TODAY IN HISTORY
On March 26, 1945, the Battle of Iwo Jima ended as the U.S. Marines and Navy secured control of the island after five weeks of deadly fighting with the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.
Also on this date
In 1484, English writer and businessman William Caxton, thought to have the first printing press in England less than a decade prior, printed his translation of “Aesop’s Fables,” by the titled ancient Greek storyteller.
In 1636, Utrecht University, a public research school, was founded in the Netherlands.
In 1830, Egbert Grandin printed the first edition of the Book of Mormon in Palmyra, New York.
In 1872, Black American inventor Thomas J. Martin was awarded a patent for the fire extinguisher.
In 1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s debut novel, “This Side of Paradise,” was first published.
In 1953, Dr. Jonas Salk told CBS radio listeners nationwide about a vaccine to combat the virus that caused polio after he conducted initial human trials on himself and his family. A medical journal article was published two days later, followed the next year by clinical trials. The vaccine was deemed safe and effective in 1955. It eradicated polio in the U.S.
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter signed the Egypt-Israel peace treaty with leaders of the two nations in Washington, D.C.
In 1981, the Social Democratic Party was founded in the U.K.
In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial groundbreaking ceremony happened in Washington, D.C.
In 1997, authorities in an affluent suburb of San Diego discovered 39 people had killed themselves. They later were found to be part of the Heaven’s Gate cult led by Marshall Applegate.
In 2017, thousands of protesters against corruption took to the streets of dozens of Russian cities. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was jailed multiple times afterward and barred from running against President Vladimir Putin, whom some leaders blamed for Navalny’s 2024 death in prison while serving 19 years on a conviction for extremism charges.