Up until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the top five most important events to be broadcast by radio were:
1) The election of Warren G. Harding (1920)
2) FDR’s first “Fireside Chat” (1933)
3) The Hindenburg Disaster (1937)
4) The Max Schmeling/Joe Louis match (1938), and the
5) Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio program (1938)
– aside from delivering news and commentary from the Pacific, radio also alerted industrialists to beware of saboteurs, look out for landings on Pacific beaches, and all military personnel to return to their posts. As a result of the attack taking place on a sunday, there were no evening papers printed and everyone was reliant upon the radio.
