On this day in 1945, during the final phases of World War II, U.S. Marines invaded Iwo Jima so as to wrest control of the strategically important island from the Japanese, who put up fierce resistance in the ensuing battle.
| 1997: | | | Deng Xiaoping, who introduced economic reforms to China in 1978, died in Beijing. |
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| 1942: | | | U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the executive order allowing the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. |
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| 1881: | | Kansas became the first U.S. state to include the prohibition of alcoholic beverages in its state constitution. |
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| 1878: | | | American inventor Thomas Edison patented the phonograph. |
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