other after Delta demanded CrowdStrike pay the $500 million it lost from the outage. That action is pending.

AUGUST 10: In a Louvre-worthy photo of an Olympics that was full of them, Team USA’s Stephen Curry shoots over France’s towering Victor Wembanyama in the men’s basketball gold medal game, which the Americans won thanks to Curry’s heroics. Hosting the Paris Olympics was one of the few bright spots for France this year, which experienced considerable political and economic turmoil.

Here are a few bonus pictures from the Olympics

The internet’s favorite breaker, Raygun of Australia:

And the remarkable surfing shot that still doesn’t look real.

OCTOBER 5: Elon Musk leapt for joy while on stage at a rally for then-candidate Donald Trump in Butler, PA, the same location where Trump survived an assassination attempt months before, in July. Musk spent $250 million to help reelect Trump, and it appears to have been a savvy investment. Musk’s net worth surged above $400 billion since investors expect that his coziness with the president-elect will lead to favorable policies for his companies, like Tesla, in the upcoming administration.

DECEMBER 4: Luigi Mangione, who was charged with murder in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, briefly showed his face from under a mask during a conversation in an NYC hostel, helping investigators track him down at a McDonald’s in Altoona, PA, days after the shooting. The brazen assassination of a healthcare CEO in midtown Manhattan—and the sympathetic reaction to it online—sparked a national debate on the American healthcare system and insurers’ roles in it.