The year that was: Pennsylvania’s top stories for 2024

From an eclipse, to an earthquake, to Pennsylvania’s pivotal role in the 2024 election, we’re taking a look back at the stories that dominated the headlines this year in the Keystone State.

As 2024 winds down and Pennsylvanians prepare to ring in 2025, we’re taking a look back at some of the top stories that dominated the headlines in the commonwealth this year.

From an eclipse, to an earthquake, to Pennsylvania’s pivotal role in the 2024 election, here are some of the stories that stood out in 2024:

Female firsts in Pennsylvania government

On the second day of 2024, two historic inaugurations took place on either end of the state.

In Philadelphia, Cherelle Parker was sworn in as Philadelphia’s 100th mayor, becoming the first woman to hold the office.

“By every statistic imaginable, I am not supposed to be standing here today,” the 52-year-old Parker told supporters gathered for her roughly hour-long address. “I, Cherelle Parker, was a child who most people thought would never succeed. And they almost did have me thinking the same thing.”

Across the state that day in Allegheny County, home to the state’s second-largest city of Pittsburgh, Sara Innamorato took her oath as county executive. Innamorato is also the first woman to serve in the role and, she joked, perhaps the first with tattoos. 

Dressed in all white—a nod to the suffragettes—she promised, “In my administration, the community’s priorities will be the county’s priorities.”

Man accused of beheading his father in Bucks County home and posting gruesome video online

On Jan. 31, Justin Mohn was arrested and charged with first-degree murder for allegedly beheading his father the previous day in the Bucks County home they shared. The father, Michael Mohn, was found beheaded in the bathroom of the home in Middletown Township. 

After the murder, Mohn, 32, posted a gruesome video on social media that showed him holding up his father’s severed head. In the video, Mohn ordered all militia and patriots across the United States to kill all federal employees. His father was a federal employee with the Army Corps of Engineers. Mohn also listed specific federal officials who should be captured and publicly executed, including giving the name and address of a U.S. District Court Judge as one of his targets. 

Hours after the murder, Mohn was arrested at the National Guard Training Center in Fort Indiantown Gap, Lebanon County. Authorities said Mohn went there in an effort to mobilize the National Guard to raise arms against the federal government.

No trial date has been set.

This photo provided by Bucks County District Attorney’s Office shows Justin Mohn, 32. Mohn, is accused of beheading his father in suburban Philadelphia and posting a gruesome video on social media that shows him holding up the severed head has been charged with first-degree murder and abusing a corpse, authorities said Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. (Bucks County District Attorney’s Office)

4.8 magnitude earthquake felt across Pennsylvania

If you felt the earth move in Pennsylvania shortly before 10:30 a.m. on April 5, you weren’t imagining things. 

An earthquake shook the densely populated New York City metropolitan area that morning, with residents reporting they felt rumbling across the Northeast.

The US Geological Survey reported a quake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.8, centered near Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, or about 30 miles east of Easton and 60 miles north of Philadelphia. Residents in Harrisburg, Montgomery County, and Philadelphia reported their houses shaking and windows rattling. 

According to the USGS, the quake’s impact in Pennsylvania was primarily felt in the eastern part of the state, though the Pittsburgh area and other small pockets throughout the state were impacted as well.

Thousands flock to Erie for eclipse

Pennsylvania’s northwestern corner was the only spot in the state where the full totality of the total solar eclipse on April 8 was expected to be visible. This prompted an estimated 100,000 visitors from across the globe to descend upon Erie and surrounding towns. Area hotels and Airbnbs were booked solid for months, and watch parties and special events were held to witness the once-in-a-lifetime eclipse.

In the end, mid-afternoon darkness blanketed the Erie area for several minutes, while eclipse enthusiasts in the Allentown, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Scranton areas experienced near full totality.

This is a sign in downtown Erie, Pa., on Friday, March 22, 2024 heralding the upcoming total solar eclipse that Erie will experience, with a little luck from the weather, on April 8. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pennsylvania bishop becomes youngest leader of Episcopal Church since 1789

On June 26, Sean Rowe, a 49-year-old bishop in charge of two small dioceses along Lake Erie, became the youngest person ever elected as leader of the Episcopal Church.

Upon being elected, Rowe immediately issued a sobering call for the church, which has faced division and chronic membership loss, to confront an “existential crisis” that he compared with the steel industry collapse in his native Rust Belt.

The only presiding bishop to take the post at a younger age than Rowe was the first one, William White, who was 41 when he served briefly in 1789 when there was no leadership election.

Rowe, a native of Hermitage in Mercer County, was 32 in May 2007, when he was elected bishop of the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania, based in Erie. For almost 12 years, he was the youngest bishop in the Episcopal Church.

Trump assassination attempt in Western Pa.

