| 24 January 1076 | Holy Roman Empire [administration] | King Henry IV of Germany responds to a letter from Pope Gregory VII threatening excommunication by holding a council at Worms where the German bishops renounce their allegiance to Gregory and declare him deposed. Gregory shortly afterwards excommunicates Henry and absolves his subjects of their oaths of loyalty. |
| 24 January 1118 | Papal States, Italy [administration] | John of Gaeta is elected as Pope Gelasius II following the death of Pope Paschal II. |
| 24 January 1438 | Swiss Confederation, Holy Roman Empire, Papal States, Italy [Christianity] | The General Council of Basel decrees the suspension of Pope Eugenius IV from the exercise of papal authority. |
| 24 January 1478 | France, Swiss Confederation, Holy Roman Empire [diplomacy] | Mary of Burgundy and her husband Maximilian of Austria end the bitter legacy of her father's war with the Swiss and make peace at Zürich, Switzerland. |
| 24 January 1556 | China, Ming Empire [natural disasters] | A huge earthquake, the worst ever recorded, hits the Shanxi province of China, leaving more than 830,000 dead. |
| 24 January 1712 | Prussia [births and deaths] | Frederick II the Great, King of Prussia 1740–86, born in Potsdam, near Berlin, Prussia (–1786). |
| 24 January 1742 | Bavaria, Germany, Holy Roman Empire [political events] | With French support, Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria, is elected Holy Roman Emperor, as Charles VII. He receives eight votes (all that were cast). |
| 24 January 1749 | England [births and deaths] | Charles James Fox, first foreign secretary of Britain (1782, 1783, and 1806), born in London, England (–1806). |
| 24 January 1848 | USA [natural resources] | The US prospector James Marshall discovers gold in the millrace at Sutter's Mill on the American River near Sacramento, California. |
| 24 January 1915 | Germany, United Kingdom [World War I (1914–18)] | In the Battle of Dogger Bank in the North Sea, a British force under Admiral Sir David Beatty sinks the German cruiser Blücher. |
| 24 January 1965 | England [births and deaths] | Winston Churchill, British prime minister 1940–45 and 1951–55 who led Britain through World War II, dies in London, England (90). |
| 24 January 1995 | USA [crime and punishment] | The trial opens of the US former football star O J Simpson for the murder of his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman (on 12 June 1994); Simpson is acquitted on 3 October after claims of racial bias in the investigating police force. |
