Pearl Harbor's 74th Anniversary: Events, Facts And Photos Commemorating December 7, 1941

Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was attacked without warning by the Imperial Japanese Navy on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, claiming more than 2,400 American lives and bringing the United States into World War II. The attack by hundreds of Japanese warplanes and submarines on the U.S. naval base took just 90 minutes and sank four battleships and two destroyers and damaged many other aircraft, buildings and ships.

The day marked the deadliest foreign attack on American soil, until Sept. 11, 2001. President Franklin D. Roosevelt called on Congress to declare war on Japan, saying the famous words that the date of the attack “will live in infamy.”

American warships are still docked at Pearl Harbor today. The USS Arizona Memorial is moored in commemoration of the attack and the battleship USS Missouri, where the Japanese surrendered in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945, sits as a symbol of the end of World War II.

For Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, the National Park Service will air a live video stream of the commemorative events on Monday. The ceremony will begin at 7:30 a.m. Hawaii Standard Time (12:30 p.m. EST), featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Kennedy as the keynote speaker. The webcast will also include a Q&A with experts, Pearl Harbor survivors and other World War II veterans.

A ceremony for the USS Oklahoma will also take place at 1:30 p.m. HST on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor. The ship was one of those moored at Pearl Harbor's Battleship Row — along with the Arizona that bore the brunt of the attacks — when it sank after being hit by up to 12 torpedoes, causing the deaths of 429 crew. Just in April, the Department of Defense ordered the exhumation of the sailors and Marines who died on the ship, so their bodies could be examined, identities confirmed and remains returned to family.

Ahead of the Dec. 7 anniversary, users took to Twitter to share photos and facts about the attack.