1945: 2/23/1945 & WWII
On Friday, February 23, 1945 at around 1:00 PM, five days after the Marines landed
at Iwo Jima, Rosenthal was making his daily visit to the island on a Marine landing craft
when he heard that a flag was being raised atop Mount Suribachi,
a volcano at the southern tip of the island.
Upon landing, Rosenthal hurried toward Suribachi,
lugging along his bulky Speed Graphic camera, the standard for press photographers at the time.
When he got about halfway up, he was told that a flag had already been raised on the summit.
He continued up anyway to photograph the flag flying.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Rosenthal