June 6, 1944: La France est libérée!

On June 6th, 1944 (the D-Day) the allied forces landed in Normandy: this operation, whose codename was Overlord, involved about three million troops (mainly from UK, USA, Canada, Free France and Poland) and remains the biggest seaborne landing in history.

Little after midnight the first airborne troops were parachuted into Normandy, with the mission to seize some strategically key objectives like bridges and routes.
The landings with the amphibious tanks began at the sunrise, encountering a strong resistance, especially at Omaha Beach. Sainte-Mère-Eglise, in the Basse Normandie, was the first french town being liberated by troops of the US 82nd and 101st born divisions.

Tens of thousands of soldiers lost their lives during the D-Day landings; their sacrifice, however, contributed to the opening of a new fighting front in western Europe. The new front significantly reduced the power of the Nazi troops, confronted with the advancing of the Red Army on the eastern front and the allied troops in Sicily.

More information: see Wikipedia.
The movie Saving Private Ryan (by Steven Spilberg, 1998) takes place during the D-Day and the following days.