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50 Curiosity-Inducing Historical Photographs (Best Of All Time)
Every photograph is an immortalized moment. Through the years, they become a time capsule of a bygone era, a reminder of how life was once.
The internet is rich in resources of noteworthy images from the past, and this subreddit is an excellent example. With over three million members, it has no shortage of pictures featuring landmark events and renowned figures, whether in monochrome or full color.
As part of Bored Panda’s recurring series of articles, we’ve compiled this best-of-all-time list for you to enjoy. Whether or not you’re a history buff, prepare to be fascinated and maybe even learn something new.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
In 1969, When Black Americans Were Still Prevented From Swimming Alongside Whites, Mr.rogers Decided To Invite Officer Clemmons To Join Him And Cool His Feet In A Pool, Breaking A Well-Known Color Barrier
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#2
When They Realized Women Were Using Their Sacks To Make Clothes For Their Children, Flour Mills Of The 1930s Started Using Flowered Fabric For Their Sacks. (1939)
Jill Rhodry 2 years ago
These days they'd charged extra for printed or even better, force you onto a subscription service - but that's neo-capitalism I guess.
#3
Cop Stops The Traffic In New York So A Mother Cat Holding A Kitten Can Cross Safely C.1925
#4
100,000 Iranian Women March Against The Hijab Law, Tehran 1979
#5
Albert Einstein Defying The Prevailing Racial Climate At The Time By Visiting Lincoln University, Pennsylvania — The First Degree-Granting Black College In The Us — To Teach A Class. He Was An Outspoken Civil Rights Advocate For Black Americans. Photographed In 1946
#6
Charles Thompson Greets His New Classmates At Public School No. 27 In September 1954, Less Than Four Months After The Supreme Court Ruled That Racial Segregation Was Unconstitutional. Charles Was The Only African-American Child In The School. Photo By Richard Stacks For The Baltimore Sun
#7
Incredible Photograph Of A German Soldier Going Against Direct Orders To Help A Young Boy Cross The Newly Formed Berlin Wall After Being Separated From His Family, 1961
#8
Princess Diana Shakes Hands With An Aids Patient Without Gloves, 1991
#9
Meet The "Night Witches", Fearless Russian Female Pilots Who Bombed Nazis By Night, 1941
#10
A Native American Mother And Her Child - 1900s
#11
"Happiest Man In China", Taken In 1901 By British Anthropologists After Deciding To Document The Chinese. The Chinese Didn't Know Photos Were A "Serious Matter" And Decided To Be Goofy, Hence The Pose And Smile
#12
Jewish Prisoners After Being Liberated From A Death Train, 1945
#13
Mogadishu, 1993. An Italian Soldier Gives Food To A Local Orphan
#14
American Troops Treat A Wounded Dog On Orote Peninsula, 1944
#15
Atelier Photo: "A Lesbian Couple In Semi Drag Wedding Attire"; Kingdom Of Hungary - Budapest, 1920
#16
Margaret Hamilton And The Handwritten Navigation Software She And Her Mit Team Produced For The Apollo Project, 1969
Forrest Hobbs 2 years ago (edited)
I've got a book which says that's a stack of print-outs from simulated moon missions run on a mainframe computer to test that the Apollo guidance computer software worked okay. But the book is wrong: that really is software, assembly language, one command per line. Also, Margaret Hamilton is the engineer who came up with the term "software".
