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Source: THE AS­SO­CI­AT­ED PRESS

Vet­er­ans gath­ered Fri­day in Nor­mandy to mark the 81st an­niver­sary of the D-Day land­ings — a piv­otal mo­ment of World War II that even­tu­al­ly led to the col­lapse of Adolf Hitler’s regime.

Along the coast­line and near the D-Day land­ing beach­es, tens of thou­sands of on­look­ers at­tend­ed the com­mem­o­ra­tions, which in­clud­ed para­chute jumps, fly­overs, re­mem­brance cer­e­monies, pa­rades, and his­tor­i­cal reen­act­ments.