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This Instagram Account Shares Historical Pics In Their Original Form, And These 40 Are Just Wow
Interview With Expert
Photos play an important role in our understanding of history. They provide additional details about people, places, and events from different eras that written records sometimes simply cannot portray. Thanks to the surviving images, the past feels more tangible and relatable.
The Instagram account 'History in Black & White' is an excellent example of this. Trying its best to share historical pictures in their original form, the account allows us to take a look at everyday life and pivotal moments that otherwise wouldn't be available to us.
More info: Instagram
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
A young boy playing the banjo to his dog in 1920.
Tiger 1 year ago
This is one of the cutest photos humanity has ever come up with. If we ever send photos to potential alien planets, this should be one of them.
Zaach 1 year ago
Who will have no context - are they a couple? Is one a larval form of the other?
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Sherribobbins 1 year ago
I think it's tucked behind his other leg. His boot kind of obscured it.
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The Mediterranean Fruit 1 year ago
I have seen this photo before but last time I saw it it said "A young girl playing the banjo with her dog."
RELATED:
#2
Private James Hendrix of the 101st Airborne, playing guitar at Fort Campbell Kentucky in 1962. Jimi Hendrix went on to become one of the most influential guitarists of all time.
Tiger 1 year ago (edited)
I didn’t know Jimi was in the US Air Force or whatever it’s called there! A man of many talents 😊
Leigh James 1 year ago (edited)
His johnson is immortalized in plaster in the Netherlands johnson museum, I kid you not and it's worth a look.
Taibhse Sealgair 1 year ago (edited)
Wikipedia exists, folks. "'On June 29, 1962, Hendrix was granted a general discharge under honorable conditions.[61] Hendrix later spoke of his dislike of the army and that he had received a medical discharge after breaking his ankle during his 26th parachute jump,[62][nb 9] but no Army records have been produced that indicate that he received or was discharged for any injuries.[64]''
Load More Replies...To learn more about how to interpret these photographs, we contacted Danielle Burton—historian, heritage worker, and the voice behind the blog Voyager of History.
"History is about anything that ever happened, but fundamentally, it's very often about people," said the author of Anthony Woodville: Sophisticate or Schemer? in an interview with Bored Panda.
"Societies may have changed, but what makes people people—their emotions, motives, etc.—hasn't."
#3
Sergeant William Henry “Black Death” Johnson of the 369th Infantry Regiment (Harlem Hellfighters) wearing his Croix de Guerre medal in circa 1918. In North France, Johnson single-handedly fought off a German raiding party receiving 21 wounds in order to save fellow soldier Private Needham Roberts.
Tiger 1 year ago
“In 1918, the French awarded Johnson with a Croix de guerre with star and bronze palm. He was the first U.S. soldier in World War I to receive that honor. Johnson died poor and in obscurity in 1929. There was a long struggle to achieve awards for him from the U.S. military. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart in 1996. In 2002, the U.S. military awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross. Previous efforts to secure the Medal of Honor failed, but in 2015 he was posthumously honored with the award. On May 24, 2022, The Naming Commission recommended that Fort Polk in Leesville, Louisiana, be renamed Fort Johnson after Henry Johnson, rather than its previous namesake, Confederate General Leonidas Polk. The post was renamed in Johnson's honor in a ceremony on June 5, 2023.”
Tiger 1 year ago
“On watch in the Argonne Forest on May 14, 1918, he fought off a German raid in hand-to-hand combat, killing multiple German soldiers and rescuing a fellow soldier while suffering 21 wounds, in an action that was brought to the nation's attention by coverage in the New York World and The Saturday Evening Post later that year. On June 2, 2015, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama in a ceremony at the White House.”
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XenoMurph 1 year ago
But couldn't enter by the same door or drink at the same water fountain until well into the 60s
RabidChild 1 year ago
The fact it took his own country damn near a century to recognize him is shameful.
Bad Alchemy 1 year ago
This is how white supremacy hurts us all. We are as a nation, a community, and as individuals, deprived of knowing, celebrating, and EMULATING the greatness of so many honorable, courageous, and beautiful people. Because of hate, because of fear, because of stupidity. Let's make a commitment to lift up everyone who was made to disappear because of white supremacy.
Sailorman 1 year ago
Disgusting mistreatment of a hero on account of his skin colour... and yet many try to claim the USA isn't RACIST...
Janissary35680 1 year ago
Nobody tries to claim the USA isn't racist. Racism is unpopular and its optics are terrible. Instead, they redefine "racism" to suit their purposes and say the US isn't THAT.
