Americans across the United States are holding ceremonies Tuesday to commemorate the 69th anniversary of the Japanese attack on the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
Hundreds of people are estimated to be gathered at Pearl Harbor, where a new visitor's center is to open at the scene of the attack, near the site where the battleship Arizona sank.
On December 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft attacked the base just before 8 a.m., Hawaii time. The attack killed more than 2,400 Americans, sank five battleships and drew the United States into World War II.
More than 1,100 sailors died on the Arizona, which still lies at the bottom of the harbor. It is a memorial to what then-U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt described as "a date which will live in infamy."
At the same time as the Hawaii ceremony, the National Park Service in Washington held a wreath-laying ceremony at the World War II Memorial on the National Mall.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