#17
A Man Rides A Bus In Durban, Meant For White Passengers Only, In Resistance To South Africa’s Apartheid Policies, 1986
#18
Tokyo Residents Mourning Hachiko. He Would Regularly Meet His Owner, Professor Ueno, At Shibuya Station After He Returned From Work. Sadly, Ueno Died On May 21, 1925 & Never Returned. However, Hachiko Would Return To The Station Every Day For 9 Years, Waiting For Him To Come Back, 1935
KittyGaming 2 years ago
Is this the dog that had a statue built for him, a youtuber I watch went to this statue when her family went to Japan
#19
Stoney First Nation Member, Guide Samson Beaver With His Wife Leah And Their Daughter Frances Louise, 1907. Photo Taken By Mary Schäffer
#20
Here Is How An Ukrainian Immigrant Celebrated Stalin's Death. 1953
#21
Arnie Supporting Disabled Athletes, 1983
Falcon on Dizzy 2 years ago
just imagine, you're a star athlete with a disability and F*****G ARNIE SHOWS UP AND CONGRATULATES YOU
#22
A Beach In Iran A Few Months Before The Islamic Revolution, 1979
Luis Hernandez Dauajare 2 years ago
Whether bikinis or burkhas, visible symbols or none at all, the worst oppression is the lack of choice.
#23
Six-Year-Old Austrian Boy “Werfel” Receiveing A New Pair Of Shoes At The Am Himmel Orphanage, Donated By The Junior Red Cross In America (Colorized). Published In The Life Magazine In 1946
#24
Ruby Bridges, The First African-American To Attend A White Elementary School In The Deep South, 1960. Colorized
Multa Nocte 2 years ago
A little piece of me dies every time I think of what this little girl went through.
#25
A Man Arrested For Cross-Dressing Emerging From A Police Van, New York, 1939
#26
1972: 3 Women On The Streets Of Kabul, Afghanistan
#27
Anne Frank’s Father Otto, Revisiting The Attic Where They Hid From The Nazis. He Was The Only Surviving Family Member. (1960)
#28
18-Year-Old Keshia Thomas Protects A Fallen Man, Believed To Be Associated With The Ku Klux Klan From An Angry Mob Of Anti-Clan Protestors. Ann Arbor, Michigan USA. 1996 By Mark Brunner
#29
An American Soldier Cradles A Wounded Japanese Boy And Shelters Him From The Rain In The Cockpit Of An Airplane During The Battle Of Saipan While Waiting To Transport The Youngster To A Field Hospital. July, 1944
#30
Young Queen Elizabeth As A Mechanic During Ww2 (C. 1939)
#31
Albert Einstein, His Secretary Helen (Left), And Daughter Margaret (Right) Becoming U.S. Citizens To Avoid Returning To Nazi Germany, 1940
Jess Smith 2 years ago
Oh, fun/depressing story: So, he was going someplace, visiting somewhere, right after the Nazis took over. So they break into his house to find evidence he was to undermine Germany. Here is the smoking gun: Albert Einstein had a bread knife. In his kitchen. The Einsteins left shortly thereafter.
#32
Nakano Takeko (Onna-Musha Of The Aizu Domain) In Imperial Japan, She And Other Women Fought In The Battle Of Aizu In October 1868 During The Boshin War, When On October 16th, She Was Killed In Battle By Rifle Shot. Shown In Full Samurai Armour, C. 1860 - 1868
#33
African-American Boys On Easter Morning, Southside, Chicago, Illinois, April 1941 [colorized]
![African-American Boys On Easter Morning, Southside, Chicago, Illinois, April 1941 [colorized]](https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/6696481318e4d_c0ojnruq6db91__700.jpg "African-American Boys On Easter Morning, Southside, Chicago, Illinois, April 1941 [colorized]")
#34
A Policeman In San Francisco Scolds A Man For Not Wearing A Mask During The 1918 Influenza Pandemic, 1918
#35
A Man Guards His Family From The Cannibals During The Madras Famine Of 1877 At The Time Of British Raj, India
#36
Russian Inmate Points An Identifying And Accusing Finger At A Nazi Guard Who Was Especially Cruel Towards The Prisoners In Buchenwald Camp. Colorized
#37
British Soldiers (Interrupted During Drag Show Rehearsals By A German Raid) Manning A Bl 6-Inch Mk Vii Naval Gun At Shornemead Fort, England In 1940
#38
A U.S. Marine Rescues Two Vietnamese Children During A Gun Battle At The City Of Hue, During The Tet Offensive Of The Vietnam War - 1968
#39
In 1945, The Auschwitz Death Camp Was Discovered And Liberated By The Red Army
#40
A German Soldier Returns Home Only To Find His Family No Longer There. Frankfurt, 1946 - By Tony Vaccaro
Marie-Louise Palmer 2 years ago
Just another young man doing his duty. Being told to fight while the ruling classes never do. Very sad.
