Iwo Jima Day – Anniversary of the Flag – Raising in 1945

February 23rd marks the anniversary of the iconic moment during the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945 when U.S. Marines raised the American flag atop Mount Suribachi, symbolizing extraordinary courage and sacrifice, an event immortalized by Joe Rosenthal’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph and later commemorated by the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. The battle began days earlier, on February 19, 1945, and was one of World War II’s bloodiest, with over 26,000 American casualties.