American Legacies Organization, Inc.

Hi there. We wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas.

Photograph from 1952 of Donald Wike on the left, Santa Claus in the middle and Franklin Wike on the right

U S Legacies Magazine December 2005

This building was dedicated 88 years ago in 1935!

Santa's Candy Castle!

The History Of Santa's Candy Castle

Once Upon a Time in a Place Called Santa Claus…

H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock // Getty Images

What Christmas was like the year you were born

On Christmas Day in 1914, British and German troops emerged from the trenches of World War I as weeks of bad weather cleared and called a truce. It was spontaneous and not approved by any higher-ups, but many soldiers on both sides ended up taking part. Soccer games were played between the British and German troops before they returned to their respective sides at dusk and continued fighting.

U.S. Declaration of War on Germany

The President's Message

To the Congress of the United States:

On the morning of December 11 the Government of Germany, pursuing its course of world conquest, declared war against the United States.

The long-known and the long-expected has thus taken place. The forces endeavoring to enslave the entire world now are moving toward this hemisphere.

Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty and civilization.

German Declaration of War with the United States : December 11, 1941

December 11, 1941

(Including the circumstances of the delivery of the note as released to the press by the Department of State, December 11, 1941.)

­Paul Harvey’s Famous “Warning to America” Essay from 1965.

Selected Dispatches

Dispatches

The following is a collection of dispatches relevant to the topic. Care should be taken in noting that not all the information enclosed was known to all parties and that some of the coded messages were not deciphered until well after the commencement of hostilities.

To: Tokyo Date: 16 Jan. 41

Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" Speech

To the Congress of the United States:

Yesterday, December 7, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

Japanese Note to the United States December 7, 1941
(Generally referred to as the "Fourteen Part Message")

(Dept. of State Bulletin, Vol. V, No. 129, Dec. 13, 1941)

On November 26 the Secretary of State handed to the Japanese representatives a document which stated the principles governing the policies of the Government of the United States toward the situation in the Far East and setting out suggestions for a comprehensive peaceful settlement covering the entire Pacific area.