What Day Was D-Day (Normandy landings)?

About this date

Allied forces launched the largest seaborne invasion in history, landing on five beaches codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword along the Normandy coast of France, opening the Western Front against Nazi Germany in World War II.

The operation, codenamed Overlord, involved airborne landings overnight before the main amphibious assault and remains one of the most extensively documented military operations of the 20th century.

Weather forecasting played a decisive role in the operation's exact date: originally planned for the day before, it was postponed 24 hours due to poor conditions, and a brief predicted break in the weather gave Allied commander Dwight D. Eisenhower the window to proceed.

The Allies had run an elaborate deception campaign, Operation Fortitude, using fake radio traffic and inflatable equipment to convince German commanders the main invasion would come at a different location entirely, delaying their response once the real landings began.