On this day in 1944, with unshakable faith, General Dwight D. Eisenhower launched D-Day, the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France—a pivotal moment that reshaped history and defined a generation.

More than 135,000 troops crossed the English Channel by air, land, and sea. Eisenhower called it the "Great Crusade." With emotion in his eyes, he saluted the 101st Airborne as they soared toward France to face overwhelming odds and forge a path to freedom.

It took two years of planning. The code name: Operation Overlord. Hitler was stunned. And within six weeks, Allied troops had broken through German lines. France would soon be liberated, and the tide of World War II would be forever changed.

Nearly 10,000 casualties were suffered that first day. The courage of those who fought is immortalized in films like Saving Private Ryan and honored at the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, which opened on this very day in 2000.

President Harry Truman, in his VE-Day speech less than a year later, reminded the world: "We must seek to bind up the wounds of a suffering world—to build an abiding peace, a peace rooted in justice and law."

On D-Day, we honor the sacrifice, unity, and leadership it took to move democracy forward — with conviction, courage, and unshakable faith.