In pictures: Highlights of the D-Day 70th anniversary ceremony

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Latest update : 2014-06-06

French President François Hollande hosted 19 world leaders and more than 1,000 veterans at Friday’s commemoration of the Normandy landings. Here are some highlights of the day’s events.

At 6.30am local time, the moment on June 6, 1944, when Allied troops first waded onto the beaches of Normandy, a US military band played taps on Friday, marking the commemoration of the world’s biggest amphibious invasion, which helped change the course of World War II and history.

Relive some of the highlights of the ceremonies in pictures:

France would "never forget what it owes to the United States," said French President François Hollande at the D-Day ceremony. "Omaha, Normandy – this was democracy’s beachhead," said US President Barack Obama. (Photo: AFP)
The cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, overlooking the sea, is an American territory. (Photo: Stéphanioe Trouillard /FRANCE 24)
US veterans bow their heads during the emotional commemoration ceremony. (Photo: AFP)
US American veterans of World War II get a standing ovation in Coleville-sur-Mer. (Photo: Joseph Bamat)
Marcella Le Beau, a native of South Dakota, served as a US army nurse in 1944 in Normandy. Seventy years later, she attended the ceremony at Colleville-sur-Mer. (Photo: Joseph Bamat)
At a museum and war memorial in Caen, Hollande paid tribute to the estimated 20,000 French civilians killed in the Allied bombardments. (Credit : AFP)
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls welcomed Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and Prince Charles at the Cathedral of Bayeux. (Credit: AFP)
At Asnelles in Normandy, men wearing British World War II uniforms paid tribute to the British troops who landed there on June 6, 1944. (Credit:. AFP)
Hollande arrives for the final ceremony at Sword Beach, where he also paid tribute to the Soviet Red Army and the German people who were victims of Nazism. (Photo: Joseph Bamat/FRANCE 24)
Obama greets surviving members of Kieffer Commando, a French marine brigade that took part in the D-Day landings. (Photo: Joseph Bamat/FRANCE 24)
Russian President Vladimir Putin talks to German Chancellor Angela Merkel during D-Day 70th anniversary ceremony as Ukraine's president-elect Petro Poroshenko (right) looks on. (Photo: Joseph Bamat/FRANCE 24)
Actors in a performance piece for the D-Day ceremony re-enact the Omaha Beach landing. (Photo: Joseph Bamat/FRANCE 24)
French Green Berets lead column of soldiers representing different branches of French military at the anniversary ceremony. (Photo: Joseph Bamat/FRANCE 24)
Fighter jets fly over Sword Beach as the ceremony comes to a close in a vivid display of sound and colour. (Photo: Joseph Bamat/FRANCE 24)