A single bomb on the USS Arizona killed 1,177 crew members in seconds

Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor caused heavy losses but failed to cripple the US navy

Japan’s air assault sank or damaged 18 warships (including eight battleships) and destroyed 188 aircraft, killing 2,403 Americans, yet all three Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers were absent and survived, and vital infrastructure like oil depots and repair yards remained intact—preserving core US naval power and enabling a rapid recovery. Watch original reporting here.

The atomic bombs dropped on Japan had massive human costs

The US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 killed around 210,000 people—more than 38,000 of them estimated to be children—with tens of thousands more later dying from radiation-linked illnesses, leaving lifelong trauma and increased cancer risks.

Okinawa’s ferocity convinced the US atomic bombs was necessary

The brutal 82-day Battle of Okinawa—where US forces suffered nearly 50,000 casualties and Japanese military and civilians lost over 200,000 lives—clinched the grim reality that a full invasion of Japan would be even bloodier. This stark lesson directly shaped American decisions to deploy atomic weapons, aiming to avoid a potentially catastrophic ground war on the Japanese mainland.

The Pearl Harbor attack led to the mass internment of Japanese Americans

In the months after Pearl Harbor, the US forcibly removed and incarcerated about 120,000 Japanese Americans—two-thirds of them citizens. Driven by fear and racism, the policy is now recognized as a grave violation of civil rights.

The attack at Pearl Harbor required nearly a year of planning and preparation

In early 1941, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto ordered detailed planning for a surprise carrier strike on Pearl Harbor. Japanese teams spent months refining torpedo modifications, training pilots, and rehearsing the complex attack.

Small wooden tail fins modified torpedoes to operate in the harbor's shallow water

Japan's existing Type 91 torpedoes weighed two tons and slammed into the water at 200 mph, diving 150 feet before rising again. Pearl Harbor was only 40 feet deep, requiring engineers to modify the existing torpedoes for the attack.

Hitler declared war on the United States four days after Pearl Harbor

Despite having no treaty obligation to join Japan’s fight, Hitler declared war on the US on Dec. 11, 1941. The move pulled America into the European theater and is widely seen as one of Hitler’s most strategic blunders.

Advanced forensic science has helped identify killed sailors decades later

When the USS Oklahoma capsized amid the attacks, hundreds of sailors were buried within the ship's hull. Officials have used advances in forensic science to analyze DNA and dental evidence to help identify nearly 400 sailors decades after the fact.

See how newspapers broke the news of the attack around the world

This collection showcases front pages from cities around the globe reacting to Pearl Harbor in real-time—capturing the shock, fear and uncertainty as the US entered World War II.

The 1915 sinking of the Lusitania precipitated World War I

In 1915, the British RMS Lusitania sank after being torpedoed by a German submarine. The Germans claimed the ocean liner was transporting munitions. Almost 1,200 civilians were killed in the disaster, which became a symbol of German aggression in the lead-up to World War I.

The attacks prompted a quick jump in American public support for war

In a Gallup poll taken days after the attack, an extraordinary 97% of Americans approved Congress declaring war on Japan—reflecting overwhelming national unity in the wake of the strike.

Learn how Japan used the jet stream to launch attacks on US soil during World War II

In the final two years of the war, over 9,000 Fu-Go balloon bombs were launched from Japan, with about a thousand estimated to have reached North America. Six civilians killed by a Fu-Go bomb in Bly, Oregon, on May 5, 1945, became the only known deaths on American soil by enemy action during the war.

2 months after Pearl Harbor, American libraries launched a drive to collect 10 million books for soldiers

The 1942 Victory Book Campaign—sponsored by the American Library Association, the Red Cross, and the USO—asked the public to donate books to both train and entertain troops. The national campaign exceeded its goal, collecting more than 10.2 million books.

A Navy messman with no gunnery training defended his ship at Pearl Harbor

Doris “Dorie” Miller, a Black Navy messman assigned to steward duties rather than a combat role, seized a .50-caliber machine gun aboard USS West Virginia during the attack. Despite no formal weapons training, he fired until out of ammo—becoming the first African American to earn the Navy Cross.

Teenager Guy Gabaldon captured the most prisoners in US military history

After the vicious battle of Saipan outside Japan in World War II, the Japanese were opting for suicide rather than surrender. Gabaldon, a Marine with a track record for skillfully convincing the enemy to surrender, managed to capture 800 Japanese single-handedly.

The commander of the Japanese force at Pearl Harbor speaks on the Merv Griffin show

Mitsuo Fuchida, who led the first wave of the Pearl Harbor attack, converted to Christianity in 1950, after reading the testimony of a former American POW. He later traveled through Japan and the United States, sharing his story and working as a Christian evangelist.

The deadliest fireworks accident in history was Marie-Antoinette's wedding

In 1770, a fireworks display in Paris celebrating the marriage of Marie-Antoinette to the Dauphin, later known as Louis XVI, resulted in as many as 3,000 deaths. Most casualties were caused by trampling from a panicked crowd of thousands rushing away after some fireworks were blown into the spectators.

The Tsar Bomba was the most powerful nuclear weapon ever tested

In 1961, the Soviet Union detonated AN602—known as the Tsar Bomba—the largest nuclear explosion in history. Newly released Russian footage starkly illustrates the unmatched destructive power of this nuclear weapon.

The Civil War was the deadliest conflict in American history

Between 1861 and 1865, an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers died from battle and disease—more than in all other US wars combined.

Taliesin’s first fire also involved the tragic murder of seven people

In 1914, while Frank Lloyd Wright was out working in Chicago, one of his servants at Taliesin brutally murdered his mistress, Martha “Mamah” Borthwick Cheney, her two children, and three other people in the home. The massacre left a deep impression on Wright, who spent much of his career restoring the home.

11 people died from firework injuries in the US in 2024.

The most advanced 'bunker-buster' bomb can penetrate 200 feet below soil or concrete

The GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator is delivered exclusively by the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, which carries only two at a time. Using GPS-guided fins and a steel alloy casing, it burrows 200 feet underground before detonating.

Smithsonian artifacts that tell the story of 9/11 (w/photos)

Hundreds of objects linked to the attacks, from office supplies recovered at the World Trade Center to firefighters’ gear used at the Pentagon to fragments pulled from the crash site of Flight 93, reside in the national collection. Read about 31 Smithsonian artifacts that help unravel the complex story of 9/11 and its aftermath.

Nearly all American skilled workers deserted the canal worksite the first year

More than 75,000 workers labored to build the Panama Canal, and up to a third of them, by some estimates, died on the job. This gallery of 16 archival black-and-white photographs from PBS shows what life was like for the workers.

Penicillin slashed battlefield pneumonia deaths during World War II

Before antibiotics, bacterial pneumonia killed about 18% of infected soldiers in World War I. By World War II, penicillin cut that death rate to less than 1%.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

How a panel blew off a Boeing plane in mid-air

As Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 climbed just over 16,000 feet into the sky, a refrigerator-sized panel was ripped from its side, forcing it to land. Few of the 171 passengers were injured. This infographic explains how the panel tore from the body of the Boeing 737 MAX 9 plane, which had only been in service for eight weeks.

In 1915, workers recovered a submarine-like vessel from the Chicago River, prompting fears of German espionage

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

Volcanic activity may have triggered the Black Death by spewing gases that led to crop failures in Europe, thus forcing the import of grain ships with plague-infested fleas.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

Coral polyps reproduce via broadcast spawning, where entire reefs simultaneously release reproductive cells for about one hour, once a year.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

Poison ivy's characteristic rash is caused by an allergic response to an oily compound in the plant called urushiol.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.