On This Date

On December 24, 1851, a fire at the Library of Congress building destroyed most of the book collection, including, tragically, two-thirds of Thomas Jefferson's private library of nearly 6,500 books, which Jefferson had sold to Congress in 1815 (for about $24,000) after the library's original collection of 3,000 books was destroyed in a fire started in 1814 by the British army during the War of 1812.