Wednesday · November 11, 2026

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A German torpedo hits an American warship; Kearny survives on one engine

Eleven sailors die off Iceland while the United States still calls itself neutral.

Two months before Pearl Harbor, the United States was still officially neutral in the war tearing across the Atlantic. On October 17, 1941, the destroyer USS Kearny rushed to help a British convoy under assault by a German wolfpack near Iceland when U-568 put a torpedo into her starboard side, killing 11 sailors and wounding 22. Her crew confined the flooding to the forward fire room. After regaining power in the forward engine room, Kearny steamed to Iceland at 10 knots…

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More from October 17

Cornwallis asks Washington for terms; his guns have been silenced for days

A drummer boy beats the parley and a white handkerchief goes up over the British works at Yorktown.

Einstein steps off the boat in America, a scientist with no country to go home to

Seven months after refusing to return to Germany, he lands to take up a post at a research institute that barely exists yet.

A 6.9 quake hits the Bay Area as the World Series is about to start on live national TV

Light rush-hour traffic, cleared early for the game, kept the Nimitz Freeway collapse from killing far more.

Gates accepts 5,800 prisoners after Burgoyne's isolated campaign collapses on the Hudson.

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More from The World Wars

A German submarine fires on an American destroyer; the Greer answers with depth charges

The United States is still officially neutral, but off Iceland its warships are now trading fire with Germany's navy.

Nearly four years after the fall, Wake Island is handed back to the United States

Rear Admiral Sakaibara surrenders to Brigadier General Sanderson aboard the destroyer escort USS Levy.

American troops come ashore at Incheon; Korea splits at the 38th parallel

Lieutenant General John Hodge lands with no Korean speakers on his staff and a month-old line drawn by two colonels in Washington.

A Japanese submarine surfaces off Cape Blanco and launches a floatplane over Oregon

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