On this day: Iwo Jima invaded by US Marines

On this day in 1945 US Marines invade the island of Iwo Jima, eventually capturing it from Japan with the loss of 4,590 lives. Picture: Getty

1797: Pope Pius VI, by Treaty of Tolentino, ceded the Romagna, Bologna and Ferrara to France, as Napoleon Bonaparte advanced through Tyrol to Vienna.

1807: British fleet forced way through Dardanelles to support Russia in war against Turkey.

1843: In the middle of a performance of Norma at the Royal Opera House, Madrid, the leading lady rushed off stage to give birth to a daughter, who later became opera singer Adelina Patti. Her father was a tenor.

1901: The Mercedes car, a 35 horsepower model, was named after Mercedes Jellinck, the daughter of a director of the Daimler Company.

1906: In the United States, William S Kellogg formed the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company to make the cereal he invented as therapy for mental patients.

1945: Iwo Jima was invaded by United States Marines. The island was conquered on 16 March with the loss of 4,590 lives.

1957: Emergency Ward 10, the first continuous television series, began on ITV – it was shown twice-weekly for ten years.

1959: Agreement was signed in London by Greece, Turkey and Britain for independence of Cyprus.

1976: Iceland broke off diplomatic relations with Britain after the two countries failed to agree on limits in the Cod War fishing dispute.

1982: John de Lorean’s sports car firm went into receivership with an estimated loss of at least £17.8million of taxpayers’ money.

1985: EastEnders began on BBC television.

1989: Norway banned the killing of seal pups for a year after British-Swedish documentary on its sealing methods.

1991: Snow fell on the Algerian Sahara Desert for the first time for 30 years.

1991: Boris Yeltsin called for the resignation of Russian premier Mikhail Gorbachev, saying Gorbachev was sacrificing reform for increased personal power.

1992: Sara Keays, former mistress of Cecil (now Lord) Parkinson, won £105,000 libel damages against New Woman magazine.

1999: President Bill Clinton issued a posthumous pardon for US Army Lieutenant Henry Ossian Flipper.

2002: Nasa’s Mars Odyssey space probe began to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.

BIRTHDAYS

Benicio del Toro, actor and film producer, 47; Jeff Daniels, actor, 59; John Freeman MBE, former diplomat, MP 1945-55 and broadcaster, 99; Tony Iommi, rock guitarist (Black Sabbath), 66; Dr Michael Kennedy CBE, music critic, writer and broadcaster, 88; Hana Mandlíková, tennis player, 52; Seal (Seal Henry Samuel), soul singer, 51; Smokey Robinson, soul singer, 74; Gwen Taylor, actress, 75; Prince Andrew, Duke of York, 54.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1473 Nicolaus Copernicus, astronomer; 1843 Adelina Patti, soprano; 1893 Jimmy Durante, actor and comedian; 1893 Sir Cedric Hardwick, stage and film actor; 1911 Merle Oberon, film actress; 1912 Stan Kenton, bandleader and composer; 1961 Justin Fashanu, footballer.

Deaths: 1849 Bernard Barton, poet; 1897 Charles Blondin (Jean-François Gravelet), tightrope walker who crossed Niagara Falls many times; 1916 Ernst Mach, physicist; 1995 Sir Nicholas Fairbairn QC, MP; 2001 Stanley J Kramer, film director; 2010 Lionel Jeffries, actor, screenwriter and director.