From The Writer’s Almanac
In 1941 on this day, the Japanese attacked the American navel base at Pearl Harbor. Early in the morning 183 Japanese fighter planes took off from aircraft carriers in the Pacific Ocean. They used broadcasts from Honolulu radio stations to help them navigate. The planes arrived off the coast of the island of Oahu, Hawaii, shortly before 8:00 in the morning. Radar at Pearl Harbor had picked up the fleet, but the Americans assumed the planes were B-17 bombers coming from California. Bombs began to drop over the docks at Pearl Harbor along “battleship row.” Approximately an hour later 168 more planes appeared dropping more bombs. Eight ships were sunk or severely damaged and 347 U.S. military airplanes were destroyed. The battleship Arizona exploded, killing nearly all of the crew on board, accounting for 1,177 of the total of 2,300 American deaths at Pearl Harbor. The ship burned for days after the attack due to the fuel on board.
Up until that point President Roosevelt had refused to join in the Second World War going on overseas. After the attack the president announced in a short radio broadcast to the country that lasted less than 10 minutes, that December 7th was a date that would “live in infamy.” Congress declared war on Japan the following morning.
U.S. Navy cable at time of attack — THIS IS NOT DRILL.
And see NewMexiKen’s slideshow of the Arizona Memorial [1.2MB Windows Media file].