The TIME Magazine Vault

American soldiers go ashore during the Normandy landings.

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June 6, 1944: D-Day

When Allied troops arrived for the WWII invasion of Normandy, TIME gave the story the most in-depth treatment possible.

"Battleships, cruisers, destroyers stood off the coast, wrapped themselves in smoke screens and hurled steel from 640 guns. They arrived in two divisions. On the east they were British and Canadian vessels under the command of Rear Admiral Sir Philip Vian. On the west they were U.S., under the command of Rear Admiral Alan G. Kirk," TIME reported. "Never before, not at Tarawa or Kwajalein or Salerno, had a target been subjected to such overwhelming bombardment from air and sea."

June 6, 1944: D-Day

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Jan. 5, 1953

Crowned June 2, 1953: Queen Elizabeth

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Celebrating the Ocean’s Magic

On June 8, for World Oceans Day, people around the world will pay homage to the planet's oceans — but nobody could celebrate an ocean like Jacques Cousteau did. When he appeared on the cover of TIME in 1960, the magazine captured his unique take on what made the water special. "I am miserable out of water," he said. "It is as though you had been introduced to heaven, and then found yourself back on earth. The spirituality of a man cannot be completely separated from the physical. But you have made a big step toward escape simply by lowering yourself under water."

Celebrating the Ocean’s Magic

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March 26, 1965

The First Spacewalk

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The Flowers of Spring

Though spring may officially start at the equinox, TIME noted in 1966 that some people measure the start of the season in their own way: "[To] millions of U.S. gardeners, spring officially begins the minute they stroll through the local flower show and receive their newest seed catalogue—and many of them have. In Milwaukee, nearly 100,000 people recently walked out of snow and subfreezing temperatures straight into a lush garden where a stone Saint Francis of Assisi stood by a gurgling waterfall and fields of flowering forsythia and geraniums. In Kansas City, Mo., the theme was 'A Circus of Flowers,' with a candy-striped circus tent summoning up a gay, summer air. For the opening of Cleveland's 23rd show, neither blizzards nor bone-chilling winds sweeping off of ice-covered Lake Erie could deter 18,000 hardy hobbyists."