| 24 April 1585 | Papal States, Italy [political events] | Felice Peretti is elected Pope Sixtus V, following the death of Gregory XIII on 10 April. He is pope until 1590. |
| 24 April 1617 | France [political events] | Concino Concini, Marquis of Ancre, the favourite of Marie de' Medici, the queen mother and regent of France, is assassinated by order of her son Louis XIII, who installs Charles d'Albret, Duke of Luynes, as chief minister. Marie de' Medici, exiled to Blois, gathers round her opponents of Luynes and is joined by the bishop of Luçon, Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu (Cardinal Richelieu from 1622). |
| 24 April 1856 | France [births and deaths] | Henri-Philippe Pétain, French general during World War I, born in Cauchy-à-la-Tour, France (–1951). |
| 24 April 1877 | Russian Empire, Ottoman Empire, Romania [Russian–Ottoman Wars (1768–1878)] | Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire and invades Romania in support of the Balkan revolts against Ottoman rule. |
| 24 April 1904 | [births and deaths] | Willem de Kooning, Dutch-born US abstract expressionist painter, born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. |
| 24 April 1905 | [births and deaths] | Robert Penn Warren, US novelist and poet, the only US writer to win Pulitzer prizes for fiction and poetry, and the first poet laureate in the USA (1986), born in Guthrie, Kentucky (–1989). |
| 24 April 1915 | Armenia, Ottoman Empire [World War I (1914–18)] | The wartime deportation and massacre of Armenians accused of collaborating with the Allies begins in the Ottoman Empire. 1.75 million people are driven across the Mesopotamian desert, over a million of them dying in the process. |
| 24 April–1 May 1916 | United Kingdom [revolution] | With the support of Sinn Fein, members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood take part in the ‘Easter Rising’ in Dublin, Ireland, in an attempt to end British rule in Ireland. The rising is suppressed by British forces after heavy fighting, and its leaders (including Patrick Pearse and James Connolly) are executed. |
| 24 April 1921 | Kingdom of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes, Italy [political events] | The northern Adriatic port of Fiume (Rijeka), disputed between Italy and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, votes to become a free city. |
| 24 April 1970 | Gambia [decolonization] | Gambia becomes a republic within the British Commonwealth. |
| 24 April 1983 | Austria [elections] | Bruno Kreisky's Socialist Party loses its majority in the Austrian general election. A new coalition government is formed under Chancellor Fred Sinowatz on 11 May. |
| 24 April 1990 | USA [space exploration] | The space shuttle Discovery places the Hubble Space Telescope in Earth orbit; the main mirror proves to be defective. |
| 24 April 1998 | Rwanda [crime and punishment] | The largest public execution in recent history takes place in a football field in Kigali, Rwanda, when 22 people are shot for their part in the massacre of 500,000 Hutus in 1994. |
| 24 April 2004 | Cyprus [political events] | A referendum is held in the ethnically divided island of Cyprus on a United Nations (UN) plan for political reunification based on a proposed federation of two largely autonomous states. Although the Turkish Cypriot community endorses the plan, about 75% of the majority Greek Cypriot population rejects it, confirming fears that Cyprus will join the European Union (EU) on 1 May 2004 as a partitioned nation. |
| 24–27 April 2006 | Nepal [political events] | In Nepal, King Gyanendra concedes to weeks of violent street demonstrations against his autocratic regime and announces the reinstatement of parliament and restoration of democratic government. Three days later Maoist insurgents declare a three-month ceasefire. |
| 24 April 2007 | [business and economics] | In Europe's biggest private equity deal to date, the UK's Alliance Boots pharmaceutical retail chain is bought by its deputy executive chairman Stefano Pessina, backed by the US investors Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, for just over £11 billion. |
