On August 19, 1960, US spy-plane pilot Francis Gary Powers was sentenced to 10-years in prison by the Soviet Union after being convicted of espionage. Powers was captured and tried by the USSR after his U-2 was shot down while flying a mission over Soviet airspace. In 1962, Powers was returned to the US as part of a prisoner-exchange agreement.

Read documents about Francis Gary Powers from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and learn more about the spy-plane incident from the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library.