History shaped the present, and we are always curious to look back at past times. Often, there are only texts to reference about those long-gone days as well as a few personal accounts told by those who have lived through historical events.
Fortunately, there are also photographs and even rarer filmed videos that provide a looking glass into the past. When it comes to pictures, they are enough to give us a peek into the past. Some are quite rare, and it’s even incredible that they exist. Here, we have collected some of the most special photos that have captured historic moments!
The Capsize Of USS Lafayette (Formerly SS Normandie)
In 1935, the French ocean liner SS Normandie entered service, becoming the fastest and largest passenger vessel of its time. It remains the most powerful passenger ship in history that's powered by a steam turbo-electric propeller. The ship remained docked after World War II, and the United States requisitioned it in 1941.
The water vessel was renamed to USS Lafayette and was going through modifications to start operations as a troop carrier. The liner went ablaze in 1942 while undergoing the conversion and capsized on its side. She was salvaged, but restoration proved too costly, and in 1946, she was scrapped.
Gas-Proof Pram
In 1939, the photo above, as well as other similar ones, appeared in various newspapers. According to its caption, necessity is the mother of invention. The description said that the lady resides in Huxtable, England, and she had just perfected the pictured baby airing outfit.
FW Mills designed the gas-proof pram in the years leading to World War II when Britain citizens received gas masks in preparation for imminent gas attacks. Even babies received the gas masks, and the pram was conceived as an alternative. It featured a gas filter with a glass panel at the top.
Neil Armstrong After His Moonwalk
Neil Armstrong made history as the first person from our planet to step on the moon. He landed on the moon alongside Buzz Aldrin, who piloted the Apollo 11 Lunar Module in 1969. The landing subsequently made them the first people to traverse the astronomical body.
Aldrin took the photo above documenting the historical achievement of Armstrong just after his moonwalk. However, it’s the photos that Armstrong took of Aldrin—like the one where he stood on a little depression on the moon’s surface—that became popular and endured. True to Armstrong’s words, it was one small step made by a man but a huge leap for mankind.
Behind Lincoln's Statue, The March on Washington Pressed On
The March on Washington took place in 1963 to advocate for economic and civil rights for African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr., a renowned activist/Christian minister, delivered an iconic speech at the Lincoln Memorial, calling for racism to come to an end.
Several photos exist capturing the historic event. However, the photo above perfectly captures the importance of the demonstration for freedom. The picture taken from the back of Lincoln’s statue gives a wider view of the number of people who turned up for the momentous occasion. The symbolism is even greater became Abraham Lincoln, the United States’ 16th president, often expressed opposition to slavery.
Jackie, MGM's First Roaring Lion
The late painter Lionel S. Reiss, who served as the art director for Paramount Studios, created the iconic Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) logo. The studio used a total of seven lions for its logo between 1916 when it was formed and the 1924 merger with Metro Pictures.
The photo above captures Jackie, the second lion employed by the studio, being recorded for use at the start of MGM movies. Jackie, a wild lion from Sudan, was the first lion used for the studio’s movie opening sequence that roared. Jackie’s roar opening was used for the studio’s black-and-white films released between 1928 and 1956.
Herbert Ponting's Photo Of A Grotto Lined With Icicles
Herbert Ponting is the first recognized professional photographer who was commissioned to exclusively take polar photos. He was aboard the Terra Nova, accompanying Robert Falcon Scott and his team on their final expedition to the South Pole and the Ross Sea.
The expedition ran from 1910 to 1912. By 1921, Ponting addressed how the experience heightened his aesthetic awareness in his publication The Great White South. He described the photo above of a grotto with the entrance lined with long icicles as his favorite. He particularly loved how the Terra Nova could be seen in the distance.
James Naismith Invents Basketball
Luther Halsey Gulick Jr. served as a physical education instructor of the international youth organization Camp Fire. In 1981, he convinced James Naismith, a graduate student/Springfield College instructor at the time, to come up with an indoor game that the youth could play in between the baseball and football seasons.
That gave birth to basketball with Gulick overseeing Naismith’s creation, making it both a national and internationally recognized sport. The photo above captures the rudimentary form of the sport with Naismith holding up a peach basket as his wife tries to shoot a football inside it.
