The first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded: Laura E. Richards, Maude H. Elliott, and Florence Hall receive the first Pulitzer for biography (for ''Julia Ward Howe''). Jean Jules Jusserand receives the first Pulitzer for history for his work ''With Americans of Past and Present Days''. Herbert B. Swope receives the first Pulitzer for journalism for his work for the ''New York World''.

World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines and a commonly forgotten U.S. Navy Corpsman, reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo would later win a Pulitzer Prize and become the model for the national USMC War Memorial.

Ernest Hemingway is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for ''The Old Man and the Sea''.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph ''Burst of Joy'' is taken, depicting a former prisoner of war being reunited with his family.