The wreckage of Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 spy plane
(top/bottom) on May 1, 1960.

An American U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers was
shot down while conducting espionage over the Soviet Union.

The incident derailed an important summit meeting between
President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet leader Nikita
Khrushchev that was scheduled for later that month.   
     

After being shot down, Powers (right) appeared in the dock
of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R. and was tried by the
Soviet Military Board on August 19, 1960.

Francis Gary Powers holds a model of a U-2 spy plane as he testifies before the U.S.  Senate Armed Services Committee
after his release from Soviet prison in march 1962.

Francis Gary Powers (August 17, 1929 – August 1, 1977)

Powers was piloting a helicopter for Los Angeles TV station
KNBC Channel 4 over the San Fernando Valley on August 1,
1977, when the aircraft crashed, killing him and his cameraman
George Spears.

the glasses rock legend Buddy Holly was wearing when his plane crashed February 3, 1959.

The Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, Texas.

THE CRICKETS from left: Joe B. Mauldin, Buddy Holly and
Jerry Allison. 

Charles Hardin “Buddy” Holley
(September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959)

Singer-songwriter Buddy Holly was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s
rock and roll. He was born in Lubbock, Texas, to a musical family during the
Great Depression.

During his short career, Holly wrote and recorded many songs. He is often
regarded as the artist who defined the traditional rock-and-roll lineup of
two guitars, bass, and drums. He was a major influence on later popular
popular music artists, including Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling
Stones, and Eric Clapton,

From left, American rock and roll legends Ritchie Valens, 17, Buddy Holly, 22, and J.P. ‘Big Bopper’ Richardson, 28, who died in a small-
plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, in 1959.

Rising American rock stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P.
“The Big Bopper” Richardson were killed when their chartered Beechcraft Bonanza plane crashes in Iowa a few minutes after
takeoff from Mason City on a flight headed for Moorhead,
Minnesota. Investigators blamed the crash on bad weather and
pilot error. Holly and his band, the Crickets, had just scored a
No. 1 hit with “That’ll Be the Day.”

Gull Avenue Crash site is located west of intersection of 315th Street
and Gull Avenue., Clear Lake, IA.