1624

January–March

• January 14 - After 90 years of Ottoman occupation, Baghdad is recaptured by the Safavid Empire.
• January 22 - Korean General Yi Gwal leads an uprising of 12,000 soldiers against King Injo in what is called then the Joseon Kingdom, and occupies Hanseong.
• January 24 - Afonso Mendes, appointed by Pope Gregory XV as Prelate of Ethiopia, arrives at Massawa from Goa.
• February 7 - England first colonizes Saint Kitts and Nevis.
• February 11 - Yi Gwal installs Prince Heungan, son of the late King Seongjo, to the Korean throne.
• February 15 - Yi Gwal's Rebellion ends as the rebels murder Yi Gwal at the town of Mukbang-ri.
• February 16 - Kara Mustafa Pasha becomes the Ottoman Governor of Egypt for the second time.
• February 19
• *King Filipe III of Portugal issues a decree prohibiting the enslavement of Chinese people in Portugal or in its colonies.
• *The last parliament of King James I of England begins its session.
• February 28 - A decree is issued in Norway making it illegal for Jesuits or Roman Catholic monks to be harbored in the country.
• March 2 - The English House of Commons passes a resolution making it illegal for a Member of Parliament to quit or willfully give up his seat. Afterward, MPs who wish to quit are appointed to an "office of profit", a legal fiction to allow a resignation.
• March 25 - In a ceremony, Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, renews his oath to restore Catholicism in Germany, Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia.

  April–June

• April 13 - Garcia Mvemba a Nkanga is enthroned as King Garcia I of the southern African nation of Kongo, upon the death of his father, King Pedro II.
• April 15 - The University of Saint Francis Xavier is founded in Bolivia.
• April 29 - Louis XIII of France appoints Cardinal Richelieu to the Conseil du Roi.
• May 8 - Capture of Bahia: A Dutch West India Company fleet captures the Brazilian city of Salvador, Bahia from the Portuguese Empire.
• May 11 - a major earthquake in Fez, Morocco, estimated magnitude 6.0, causes severe damage and thousands of casualties.
• May 24
• * The city of Oslo, Norway, is destroyed by fire for the fourteenth time. King Christian IV of Denmark–Norway decrees its rebuilding on a new site, where it will be renamed Christiania.
• * After years of unprofitable operation, Virginia's charter is revoked, and it becomes a royal colony.
• May 25 - The Scottish city of Dunfermline is destroyed by fire, but The Abbey, The Palace, the Abbot House and many other buildings survive.
• May - The first Dutch settlers arrive in New Netherland; they disembark at Governors Island.
• June 10 - Treaty of Compiègne is signed between the Kingdom of France and the Dutch Republic.

  July–September

• July 30 - A contingent of 5,000 Chinese troops and 50 warships under the command of Admiral Yu Zigao and General Wang Mengxiong attacks the Dutch fortress at the island of Magong, the largest of the Penghu islands under the command of Martinus Sonck. Outnumbered, the Dutch surrender in five days.
• August 4 - The Dutch East India Company agrees to Chinese demands to withdraw its operations from the Penghu islands, and relocates its trading post to Fort Zeelandia and the Dutch-controlled island of Formosa, now Tainan on Taiwan.
• August 5 - The King's Men perform Thomas Middleton's satire A Game at Chess at the Globe Theatre in London. The performances are suppressed on August 14 in view of the play's allusions to the Spanish Match.
• August 13 - Cardinal Richelieu is appointed by Louis XIII of France to be his chief minister, having intrigued against Charles de La Vieuville, Superintendent of Finances, arrested for corruption the previous day.
• August 24 - Jasper Vinall becomes the first person to die while playing the sport of cricket, after being struck on the head with a bat during a game at Horsted Keynes in England.
• August 28 - The Siege of Breda begins, and will continue for just over 9 months until June 5, 1625.
• August - Portuguese Jesuit priest António de Andrade becomes the first European to enter Tibet, arriving at Tsaparang.
• September 4 - The Parlement of Paris registers a decree forbidding the publication of criticism of "anciently approved authors" without prior approval from the Faculty of Theology of the University of Paris, on pain of death.
• September 13 - Ketevan, former queen consort of Kakheti, is tortured and killed in the Persian city of Shiraz after refusing to renounce Christianity to convert to Islam.
• September 19 - Michael I, the Tsar of Russia, is married at Moscow, making Maria Dolgorukova the Tsaritsa. Maria becomes ill shortly afterward and dies five months after the marriage, on January 17.
• September 21 - The Roman Catholic church's Dicastery for the Clergy issues a decree that no monk may be expelled from his order "unless he be truly incorrigible."

  October–December

• October 3 - A combined squadron of fifteen Neapolitan, Tuscan, and Papal galleys defeat a squadron of six Algerian ships on the island of San Pietro, near Sardinia.
• November 3 - Rodrigo Pacheco becomes the Viceroy of New Spain after arriving in Mexico City.
• December 24 - Denmark's first postal service is launched by order of King Christian IV.

  Date unknown

• The Japanese shōgun expels the Spanish from Japan, and severs trade with the Philippines.
• Henry Briggs publishes Arithmetica Logarithmica.
• Jakob Bartsch first publishes a chart, showing the constellation Camelopardalis around the North Star.
• Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba starts to rule.
• Frans Hals produces the painting later known as the Laughing Cavalier.
• The German-language Luther Bible is publicly burned, by order of the Pope.
• A confrontation between Swedish and Danish councillors ends with a Swedish diplomatic victory due to Sweden's ability to mobilize quickly.