1962: Captured U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers was freed in exchange for captured Soviet secret agent Rudolf Abel.
U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers sits in the witness chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington, D.C., on March 6, 1962.
Photo Credit: Cliff Owen/AP
Also in history today, in the U.S. and elsewhere:
1258: Baghdad fell to Hülegü's Mongols, bringing the Abbasid Caliphate to an end.
1862: In the Battle of Elizabeth City, a Union flotilla wiped out the Confederate Mosquito Fleet defending the Pasquotank River in North Carolina, with five Confederate vessels sunk, captured or scuttled.
1906: HMS Dreadnought, representing a new breed of battleship, was christened by King Edward VII — touching off a naval arms race that contributed to war eight years later. For an overview of World War I and the causes leading up to it, see HistoryNet.com.
