This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we continue with our American stories. Up next, the story of how the day of infamy speech came to be. It was Sunday afternoon

on December 7, 1941, and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had just finished eating lunch in his

second floor study in the White House. He started to work on his stamp collection when the telephone rang.

It was Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy,

calling to inform the president that the nation was under attack.

The Japanese were bombing Pearl Harbor.

FDR shouted, no, in a loud voice. The surprise attack on one of America's

most strategic naval bases shocked the nation and the world. It would turn out to be the

worst military defeat in American history, killing 24003 soldiers, sailors, and civilians. The Japanese damaged or destroyed

19 U.S. Navy ships, including eight battleships and more than 300 airplanes. It was the

worst day of Roosevelt's presidency, and by all accounts, the worst day of his life.

The state of world affairs was equally grim.

Hitler and the Nazis controlled Europe and North Africa.

England and Russia were hanging on for dear life.

This was not Roosevelt's first brush with war.

He was the Undersecretary of the Navy during World War I.

He knew that this was no time for Americans to wallow in pity or despair.

He had work to do.

He had a nation to rally.

Roosevelt's two speechwriters were in New York at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor

and did not help him with the most consequential speech of his presidency.

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