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Terri Rowland 1 year ago
That's the real hero, he was truly amazing for doing that to defend a fellow soldier and other members, the American services are notoriously difficult to get anything awarded to people like this brave gentleman, I wish he had lived to receive the honour in person and to be treated far better than he was in his final years.. thank God he's now at peace..
#4
a cat escaping from the Animal Rescue League in Boston, Massachusetts in 1940
Serial pacifist 1 year ago
Summoning the throng to take over the shelter and put hoomans in the cages
Sand Ers 1 year ago
“ Animal Rescue League of Boston ARL is a nonprofit organization that helps animals in need for 125 years. You can adopt a pet, enroll in dog training courses, access affordable veterinary services, or join community programs in Boston and Dedham.”. . . Cat may have been better off if it had stayed rescued. Unlike PETA, most independent animal rescue organizations care about the lives and wellbeing of animals in their care.
#5
Harriet Tubman photographed in 1911 at the age of 89.
Tiger 1 year ago
For non-North Americans who may not know: “Harriet Tubman was an American abolitionist and social activist. After escaping slavery, Tubman made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including her family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known collectively as the Underground Railroad. During the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army. In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the movement for women's suffrage.”
Binky Melnik 1 year ago
I think she looks irritable and scary! I don’t blame her one damned bit (and I’ll bet it came in handy!). The things slaves go through make me shiver. Man’s inhumanity to man is so incredibly disappointing. I hope that despite her countenance, she somehow managed to find happiness and satisfaction in her work and life.
Load More Replies... Beth Wheeler 1 year ago
She was definitely a brave lady and probably would have been beaten or killed or both if she had been caught. A very shameful thing going on here right now in NC is that a BLACK MAN is running for Governor and is OK with slavery of black people, what the hell dude! He was caught on a porn sight and made comments about slavery being ok. I'm a 63 yo white woman and this royally pissed me off that anybody thinks any form of slavery is ok. He should have been kicked out of the office that he is in and dropped out of the race. It's so bad that even Trump doesn't mention him anymore. If Miss Harriet was still living i wonder what she would think of Mark Robinson.
Tiger 1 year ago
That’s disrespectful as heck my dude. This woman did more for human rights than most people - sorry this photo of her as an old woman looks like her as an old woman 🙄
Load More Replies...History is an incredibly vast subject, so naturally, not every topic gets the same amount of attention in the media. But that means you can still discover plenty of gems you may have missed!
"I think the Tudors are very much overdone," Burton said. "There are so many more interesting things on either side of the Tudor dynasty. My personal favorite period is the Wars of the Roses, without which the Tudors wouldn't have existed. The Stuart period that followed the Tudors is also fascinating."
"All of these periods are full of fractious societal dynamics that impacted the whole of society and revealed people's divided loyalties," the historian added.
#6
A little girl holding her pet toad at a pet show at Venice Beach, California, USA in 1936.
Damned_Cat 1 year ago
That looks like a horned lizard to me. They are often called horned toads or horny-toads, but they are lizards, not amphibians.
#7
Louis Armstrong playing the trumpet for his wife Lucille in front of the Great Sphinx of Giza in Greater Cairo, Egypt, in 1961.
Tiger 1 year ago (edited)
Around my boyfriend’s house (we are temporarily doing the LDR thing) there’s a wooded area we like to take his dog for a run and smoke doobies. It’s near some train tracks, and there’s a guy who goes there to play his trumpet. He’s SO GOOD - we love to bring a joint and the dog and blaze while listening to Trumpet Guy 😊 bless anyone that plays music in public, it’s very much appreciated
Tamra 1 year ago
Louis Armstrong was one of the greats. Love to listen to his music!
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#8
Statue of David by Michelangelo, encased in bricks to prevent damage from bombs, during World War 2. Photograph taken in the 1940s.
Tiger 1 year ago
In January 1943, a brick "hive" was built around Michelangelo's David to protect it from incendiary bombs. Two and a half years later, preservationist Deane Keller wrote to his wife, "The bright spot yesterday was seeing Michelangelo's David at length divested of its air raid protection. It was dusty and dirty but it was a great thrill." (From Ilaria Dagnini Brey, The Venus Fixers, 2010.)
sofacushionfort 1 year ago
When reached for comment, David remarked “after standing here naked for 439 years, I did enjoy the brief respite of privacy.”
#9
A photograph of Edinburgh, Scotland from the sky taken by Alfred G. Buckham in the 1920s.
The good thing is that you can satisfy your curiosity, even if you're unable or unwilling to dive into academic literature.
"I would suggest to someone looking to learn more about history, but not quite ready for a more in-depth study, that they try finding blogs or popular history books to see which topics interest them and might inspire them to delve deeper," Burton added.
"These can be well-referenced and serve as a good starting point for beginning your own research journey."
