Thread by @jaketapper

1/ On this day 75 years ago, 3 days before #DDay (June 6), millions of Americans heard radio reports citing breaking news from the Associated Press that the invasion had begun.

“FLASH...EISENHOWER’S HEADQUARTERS ANNOUNCES ALLIED LANDINGS IN FRANCE.”

It wasn’t accurate.

2/ A new AP employee in London “had been practicing on a disconnected machine,” the AP would later explain, but that “strip of practice tape” would be transmitted throughout the Americas and read on the radio before it could be retracted.

3/ In a 1994 letter to the NYT, one veteran recalled hearing the inaccurate news read from the PA during a Giants/Pirates game at the Polo Grounds:

“We interrupt this game to bring you a special announcement. The Allies have invaded France."

They hadn’t.

And yet...

4/ “Pandemonium!” the veteran recalled. “There were only 9,000 people at the Polo Grounds that day...but the roar that went up could have been from 90,000. We all leaped to our feet, yelled, pounded the backs of total strangers and had mental images of the war's ending soon...

5/ “...When the yelling subsided, the announcer said: ‘We ask that you all rise for a minute of silent prayer.’”

Similar scenes played out all over the US and Canada.

nytimes.com/1994/06/05/opi…?

6/ The AP had retracted the erroneous report minutes after issuing it, but by then it had already gone out all over including on CBS Radio and NBC radio.

Retractions soon followed but not every American bought it.

7/ Joan Ellis, the 22 year old British woman who made the error — accidentally transmitting some practice copy — was horrified and begged America for forgiveness, as you can see in this June 5 1944 Fresno Bee story:

8/ The episode has largely been forgotten, perhaps because the invasion came just three days later.

American newspaper editors immediately sent Ellis messages such as “Cheer up. All is forgiven. You didn’t miss it much.”

Louisville Courier-Journal, June 7 1944:

9/ More on this in “The American GI in Europe in World War II: D-Day: Storming Ashore, Volume 3
By J. E. Kaufmann, H. W. Kaufmann” and in this Slate story:

google.com/amp/s/slate.co…