| 24 February 616 | England [births and deaths] | Aethelbert I, King of Kent (560–616), who issued the first code of Angle-Saxon laws, dies. |
| 24–27 February 1075 | Italy [Christianity] | At the Lent synod, Pope Gregory VII suspends seven German bishops for opposing his renewal of decrees against clerical marriage and issues a decree forbidding lay investiture of bishops, whereby secular leaders grant church officials the symbols of their authority. His ruling is strongly opposed, in particular by King Henry IV of Germany. |
| 24 February 1500 | Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Austria [births and deaths] | Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor 1519–56, King of Spain as Charles I 1516–56, and Archduke of Austria as Charles I 1519–21, born in Ghent (–1558). |
| 24 February 1525 | France, Holy Roman Empire, Milan, Italy [Habsburg–Valois Wars (1494–1559)] | King Francis I of France's cavalry leads a rash attack on a large Habsburg relief force under Charles, duc de Bourbon, and Fernando, Marchese di Pescara, at the Milanese posession of Pavia, Italy; Francis is captured and around 14,000 are killed (including the Yorkist claimant to the duchy of Suffolk and the English crown, Richard de la Pole). The Habsburgs now dominate Italy until 1860. |
| 24 February 1538 | Hungary, Austria, Habsburg Monarchy, Holy Roman Empire, Transylvania, Ottoman Empire [political events] | Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria signs the Peace of Nagyvárad with Janos Zápolya, Voivode of Transylvania, ending their war for Hungary. Though they divide the country with the Ottoman sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent along the lines of the status quo, the whole is to revert to Ferdinand on the death of the currently childless Zápolya. |
| 24 February 1547 | Bavaria, Holy Roman Empire [births and deaths] | Don John of Austria, illegitimate son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and half-brother of King Philip II of Spain, who defeated the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Lepanto (1571), born in Regensburg, Bavaria (now Germany) (–1578). |
| 24 February 1563 | France [French Wars of Religion (1562–80)] | Francis, Duke of Guise and Aumale, Prince of Joinville, Lieutenant General of the Kingdom and leader of the Catholic forces in France, is assassinated by a Huguenot (French Protestant) while besieging the Huguenot stronghold of Orléans, France. |
| 24 February 1777 | Portugal [political events] | Maria I becomes queen regnant of Portugal on the death of her husband, José I. She frees the Marquis of Pombal's political prisoners and banishes him. |
| 24 February 1824 | UK, Burma [wars] | The British governor general of India, Lord Amherst, declares war against the Burmese as the latter have violated the territory of the British East India Company by capturing the island of Shahpuri. |
| 24 February 1826 | Myanmar, UK [treaties] | By the Treaty of Yandabu, ending the Burmese War, the British gain Assam, Arakan, and Terasserim, while the Burmese pay an indemnity and come under British influence. |
| 24 February 1839 | Uruguay, Argentina [wars] | Uruguay declares war against Argentina, following Argentine attempts to subvert the government of Uruguay. |
| 24 February 1848 | France [political events] | King Louis-Phillipe of France abdicates in favour of his grandson, Louis-Philippe-Albert, comte de Paris, but a Republican provisional government containing the socialist Louis Blanc is established under Alphonse de Lamartine. |
| 24 February 1955 | Turkey, Iraq [treaties] | Turkey and Iraq sign a treaty of alliance, the Baghdad Pact, which provides for mutual support against communist militants. |
| 24 February 1975 | Bangladesh [law and government] | Bangladesh introduces a presidential government and becomes a one-party state under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. |
| 24 February 2003 | China [natural disasters] | An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang kills over 260 people, injures about 1,000 more, and makes thousands homeless. It is the worst earthquake in China for more than 50 years. |