#10
Roland, a 4,000 pound elephant seal, getting a snow bath from his handler at Berlin Zoo, Germany in c. 1930.
Janissary35680 1 year ago
"Make me look beautiful. I've got a hot date with Princess Leia tonight.'
#11
Oda Nobuyoshi, Japanese Civil Rights activist and dentist during the Meiji Era. Photograph taken in 1880 when he was 20-years-old.
Let’s All Just Try And Be Decent 1 year ago
It's amazing that this looks like it could have been taken yesterday. People from so long ago seem so distant from us, and even somehow things that happened longer ago don't seem as bad? But despite the incredible time difference, you could walk past this guy on the street and take him for a modern day person. Sorry if that seems obvious or is badly explained, but some old photos, people LOOK like they're from a different time. This is awesome. Shows us how people are really all the same.
Bad Alchemy 1 year ago
I never thought I would see "Civil Rights activist and dentist" in the same attribution. 🙂🦷👍🏽
Paulina 1 year ago
I found some more info about him! "Oda Nobuyoshi (1860-1926), Japanese ninja (almost), dentist, Christian-convert, and would-be terrorist. Before moving to Kicha at the age of 20, he served as a vassal of the Iga – family of the famous ninja clan in Sukumo. After studying in Tokyo, in 1886 he opened a dental clinic, which is still run by the Oda family in Kochi. Involved in the civil rights movement in 1887, he came with other doctors to Tokyo with a handmade bomb to take action against the Meiji government. The operation was a fiasco, and the bomb was thrown by Oda into Lake Biwa on the way back. After returning home, he continued to practice dentistry at his clinic and soon converted to Christianity and became a priest at a local church. In 2008, Oda's photograph, published on the clinic's website, caused a small sensation in Japan. The dentist was quickly called one of the most handsome men of the Bakumatsu-Meiji era."
#12
A helmeted bulldog guarding a family outside a block of flats during the Blitz on the 15th October 1940
#13
Royal Navy stoker with 21 years service nicknamed “Popeye”, photographed on board the HMS Rodney in September 1940. A stoker was responsible for anything from the propulsion systems to hydraulics, electrical and firefighting systems. The HMS Rodney played a major role in the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck in mid-1941.
Phil Nolan 1 year ago
He did! He claimed that spinach is what made him strong. He also got in a lot of bar fights which caused his one eye to squint all the time.
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UKGrandad 1 year ago
Only if he was a time traveller; Popeye dates from 1929.
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Brenda Spagnola-Wilson 1 year ago
Tell me Robin Williams didn't nail for the movie (which sucked!)
Luckily, it appears that the Western world understands the gravity of history in the post-truth era. A few years ago, for example, Conner Prairie, a living history museum in Indiana, conducted a national survey in the United States and found that 96 percent of Americans believe it is important to look at history to inform the future.
#14
The iconic American wartime photograph "The Thousand Yard Stare" showing an exhausted 19-year-old US Marine Private Theodore J. Miller in February 1944 after two days of constant fighting at the Battle of Eniwetok. Miller would be killed in a firefight during the invasion of Ebon Atoll a month later on the 24 March 1944.
Tiger 1 year ago
The shock and numbness in his eyes is obvious. I would probably be the same after seeing first hand the cruelty and hate humans are capable of to each other.
Ace 1 year ago
It's not so much the "seeing" that's the problem, it's the having to be a part of it.
Load More Replies... María Hermida 1 year ago
May he, and all the other poor souls dragged to wars they didn't want to fight, rest in peace.
n75mk9nk2n 1 year ago
War isn't Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell, and of the two war is a lot worse. Why? Simple really; who goes to Hell? Sinners, so most religions will tell you; there are no innocent bystanders in Hell. But war is full of them.
#15
Cow shoes used by moonshiners during the Prohibition Era to hide their footprints, June 18th, 1924.
Science Nerd 1 year ago
Please do not make fun of my grandparents and great uncles, although they tended to drive very quickly on back-roads instead of walking.
Beth Wheeler 1 year ago
That's where Nascar came from to my understanding.
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Lisa Delgado 1 year ago
How would this trick someone? A cow's front hoof and back hoof are not that close.
Janissary35680 1 year ago
Ought to be pretty easy to distinguish between these tracks and those of a real cow, I should think.
#16
A federal agent inspects a 'lumber' truck after smelling alcohol during the prohibition period, Los Angeles, in 1926.
martin734 1 year ago
Not just his arms, I think the rest of him is black too.
Load More Replies... Goth Vixen 1 year ago
Prohibition was the most ridiculous idea ever. America is still ridiculous.
