"I address you, the members of the 77th Congress, at a moment unprecedented in the history of the Union," said President Franklin D. Roosevelt as he started his message to the joint session of Congress, Jan. 6, 1941.
It was 75 years ago, on Jan. 6, 1941, that President Franklin Roosevelt stood to deliver the State of the Union address that would become one of his most famous.
“At no previous time has American security been as seriously threatened from without as it is today,” Roosevelt admitted, but he still had hope for a future that would encompass the “four essential human freedoms”—including freedom from fear. And when Pearl Harbor was attacked at the end of that year, news reports from the time showed that Americans indeed responded with determination more than fear.