Just days before he became the official Republican presidential nominee, President-elect Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler on July 13. 

Trump released a statement on his Truth Social platform shortly after being whisked away from the rally, saying he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.”

The Secret Service shot and killed the would-be assassin, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park. 

A 50-year-old former firefighter from Buffalo Township, Corey Comperatore was fatally wounded while shielding his family from the gunfire. Two others attending the rally were critically injured.

President Joe Biden spoke in a press briefing roughly three hours after the shooting. He said “everybody must condemn” the assassination attempt. 

“There’s no place in America for this type of violence,” the president said. “It’s sick. It’s sick.”

America meets VP candidate Tim Walz in Philadelphia

Just after officially becoming the Democratic nominee for president, Vice President Kamala Harris introduced her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, to the nation during a raucous rally at Temple University’s Liacouras Center on Aug. 6 that was aimed at building momentum for the newly minted Democratic presidential ticket in the sprint toward Election Day.

“He’s the kind of person who makes people feel like they belong and then inspires them to dream big. … That’s the kind of vice president America deserves,” Harris said while standing with Walz.

Walz, a veteran and former high school teacher and football coach revved up the crowd for the rigorous campaign to come, underscoring the urgency of the moment. 

“We’ve got 91 days. My God, that’s easy. We’ll sleep when we’re dead,” he said.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was one of the finalists to be Harris’s running mate.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accepting his candidacy for vice president with Kamala Harris in Philadelphia on Aug. 6, 2024. (Photo: Sean Kitchen)

Pennsylvania athletes helped make history at the Paris Olympics

Team USA came out on top in the Olympic medal count in Paris, with 126 medals, including 40 gold.

Pennsylvania athletes played a big part in that success, with several helping Team USA make history. 

Philadelphia’s Kahleah Copper and Harrisburg’s Alyssa Thomas helped the U.S. women’s basketball team win its eighth consecutive gold medal—something no Olympic team has ever done before. 

Kennett Square’s Justin Best, Pittsburgh’s Michael Grady, and Strafford’s Nick Mead made history, winning the first U.S. rowing gold medal in the men’s four class since 1960.

Philadelphia’s Ariana Ramsey helped the U.S. women secure Team USA’s first Olympic rugby sevens medal, taking home the bronze.

Lancaster’s Casey Kaufhold became the first American woman to medal in archery since the U.S. earned a team title in 1988, earning bronze in the mixed team category.

Douglassville’s Chris Guiliano medaled twice in swimming, bringing home gold as part of the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team, and silver with the men’s 4x200m relay team. 

Philadelphia’s Maia Weintraub won gold with the U.S. women’s foil team, the first ever for Team USA fencing. 

Bethlehem native Joe Kovacs earned his third consecutive silver medal in shot put for Team USA.

In his Olympic debut, Murrysville’s Spencer Lee took silver in men’s freestyle wrestling. 

Republicans win key races as Trump takes battleground Pennsylvania

Not only did Donald Trump take Pennsylvania and its crucial 19 electoral votes in the 2024 presidential election, but Republicans won other key races in the state.

Pennsylvania Republicans swept all three statewide offices with York County District Attorney Dave Sunday winning the Attorney General’s race and Auditor General Tim DeFoor and Treasurer Stacy Garrity holding onto their seats. 

Republican David McCormick won Pennsylvania’s pivotal US Senate seat, as the former CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund beat three-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey.

And in the U.S. House, three-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Susan Wild (Lehigh) and six-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright (Lackawanna) both lost to their Republican challengers, state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie and first time candidate Rob Bresnahan, respectively.

This image release by Pennsylvania State Police shows a video image of Luigi Mangione, a suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. (Pennsylvania State Police via AP)

Suspect in murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO captured in Altoona

The Western Pennsylvania town of Altoona was thrust into the spotlight Dec. 9 when it was reported that a man believed to be the suspect in the Manhattan killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was spotted in a local McDonald’s.

That afternoon, Luigi Nicholas Mangione, a 26-year-old University of Pennsylvania graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family, had been arrested in Thompson’s Dec. 4 killing. Manhattan prosecutors charged him with five counts, including murder, criminal possession of a weapon, and criminal possession of a forged instrument.

New York investigators claim that Mangione fled the shooting scene by bike into Central Park, emerged, then took a taxi to a northern Manhattan bus terminal, traveling to Pennsylvania. He reportedly went from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, “trying to stay low-profile” by avoiding cameras, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said. 

Police found Mangione sitting at a table in the back of the McDonald’s, wearing a blue medical mask and looking at a laptop, according to a police criminal complaint. He initially gave them a fake ID, but when an officer asked Mangione whether he’d been to New York recently, he “became quiet and started to shake,” the complaint says.