March 24
Events
Pre-1600
- 1199 - King Richard I of England is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting in France, leading to his death on April 6.
- 1387 - English victory over a Franco-Castilian-Flemish fleet in the Battle of Margate off the coast of Margate.
- 1401 - Turco-Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus.
1601–1900
- 1603 - James VI of Scotland is proclaimed King James I of England and Ireland, upon the death of Elizabeth I.
- 1603 - Tokugawa Ieyasu is granted the title of shōgun from Emperor Go-Yōzei, and establishes the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo, Japan.
- 1663 - The Province of Carolina is granted by charter to eight Lords Proprietor in reward for their assistance in restoring Charles II of England to the throne.
- 1720 - Count Frederick of Hesse-Kassel is elected King of Sweden by the Riksdag of the Estates, after his consort Ulrika Eleonora abdicated the throne on 29 February.
- 1721 - Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated six concertos to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt, now commonly called the Brandenburg Concertos, BWV 1046-1051.
- 1765 - Great Britain passes the Quartering Act, which requires the Thirteen Colonies to house British troops.
- 1794 - In Kraków, Tadeusz Kościuszko announces a general uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia, and assumes the powers of the Commander in Chief of all of the Polish forces.
- 1829 - The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, allowing Catholics to serve in Parliament.
- 1832 - In Hiram, Ohio, a group of men beat and tar and feather Mormon leader Joseph Smith.
- 1854 - President José Gregorio Monagas abolishes slavery in Venezuela.
- 1860 - Sakuradamon Incident: Japanese chief minister Ii Naosuke is assassinated by rōnin ''samurai outside the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle.
- 1869 - The last of Tītokowaru's forces surrendered to the New Zealand government, ending his uprising.
- 1870 - A Chilean prospecting party led by José Díaz Gana discovers the silver ores of Caracoles in the Bolivian portion of Atacama Desert, leading to the last of the Chilean silver rushes and a diplomatic dispute over its taxation between Chile and Bolivia.
- 1878 - The British frigate sinks, killing more than 300.
- 1882 - Robert Koch announces the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis'', the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis.
- 1900 - Mayor of New York City Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
- 1900 - Carnegie Steel Company is formed in New Jersey; its capitalization of $160 million is the largest to date.
1901–present
- 1921 - The 1921 Women's Olympiad began in Monte Carlo, becoming the first international women's sports event.
- 1922 - The McMahon killings take place in Belfast. Six Catholic civilians are shot dead, two others wounded and a female family member assaulted. Police were suspected as being responsible, but no one was prosecuted.
- 1927 - Nanking Incident: Foreign warships bombard Nanjing, China, in defence of the foreign citizens within the city.
- 1934 - The Tydings–McDuffie Act is passed by the United States Congress, allowing the Philippines to become a self-governing commonwealth.
- 1939 - The 1939 Liechtenstein putsch takes place; approximately 40 members of the VBDL starting from Nendeln march towards Vaduz with the intention of overthrowing the government and provoking Liechtenstein's annexation into Germany.
- 1944 - German troops massacre 335 Italian civilians in Rome.
- 1944 - World War II: In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 Allied prisoners of war begin breaking out of the German camp Stalag Luft III.
- 1946 - A British Cabinet Mission arrives in India to discuss and plan for the transfer of power from the British Raj to Indian leadership.
- 1949 - Hanns Albin Rauter, a chief SS and Police Leader, in the Netherlands, is convicted and executed for crimes against humanity.
- 1961 - The Quebec Board of the French Language is established.
- 1972 - Direct rule is imposed on Northern Ireland by the Government of the United Kingdom under Edward Heath.
- 1976 - In Argentina, the armed forces overthrow the constitutional government of President Isabel Perón and start a seven-year dictatorial period self-styled the National Reorganization Process.
- 1977 - Morarji Desai became the prime minister of India, the first prime minister not to belong to Indian National Congress.
- 1980 - El Salvadorian Archbishop Óscar Romero is assassinated while celebrating Mass in San Salvador.
- 1982 - Bangladeshi President Abdus Sattar is deposed in a bloodless coup led by Army Chief Lieutenant general Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who suspends the Constitution and imposes martial law.
- 1986 - The Loscoe gas explosion leads to new UK laws on landfill gas migration and gas protection on landfill sites.
- 1989 - In Prince William Sound in Alaska, the Exxon Valdez spills of crude oil after running aground.
- 1990 - Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War ends with last ship of Indian Peace Keeping Force leaving Sri Lanka.
- 1992 - Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-45.
- 1993 - Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 is discovered by Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker, and David Levy at the Palomar Observatory in California.
- 1998 - Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden, aged 11 and 13 respectively, open fire upon teachers and students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; five people are killed and ten are wounded.
- 1998 - A tornado sweeps through Dantan in India, killing 250 people and injuring 3,000 others.
- 1998 - Dr. Rüdiger Marmulla performed the first computer-assisted Bone Segment Navigation at the University of Regensburg, Germany.
- 1999 - Kosovo War: NATO began attacks on Yugoslavia without United Nations Security Council approval, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
- 1999 - A lorry carrying margarine and flour catches fire inside the Mont Blanc Tunnel, creating an inferno that kills 39 people.
