PARIS — As 160,000 Allied soldiers began to swarm the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944, an ocean away New York Times editors scrambled to put out a special 6 a.m. edition heralding a seminal moment of World War II.

“Allied Armies Land in France in the Havre-Cherbourg Area,” the banner headline on the new front page said. “Great Invasion is Under Way.”

The news was illustrated with a mazelike map of the landing area in northern France, but it was announced with a simple sentence: “The invasion of Europe from the west has begun.”

The article detailed how “in the grey light of a summer dawn,” a great force under the command of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and comprising troops from the United States, Britain and Canada had begun landing on the northwest shore of Europe.