# How quickly did the news of Pearl Harbor Disseminate though out USA **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 23, 2010, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-did-the-news-of-pearl-harbor-disseminate-though-out-usa/530185 "2010-02-23T22:31:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-did-the-news-of-pearl-harbor-disseminate-though-out-usa/530185/41 "2010-02-25T15:31:10Z")
double post ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-did-the-news-of-pearl-harbor-disseminate-though-out-usa/530185/42 "2010-02-25T15:56:14Z")
> [@EdwardLost](#): > > I’ll always remember where and how I learned of the 9/11 attacks. My parents never forgot hearing of Kennedy’s assassination. Did news of Pearl Harbor have the same effect on the previous generation? My grandmother’s polaroid memories were the attack on Pearl Harbor and hearing that FDR died. She could tell you exactly what she was doing and thinking. For me, it will always be Kennedy’s assisination, the bombing of the Murrah building, and 9/11. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-did-the-news-of-pearl-harbor-disseminate-though-out-usa/530185/43 "2010-02-25T16:05:20Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > Thanks for all th info people. I am quite surprised that the info disseminate that quickly. My father had already enlisted in the Navy and I am sure he got the info pretty quickly. > > I wonder how quickly the similar news would have spread circa 1917? Here’s a story on [how the newspapers covered Lincoln’s assasination](http://www.historybuff.com/library/reflinclast.html)in 1865. Lincoln was shot during the evening of April 14 and died in the morning of April 15. Newspapers on the East Coast printed special editions during the day on the 15th. The first newspaper bulletins in California were on the 16th. In the South (remember, communications between the North and South had been disrupted throughout the Civil War) the news started spreading on the 17th. However, the last “first” recording of the assasination wasn’t until April 24, in Houston. That was at least partly due to the paper’s anti-Lincoln stance, but it shows how quickly information could get around after the telegraph was invented. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-quickly-did-the-news-of-pearl-harbor-disseminate-though-out-usa/530185.md?page=2)