- 2003 - The Arab League votes 21-1 in favor of a resolution demanding an end to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
- 2008 - Bhutan officially becomes a democracy, with its first ever general election.
- 2015 - Germanwings Flight 9525 crashes in the French Alps in an apparent pilot mass murder-suicide, killing all 150 people on board.
- 2018 - Syrian civil war: The Turkish Armed Forces and Syrian National Army take full control of Afrin District, marking the end of the Afrin offensive.
- 2018 - Students across the United States stage the March for Our Lives demanding gun control in response to the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
- 2019 - Jakarta MRT, a rapid transit system in Jakarta, began operation.
- 2023 - An EF4 tornado strikes the towns of Rolling Fork and Silver City, Mississippi, causing mass destruction.
- 2024 - The 2024 Senegalese presidential election is held following anti-government protests.
Births
Pre-1600
- 1103 - Yue Fei, Chinese military general
- 1441 - Ernest, Elector of Saxony, German ruler of Saxony
- 1494 - Georgius Agricola, German mineralogist and scholar
- 1577 - Francis, Duke of Pomerania-Stettin, Bishop of Cammin
1601–1900
- 1607 - Michiel de Ruyter, Dutch admiral
- 1628 - Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg
- 1657 - Arai Hakuseki, Japanese academic and politician
- 1693 - John Harrison, English carpenter and clock-maker, invented the Marine chronometer
- 1725 - Samuel Ashe, American lawyer and politician, 9th governor of North Carolina
- 1725 - Thomas Cushing, American lawyer and politician, 1st lieutenant governor of Massachusetts
- 1755 - Rufus King, American lawyer and politician, United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
- 1762 - Marcos Portugal, Portuguese organist and composer
- 1775 - Muthuswami Dikshitar, Indian poet and composer
- 1782 - Orest Kiprensky, Russian-Italian painter
- 1796 - Zulma Carraud, French author
- 1796 - John Corry Wilson Daly, Canadian businessman and politician
- 1803 - Egerton Ryerson, Canadian minister, educator, and politician
- 1808 - Maria Malibran, Spanish-French soprano
- 1809 - Mariano José de Larra, Spanish journalist and author
- 1809 - Joseph Liouville, French mathematician and academic
- 1816 - Pelagio Antonio de Labastida y Dávalos, Mexican politician and Roman Catholic archbishop, regent during the Second Mexican Empire
- 1820 - Edmond Becquerel, French physicist and academic
- 1820 - Fanny Crosby, American poet and composer
- 1823 - Thomas Spencer Baynes, English philosopher and critic
- 1826 - Matilda Joslyn Gage, American activist and author
- 1828 - Horace Gray, American lawyer and jurist
- 1829 - George Francis Train, American businessman
- 1829 - Ignacio Zaragoza, Mexican general
- 1830 - Robert Hamerling, Austrian poet and playwright
- 1834 - William Morris, English textile designer, poet, and author
- 1834 - John Wesley Powell, American soldier, geologist, and explorer
- 1835 - Joseph Stefan, Slovene physicist, mathematician, and poet
- 1848 - Honoré Beaugrand, Canadian journalist and politician, 18th mayor of Montreal
- 1850 - Silas Hocking, English minister and author
- 1854 - Henry Lefroy, Australian politician, 11th premier of Western Australia
- 1855 - Andrew W. Mellon, American banker, financier, and diplomat, 49th United States Secretary of the Treasury
- 1855 - Olive Schreiner, South African author and activist
- 1862 - Frank Weston Benson, American painter and educator
- 1869 - Émile Fabre, French author and playwright
- 1871 - Alec Hurley, English music hall singer
- 1874 - Luigi Einaudi, Italian economist and politician, 2nd president of the Italian Republic
- 1874 - Harry Houdini, Hungarian-American magician and actor
- 1875 - William Burns, Canadian lacrosse player
- 1879 - Neyzen Tevfik, Turkish philosopher, poet, and composer
- 1882 - Marcel Lalu, French gymnast
- 1882 - George Monckton-Arundell, 8th Viscount Galway, English politician, 5th governor-general of New Zealand
- 1883 - Dorothy Campbell, Scottish-American golfer
- 1884 - Peter Debye, Dutch-American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1884 - Chika Kuroda, Japanese chemist
- 1884 - Eugène Tisserant, French cardinal
- 1885 - Charles Daniels, American swimmer
- 1885 - Dimitrie Cuclin, Romanian violinist and composer
- 1886 - Edward Weston, American photographer
- 1886 - Robert Mallet-Stevens, French architect and designer
- 1887 - Roscoe Arbuckle, American actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1888 - Viktor Kingissepp, Estonian politician
- 1889 - Albert Hill, English-Canadian runner
- 1890 - Agnes Macphail, Canadian educator and politician
- 1891 - Sergey Ivanovich Vavilov, Russian physicist and academic
- 1892 - Marston Morse, American mathematician and academic
- 1893 - Walter Baade, German astronomer and author
- 1893 - George Sisler, American baseball player and scout
- 1897 - Wilhelm Reich, Austrian-American psychotherapist and academic