Here are historic photos from D-Day. 'We had a job' to do: Humble veteran, 100, recalls D-Day 81 years later 'Welcome home': Iowan killed on D-Day to be buried on 81st anniversary of his death ...

See D-Day in historic photos U.S. soldiers wade through surf and German gunfire to secure a beachhead during the Allied Invasion on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944.

I sat in miserable cogitation upon a culvert on Madaraka Day. At a quiet seam in Elgon earth, a rib of concrete overrun by the green breadth of the sugarlands of Tongaren, where the sun sets in Kenya.

It is here, on this moss-darkened curve of culvert by my farm, that I sat on Madaraka Day. Legs swung over a shallow hush of creek shadow, alone but not lonely, the kind of solitude that invites ...

The invasion marked the turning point in the European theater, as Paris would be liberated by the end of August, 1944 and Nazi Germany would surrender less than a year later, according to History.com.

Historic photos illustrate the D-Day landings, which happened 81 years ago Friday. A reenactment in Conneaut, Ohio, happens later this summer.

In early April, National History Day lost the grant the National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded it consistently for more than 50 years, which makes up about 20% of its budget.