D-Day was the largest seaborne invasion in history, with over 156,000 men landing in Normandy.
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D-Day was originally set for June 5 but had to be postponed for 24 hours due to bad weather.
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In military terms, D-Day means a date and H-Hour a time for combat operations.
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When the D-Day forces landed, Hitler was asleep. None of his generals dared send re-enforcements without his permission, and no-one dared wake him.
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German casualties on D-Day were around 1,000 men, while Allied casualties were at least 10,000.
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Civilian casualties on D-Day and D+1
are estimated at 3,000 people.
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4% of the sand on Normandy beaches are still made up of metal particles from D-Day landings.
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In 1944, by a huge coincidence, a crossword puzzle was printed with answers all containing D-Day operation "code names", which sent MI-5 into a panic thinking their invasion plans had been discovered.
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In 1942, the Canadians and the British Navy launched a practice invasion of France, the "Dieppe Raid." 20% were killed, 10% wounded, 30% captured. The lessons learned in that disaster lead to D-Day's success.
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J.D. Salinger arrived in Normandy on D-Day carrying with him a work in progress: "Catcher in the Rye".
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Theodore Roosevelt Jr was the only General involved in the initial assault on D-Day, after insisting to his superiors to be one of the first ones off the boats. He survived, then died of a heart attack one month later.
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The actor who played "Scotty" on Star Trek was shot 6 times on D-Day: 4 times in the leg, one in the chest and one through his finger.
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The German airforce was outnumbered 30:1 on D-Day and didn't shoot down a single allied plane in air-to-air combat.
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On the night of the D-Day invasion, only 15% of paratroopers landed in the right place.
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To plan for D-Day, the BBC ran a competition for French beach holiday photographs as a way of gathering intelligence on suitable beaches.
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The Allies parachuted dummies over Normandy on D-day to distract Nazi gunners from the real paratroopers.
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From 12 March 1944, Britain barred all travel to Ireland in order to prevent the leaking of the date of the D-Day landings.
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