President Eisenhower approved the development of the U-2 spy plane on November 25, 1954.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by CIA's own official history (Pedlow and Welzenbach) and corroborated by NSA and other declassified sources placing approval on Nov 24-25, 1954, with Nov 25 commonly cited as the specific date. [tier=silver indep_score=0.925 clusters=2 claim_tier=notable | framework convergence=partial on CIA's official declassified institutional history of the U-2 program (upstreams: CIA Directorate of Science and Technology historical monograph (Pedlow and Welzenbach), CIA Freedom of Information Act reading room declassified U-2 program history) — publishers independent, evidence may not be | kind=empirical eligibility=high]
Sources
- 10 Fascinating CIA Missions - CIA (seed:military_and_intelligence)
- https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/the-u-2s-first-cheat-sheet/ (corroboration)
- https://www.nsa.gov/portals/75/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/u2-history.pdf (corroboration)