TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1942

During World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which paved the way for the relocation and internment of people of Japanese ancestry, including U.s.-born citizens. Imperial Japanese warplanes raided the Australian city of Darwin; at least 243 people were killed.

1807

Former Vice President Aaron Burr, accused of treason, was arrested in the Mississippi Territory, in presentday Alabama.

1878

Thomas Edison received a U.S. patent for “an improvement in phonograph or speaking machines.”

1945

Operation Detachment began during World War II as some 30,000 U.S. Marines began landing on Iwo Jima, where they commenced a successful month-long battle to seize control of the island from Japanese forces.

1976

President Gerald R. Ford, calling the issuing of the internment order for people of Japanese ancestry in 1942 “a sad day in American history,” signed a proclamation formally confirming its termination.

1992

Irish Republican Army member Joseph Doherty was deported from the United States to Northern Ireland following a nine-year battle for political asylum.

1997

Deng Xiaoping, the last of China’s major Communist revolutionaries, died at age 92.

2003

An Iranian military plane carrying 275 members of the elite Revolutionary Guards crashed in southeastern Iran, killing all on board.

2008

An ailing Fidel Castro resigned the Cuban presidency after nearly a halfcentury in power; his brother Raul was later named to succeed him.

2019

President Donald Trump directed the Pentagon to develop plans for a new Space Force within the Air Force, accepting less than the full-fledged department he had wanted.