#17
Photograph of the oldest house in Hamburg, Germany taken in 1898. It was built in 1524 and, despite protests from locals, was demolished on the 8 December 1910.
Winter 1 year ago
Shame??!! Demolishing that building was a sin against humanity! All that history! Lost! Forever! Gone... "like tears... in the rain..."
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mousecake 1 year ago
I completely agree this should have been saved. But in terms of age, it wasn't thaaaaaat old. Germany still has so many historical buildings, going back to 800 A.C. Some cities have whole areas that were build in the 1300s, 1400s. Or have a look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B6mer_2-4-6
Terri Rowland 1 year ago
Builders could have studied the workmanship of this amazing house. Homes nowadays wouldn't have half the problems they have if they had been built like this structure. I bet it would still be standing now if they had left it, re-do the roof and it would be a nice first property for a couple looking to get on the property ladder..
#18
Mercury Trains photographed in 1936. Mercury was the name used by the New York Central Railroad for a family of daytime streamliner passenger trains operating between midwestern cities. The Mercury’s started operating in 1936 and lasted until 1959.
Frances Pitchoune 1 year ago
Hey! This is the train that we see in the intro to the Hercule Poirot series with David Suchet!
Hayhaypaula 1 year ago
Perhaps this was the train that was used to model the Snowpiercer in that American TV series?
Janissary35680 1 year ago
Reminds me of the Heighliner in Lynch's otherwise misbegotten "Dune" (1984)
Terri Rowland 1 year ago
How can you look out of the window..? Come to think of it, how the bloody hell did the driver see where he was going..?
#19
The head of a Joseph Stalin statue on the streets of Budapest during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Tiger 1 year ago
“On October 23, 1956, around two hundred thousand Hungarians gathered in Budapest to demonstrate in sympathy for the Poles who had just gained political reform during the Polish October. The Hungarians broadcast sixteen demands over the radio, one of them being the dismantling of Stalin’s statue. A hundred thousand Hungarian revolutionaries demolished the Stalin statue, leaving only his boots, in which they planted a Hungarian flag.“ Heck yeah Hungarians ❤️🇭🇺
Svelk929 1 year ago
too bad Hungary doesn't have a spine when dealing with Russia nowadays...
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DC 1 year ago
... has taken a severe hit on the forehead already, eh? Oh, aw, something happened to your nose, Josie-Sweetie? Now, Joseph, put me in Gulag for THAT! As one of the most hideous leaders of the 20th century, it may not be considered the most useful application of human muscles' force, but it's more than only understandable that people let their anger out on his depictions.
María Hermida 1 year ago
Stalin was a despicable human being and "leader", but I think the contest to choose the "most hideous leader of the 20th century" would be highly contested. The sad thing is we haven't learnt anything.
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Robin Roper 1 year ago
Stalin's history reputation is being currently being whitewashed and rewritten in today's Russia.
sofacushionfort 1 year ago
NATO could have intervened, and sent in troops before the Russians arrived to brutally suppress the rising. However, Britain, France and the US’s alliance was in disarray after the Suez Crisis, where Israel had enticed Britain and France into joining them in a war against Egypt. The US objected to this, and a period of acrimony followed. And Hungary suffered
#20
The train wreck at Montparnasse Station in Paris, France on or near the 22nd October 1895.
Doofnuts 1 year ago
Nope, the law of gross tonnage. That vehicle can park wherever it wants.
Load More Replies... Tiger 1 year ago
The Montparnasse derailment occurred at 16:00 on 22 October 1895 when the Granville–Paris Express overran the buffer stop at its Gare Montparnasse terminus. With the train several minutes late and the driver trying to make up for lost time, it approached the station too fast and the driver's application of the train air brake was ineffective. After running through the buffer stop, the train crossed the station concourse and crashed through the station wall. The locomotive fell onto the Place de Rennes below, where it stood on its nose. Although the passengers survived, a woman in the street below was killed by falling masonry.
General Anaesthesia 1 year ago (edited)
2020 Rotterdam metro rams through bumper, caught by whale's tail. MetroWhale...d7ef29.jpg 
Susie Elle 1 year ago (edited)
Imagine the noise when this 45.000 kilos-weighing monster came crashing through the building.
#21
A 16-year-old Bill Clinton, future 42nd President of the United States, shaking hands with 35th US President John F. Kennedy at a American Legion Boys Nation event on July 24th, 1963.
#22
A large crowd in Times Square, New York City celebrating the surrender of Germany, May 7th, 1945.
XanthippeⓐWulf🇨🇦️️🇬🇧 1 year ago
Yes. Her name is Pam, and she also likes books & fire.
Load More Replies... GlixDrap 1 year ago
VE Day was the 8th of May. A day early or did the celebrate on the 8th as well?
Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago
"VE" means "Victory in Europe," but I like to think of it as meaning "Victory over Evil."
Load More Replies... Sven Horlemann 1 year ago
As a German born 1966, I am so thankful that war ended. And Germany lost.
#23
Amiens Cathedral photographed during World War I showing the walls lined with sandbags in order to protect the building from artillery. Taken in Amiens, France in 1918.
Terri Rowland 1 year ago
I wouldn't like to have been the one putting the top one on the pile.
LadySparre 1 year ago
If I'm not mistaken, It also served as some sort of shelter. Almost everything was flattened in the Somme Valley during WW1. But the Amiens Cathedral with all it's beauty and all the tableaux praising and commemorating the allied forces is definitely worth a visit.
Roan The Demon Kitty 1 year ago
its almost mesmerizing looking, almost as if it's made out of large bricks o.O
#24
Robert Wadlow, the tallest man to ever live, with his family in c. 1930s. Wadlow stood at 8 ft 11.1 in (272 cm) tall.
Tiger 1 year ago
“Wadlow's height was 8 ft 11.1 in (2.72 m) while his weight reached 439 lb (199 kg) at his death at age 22. His great size and his continued growth in adulthood were due to hypertrophy of his pituitary gland, which results in an abnormally high level of human growth hormone (HGH).” It’s sad he died so young!
Joe Reaves 1 year ago
Sadly people with such growth abnormalities rarely live to 30. The strain on the heart to just pump blood is immense. It usually involves serious joint pain too.
Load More Replies... G A 1 year ago
Shame he died young. I wonder if he could have been treated with modern medicine. Also, if he would have continued growing if he'd lived?
Papa 1 year ago
He probably would have lived longer. If I'm not mistaken he died as a result of an infection caused by a poorly fitting leg brace.
Load More Replies... Kraneia The Dancing Dryad 1 year ago
His family burned a lot of his things after his death, to prevent souvenir hunters and people wanting things for a "freak show". Even today he's referred to as "the gentle giant" and the museum in Illinois is very respectful about telling his story. The History Guy did a story on him on Youtube.
n75mk9nk2n 1 year ago
I grew up in Alton, IL, this man's hometown. We're quite proud of him. My grandmother actually went to high school with him, and said he was a lovely, friendly, and entirely pleasant person. If you're ever in Alton, stop by to see his life-size statue and the museum with the custom furniture and belongings (like his size 37 shoes).
Robert T 1 year ago
That is a one heck of a pedestal the plant is sitting on. It is the only thing in the room that looks to be on the same scale as Mr Wadlow.
Kraneia The Dancing Dryad 1 year ago
He went to see the sequoias and redwoods and is reported to have said something like " For the first time in my life, I feel small. I love it!" :)
Load More Replies... Broadredpanda 1 year ago
He died at 22 years old! Many people over a certain unusual height die at a young age. There's always some reason like marfan's syndrome or abnormal levels of growth hormones. Really sad tbh!
#25
A group of Japanese Samurai photographed in front of the Sphinx in Giza, Egypt during a visit to the country, 1864.
Janissary35680 1 year ago (edited)
"A. Beato" is Antonio Beato. He was the brother of Felice Beato who worked with James Robertson at Robertson's photography studio in Istanbul in the 1850s. Antonio ended up in Egypt in 1860, setting up a studio of his own in Thebes in 1862.
Jeremy Klaxon 1 year ago
Wow, and they all came all the way from Japan!? What a journey, there were no planes back then, they probably needed like 40 days just for the one-way trip... Why? How? So many questions
Michael Lovett 1 year ago
What in the hell were Feudal Japanese men even doing out of the country? This is one weird pic that needs some explanation.
Downunderdude 1 year ago
The legend of the samurai was undoubtedly enhanced by the fact that they were semi-transparent.
#26
An open-air school in the Netherlands photographed in 1957.
Oerff On Tour 1 year ago
This only existed in the Sanatorium schools. If you had an illness like tuberculosis, you were sent there to recover. Children would of course have to go to school. Hence they were schooled outside weather permitting. Otherwise in a classroom with all windows open. Fresh air was part of the treatment, besides antibiotics.
Purple light 1 year ago
Nope. In the Netherlands we also had them for kids who were not ill. It was thought of as more healthy than a normal school. The air quality in school is still quite bad en was even worse with all the coal used for heating. But yeah the weather was not always nice enough.
Load More Replies... G A 1 year ago
Your grasp of zoological geography may be a mite shaky.....
