Learn about key events in history and their connections to
today. On Feb. 10, 1962, the Soviet Union released the captured
American pilot Francis Gary Powers because the United States
agreed to release Rudolph Ivanovich Abel, a Soviet spy. The New
York Times wrote: “Mr. Powers and Colonel Abel were exchanged in
the middle of the Glienicker Bridge between Wannsee and Potsdam.
The border between East Germany and West Berlin runs through the
middle of the bridge.” Powers was a pilot in the U-2 program,
started by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1956 to spy on the
Soviet Union. U-2 planes were capable of flying at 70,000 feet,
which the C.I.A. mistakenly believed to be out of range of
Soviet radars. The Soviets saw the planes on radar, but until
1960 did not have the technology to shoot them down. On May 1,
1960, while flying over Soviet territory, Powers’s plane was
struck by a missile; he managed to escape the plane, but, in his
haste, was unable to destroy his spy camera and photos. When he
landed, he had a