80 years ago today, those listening to a football game on the radio in New York were interrupted by that announcement.
The United States of America was attacked at the Hawaii naval base of Pearl Harbor.
The bombing and kamikaze attacks by Japanese airmen killed 2,403 on December 7th, 1941, including Manitowoc native, Rhoda Ann Ziesler.
Ziesler was stationed at Schofield Barracks Army Hospital, about 20 miles from Pearl Harbor on Oahu, and was working the morning of the attack.
The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed his battered nation.
Then, while speaking to the congregation of U.S. Senators and Representatives, FDR announced that Japan had awoken the sleeping beast.
And with that, the U.S. entered WWII.
The number of surviving men and women who served during WWII is dwindling.
It is estimated that roughly 240,000 of the 16 million who defended our country between 1941 and 1945 are still with us.
One of them, Harold Kummer, is living in Manitowoc County.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was the deadliest attack on American soil until September 11th, 2001, when 2,977 people were killed in the terrorist attacks in New York.
You can hear other radio broadcasts announcing the attack, and President Roosevelt’s Address in full below