The Enormous Crowd At The Woodstock Festival
In 1969, Max Yasgur’s farm, located in upstate New York, hosted a remarkable event—the Woodstock festival. It was plagued by several challenges, but it’s still considered one of history’s most epic gatherings of its kind. Over the years, there have even been recounts of the event.
Among the challenges were the endless rain that left the grounds muddy and the nearly 400,000 people who turned up to enjoy the great music. The photo above captures the massive crowd that turned up to enjoy the first day of the weekend festivities. The crowd eventually thinned out as the three-day event turned into a four-day event.
Boy Watches TV Through Shop Window For The First Time
In 1927, the world got its first electronic television created by Phil Taylor Farnsworth when he was just 21 years old. Inventors continued tweaking both electronic TV sets, but it wasn’t until 1938 when they were released commercially in America.
Only a few thousand Americans had TV sets in their homes by 1947, and they were still fascinating. That is why the image above is quite precious, showing a young boy watching TV through the window of a shop in 1948. It seems to have been his first time to encounter the technology, and the look on his face is priceless!
King George VI's Helter Skelter Ride
Helter-skelters refer to slides constructed around central structures without modern pulleys and mechanical systems. These structures rely on gravity for a smooth ride with twisting turns going to the ground. You simply sit on a mat or sled for a fun downward slide.
In 1925, the then future King George VI had the pleasure of taking a slide down a helter skelter located at the Wembley Exhibition in London. Fortunately, the moment was snapped for posterity, and it’s quite a sight to see King George in this manner. Despite not having a smile on his face, he seemed to be having the time of his life.
Elvis Presley Enlists To The US Army
In 1958, Elvis Presley joined the United States Army as a private. He was already famous then, and the news created a media frenzy. Paparazzi turned up in droves as he reported to Fort Chaffee for duty, and the photo above documents the occasion.
Presley embarked on training at Fort Hood and took a two-week break three months after enlisting to head down to Nashville, where he recorded five songs. After completing his training, he was posted in Friedberg, Germany, where he served for two years. His career wasn’t affected in any way by the hiatus, and upon his discharge, Presley had 10 hits on the charts.
Three Maikos Admiring A Camera In The 1920s
Geishas are traditionally trained in Japanese culture in the arts, and the term literally means “art person.” Initially, the term geisha was applied to those specifically from Tokyo. But these days, it’s used as an umbrella term. A geisha from Kyoto is referred to as geiko. The young girls who are apprentice geikos are known as maiko.
The photo above shows three maiko girls admiring a camera, and it was taken around the 1920s. Maikos train for about five years before they graduate to become geikos. In Tokyo, the term hangyoku (translating to half jewel) is similar in meaning to the word maiko.
View From The Top Of The Empire State Building
The Empire State Building towers 102 stories up from the ground. The construction of this Art Deco skyscraper was completed in 1931. Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States, ceremoniously turned on the lights of the building. He only had to push a button from Washington D.C. to do it.
Prominent personalities attended the luncheon, and this dedication saw up to 350 guests in attendance. It was hosted at the building’s 86th floor, with guests like Alfred Emmanuel Smith, Jimmy Walker, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. One of the photos that document the dedication of the building is the one above.
German Prisoners Watch A Film About Concentration Camps
The Holocaust is a sad part of history. The photo above documents German prisoners in 1945 watching a film about a concentration camp. They were German soldiers captured by Americans being reminded of the atrocities committed by the regime they supported.
The expressions of shame and horror on their faces tell it all. The move to show the German prisoners the films was a Denazification strategy used by the Allied forces. The program included trips organized to concentration camps as well as hanging up posters depicting the prisoners of war around the camp.
Painter Grant Wood Poses Next To His Painting American Gothic
Grant DeVolson Wood was a renowned American painter known for his series of works depicting life in the Midwest. Most famously, he painted American Gothic in 1930, which is currently housed at the Art Institute of Chicago alongside his other works. Wood’s sister Nan Graham and their dentist Dr. Byron McKeeby were the subjects of the portrait.