#41
West German School Children Pause To Talk With Two East German Border Guards Beside An Opening In The Berlin Wall During The Collapse Of Communism In East Germany In November 1989 (Photo: Stephen Jaffe)
#42
Annette Kellerman Promotes Women's Right To Wear A Fitted One-Piece Bathing. She Was Arrested For Indecency. (1907)
Little Wonder 2 years ago
Well obviously, you can't just get your arms out like that, the gentlemen will swoon!
#43
Woman Cutting Her Birthday Cake In Iran 1973, 5 Years Before The Islamic Revolution
#44
Rosa Parks's Booking Photo Following Her February 1956 Arrest
#45
Martin Luther King Jr. Removing A Burnt Cross From His Front Yard In 1960
#46
David Isom, 19, Broke The Color Line In A Segregated Pool In Florida On June 8, 1958, Which Resulted In Officials Closing The Facility
#47
Wwi. A Canadian Soldier Tries To Comfort A Little Belgian Baby, Who Was Hurt And Whose Mother Was Killed By An Artillery Shell. November 1918
#48
A French Boy Introduces Himself To Indian Soldiers Who Had Just Arrived In France To Fight Alongside French And British Forces, Marseilles, 30th September 1914
GettingCereal 2 years ago
Need to remember this detail for the next idiot who maintains WWI in Europe was white. Although who am I kidding, like they'd care.
#49
In 1973, Marlon Brando Rejected His Oscar For The Godfather To Allow Sacheen Littlefeather To Protest Hollywood’s Portrayal Of Native Americans
Onan Hag All 2 years ago
Littlefeather said her father was of Apache and Yaqui ancestry and her mother was of European descent. Shortly after Littlefeather's death, Navajo writer and activist Jacqueline Keeler interviewed Littlefeather's two sisters, who said that their family is not Native American and that Littlefeather fabricated her Native American ancestry. They also said that their father, who was born in Oxnard, California, was of Spanish-Mexican descent and had no tribal ties
#50
An Undercover Police Officer On Duty. New York, Brooklyn, 1 July 1969
#51
Johnny Depp Saved The Old Horse Goldeneye From Sleepy Hollow Who Played Crane’s Companion, Gunpowder. The One-Eyed Horse Was Originally Set To Be Euthanised After Production Was Completed. But Depp Stepped In And Adopted Goldeneye After Finishing The Movie - 1999
#52
A French Women Welcomes An American Soldier Two Days After Liberation. Strasbourg, France, 22 November 1944
Mimi La Souris 2 years ago
"allez, entre boire un canon mon gars !" (come in for a glass of wine, buddy !)
#53
A Man Looking For A Job Wearing His Cv, England - 1930s
#54
A Man Browses For Books In The Old Public Library Of Cincinnati. The Building Was Demolished In 1955. Today An Office Building And A Parking Lot Stand Where It Used To Be
#55
Students Dance In Tiananmen Square Before The Arrival Of The Chinese Military, June 4th 1989
#56
Mass Demonstrations Against Soviet Union In Baku, The Capital Of Azerbaijan, 1989
#57
David Attenborough Entertains Prince Charles And Princess Anne With A Cockatoo. 1958
#58
A Young Barack Obama Spending Time On The Beach With His Grandfather. 1963
#59
Anne Frank And Her Sister Margot At The Beach, Zandvoort - August 1940
#61
A Young Female Welder Photographed By Bernard Hoffman In Connecticut, Circa 1943
#62
French Soldiers Passing By A Dog Wearing Googles And Smoking A Pipe, 1915
#63
May 20, 1910: The Nine Kings Of Europe Photographed Together For The First And Only Time
Ace 2 years ago (edited)
Standing, from left: Haakon VII of Norway, Ferdinand I of Bulgaria, Manuel II of Portugal, Wilhelm II of Germany, George I of Greece and Albert I of Belgium. Sitting, from left: Alfonso XIII of Spain, George V of the United Kingdom and Frederik VIII of Denmark. Missing is Czar Nicholas of Russia.
