On this day in 1941 German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler made a big mistake, he declared war on the United States. Four days earlier the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor bringing the United States to war against Japan but at this point the United States had remained neutral in the European war. Hitler thought that the United States was going to declare war on Germany and he wanted to beat them to the punch. German Foreign Minister Von Rippentrop was against this action because he feared getting the United States into the war would overwhelm the German war effort. The United States Congress immediately responded the U.S. Senate voted 88-0 and the U.S. House of Representatives voted 393-0 to go to war against Germany.