They wowed us, inspired us and made us LOL: Stories you don't want to miss from 2024
A massive crowd of manatees sheltering from the cold. A 71-year-old's trailblazing attempt to represent Texas in the Miss USA beauty pageant. Two bear cubs native to Alaska roaming across rural Florida. An answer to a question that haunts soda drinkers across the country: Have beverage containers become harder to open?
USA TODAY's journalists covered a wide range of fun, quirky occurrences and topics that have had fueled conversations in the newsroom and at the dinner tables of our readers. Such stories offered a bit of levity in a whirlwind 12-months that saw the end of a divisive presidential election, several ongoing wars and its share of graphic crimes and natural disasters.
In case you missed one or more of these stories, we compiled a list for your reading pleasure. Here are some of the most conversation-inducing stories of 2024:
Nearly 1,000 manatees huddle for warmth amid cold spell
On Jan. 21, park rangers in Orange City, Florida, spotted a massive crowd of manatees in the clear waters of a natural spring. While the sight is not unusual during stretches of cold weather, the sheer volume of sea cows stuck out to them. So the rangers got to counting.
Their final tally – 932 – surged past the record of 736 set a month earlier and was more than double the single-day record set in 2014. The sea cows huddled in the Blue Spring to escape the chilly waters of the St. Johns River, which had dropped into the 50s during a run of cold weather.
"Those high numbers are heartening, and a tribute to the conservation efforts and awareness of scientists, natural resource managers, and the public over the past several decades,” John Bengston, a federal wildlife ecologist in Alaska, told USA TODAY.
The population of manatees in Florida has steadily risen from about 1,500 in the 1990s to somewhere between 8,350 to 11,730. But a surge in deaths in recent years – much of which has been blamed on poor water quality, algae blooms, increasingly busier waters and red tide – has led officials to consider whether the manatee should again be considered endangered.
More: About 1,000 manatees piled together in a Florida park, setting a breathtaking record
Texas woman sets record as oldest Miss USA contestant
A 71-year-old woman from El Paso, Texas, became the oldest contestant to vie for a spot in the Miss USA competition this year.
Marissa Teijo, a retired elementary school teacher, threw her hat in the ring after the Miss Universe organization removed age limits and other restrictions as part of an effort to become more inclusive.
Though Teijo did not win the crown, she won the hearts of many women, from young beauty queens to older women who were inspired by her story.
"I thought I could inspire a lot of women to get fit and be healthy, so that was my main objective," she said. "Go in and show Texas that age does not matter if you take care of yourself − and I'm not talking about the face. I'm talking about being fit, having a healthy body, and being strong."
Teijo has been a model and has acted in television commercials. She said she hoped the pageant would lead to other modeling opportunities.
More: Miss Texas USA's oldest contestant wins the hearts of many women
Election overload? Recall 2024's other top stories: Eclipse, bridge collapse, more
Bear cubs native to Alaska found wandering around rural Florida
A pair of Kodiak bears – a unique subspecies of the brown bear native to Alaska – were discovered wandering through a rural area of the Florida Panhandle. A passerby spotted the cubs and called the local sheriff's office. When a deputy arrived, one of the bears tried to climb into her patrol vehicle.
"They’re climbing on my car," the deputy said, according to body camera footage released this year. "It’s like they’re not afraid of people because they’ll walk right up to you and they’ll let you pet them. They’re very curious.”
An investigation by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission found the bears had escaped from an enclosure at the residence of a "self-proclaimed bear trainer." The Miami Herald reported the resident operated a "game farm" and had told authorities he was holding the bears for someone else.
Kodiak bears are considered the largest bears in the world, according to Alaskan authorities. A large male can stand over 10 feet on its hind legs and 5 feet when standing on all fours. They can grow up to 1,500 pounds, three times the size of Florida's native black bears.
Ohio family's Stargate' becomes internet sensation
Longtime fans of the 1994 movie "Stargate" and its subsequent spinoff television shows, Phil Ventura and his sons decided to eternalize the celestial gateway that transported the franchise's characters across the universe. Using a truckload of concrete, a plastic swimming pool and steel rebar, the family built its own Stargate in Ashland County, Ohio.
Well over a decade after the Venturas completed their Stargate, the 50,000 pound replica portal caught wind on social media and became an internet sensation.
Its sudden rise in online popularity came as a surprise to the family, which maintains they didn't tell anyone about the project. "I can't believe they actually found it," Ventura told the Mansfield News Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network.
For Ventura, the homemade gateway, which still sits in his backyard, will always be a reminder of the many days and nights he sat watching "Stargate" with his sons.
"That was the best," Ventura said. "How cool I did something with my boys."
More: Ohio family builds 50,000-pound Stargate with 'dial-home device' to scan the cosmos
It's not just you – bottles and cartons are now harder to open
Have you struggled in recent years to open containers of milk, soda or water? Have you asked yourself if it seems it's increasingly difficult to twist the caps off? You're not alone. USA TODAY reporter Elizabeth Weise wondered about this phenomenon, too, and has identified the culprit: plastic screw-top caps that have been shortened to save plastic.
Experts said new milk carton caps shrunk from 21 millimeters tall to 17 millimeters, about a 19% difference that makes them harder to grip. The plastic lids for plastic soda pop and water bottles got smaller first.
It's a subtle shift in products opened by millions of Americans every day – a change the industry touts as saving not just plastic but also weight, both of which lead to less energy to transport them, a smaller carbon footprint and a lower cost to produce the packaging.
A study by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality found that a typical water bottle weighed 13.3 grams, but shrinking the cap and thinning the plastic bottle reduced the global warming footprint of the package by about 18%.
Still, consumers have noticed. "We keep a pair of pliers in the utility drawer in the kitchen to open them now," Fred Wolden, a retired marine contracting officer with the U.S. Coast Guard who lives in Center City, Wisconsin, told USA TODAY. "You used to have three or four threads to turn. Now you only have two, so it's harder."
More: It's not just you – bottles and cartons are now harder to open. We found out why.
Contributing: Thao Nguyen, Elizabeth Weise, Dinah Volyes Pulver, USA TODAY; Brandon Girod, Pensacola News Journal; Zach Tuggle, Mansfield News Journal
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: USA TODAY's top stories of 2024: Kodiak bears, Stargate, Miss USA
