USS Arizona (BB-39) sunk and burning furiously, 7 December 1941. Her forward magazines had exploded when she was hit by a Japanese bomb. At left, men on the stern of USS Tennessee (BB-43) are playing fire hoses on the water to force burning oil away from their ship Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.
On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor , Hawaii Territory, killing more than 2,300 Americans. The U.S.S. Arizona was completely destroyed and the U.S.S. Oklahoma capsized. A total of twelve ships sank or were beached in the attack and nine additional vessels were damaged. More than 160 aircraft were destroyed and more than 150 others damaged.
Curious to learn more? Many online library resources can point you to more information on this historic event. Check out Today in History from the Library of Congress for their article, “Air Raid on Pearl Harbor.” You can also find much more in the GoWYLD.net history resources. Try these for a start, available to Wyoming residents in your local library or from home with a library card and PIN:
- History Study Center study unit – America during the Second World War, 1941-45
- U.S. History in Context topic – Pearl Harbor and American Involvement in World War II
- History Reference Center
For video tutorials on how to search these resources, we have a LibGuide for the GoWYLD history databases.