Latest news with #FrancisGaryPowers
BBC News
2 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
'The aircraft spiralled downwards, tail first': The CIA spy shot down over Russia in 1960
On 19 August 1960, 65 years ago this week, a court in Moscow handed a US pilot, Francis Gary Powers, a 10-year sentence after he was apprehended by Soviet security forces. The BBC reported on what became a Cold War diplomatic disaster. Francis Gary Powers was on a CIA spying mission over Soviet Russia when his U-2 plane was hit by a surface-to-air missile. "I looked up, looked out, and just everything was orange, everywhere," Powers recalled. "I don't know whether it was the reflection in the canopy itself or just the whole sky. And I can remember saying to myself, 'By God, I've had it now.'" In fact, Powers managed to parachute to safety, but his troubles were far from over. Having been arrested and interrogated by the KGB, he was put on trial in Moscow, where his family could only watch helplessly. "He said that he knew that we were present at his trial," his wife Barbara Powers told the BBC. "He didn't know beforehand. But he saw me wave. And he said he just couldn't bear to look towards the box where we were all sitting, because it upset him too much, and he knew it would upset us." On 19 August 1960, 65 years ago this week, Powers was sentenced to 10 years – three in a Russian prison and seven in a labour camp. His capture and trial would have a devastating impact on East-West relations at the height of the Cold War. Powers was 30 at the time. A coal miner's son from Kentucky, US, he studied chemistry and biology before joining the US Air Force in 1950. In 1956, he was recruited by the CIA to pilot U-2 spy planes over enemy territory. These U-2s could fly at 70,000ft (21.3km), which was supposedly above the range of Soviet defences, and yet the cutting-edge camera on board could take detailed photographs of military installations far below. On 1 May 1960, Powers took off from Peshawar, Pakistan, with a brief to fly across the USSR and land in Norway. "The planned route would take us deeper into Russia than we had ever gone, while traversing important targets never before photographed," he wrote in his memoir, Operation Overflight.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Deseret News archives: Soviet Union traded a pilot for a spy on this day in 1962
A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives. The big trade in 1962 happened on Glienicke Bridge, not in the NBA or between baseball clubs. On Feb. 10, 1962, on the Glienicke Bridge connecting West Berlin and East Germany, the Soviet Union exchanged captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy held by the United States. According to accounts in the Deseret News and other news reports, the two men were brought to separate sides of the Glienicke Bridge, which connects East and West Berlin across Lake Wannsee. As the spies waited, negotiators talked in the center of the bridge where a white line divided East from West. Finally, Powers and Abel were waved forward and crossed the border into freedom at the same moment — 8:52 a.m., Berlin time. Just before their transfer, Frederic Pryor — an American student held by East German authorities since August 1961 — was released to American authorities at another border checkpoint. Upon returning to the United States, Powers was cleared by the CIA and the Senate of any personal blame for the U-2 incident. In 1970, he published a book, 'Operation Overflight,' about the incident. Powers died in the crash of a helicopter that he flew as a reporter for a Los Angeles television station in 1977. Here are some stories from Deseret News archives about Powers, the U-2 incident, and the prisoner exchange: 'Sons of 1960 U-2 figures meet' 'U2 Spy plane wasn't hit by a missile' 'Spy plane outlasts Cold War, but not defense cuts' 'Ex-Soviet spy who defected dies at 81″ 'Spielberg's 'Bridge of Spies' delivers suspense and compelling historical perspective' 'This week in history: Russia leader Nikita Khrushchev reveals the U-2 Incident' 'CIA declassifies 1992 study on U-2 Cold War spy missions' 'Victim of Cold War found on remote isle' 'U.S. spy planes played big but quiet role in war' 'Russian spy claims swap in works for spies in U.S.' 'China gets increasingly aggressive about spying' 'Deseret News archives: U.S. pilot Gary Powers sentenced to 10 years in Russian prison' Deseret News timeline
Chicago Tribune
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: Deadly tornado kills 21 in St. Louis area
