Reuters first for Hitler

Not only was Reuters first to inform Europe of Lincoln’s assassination, it was first to inform Hitler of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, according to a new book, Hitler’s American Gamble: Pearl Harbor and Germany’s March To Global War.

The authors, British historians Brendan Simms and Charlie Laderman, write that Hitler got news of the attack late in the evening from his press chief, who heard it from a Reuters broadcast, according to a review in The New York Times.

Churchill meanwhile was “in a funk”, despairing that America would ever enter the war and save embattled Britain. 

Slumped in his chair, he at first ignored the news on the radio and then only slowly grasped the global import of what he was hearing, the book says. 

Hitler, on the other hand, reacted speedily (if fatally), declaring war on the United States four days later - achieving what Churchill had struggled to do for two years. 

Reuters once again was first to place a cornerstone in history. ■