On June 28, 1942 -- more than seven months after the U. S. Congress declared war on Japan and Germany, formally initiating the country's involvement in World War II -- a German U-701 submarine attacked the 554-foot-long SS William Rockefeller as part of Operation Drumbeat, an Axis effort to attack U.

A former deep-sea treasure hunter who made one of the greatest shipwreck discoveries in American history and spent the past decade in prison after refusing to disclose the whereabouts of some of its missing gold coins is now free, federal records show.

More than a decade after it was found, a centuries-old Spanish treasure ship worth billions remains nearly untouched on the seafloor while Spain, Colombia, Indigenous groups, and American booty hunters wage a bitter international legal war.