Associated Press

On Feb. 27, 1933, Germany’s parliament building, the Reichstag, was gutted by fire; Chancellor Adolf Hitler, blaming the Communists, used the fire to justify suspending civil liberties.

In 1939, the Supreme Court, in National Labor Relations Board v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corp., effectively outlawed sit-down strikes.

In 1951, the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting a president to two terms of office, was ratified.

In 1997, divorce became legal in Ireland.

In 1998, with the approval of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s House of Lords agreed to end 1,000 years of male preference by giving a monarch’s first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as any first-born son.

In 2006, former Newark Eagles co-owner Effa Manley became the first woman elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.