Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is an iconic photograph taken on February 23, 1945 by Joe Rosenthal. It depicts five United States Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman raising the Flag of the United States atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. The photograph was instantly popular, being reprinted in hundreds of publications. Later, it became the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication, and ultimately came to be regarded as one of the most significant and recognizable images in history, and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time. Of the six men depicted in the picture, three (Franklin Sousley, Harlon Block, and Michael Strank) did not survive the battle; the three survivors (John Bradley, Rene Gagnon, and Ira Hayes) became suddenly famous. The photograph was later used by Felix de Weldon to sculpt the USMC War Memorial, located just outside Washington, D.C.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1514: Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII of England, became queen consort of France. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Tudor_%28queen_consort_of_France%29)

1831: John Capodistria, the Greek head of state, was assassinated in Náfplio. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Capodistria)

1888: The Washington Monument, then the world's tallest building, officially opened to the general public. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Monument)

1919: The Black Sox scandal: The Cincinnati Reds "defeated" "Shoeless Joe" Jackson and the Chicago White Sox to "win" the World Series major league baseball championship by 5 games to 3. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1919_World_Series)

1962: Uganda became independent from the United Kingdom, with Milton Obote as the first Prime Minister. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

Imagine all the people Sharing all the world... You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will live as one. -- John Lennon (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Lennon)