Video: 'Mr Churchill Addresses Congress - SOUND'

(Friday, December 26, 1941, 12:30 p.m. EST; during the Arcadia Conference and World War II) — Winston Churchill, the first wartime Prime Minister of Great Britain ever to address the Congress of the United States, told American lawmakers today that while “we are able to beat the life out of the savage Nazi,” at least 18 months would be required to turn the tide of the war and warned that “many disappointments and unpleasant surprises await us.”

Video: 'December 26, 1941 Winston Churchill's first address to U.S. Congress'

Churchill had come to Washington to coordinate military strategy with President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Video: 'The World At War Episode 7 HD - On Our Way: U.S.A. (1939–1942)' (Dec. 26, 1941, at 32:57)

Despite the entry of the United States into World War II on Dec. 8, the Christmas holiday had thinned the ranks of senators and representatives who were still in town. That prompted a decision by congressional leaders to move Churchill’s address from the House to the Senate chamber as a way of avoiding the potential embarrassment of empty seats. All 96 seats of the Senate chamber were occupied by a combination of lawmakers, Supreme Court justices and cabinet officers.