Fading memories of the date that will live in infamy

Lynn

When does infamy with wane?

I’m guessing it’s every passing year.

Go into any high school classroom and ask what date will live in infamy, and I’m betting it will be another episode of “Jaywalking,” Jay Leno’s iconic late-night segment where Jay interviews people on the street … and reinforces how uninformed people are.

It’s now been 81 years since “the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan,” as President Franklin D. Roosevelt told a joint session of Congress and a national radio audience the following day in his call for a declaration of war.

But one of the most iconic quotes ever — “a date that will live in infamy” — and the reason for such a label have, for too many, been relegated to the grainy, black and white images of newsreel footage from 1941.

To be sure, I wasn’t around for FDR’s speech, but in my day (as the old folks say), we were taught history. Of course, it would be correctly observed, there was less history when I was in school than there is today.

When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on that Sunday morning, 2,403 Americans died in the premeditated surprise attack.

If Dec. 7, 1941, was designated as the date that will live in infamy, how should we refer to Sept. 11, 2001? After all, it was also a surprise attack that claimed 2,996 lives on that autumn morning in New York City, Washington D.C. and Shanksville, Pa. And if it is also a date that will live in infamy, will it be something we’ll remember only through Google in the year 2080?

But anyone younger than 21 wasn’t born when the 9/11 attacks occurred, as was the case for many of us baby boomers who were born years after the event on this date that propelled the U.S. into World War II.

And since history, we are told, repeats itself, shouldn’t learning history be a priority so as to avoid a repeat?

If you’re a student of history, many of the following dates will probably be familiar. (Let me know how you do, and then ask your child or grandchild these dates to see how much they’re learning in history.)

1. July 4,1776 2. July 1-3,1863 3. April 22,1889 4. Nov. 16,1907 5. April 14-15,1912 6. May 31,1921 7. Oct. 28,1929 8. Aug. 6,1945 9. Nov. 16,1957 10. Nov. 22,1963 11. April 4,1968 12. July 20,1969 13. Aug. 15-18,1969 14. Aug. 9,1974 15. Jan. 28,1986 16. Nov. 9,1989 17. April 19,1995 18. May 3,1999 19. Jan. 6,2021 20. June 24, 2022 (Answers, if you need them: 1. Declaration of Independence, 2. Battle of Gettysburg, 3. Oklahoma land run, 4. Oklahoma statehood, 5. Sinking of the unsinkable Titanic, 6. Tulsa Black