#64
Rail Commuters Wearing White Protective Masks, One With The Additional Message “Wear A Mask Or Go To Jail,” During The 1918 Influenza Pandemic In California
#65
A Man Takes A Selfie Using A Stick Of Wood To Activate The Camera, 1957
#66
Night Fishing In Hawaii, 1948
#67
A Serbian Soldier Sleeps With His Father Who Came To Visit Him On The Front Line Near Belgrade, 1914/1915
#68
Jaques Biederer, The First Photographer In History Specializing In Erotic Photos. This Photo Was Taken In Paris In 1928
#69
A Makeshift Hospital In The Vietnam War, 1970
#70
A Mob Pours Sugar, Ketchup And Mustard Over The Heads Of (From Left) John Salter, Joan Trumpauer And Anne Moody During A Sit-In Demonstration At A Woolworth’s ‘Whites Only’ Lunch Counter In Jackson, Miss. - May 28, 1963. (Photo By Fred Blackwell/Associated Press)
#71
Statue Of David By Michelangelo, Encased In Bricks To Prevent Damage From Bombs, During World War 2
Kelly Scott 2 years ago
Just think! They could use this as a photo of Michelangelo in Florida's history books so De Santis isn't offended!
#72
A Boy's Reaction Staring At A TV Screen For The First Time. (1948)
#73
Reporters Who Exposed The Watergate Scandal Watch President Nixon Resign, 1974
#74
The Queen Consort Of Mongolia, Genepil, In Mongolia. The Last Queen Consort And Married To The Bogd Khaganate, Bogd Khan, Until His Death On April 17th, 1924, When The Monarchy Was Abolished. She Was Killed During The Stalinist Purges In May 1938. Photograph Dated January 1st, 1923
#75
“The Drunk Basket.” In The 1960s, Bars In Istanbul Would Hire Someone To Carry Drunk People Back To Their Homes
Hell'n Damnation 2 years ago
I knew that being "in the basket" meant being drunk, and now I know why!
#76
Fire And Fury: B-25s Are Pictured Flying Past Mount Vesuvius In Italy As Lava And Ash Spews From The Top Of The Volcano. The Eruption Killed 57 As It Destroyed The Village Of San Sebastiano And San Giorg In March 1944 While Allied Forces Were Battling For Supremacy In The Skies
#78
In 1941, The Photo On The Left Was Taken Of Soviet Soldier Eugen Stepanovich Kobytev On The Day He Left To Go To War. The Photo On The Right Was Taken In 1945 After The End Of The War, Just 4 Years Apart
#79
Female Snipers Of The 3rd Shock Army, 1st Belorussian Front, 775 Confirmed Kills, Germany, May 1945
#80
An Old Woman Leaving Her Home With Just A Portrait Of Her Husband And Rugs. Russian Soldiers Gave Her Just 5 Minutes To Pack Her Bags And Leave Before They Destroyed Her Home And Everything In It. Her Sons And Husband Were Already Dead. She Had Lost Everything. May 1995, Grozny
#81
Korean Mother Embraces Her Son, A Prisoner Of War Who Escaped His North Korean Pow Camp Shortly After The Signing Of The Korean Armistice Agreement, Which Ended The Widespread Fighting Of The Korean War, 1953
#82
Freddie Mercury With His Mother, 1947
#83
Geologist Thomas Griffith Taylor And Meteorologist Charles Wright In The Entrance Of An Ice Grotto. Terra Nova Expedition, Ross Island, 5 January 1911. Photo Taken By Herbert Ponting
#84
One Of The Many Selfies That Emperor Nicholas II Took Throughout His Life, (1868-1918)
#85
John F. Kennedy Campaigning Door-To-Door In West Virginia (1960)
Lil Miss Hobbit 2 years ago
I wish we could still campaign like this. I'd love to have a chat with all the candidates!