Above, Wood is pictured posing beside the famous painting, which is one of the most iconic art pieces of the 20th century. The image has been widely parodied and lampooned in movies like The Rocky Horror Picture, The Music Man on Broadway, and TV shows like Green Acres.
The Original Hollywoodland Sign
Hollywood became a community in 1887 founded by Daeida and Harvey Wilcox for the temperance movement followers. Harry Chandler, a Los Angeles Times publisher, invested in the development dubbed as Hollywoodland in 1923. The Hollywood region was already widely recognized as a movie-industry mecca, which made the investment lucrative.
Chandler and his partners put in $21K into the project, which is more than $250K nowadays. They set up a sign with white block letters, standing 45-foot high and anchored to telephone lines. The Great Depression ended the estate development plans. Eventually, the last four letters of the sign were removed while the sign was being restored in 1949.
Hitler's Cardboard Cutout On The Beatles' Album Cover
In 1967, The Beatles released their eighth studio album titled Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The album topped the charts in the UK for 27 weeks and rose to the top of the U.S. Billboard Top LPs. The album cover was equally iconic and employed the use of cardboard cutouts of several celebrities.
Peter Blake and Jann Haworth teamed up to create the cover art, suggesting the theme that the band was posing for a photo with a crowd behind them after a concert in the park. A cutout of Hitler was used for the set-up. However, the end product had him covered up by the band members.
Traffic At The Brandenburg Gate After The Fall Of The Berlin Wall
The Brandenburg Gate, which linked East and West Germany, was damaged after World War II was jointly restored by West and East Berlin governments. When the Berlin Wall went up in 1961, it brought an end to the free movement of pedestrians from either region.
Of course, the fall of the Berlin wall is one of the most monumental events in German history. But before it fell in 1991, the Brandenberg Gate was once again re-opened in 1989. It still serves as a symbol of freedom today, and the photo above shows bottleneck traffic in the area for the first time after the wall fell.
Behind The Scenes Photo From The 1960's Batman Show
The live-action Batman series premiered in 1966, and it’s known for its upbeat, camp-style theme, simplicity, and humor. Adam West starred in the series as the title character while Burt Wayne portrayed the role of his sidekick Robin.
Above is one of the rare behind the scenes photos from the set of the show, depicting Batman and Robin scaling a skyscraper. The show aired for three seasons on ABC until the network canceled it due to low ratings. NBC intended to pick it up, but after discovering that the show's set worth had been destroyed, they dropped the project altogether.
The Signing Of The Treaty Of Versailles
The Hall of Mirrors, located within the Palace of Versailles, is where the Peace Treaty that brought World War I to an end was signed. In 1919, diplomats from 32 nations attended the Paris Peace Conference. While the signing took place in Versailles, the actual negotiations happened in Quai d’Orsay.
The photo above shows spectators standing on chairs and tables so that they can witness the historic signing. The conference concluded in 1920, culminating with the inauguration of the League of Nations. It became history’s first worldwide intergovernmental body tasked with maintaining world peace.
Fidel Castro Enjoying Ice Cream At An American Military Camp
Fidel Castro had an obsession with ice cream since he was a young revolutionary. He received an ice cream cake from Celia Sanchez, a wealthy supporter, for his birthday while he was still in the jungle. After the rebellion succeeded, Castro set up operations at the Habana Libre Hotel.
The CIA attempted to poison the milkshakes Castro enjoyed from the hotel’s cafeteria. Above, he was photographed enjoying an ice cream cone while visiting a military camp in America in 1959. When the U.S issued an embargo in 1962, Cuba no longer received American exports. Castro still managed to open an ice cream parlor called Coppelia.
The Iceberg That Sank The Titanic
The Titanic was touted as an unsinkable ship. Yet, five days into its maiden voyage, the gigantic ocean liner hit an iceberg. The unfortunate incident saw the vessel plummet into the freezing waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The tale has been recounted numerous times, and it was famously retold through the highly-acclaimed 1997 James Cameron film.
Pictured above is the block of ice that apparently sunk the Titanic. It is also believed to be the only photographic evidence of the iceberg. Understandably, there aren’t any actual photos of the Titanic sinking.
