| 24 March 809 | Arab Caliphate [political events] | When the Abbasid caliph Harun ar-Rashid falls ill and dies after suppressing a revolt in Samarkand, his Muslim Arab empire is divided between his sons, al-Ma'mun and al-Amin. |
| 24 March 809 | Middle East [births and deaths] | Harun ar-Rashid, 5th caliph of the Abbasid dynasty 786–809, who made Baghdad wealthy and whose court was immortalized in Alf Laylah wa-Laylah/A Thousand and One Nights – The Arabian Nights, dies in Tus, Persia (43). |
| 24 March 1084 | Papal States [administration] | King Henry IV of Germany's antipope Clement III assumes the papacy in Rome. |
| 24 March 1160 | Papal States, Italy, Holy Roman Empire [diplomacy] | Pope Alexander III excommunicates the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa for recognizing his rival Victor IV as pope. |
| 24 March 1603 | UK [political events] | Following the death of Queen Elizabeth I of England, King James VI of Scotland succeeds as James I of England and Ireland, retaining Robert Cecil as secretary of state. |
| 24 March 1603 | England [births and deaths] | Queen Elizabeth I, queen of England 1558–1603, daughter of Henry VIII, whose reign saw growth in England's political and economic power, as well as major achievements in the arts, dies in Richmond, Surrey, England (69). |
| 24 March 1645 | Holy Roman Empire, Bavaria, Sweden, Bohemia, Habsburg Monarchy, Germany [Thirty Years War (1618–48)] | A combined imperial and Bavarian army is defeated by the Swedes, under the command of Marshal Lennart Torstensson, at Jankov in Bohemia. The cavalry commander General Goetz is killed and the Bavarian cavalry is destroyed. Prague is laid open to the Swedes, forcing the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III to abandon the city and move his court to Vienna. |
| 24 March 1882 | Germany [biology] | German physician Robert Koch announces the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacillus responsible for tuberculosis. This is the first time a micro-organism has been definitively associated with a human disease. |
| 24 March 1905 | [births and deaths] | Jules Verne, French author who pioneered modern science fiction writing, dies in Amiens, France (77). |
| 24 March 1941 | Libya, Germany, Italy, UK, Egypt [World War II (1939–45)] | German and Italian forces commanded by the German general Erwin Rommel take El Algheila in Libya from the British 8th Army, the start of an offensive that will clear British troops from all of Libya apart from the besieged coastal town of Tobruk. |
| 24 March 1994 | Somalia [political events] | The warring factions of General Muhammad Farah Aidid and President Ali Mahdi Muhammad in Somalia sign a peace agreement following United Nations-sponsored negotiations; US troops withdraw the following day. |
| 24 March 1996 | World [astronomy] | The comet Hyakutake makes its closest approach, passing within 15.4 million km/9.5 million mi of Earth. It is the brightest comet for decades, with a tail extending over 12 degrees of the sky. |
