Tag: adolf hitler

President Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms Speech

6th January 1941

On this day President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his famous ‘Four Freedoms’ speech to Congress in America: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. At that time, Adolf Hitler was embarking on his quest for world domination, and Roosevelt, well aware of the reluctance of the American people to get involved in another war, warned them: “The future and safety of our country and of our democracy are overwhelmingly involved in events far beyond our borders.” His speech gave the American people a mantra to hold onto when the country was inevitably drawn into the war. It also laid the foundations for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

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The Attack on Pearl Harbour

7th December 1941

On this day the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii just before 8:00 a.m. 353 Imperial Japanese aircraft carried out the attack which killed over 2000 Americans and destroyed more than 180 US aircraft and a number of battleships, as well as important facilities on Pearl Harbour. It shocked the American public and directly led them to declare war on Japan the following day. Adolf Hitler responded by declaring war on the USA on 11th December, bringing America into both fronts of the war. President Franklin D. Roosevelt referred to the attack as “a day which will live in infamy.”

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