Load More Replies... Verena 1 year ago
Cheers from the Netherlands, it is more often cold and rainy than nice and warm
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#27
Sadie Pfeifer, a young girl working at the Lancaster Cotton Mills in Lancaster, South Carolina, in 30 November 1908. At the time of the photograph, Sadie had worked at the mill for half a year.
April Pickett 1 year ago
We're doing it again. After all these years and child labor laws, we are doing it again. I know some of the reasons, but it's still illegal and I doubt, they're getting minimum wage.
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Paul Navarrete 1 year ago
Lewis Hine is the photographer. He would get in to factories under false pretenses to photograph the working conditions children were in. He did it as part of the National Child Labor Committee and was working to end such practices.
Becky Samuel 1 year ago
Wheras nowadays we export our child labour requirements to countries where we can't see them.
Load More Replies... Robin Roper 1 year ago
This is what the US and many other countries were like before "regulations."
Colin Matthews 1 year ago
Soon to be returned to you by that MAGA idiot Trump. Let's get rid of all that pesky regulation strangling business...
Heras buddy 1 year ago
And they want to relax child labor laws in the United States. We're going backwards in time in this country. Someday the people will rise and capitalism will be in trouble.
Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago
Project 2025, if it comes into force (the gods and U.S. voters forfend!), will relax or eliminate a lot of child labor laws and protections. It also will eliminate the Department of Education and close all public schools, as well as crack down savagely on immigrants. So, instead of going to school and learning her ABCs, your sweet little 7-year-old daughter will be picking tomatoes for a living, and likely wind up illiterate.
Load More Replies... #28
The last photo ever of Nikola Tesla. Taken on the 1 January 1943, 6 days before his death at the age of 86.
Tiger 1 year ago
And now he’s twitching in his grave because Musk is tarnishing his name with his garbage products and ideology
justagirl 1 year ago
Elon himself is awful. his stuff though? space x, his tech, all that? pretty advanced stuff, methinks.
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Michael Lovett 1 year ago
Such a sad end to one of the greatest minds of modern times. His ruin was ALL THE FAULT of a one THOMAS EDISON, who I HOPE will always be VILIFIED for that. Edison STOLE or. Took credit for many of Tesla's inventions. Today, many of us benefit from them daily without realizing it.
RabidChild 1 year ago (edited)
Curse you, Thomas Edison & Elon Musk. Both of you have tarnished this good man's name.
DC 1 year ago
Once the company was taken over by Elon Musk, he should have renamed it "Edison", because regarding character, it's a closer match. Edison was a marketing talent, Tesla was a scientist and a genius. Edison took advantage of people, exploited them and spread lies because he had decided on an inferior system and couldn't compete with his competition on technical, scientific grounds. Tesla did none of such. So ... Edison is the only valid brand name for any EVs involving Musk. Tesla was a person worth being remembered, and a vastly different personality from Musk. Edison, OTOH, was the Elon Musk of his day, including questionable relationships to things like integrity, truth or even the very basic human treat to accept defeat, if somebody else can do better. It takes an especially fragile crybaby of a person to not accept not being the best and most at something, let alone everything.
Load More Replies... Brenda Spagnola-Wilson 1 year ago
I don't care how good his products are (and they're pretty amazing, truthfully), I refuse to give my business to someone of his character. I've read nothing positive about the man. His adult children despise him. He cares nothing for the safety and well-being of his employees. I just don't like him 😒
#29
One of the largest and heaviest horses ever recorded, Brooklyn Supreme, photographed in c. 1940s. He stood 19.2 hands (198 cm (6 ft 6 in)) tall and weighed 3,200 lb (1,451 kg).
Tiger 1 year ago
As someone who used to own horses - holy fark that is a big boy 😳 “Brooklyn "Brookie" Supreme (April 12, 1928 – September 6, 1948)[a] was a red roan[4] Belgian stallion noted for his extreme size. Although disputed, the horse may be the world record holder for largest (but not tallest) horse and was designated the world's heaviest horse. He stood 19.2 hands (198 cm (6 ft 6 in)) tall and weighed 3,200 lb (1,451.5 kg) with a girth of 10 ft 2 in (3.10 m). Each of his horseshoes required 30 in (76 cm) of iron.”
Scott Rackley 1 year ago
Wonder how much hay and sweet oats he went through a day
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On the right side of the turf 1 year ago
He still could be gelded, it's the nuts they take not the banana 🤣
Load More Replies... #30
A young Prince Charles standing between his grandmother, The Queen Mother (left), and aunt, Princess Margaret (right), at his mother Queen Elizabeth's coronation on 2 June 1953
Michael Lovett 1 year ago (edited)
Queen Mary of Teck, "Queen Mother" was one of the last Victorian monarchs and one of the most liked. She liked her "toddy" in the late afternoon!