#86
A Nurse With A Sick Child During Smallpox Epidemic, Wrocław, Poland, 1963
#87
Arikara Warrior 'Bear’s Belly' - North Dakota, USA - Photo By Edward Curtis 1909
#88
Max Schreck Relaxing Behind The Scenes Of Nosferatu, 1922
#89
Salvador Dali Painting "The Face Of War", 1940
#90
A Hired Reader Reads To Cigar Makers Hard At Work In Cuban Cigar Factory (Ca. 1900-1910). Because Many Cigar Factory Employees Were Illiterate Lectors Were Hired To Read Novels, Poetry, Nonfiction Works, And Newspapers Determined By Consensus
#91
Visiting Quarantined Family And Friends At Ullevål Hospital, Oslo - Photo By Anders Beer Wilse - 1905
#92
A German World War II Prisoner Is Released By The Soviet Union And Reunited With His 12-Year-Old Daughter, Who Has Not Seen Him Since Infancy. 1956
Auntriarch 2 years ago
When grandad came back from the war, my uncle freaked and wouldn't go near him for days, just a baby when grandad was called up
#93
Coal Miners Coming Up A Coal Mine Elevator After A Day Of Work In 1920's Belgium
Mimi La Souris 2 years ago
No wonder most of them died so young, working in these conditions...
#94
San Francisco's Iconic Cliff House, Shortly Before It Was Destroyed By Fire In 1907
#95
Shoemaker’s Lunch, 1944. By Bernard Cole
#96
Into The Jaws Of Death, 6th Of June, 1944
Mimi La Souris 2 years ago
I recently learned that many had drowned before even arriving on the sand, they had been dropped too far from the edge and sank because of the weight of their bag or had not managed to get up after tripping... when i see this photo, i can confirm. How are you supposed to be agile with so many things on your back !
#97
A Red Cross Nurse Writing Down Last Words Of Mortally Wounded Soldier, Taken Around 1917
#98
Grand Central Terminal, NYC, The Sun Can't Shine Through Like That Now Due To The Surrounding Tall Buildings. 1929
Rinso The Red 2 years ago
Fun fact - there's so much granite, it's more radioactive than the average nuclear power station puts out.
#99
Frozen Niagara Falls, 1911
#100
A Smiling Girl In A Kimono On New Year's Day. Japan, 1914
#101
In The 1890s, The Congo State (Controlled By Belgian Settlers) Allowed The Companies To Maneuver Almost Entirely Freely, Which Resulted In Various Atrocities, Including The Amputation Of Hands As Punishment For Those Who Refused To Collect Rubber
#102
[colorized] Three Scout Girls Collect Peach Pits, Which Will Later Be Processed To Make Gas Mask Filters During World War I. Washington, 1917-1918
![[colorized] Three Scout Girls Collect Peach Pits, Which Will Later Be Processed To Make Gas Mask Filters During World War I. Washington, 1917-1918](https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/669649d88a01c_tgs7fesdxc791__700.jpg "[colorized] Three Scout Girls Collect Peach Pits, Which Will Later Be Processed To Make Gas Mask Filters During World War I. Washington, 1917-1918")
#103
A Picture Of A Submerged Diver In 1899. Many Believe It To Be The First Photograph Taken Underwater
#104
Chief Low Dog - An Oglala Lakota Chief Who Fought With Sitting Bull At The Battle Of Little Bighorn, C. 1881
#105
On This Day 59 Years Ago, Soviet Space Mission Vostok 6 Was Launched With Valentina Tereshkova Onboard, Who Became The 1st Woman In Space! This Is Her During The Fifth Earth Orbit On June 16, 1963
#106
Jfk & Bill Clinton Greeting At The White House, In 1963
#107
Russian Conscript With His Family Before Being Deployed To The Front, Karachev, Bryansk, Russia, 1943
#108
Anti British Propaganda, Japan 1941
#109
