ON THIS DAY

1887: More than 80 miners die in gas explosion in colliery at Bulli, NSW.

1933: German Reichstag grants Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers until April 1937.

1981: British great train robber Ronald Biggs is taken into custody in Barbados.

1998: President Boris Yeltsin fires his prime minister and the entire cabinet in Russia’s biggest government shake-up since the breakup of the Soviet Union; The film Titanic wins 11 Oscars, equalling the record set by Ben-Hur in 1959.

2015: Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of modern Singapore who turned the city state into a wealthy nation, dies at the age of 91.

Birthdays: Michael Joseph Savage, NZ Labour prime minister (1872-1940); Joan Crawford, US actress (1908-1977); Michael Atherton, English cricketer (1968-); Perez Hilton, US blogger (1978); Princess Eugenie of York (1990-).