On a day that would continue to live in infamy, Toledoans opened a special afternoon edition of The Toledo Blade to find out that Japan had staged a surprise attack on United States’ defense bases in Hawaii and Manila.

In this Blade Archive photo, an unidentified man is reading about the attack in the extra Dec. 7, 1941, edition of The Blade. Nearly the entire page was devoted to the news. Japan’s attack on the military base in Hawaii began at 7:55 a.m, which was just before 1 p.m. in Toledo. Few details were known — war had not been declared. Members of Congress expressed shock at Japan’s aggression. Just the night before, the president had sent a personal message to Japan’s emperor, the story reported, trying to calm tensions between the two countries.

The next day’s top headline repor

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