On This Day: U.S. Marines land on Iwo Jima

Feb. 19 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1878, Thomas Edison patented the first gramophone.

In 1922, vaudeville star Ed Wynn became the first big name in show business to sign for a regular radio show.

In 1942, as a security measure during World War II, the U.S. government began relocating Japanese-Americans living in coastal Pacific areas to internment camps in remote areas of several states. They were allowed to return to their homes in January 1945.

In 1945, U.S. Marines landed on the island of Iwo Jima, opening one of the major battles in the Pacific during World War II.

In 1981, the United States blamed insurgency in El Salvador on communist powers arming leftist guerrillas.

In 1986, the Soviet Union launched the Mir space station. It was occupied for 10 of its 15 years in orbit.

File Photo courtesy of NASA

In 1997, China's "paramount leader" Deng Xiaoping died at age 92.

In 2003, all 289 people aboard an Iranian military transport plane were killed when it crashed in a mountainous region of southeastern Iran.

In 2005, U.S. Roman Catholic officials said they received 1,092 charges of clergy sex abuse, most involving boys.

In 2008, Cuban President Fidel Castro, 81, who temporarily handed power to his brother, Raul, in July 2006, because of illness, stepped down permanently after 49 years in power. Raul, 76, then formally succeeded him.

UPI File Photo

In 2012, 44 inmates died and 30 escaped during a prison riot in northern Mexico.

In 2013, Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, unable to forge a new government amid mounting citizen protests, announced his resignation.

In 2018, Syrian government forces began two days of air and ground attacks on the enclave of Eastern Ghouta, ultimately killing some 150 civilians.

File Photo by Mohammed Badra/EPA-EFE