The Transatlantic Railroad Just When It Was Completed
Alfred Hart took the picture above, showing a Native American looking at the just-completed transatlantic railroad. The photo is believed to have been taken sometime between 1865 to 1869. For over 6 years, three companies undertook the construction of the 1,907-mile railroad.
Native Americans had relinquished rights to the majority of their land through treaties made with the government. However, they couldn’t have imagined that those would increasingly diminish their resources. They attempted to defend what was left of their resources and found themselves in conflict with white settlers. Their efforts proved unsuccessful, though. In the end, the railroad was still completed.
The Unknown Rebel of Tiananmen Square
In 1989, the Chinese government sent soldiers to Tiananmen Square in Beijing to disperse pro-democracy demonstrators. As the tanks arrived at the square, the crowd of students scattered away—except for one man. On the left side of the photo, the man is visibly standing rooted to his position.
He’s subsequently been dubbed as the Tank Man or Unknown Rebel and hailed for his heroism. Journalist and historian T.D. Allman, who witnessed the uprising from his hotel room balcony, described the Chinese protester as a true exemplar. Time magazine listed the Unknown Rebel on their 100 most important people list.
An Inuit Girl With Her Husky
Canada’s Arctic Region is inhabited by the Inuit, who are the region’s indigenous people. They breed different types of dogs to assist with chores in their daily lives, like carrying goods or pulling sleds. They typically keep the Greenland dog, Canadian Inuit dog, and the Siberian husky.
The picture above, taken in 1949, shows a young Inuit girl carrying her husky on her back. The Innuit people are known to use an oversized coat referred to as an Amauti when carrying their children. The girl seems to have a similar coat on, and she chose to carry her dear fur baby around with her.
Alfred Hitchcock On The Set Of The Birds
Moments of cinematic beauty are sometimes easy to overlook and truly appreciate. Alfred Hitchcock was known for injecting several moments of suspense as well as beautiful moments in his films. A case in point is his 1963 horror-thriller The Birds. As the title suggests, the film employed the use of several birds, and the majority of them were real.
Ray Berwick caught and trained the live birds used during production. Still, $200K from the film’s budget went towards creating mechanical birds for some of the scenes. The picture above is deemed special because we see Hitchcock on set instructing the actors.
John F. Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" Speech
In 1963, the late John F. Kennedy made a rousing speech in West Berlin’s Rudolph Wilde Platz. JFK was a young president at the time, and he attracted a humongous crowd who wanted to hear him speak. He included a sentence that he had practiced right before delivering the speech. It was “Ich bin ein Berliner”, which translated to “I am a Berliner.”
It’s well-understood that he meant that he (or America) would stand with West Berlin, but news sources interpreted it otherwise. They suggested that he had referred to himself as a jelly donut, which is a “Berliner Pfannkuchen.”
A Soldier From East Germany Passing A Flower Through The Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a concrete barrier constructed to ideologically and physically divide East and West Germany. In 1961, the East Germany government initiated the construction of the wall. By 1989, they conceded to civil unrest and announced that citizens could once again move freely between either side of the wall.
The picture above shows a soldier from the East German side passing a flower through an opening on the wall before its destruction commenced in 1990. The demolition of the wall was officially completed in 1991. However, before the process commenced in June 1990, souvenir hunters and euphoric people had already started chipping parts away.
The Olympic Games First Marathon
The 1986 Olympics added a special event to the program, which was the men’s first-ever marathon. The first of such races took place in Greece, serving as an Olympic marathon qualifier. At the time, the length of the marathon was about 25 miles.
The name originated from where the qualifier race commenced, which was the Greek city of Marathon going into Athens. 25 athletes made their way to the Greek city for the inaugural marathon, but ultimately, only 17 participated in the race. We can see three men pictured above participating in the inaugural race.
The First Metro Ride From The Edgware Road Station
The photo above dates back to 1862, documenting the first metro ride passengers took from the Edgware Road Station in London. It was a year before the London Underground metro officially opened, and aboard were engineer John Fowler and future prime minister William Gladstone with his wife.
The station was amongst the first underground metro lines of its kind, and it ran between Farringdon and Paddington. A separate station, also called Edgware, serves the Bakerloo line located opposite Marylebone Road. Proposals have been tabled to rename either of the stations, but they each still maintain the name.