#31
Salvador Dali on a ship arriving in New York, United States on the 7 December 1936.
sofacushionfort 1 year ago
After Garcia Lorca was shot by right-wing Nationalists earlier that year, prominent gay and bisexuals knew it was time to leave Spain
#32
British veteran of the Napoleonic Wars and his wife sitting for a photograph in the 1860s. This veteran served in the Peninsular War which took place from 1807 to 1814 and saw Bourbon Spain assisted by Great Britain against the First French Empire for control of the Iberian Peninsula.
GlixDrap 1 year ago
Watch the Sharpe TV series - about the only thing with Sean Bean in where he doesn't die.
Pat Bond 1 year ago
Lol, Sharpe is excellent, "What makes a good soldier" The heavy use of Bastard always makes me chuckle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE8d-uGmIWk
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Nelson Álvarez Sáez 1 year ago
That's what you get for rescuing the iberian península?? A medal?? And then you can go and die in misery. Thanks for your service.
Tiger 1 year ago
It’s Halloween - I swear I had a couple folks in my store dressed like this tonight. Jokes aside, they look lovely and it’s so interesting to see how people used to dress.
antoinette maldari 1 year ago
They look like they sprung from a Charles Dickens novel
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Mr. Toast 1 year ago
If the Sharpe books are a correct historical record of what life was like as a British Soldier then and what happened after sieged cities were taken by the British then you can understand why he looks like someone you would not want to come across with a when tooled up with with a bayonetted rifle...
#33
Future King George V of the United Kingdom sitting next to his cousin, future Tsar Nicholas II of Russia while posing for a photograph at Marlborough House in London, England in c. 1893. George and Nicholas shared the same maternal grandparents.
G A 1 year ago
Bloody shame they couldn't have stopped millions dying between them
Load More Replies... Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago
A lot of royal families were terribly inbred, which is the reason hemophilia is called the "disease of kings."
Chewie Baron 1 year ago
Queen Victoria is often quoted as the one who passed it on to the other Royal Families, but out of her 9 children, only her youngest son had it. And he never married.
Load More Replies... Janissary35680 1 year ago
"We are the cousins who ruled over dozens" (Horrible Histories music vid)
Auntriarch 1 year ago
Apparently the duke of Kent caused a bit of a double take in Russia a few years ago
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Linda Riebel 1 year ago
In case you haven't heard this one: During WWI Kaiser Wilhelm (another cousin descending from Queen Victoria) supposedly said, "If only Granny were alive,. she wouldn't let Georgie and Nicky gang up on me like this! "
#34
Photograph of the Hindenburg Disaster on the 6 May 1937. This was when the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst.
Tiger 1 year ago
Filled with hydrogen, it caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst. The accident caused 35 fatalities (13 passengers and 22 crewmen) among the 97 people on board (36 passengers and 61 crewmen), and an additional fatality on the ground.
Donkey boi 1 year ago
I remember reading about it after seeing the video clip when I was a teen. I was gobsmacked to learn that, while there was 35 deaths, there was 62 survivors! Watch the video and tell me, how the heck did anyone survive that! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgWHbpMVQ1U
Upstaged75 1 year ago
Wow, no kidding! You could see people running out of it, but the whole thing was already in flames.
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#35
What is now the fully developed Las Vegas strip, 1955.
Janissary35680 1 year ago
$3 mn in 1950 is worth nearly $40 mn today. Still a bargain. ("Buy land. They don't make it any more.")
Pablo Ramos 1 year ago
$3 million in 1955? The owners knew something was coming, that's for sure.
Julie S 1 year ago (edited)
Who looked at that scrubby bit of land and thought I know what I'll put there, lots of big old casinos and hotels.
Chewie Baron 1 year ago
The famous sign that welcomes you to Las Vegas, is not in Las Vegas. It’s in Paradise.
#36
In 1945 a B-25 bomber got lost in the fog and crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building. 14 people died in the accident. This is the damage that the crash caused.
Tiger 1 year ago
On Saturday, July 28, 1945, Lieutenant Colonel William Franklin Smith Jr., of Watertown, Massachusetts, was piloting a B-25 Mitchell bomber on a routine personnel transport mission from Bedford Army Air Field in Massachusetts. Due to thick fog, the aircraft was unable to land at LaGuardia Airport as scheduled. The pilot requested to divert to Newark Metropolitan Airport in New Jersey. Smith asked for clearance to land, but he was advised of zero visibility. Proceeding anyway, he became disoriented by the fog and turned right instead of left after flying dangerously close to the Chrysler Building on East 42nd Street.
cecilia kilian 1 year ago
This is where Betty Lou Oliver survived the 70+ story elevator fall.
