- August 24, 0049 BC – Julius Caesar’s general Gaius Curio is defeated in the Second Battle of the Bagradas River by the Numidians under Attius Varus and King Juba of Numidia. Curio commits suicide to avoid capture.
- August 24, 0079 “Mount Vesuvius erupts. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae are buried in volcanic ash.”
- August 24, 0079 “Mt Vesuvius erupts, buries Pompeii & Herculaneum”
- August 24, 0410 “Rome overrun by Visigoths, symbolized fall of Western Roman Empire”
- August 24, 0410 The Visigoths under Alaric begin to pillage Rome for three days.
- August 24, 1215 Pope Innocent III declares Magna Carta invalid.
- August 24, 1313 “Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor, dies.”
- August 24, 1349 Six thousand Jews are killed in Mainz after being blamed for the bubonic plague.
- August 24, 1391 Jews massacred in Palma de Mallorca.
- August 24, 1456 The printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed.
- August 24, 1511 Alfonso de Albuquerque of Portugal conquers the Sultanate of Malacca.
- August 24, 1561 Willem of Orange marries duchess Anna of Saxony.
- August 24, 1572 King Charles IX orders massacre of thousands of French Protestants
- August 24, 1572 “Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre: On the orders of king Charles IX of France, a massacre of Huguenots (French Protestants) begins.”
- August 24, 1608 The first official English representative to India lands in Surat.
- August 24, 1662 Act of Uniformity requires England to accept the Book of Common Prayer.
- August 24, 1680 “Death of Colonel (Thomas) Blood, Irish adventurer who stole Crown Jewels from Tower of London in 1671.”
- August 24, 1682 “William Penn receives the area that is now the state of Delaware, and adds it to his colony of Pennsylvania.”
- August 24, 1690 “Calcutta, India is founded.”
- August 24, 1690 “Calcutta, India, is founded by the British East India Company.”
- August 24, 1690 “Job Charnock establishes an English trading post in West Bengal, considered the official founding of India’s largest city, Calcutta.”
- August 24, 1751 Thomas Colley executed in England for drowning supposed witch
- August 24, 1814 “British and Canadian troops invade Washington, D.C. and burn down the White House and several other buildings.”
- August 24, 1814 “British sack Washington, DC, White House burned”
- August 24, 1814 “Washington, D.C. is burned by the British.”
- August 24, 1816 “The Treaty of St. Louis is signed in St. Louis, Missouri.”
- August 24, 1820 “Constitutionalist insurrection at Oporto, Portugal; see Portugal’s crises of the Nineteenth Century.”
- August 24, 1821 New Mexico gains its independence from Spain.
- August 24, 1821 “The Treaty of Crdoba is signed in Crdoba, now in Veracruz, Mexico, concluding the Mexican War of Independence from Spain.”
- August 24, 1831 Charles Darwin is asked to travel on HMS Beagle.
- August 24, 1847 Charlotte Bront finishes Jane Eyre.
- August 24, 1853 Potato chips are first prepared.
- August 24, 1853 “The first potato chips prepared by Chef George Crum (Saratoga Springs, NY)”
- August 24, 1854 National emigration convention meets in Cleveland
- August 24, 1857 “The Panic of 1857 begins, setting off one of the most severe economic crises in U.S. history.”
- August 24, 1857 Thirty-one people die when ship Lady Bird collides with another vessel off the State of Victoria in Australia
- August 24, 1858 “In Richmond, Virginia, 90 blacks are arrested for learning.”
- August 24, 1869 Waffle iron invented
- August 24, 1870 The Wolseley Expedition reaches Manitoba to end the Red River Rebellion.
- August 24, 1875 Captain Matthew Webb became first person to swim English Channel