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Francis Gary Powers
Sign in to saveAlso known as Gary Powers
American pilot shot down flying a U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union (1929-1977)
In the Vinony graph
Vinony's link graph records 231 inbound references to Francis Gary Powers, and connects out to Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation and captain.
It sits within the topics 1929 births, 1977 deaths and American people convicted of spying for the United States.
Vinony links it to 42 Wikipedia language editions.
Key facts
- Born
- ( 1929-08-17 ) August 17, 1929, Jenkins, Kentucky , U.S.
- Died
- August 1, 1977 (1977-08-01) (aged 47), Los Angeles , California, U.S.
- Cause of death
- Helicopter crash
- Resting place
- Arlington National Cemetery
- Education
- Milligan College ( BS )
- Known for
- 1960 U-2 incident
- Spouses
- Barbara Gay Moore ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1955 ; divorced</span>"}]]}'>div. 1963 ) Claudia Edwards Downey ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1963 )
- Awards
- Silver Star Distinguished Flying Cross Prisoner of War Medal National Defense Service Medal Intelligence Star Director's Award
- Air force
- United States Air Force
- Rank
- Captain
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Gary
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Jenkins
- Place of death
- Encino
- Occupation
- spy
- Employer
- KNBC
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Participant in
- 1960 U-2 incident spy aircraft
- Military branch
- United States Air Force
- Military rank
- captain
- Image
- RIAN archive 35172 Powers Wears Special Pressure Suit.jpg
- Convicted of
- espionage
- Significant event
- 1960 U-2 incident spy aircraft
Show 9 more facts
- Commons category
- Francis Gary Powers
- date of birth
- 1929-08-17
- date of death
- 1977-08-01
- cause of death
- aviation accident
- place of detention
- Vladimir Central Prison
- place of burial
- Arlington National Cemetery
- start of work period
- 1950-00-00
- name in native language
- Francis Gary Powers
- P12749
- Duchy of Brabant
via Wikidata · CC0
~22 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Francis Gary Powers (August 17, 1929 – August 1, 1977) was an American pilot who served as a United States Air Force officer and a CIA employee. Powers is best known for his involvement in the 1960 U-2 incident, when he was shot down while flying a secret CIA spying mission over the Soviet Union. Powers survived, but was captured and sentenced to 10 years in a Soviet prison for espionage. He served 21 months of his sentence before being released in a prisoner swap in 1962.
After returning to the US, he worked at Lockheed as a test pilot for the U-2, and later as a helicopter pilot for Los Angeles news station KNBC. He died in 1977, when the KNBC helicopter he was flying crashed.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Francis Gary Powers” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.