Whatever Matt Feels Like Posting

(For those of you new here: every year since I discovered http://www.museumofconceptualart.com/accomplished/index.html when I was 15, I've posted what other people accomplished when they were my age. Usually, this is a birthday post, but sometimes I forget until a little later. One time I even forgot about it until my next birthday!)

← Age 23 Age 25 →

At age 24:

Nelly Bly made a solo trip around the world in less than 80 days for the New York World, beating Phileas Fogg's fictional record.

Radioastronomy grad student Jocelyn Bell Burnell observed an unknown signal from outer space; this resulted in the discovery of pulsars.

John Couch Adams became the first person to predict the position of a planetary mass beyond Uranus.

Johannes Kepler defended the Copernican theory and described the structure of the solar system.

Entrepreneur Ted Turner took over his father's billboard advertising business. He later launched CNN.

Tracy Chapman released her first album, winning three Grammies.

Scottish physician Mungo Park became the first European to reach the West African interior.

Edgar Allen Poe won a $50 prize for the story "MS. Found in a Bottle."

Noah Webster published a spelling book.

Isaac Pitman devised the first scientific shorthand system.

Security guard Frank Wills alerted D.C. police to the Watergate break-ins.

Rainey Fellows donated a kidney to her (now ex-) boyfriend. They aren't together now, but he's doing very well. They're still friends.

Helene got a high score of 170440 in the popular online game Robot Unicorn Attack.

Tasha looked into her five-year-old son's eyes and decided to leave her abusive husband. Then she beat the odds and didn't go back even once.

David Hosei started his ninth business, eFamily.