D-Day Anniversary 2014: Historic Photos From The Beaches Of Normandy

President Barack Obama honored the 70^th anniversary of D-Day on Friday at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial at Omaha Beach in Colleville-sur-Mer, France.

During his speech in front of world leaders and veterans, Obama honored the more than 150,000 allies that stormed the beaches at Normandy and other World War II veterans as those who “gave so much for the survival of liberty at its moment of maximum peril.”

He recounted the story of D-Day describing the “blood soaked the water” and the “thousands of rounds bit into flesh and sand” on the beaches of Normandy. He went on to say, “By the end of that longest day, this beach had been fought, lost, refought and won -- a piece of Europe once again liberated and free.”

On June 6, 1944, hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers stormed five beaches of northern France. The assault gave the Allies a foothold in Nazi-held France that eventually helped bring World War II to an end.

Seventy years later, French President Francois Hollande led the D-Day anniversary events, which include dinner with world leaders, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Queen Elizabeth II of Britain alongside the country’s prime minister, David Cameron.

This will be the first time Obama and Putin will meet since the crisis in Ukraine broke out. On Wednesday, Putin offered to speak with the U.S. president saying, “There is no reason to think President Obama does not want to talk to the Russian president,” Putin said. “It’s his choice. I am ready for dialogue.”

Below are photos from the day billed as “the beginning of the end of war in Europe.”