On this date in 1945, about 30,000 United States Marines landed on the island Iwo Jima, where they encountered ferocious resistance from Japanese forces. The Americans took control of the strategically important island after a month-long battle.

On this date in 1962, the Soviet Union exchanged the captured American U-2 pilot Francis Powers for Rudolph Abel, a Soviet spy who was held by the United States.

On this date in 1984, astronauts Bruce McCandless and Robert Stewart went on the first untethered ‘spacewalk.’