Yesterday marked an important anniversary.

On that day 84 years ago, the Japanese navy attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, inflicting terrible damage and killing more than 2,400 U.S. personnel.

World War II loomed large for my generation.

My parents were born right around the time of the war, and my grandfather served during the D-Day landing. When I was growing up, movies and TV shows revolved around the war.

So even though it ended 27 years before I was born, its memories surrounded me.

To this day, the scratchy recording of Roosevelt's speech opening with "Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy..." comes to my mind every Pearl Harbor Day.

Roosevelt was right. The day still holds significance as the event that led to the U.S. entering World War II, the deadliest conflict in human history.

When it comes to the markets, there are some meaningful comparisons to draw between now and the time period.

Lessons From a Date Which Will Live in Infamy

The market was closed on the day of the attack, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 3% the next day and would fall another 10% by early 1942.

Now take a look at what happened next...

You might expect that the global economic devastation and removal of a large portion of the prime working population would adversely affect the economy.

But the opposite happened.

Looking further back, we see a similar occurrence after the U.S. entered World War I.

Of course, both of these dramatic events involved plenty of other variables in regard to stock market performance. And the world was also a very different place back then.

Earlier this decade, we witnessed the single most disruptive event since World War II — the COVID-19 pandemic.

We've also experienced conflicts, recessions, natural disasters, and other terrible events since that war ended. But nothing has affected the entire world as much as this crisis.

While it lacked the magnitude of the human devastation of World War II (although still terrible), perhaps COVID-19 had an even broader effect across the globe.

And yet again, in the face of an unmitigated disaster, we saw the stock market rebound and move to new highs after the collapse in early 2020.

Looking back at the World Wars, it would be difficult to point to the same exact economic factors that led to the 2020 rally. But we can still see some similarities.

Both times, healthy economies were disrupted by closures and saw the repurposing of productive capacity.

In some ways, the upheaval made certain parts of the economy work even harder while eliminating some weaker businesses.

What emerged from the chaos of the war, though, was radical new technologies that would completely transform our lives. Think of air travel, nuclear energy, and computers.

Now, we have obviously seen the emergence of artificial intelligence in the wake of the 2020 collapse, which has driven the stock market higher.

When looking at the historically surprising performance of the global stock markets in the context of the economic disruption, it can begin to make a lot more sense.

It's easy to get lost in the moment of the news flow, especially if it's overwhelmingly negative.

However, looking at the larger context of what can happen in the economy and markets is essential for an investor.

That brings me back to Roosevelt's “Day of Infamy” speech, which ended like this…

“No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.”

Similarly, it is my firmly held view that as investors, in the end, we win.