The Pearl Harbor attack was influenced by a British raid on Italian battleships

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.

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.

See a visualization of the Japanese attack

This animated visualization reconstructs the two-wave Pearl Harbor strike—showing the flight paths, ship positions, and timing that allowed Japan’s carrier force to severely damage Battleship Row in just 110 minutes while catching US defenses off guard.

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor largely because it was running out of oil

This video traces how US-led sanctions and Japan’s near-total dependence on imported oil pushed Japanese leaders toward a high-risk plan: seize Southeast Asian oil fields and neutralize the American Pacific Fleet, hoping Washington would negotiate rather than fight.

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.

US intelligence failures contributed to the success of the Japanese attack

Despite breaking Japan’s diplomatic codes, US agencies failed to integrate warnings, successfully track Japan’s carriers, or even believe a Hawaii strike was possible (they also had not cracked Japan’s naval codes). Missed signals, ignored reports and poor coordination led to one of the worst intelligence failures in US history.

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.

The Japanese Navy used radio silence and deception to mask its approach

In late November 1941, Japan’s carrier strike force maintained total radio silence while operators back home broadcast normal traffic—creating ambiguity about the location of the fleet. The deception obscured US intelligence and helped create a surprise attack.

The US Pacific strategy sought control of key islands to close in on Japan

The US adopted a two-pronged "island hopping" campaign across the Central and Southwest Pacific from 1943–44, deliberately targeting strategically crucial but less-defended islands. This allowed forces to bypass heavily fortified Japanese strongholds and build airfields for bombers aimed at Japan, drastically accelerating the path toward Tokyo while conserving manpower and resources.

Japan had the world's best carrier aviation in 1941

In late 1941, Japan possessed the world’s most powerful carrier fleet and the best-trained naval aviators, giving it a short-term edge over the US. But Japan couldn’t replace ships or pilots quickly, and US industry would soon outbuild it.

The attack at Pearl Harbor led to the world's first around-the-world commercial flight

A World War II-era commercial flight was forced to change course when Pearl Harbor was bombed, leading the 12-member crew on the world's first commercial flight to circumnavigate the globe. The Boeing 314 crossed the equator four times during the journey, which totaled more than 30,000 miles and required the crew to strip the plane of any identifying marks.

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 perplexing Battle of Los Angeles in 1942 generated swaths of UFO conspiracies

On Feb. 24-25, 1942, weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack, a US military radar warned of enemy aircraft. A citywide blackout went into effect, powerful searchlights were lit up, and US forces fired artillery at what they believed to be the enemy. However, no confirmed enemy planes were ever identified. Eyewitnesses reported seeing large objects flying overhead, and much of the public speculated about UFOs and extraterrestrial attacks.

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.

Why did Britian's intelligence agency hire Mussolini?

This article explains how and why Benito Mussolini worked for MI5, the British intelligence agency. Before Mussolini ever rose to power as a fascist dictator, he was a journalist who was willing to advocate for Italy to join the allies in World War...

Radar saved the British Royal Air Force from Nazi air assaults

Radar technology—particularly the Chain Home early-warning system—enabled the RAF to detect incoming Luftwaffe raids up to 80 miles out, coordinate fighter deployments through the Dowding System, and achieve interception rates over 90%. This technological edge was pivotal in winning the Battle of Britain and halting Germany's air campaign.

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

The UK was already in a depression before the US Great Depression took hold

The US Great Depression was felt globally, but the severity and length of different countries’ economic downturns varied. For instance, Japan was the first country to exit its depression.

The British Royal Navy—not the US military—enforced the Monroe Doctrine for most of the 19th century

In the early to mid-1800s, the US lacked the ships and military power to prevent European nations from colonizing the Americas. Britain enforced this to protect its commercial interests by keeping rival European powers out of Latin America.

Alfred Hitchcock influenced the way Spielberg shot 'Jaws'

Steven Spielberg realized the key to unlocking the terror of the shark in "Jaws" would be by obscuring it, remembering an important lesson from Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho.” Spielberg recalled, “It’s what we don’t see that is truly frightening."

'Keep Calm and Carry On' was long-forgotten World War II propaganda

The British Ministry of Information developed the stoic phrase ahead of German attacks at the start of World War II in 1939. It was never officially released on posters and then lay dormant until 2000, when one of the remaining posters was discovered at a bookstore in the UK. It has since been adapted into countless memes.

The attack on Fort Sumter was the Civil War's first battle

Confederate forces fired on Union-held Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861, after Lincoln refused to surrender it. The bombardment lasted 34 hours, forcing a Union surrender and marking the beginning of the Civil War.

Palantir's software is widely speculated to have enabled Osama bin Laden's assassination

While Palantir has never publicly confirmed the use of its software in the 2011 assassination, its technology is widely speculated to have been a critical aspect of the operation. However, Palantir executives have never denied the claim, either, and have frequently commented on the software's important role in defending Western civilizations from terrorism.

In 1820, a sperm whale sank a ship and inspired 'Moby-Dick'

The Essex's crew hoped to capture sperm oil, a lucrative material found in the heads of sperm whales. However, a whale charged and crashed into the ship. Survivors of the attack drifted at sea for months, and many experienced starvation, dehydration, and cannibalism. The ordeal inspired author Herman Melville.

Famed American investor Jesse Livermore made millions when the stock market crashed in 1929

Livermore made his first major short against rail company Union Pacific in 1906, coincidentally before an earthquake in San Francisco, which ultimately tanked share prices. During a financial panic the next year, JP Morgan reportedly asked Livermore to increase his long-term investments to restore hope and restabilize the market—which Livermore did. However, Livermore began betting against the market in 1929, sensing that stocks were too hot, and was one of the few people to benefit from the 1929 stock crash.

The Hawaiian pizza was popularized by a Canadian chef

Hawaii's tiki culture was popular in North America through the mid-20th century, with canned pineapple a household staple. Sam Panopoulos, a Greek immigrant who operated a diner in Ontario, experimented with outlandish pizza recipes until he stumbled upon the idea for topping a pie with canned pineapple and ham.

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.

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

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

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.'

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.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

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

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

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

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

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.