On this day: 25k books burned on order of Adolt Hitler

On this day in 1933, Hitler ordered the burning of more than 25,000 un-German books in Berlin. Picture: AP

1092: Lincoln Cathedral was consecrated.

1671: Colonel Thomas Blood, an Irish adventurer better known as Captain Blood, tried to steal the crown jewels.

1788: Britain passed parliamentary motion for abolishing slave trade.

1911: The Great Lafayette, illusionist, nine members of his company, a lion and a horse were burned to death on stage at the Empire Palace Theatre, Edinburgh. An illusion went wrong and scenery was set alight, but the safety curtain was lowered and the audience escaped. Doors leading from the stage had been locked on the instructions of the secretive Lafayette.

1918: John MacLean, schoolmaster, labour leader and first Soviet Consul in Britain, tried in the High Court in Edinburgh for sedition.

1933: Hitler ordered the burning of more than 25,000 books; “un-German” books were thrown on to a mighty bonfire outside Berlin University.

1936: Italy annexed Ethiopia, and King Victor Emmanuel was proclaimed emperor.

1946: Victor Emmanuel III, King of Italy since 1900, abdicated and Umberto II succeeded him as king until the country became a republic.

1949: The first self-service launderette was opened in Britain, in Queensway, London.

1955: West Germany was admitted as a member of Nato.

1957: A blaze at Bell’s Brae, Edinburgh, destroyed the three-storey premises of William Mutrie & Sons, one of Britain’s biggest theatrical costumiers; about 90,000 costumes were lost.

1974: Impeachment proceedings began in United States against president Richard Nixon.

1990: Michael Heseltine warned Tories that they would lose the next election unless poll tax legislation was revised.

1992: The first of nine IRA firebombs was found at the MetroCentre shopping complex in Gateshead.

1994: Ian Lang, Scottish secretary, ordered that plans for a National Gallery of Scottish Art in Glasgow be taken back to the drawing board.

1995: The Scottish Rugby Union clamped down on foul play and banned Murrayfield forward Bill Blyth for five years for breaking an opponent’s jaw in two places.

2002: The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem came to an end when the Palestinians inside agreed to have 13 suspected terrorists among them deported to several different countries.

2004: Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov was killed by a land mine during a Second World War memorial victory parade in Grozny, Chechnya.

2006: Estonia ratified the European Constitution.

2010: Scientists revealed that laboratory mice display human-like facial expressions when they are in pain.

2012: Retailer Clinton Cards was placed in administration.

2012: A Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashed in Indonesia on a demonstration flight killing all 45 people on board.