A bomb exploded 12 minutes after Hitler left a meeting to celebrate the 16th anniversary of his first attempt to grab power (known as the 'Beer Hall Putsch', more below).

7 were killed, 63 injured.

There followed an attempt to pin the blame for this on British agents and thus stir up anti-British hatred for the war.

Some sources say that the bomb was planted by Georg Elser, a German carpenter. Elser was shot by the Gestapo and never put on trial.

The impossibly harsh economic situation that Germany found itself in, caused by the war reparations demanded of it after WW1, led to growing anger and a search for sections of the community to blame, such as 'lefties', Jews and democratic institutions. The currency had collapsed; in 1921 the German mark was 5 marks to US$1, by 1923 it had fallen to 4bn marks to US$1, hyperinflation was a way of life. When the government restarted paying the war reparations, Hitler's right-wing Nazi Party could take it no longer.

On this day, Hitler, with a group of Nazi storm troopers, gatecrashed a beer hall in Munich where members of the Bavarian government were entertaining local businessmen. Hitler fired his pistol in the air and proclaimed that revolution was here. Initially it seemed that the Bavarian leaders had agreed to Hitler's demands.

Hitler's plan was that a strike here would lead on to a popular revolution which would eventually topple the powers in Berlin, but government forces took swift action.

The next day, government troops outlawed the Nazi Party and took measures to break it.

Hitler led a march of 3,000 of his supporters, but they were stopped by armed police. Hitler apparently dislocated his elbow in the fracas, but managed to escape.

Hitler was arrested three days later, he was charged with treason. Hitler was imprisoned for what was, supposedly, a minimum of 5 years, in the Landsberg fortress. It was here that he wrote Mein Kampf.

He was released after only 9 months...