Remember That Photo Of The Construction Workers Having Lunch On The Unfinished Empire State Building? Well Here's The Photographer Charles Ebbets Taking That Photo. 9/20/1932
#110
Soldiers Returning Home From Wwii 1945
#111
Crowd In Times Square, New York City Celebrating The Surrender Of Germany, May 7th, 1945
#112
Eiffel Tower Under Construction, July 1888 [colorized]
![Eiffel Tower Under Construction, July 1888 [colorized]](https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/66964a0d19a43_kf8odovps9781-png__700.jpg "Eiffel Tower Under Construction, July 1888 [colorized]")
#113
Lockheed Martin Employee Sally Wadsworth Working On The Fuselage Of A P-38 Lightning In California In 1944
#114
A Woman Overlooking A Snowy Mountain Pass In The Pyrenees Mountains, France - 1956
#115
Indigenous Children Forced To Pray To God In A Residential School Ran By The Canadian Government And Catholic Church Between 1930 And 1970, Unknown Location
Michael Wlodarczyk 2 years ago
The Catholic church doing what it does best....ruining people's lives.
#116
Acrobats Balance On Top Of The Empire State Building, 1934 [1271x1600]
![Acrobats Balance On Top Of The Empire State Building, 1934 [1271x1600]](https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/66964ad650c97_4bxvijun5k461__700.jpg "Acrobats Balance On Top Of The Empire State Building, 1934 [1271x1600]")
#117
Commuters In New York On The Evening Of November 22, 1963
#118
[1200x803] An Enthusiast For Men's Dress Reform Walking Down The Strand In London. The Mdrp (Men’s Dress Reform Party) Was Formed In The Interwar Years In Britain, 1930
![[1200x803] An Enthusiast For Men's Dress Reform Walking Down The Strand In London. The Mdrp (Men’s Dress Reform Party) Was Formed In The Interwar Years In Britain, 1930](https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/66964937142a8_6juhvj6vr9l91__700.jpg "[1200x803] An Enthusiast For Men's Dress Reform Walking Down The Strand In London. The Mdrp (Men’s Dress Reform Party) Was Formed In The Interwar Years In Britain, 1930")
#119
Inside Of An Airplane In 1930 [572x768]
![Inside Of An Airplane In 1930 [572x768]](https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/66964a6ecedac_yNgwOYn__700.jpg "Inside Of An Airplane In 1930 [572x768]")
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Multa Nocte 2 years ago
While these were lovely, most of them have been on here before multiple times. Any chance there are other photos that could be featured?
Little Wonder 2 years ago
This is a "best of all time" post, so it's all repeats.
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Justin Tyme 2 years ago
Bored Panda Staff: "Let's repost this photo series every week. It's easier than finding new content."
Catherine Chance 2 years ago
I have not seen this photo series before and I go on Bored Panda about 4 times a week. For some people it might be the first time on Bored Panda.
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Multa Nocte 2 years ago
While these were lovely, most of them have been on here before multiple times. Any chance there are other photos that could be featured?
Little Wonder 2 years ago
This is a "best of all time" post, so it's all repeats.
Load More Replies... Justin Tyme 2 years ago
Bored Panda Staff: "Let's repost this photo series every week. It's easier than finding new content."
Catherine Chance 2 years ago
I have not seen this photo series before and I go on Bored Panda about 4 times a week. For some people it might be the first time on Bored Panda.
Load More Replies...
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