 Opijnen was a separate municipality until 1818, when it changed its name to Est en Opijnen.Opijnen is home to the graves of eight American airmen who were shot down on July 30, 1943, and killed while returning to England from a bombing raid over Kassel, Germany.The village honored the airmen - George Richard Krueger, Mike Anthony Perrotta, Daniel Victor Ohman, Hermon Daines Poling, Harold Royce Sparks, Robert Urquhart Duggan, Douglas Victor Blackwood, and Americo Chiafichi - by burying them in their cemetery.