On This Day: Iranian military plane crashes, killing 275

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 275 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 2020, a gunman opened fire at multiple locations, including two bars, in Hanau, Germany, killing 10 people, then himself. Authorities said the perpetrator was a far-right extremist who targeted hookah bars frequented by Turkish-Kurdish customers.

In 2022, Russians Alexander Bolshunov and Ivan Yakimushkin earned gold and silver, respectively, in the cross-country skiing 50-kilometer freestyle mass start final in the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Norway's Simen Hegstad Krueger took bronze.

File Photo by Bob Strong/UPI