Day of Infamy Speech

The morning after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress on December 8, 1941, calling December 7 "a date which will live in infamy." In just over six minutes he asked for a declaration of war.

Congress obliged within the hour, with a single dissenting vote, and the United States entered World War II. Broadcast live to some 80 million listeners, it remains one of the most consequential addresses ever delivered by a president.