ALEXANDRIA, VA – To mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, 2019, the National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) has “landed” a restored Higgins Boat in Dulany Gardens at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office headquarters in Alexandria.
Invented by 2019 NIHF Inductee Andrew Higgins, the Higgins Boat, or Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel (LCVP), was used to land American troops on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. This revolutionary craft was also used in North Africa, Italy and across the Pacific, for island hopping through Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and it allowed the U.S. Army to cross the Rhine River into Germany in March 1945.
The exhibit is part of the 2019 National Inventors Hall of Fame Inductees exhibit and will be open to the public through July 27.
Visitors can tour the boat itself and then go inside the NIHF Museum to learn more about Higgins and the rest of the 2019 Class of Inductees including Chieko Asakawa, inventor of the Home Page Reader, and the inventors of Stannous Fluoride Toothpaste, Joseph Muhler and William Nebergall.