Today is Monday, Feb. 10, the 41st day of 2025. There are 324 days left in the year. Today in history: On Feb. 10, 1959, an F4-intensity tornado tore through the St. Louis area, killing 21 people and injuring 345. Also on this date: 1736, the treaty ending the Seven Years' War was signed in Paris, with France ceding its territory in Canada to Great Britain. In 1936, Nazi Germany's Reichstag passed a law investing the Gestapo secret police with absolute authority, exempt from any legal review. In 1962, on the Glienicke Bridge connecting West Berlin and East Germany, the Soviet Union exchanged captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy held by the United States. In 1967, the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, dealing with presidential disability and succession, was adopted as Minnesota and Nevada ratified it. In 1981, eight people were killed when a fire set by a busboy broke out at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino. In 1996, world chess champion Garry Kasparov lost the first game of a match in Philadelphia against an IBM computer dubbed 'Deep Blue.' (Kasparov ended up winning the match, 4 games to 2; however, he was defeated by Deep Blue in a rematch the following year.) Today's birthdays: Opera singer Leontyne Price is 98. Actor Robert Wagner is 95. Singer Roberta Flack is 88. Olympic swimming gold medalist Mark Spitz is 75. Golf Hall of Famer Greg Norman is 70. Basketball Hall of Fame coach John Calipari is 66. Filmmaker Alexander Payne is 64. TV host-political commentator George Stephanopoulos is 64. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., is 63. Political commentator Glenn Beck is 61. Actor Laura Dern is 58. Writer-producer-director Vince Gilligan (TV: 'Breaking Bad') is 58. Football Hall of Famer Ty Law is 51. Actor-filmmaker Elizabeth Banks is 51. Basketball Hall of Famer Tina Thompson is 50. Reggaeton singer Don Omar is 47. Actor Uzo Aduba is 44. Actor Stephanie Beatriz is 44. Actor Emma Roberts is 34. Olympic swimming gold medalist Lilly King is 28. Actor Chloe Grace Moretz is 28. Actor Yara Shahidi is 25.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
On This Day, Feb. 10: Treaty of Paris formally ends French and Indian War
Feb. 10 (UPI) -- On this date in history: In 1763, the Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years' War between Britain and Spain and also the French and Indian War, with France ceding Quebec to Great Britain. Many such truces have held the title "Treaty of Paris" as the city has hosted numerous negotiations over the centuries, as outlined in this 1969 UPI article. In 1897, the slogan "All The News That's Fit To Print" first appeared on Page One of The New York Times. In 1931, New Delhi was made the capital of India. In 1962, captured U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers was returned to the United States by Russia in exchange for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. In 1964, 82 Australian sailors died when an aircraft carrier and a destroyer collided off New South Wales, Australia. In 1971, four photojournalists -- Kent Potter of United Press International, Henry Huet of the Associated Press, Larry Burrows of Life magazine and Keisaburo Shimamoto of Newsweek -- died after the South Vietnamese air force helicopter they were in was shot down over Laos during the Vietnam War. In 1992, an Indianapolis jury convicted former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson in the rape of a beauty pageant contestant. Tyson was sentenced to six years in prison and released after three. In 1996, a computer -- IBM's Deep Blue -- won a game against world champion chess player Garry Kasparov. But Kasparov won three games and drew two others in winning the overall match with Deep Blue. In 2007, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. David Petraeus assumed control of the U.S. forces in Iraq at a ceremony in Baghdad. He described his new job as "hard but not hopeless." In 2011, a 14-year-old suicide bomber in a school uniform attacked an army parade ground in Pakistan, killing at least 27 soldiers and injuring more than 40 others. In 2013, the northeastern United States was digging out from a monster snowstorm that killed nine people and left at least 400,000 households without power. In 2021, scientists in France announced that an 18,000-year-old conch shell is believed to be the world's oldest known wind instrument. It was discovered in the Marsoulas Cave in the Pyrenees mountain range in 1931. In 2024, Hungarian President Katalin Novak resigned following backlash over her decision the previous year to pardon the former head of a children's shelter who allowed a child sex offender to prey on young residents.
