A few questions about the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor: a. On which island is Pearl Harbor located? b. On which date did this attack occur? c. What three-word phrase did President Roosevelt use to describe the day of this attack?

The surprise military strike on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, located on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, occurred on December 7, 1941. This assault was the culmination of a decade of deteriorating relations between the United States and Japan. The Japanese attack was a meticulously planned operation, involving six aircraft carriers that secretly traversed 3,000 miles of open ocean to a position a few hundred miles north of the Hawaiian islands. The attack came in two waves, with 353 Japanese aircraft targeting the unsuspecting American forces. In a little over an hour, the attack resulted in significant American casualties, with over 2,400 military personnel and civilians killed, and inflicted severe damage to the U.S. Pacific Fleet, destroying or damaging more than a dozen ships and over 180 aircraft.

The day after the devastating attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress and the nation. In his powerful and now-famous speech, he immortalized the date of the assault by referring to it as "a date which will live in infamy." This phrase captured the profound shock and outrage felt by the American people at the unprovoked nature of the attack, which occurred while diplomatic negotiations were still officially ongoing between the two nations. Roosevelt's speech served to unify the country and galvanize public support for war. Within hours of his address, the United States officially entered World War II, a conflict that had been raging in Europe and Asia but that America had previously remained neutral in.