Several dozen elderly Americans who survived the Japanese attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in 1941 gathered Monday to commemorate the anniversary of the bombing.
The Navy destroyer USS Preble sounded its whistle at 7:55 am - the time the attack began 74 years ago. Thousands of people joined the survivors Monday for the ceremony that included a moment of silence and a flyover by National Guard fighter jets.
The event was held on a pier overlooking the USS Arizona Memorial. The battleship sank quickly after it was hit by Japanese bombers in 1941, becoming a gravesite for many of those killed.
More than 2,400 American sailors and others were killed in the sneak attack on the U.S. island state in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
President Franklin Roosevelt declared the December 7 attack as "a date which will live in infamy," with the U.S. declaring war on Japan a day later and entering World War II.
The anniversary also was commemorated in Washington D.C., where a 110-year-old veteran - Frank Levingston from the southern U.S. state of Louisiana - was the guest of honor at the Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day ceremony at the World War II Memorial.
Now, Japan is a staunch U.S. ally and there are a fast-dwindling number of aging American veterans who fought in World War II.
