A Date Which Will Live In Infamy

Seventy Nine years ago on an early Sunday morning on December 7th, 1941, Japanese aircraft launched a surprise attack against the US Navy fleet based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Fourteen ships damaged and 188 aircraft were destroyed. 3581 individuals lost their lives that morning.

A fleet of B17’s were scheduled to land at Pearl Harbor that morning, causing radar operators to confuse the Japanese fleet as the B17’s. Luckily, the US Navy aircraft carriers were not in the harbor that morning. If they had been, it would have been an even greater loss for the US military.

This battle instantaneously caused congress to declare war against Japan. This battle brought the United States into World War II. It was, as then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt would call it, “a date which will live in infamy.”

What does “infamy” mean?

Infamy: The state of being well known for some bad quality or deed.