What Happened Today In History.......... June 6

On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which, “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end, the Allies gained a foot-hold in Continental Europe. The cost in lives on D-Day was high. More than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded, but their sacrifice allowed more than 100,000 Soldiers to begin the slow, hard slog across Europe, to defeat Adolf Hitler’s crack troops.

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    American Revolution

    1775 New York Patriot Marinus Willet seizes British weapons

    Automotive

    1933 First drive-in movie theater opens

    Civil War

    1862 Union claims Memphis in naval battle

    Crime

    1997 A teenaged mother gives birth and murders her baby at the prom

    Disaster

    1981 Train avoids cow, but kills 600

    Hollywood

    1998 Sex and the City premieres on HBO

    2013 Swimmer turned movie star Esther Williams dies

    Literary

    1949 George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four is published

    Music

    1971 The Ed Sullivan Show airs for the very last time

    Sports

    1992 Eddie Murray sets career RBI record for a switch hitter

    Vietnam War

    1964 U.S. reconnaissance jets shot down over Laos

    1972 South Vietnamese forces clear Kontum of communist troops

    World War I

    1918 Battle of Belleau Wood begins

    World War II

    1944 Allies invade France

-history.com