#37
A beggar running alongside the carriage of King George V of the United Kingdom somewhere in London, England, 1920.
María Hermida 1 year ago
"King George V and two other fat pigs not giving a f**k about the destitute human being running alongside their carriage" that's it. I fixed the title for you.
Brenda Spagnola-Wilson 1 year ago
Royalty themselves never give any handouts. However, one of their attendants/advisors/chaperones has money to hand once given permission.
Load More Replies... Tiger 1 year ago
People actually wore top hats. I have such a hard time taking people in top hats seriously.
#38
A French and British soldier helping the other light their cigarette during WWI in 1915
Nimitz 1 year ago
Gay guy here desperately trying not to make a joke using the British slang for cigarette : )
James Peek 1 year ago
There's a great comedy audio of that slang that is fn hilarious!
Load More Replies... Janissary35680 1 year ago (edited)
Upvoted because it's a possible reference to the "three-light" rule in the trenches in WW I. Keeping in a match lit for longer than it took to light three cigarettes was an invitation to receive a sniper's bullet.
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StPaul9 1 year ago (edited)
You never lit more than one cigarette by yourself in the War. A sniper could train his sights on a steady light. Light your cigarette, then light another by using your own, but never light them separately. The first light would catch his eye, the second he would aim...the third...he'd pull the trigger. Thanks Horrible Histories!
Michael Lovett 1 year ago
My grandfather's war, gassed by the Germans. Survived with a chronic cough.
#39
The tallest (Cornelius Bruns), shortest (Unknown), and fattest (Cannon Colossus) men in Europe playing cards and drinking together in 1913.
Janissary35680 1 year ago
"A Dwarf, a Giant, and a Fatman walk into a bar. The bartender says..."
#40
A blimp destroyed by the shockwave of a nuclear blast, Nevada in 1957.
Tiger 1 year ago
“In 1957, the US military tested the use of blimps to deliver nuclear weapons as part of Operation Plumbbob, a series of nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site….The most significant test of the project was carried out in August 1957. The test, called Shot Stokes, involved detonating a nuclear weapon while the airship hovered about 300 feet off the ground and over 40,000 feet from the detonation point. Even at that distance, the result was rather conclusive.”
#41
An anti-communist revolutionary holds a Molotov cocktail behind his back during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
TotallyNOTAFox 1 year ago
Ah the USSR, getting cocktails served everywhere they showed up - Fun fact: Despite earlier useage it got it's name duiring the Winter from finnish forces
Tiger 1 year ago
This is a sick photo (meaning cool and awesome for those pandas who don’t speak English as a 1st language)
Geoffrey Scott 1 year ago
Forgive me..and yet, in 2024, we must continue fighting those whose main aim is control through deceit and subterfuge, except now in the electronic age. And some parrot those goals without realizing it because they crave adulation.(Steps down off soapbox)
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#42
Mugshot of Frank Sinatra after being arrested on charges of seduction and adultery. Photo taken on the 27 November 1938.
*raspberry sound 1 year ago
I should sue the Bergen County Sheriff's office for seducing me with this mugshot.
Tiger 1 year ago
“Frank Sinatra was arrested in 1938 for seduction, and later for adultery, after it was discovered that the woman he was accused of seducing was married.” It was 1938 so I wonder if the woman involved had a different story. Poor gal.
Wingsofwrath 1 year ago
Well, the charge of "seduction" existed to stop people engaging in premarital sex and was usually bought by the father of the woman in question and was usually dropped if the man agreed to marriage. In this case however, she was the one who made the charge hersef as she wanted him to marry her and he didn't and it was then changed to "adultery" because it turns out she was already married... He only spent 16 hours in lockup, but had to pay a $500 fine. (Only men were liable and had to pay fines for this because it was 1938 - women were both infantilized and most didn't have their own finances)
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Caroline Nagel 1 year ago
'Charges of seduction and adultery'. Just imagine being arrested for that nowadays lol
#43
Chief John Smith a.k.a. White Wolf, reportedly the oldest Native American to ever live (137-years-old), photographed in c. 1920. White Wolf’s true age at his death is often disputed.
Tiger 1 year ago
“He was an American Chippewa Native American. His age got him in the 1918 French annual periodical Almanach Vernot for the day 6th September. In it his name is reported "Fleche Rapide" or "Rapid Arrow". It also said the Ojibwa called him "Ba-be-nar-quor-yarg". In 1920, two years before his death, he appeared as the main feature in a motion picture exhibition that toured the US, featuring aged Native Americans.“
#44
A German officer and an NCO wearing portable sound locating apparatus to detect enemy aircraft. Taken somewhere on the Western Front in 1917.
Serial pacifist 1 year ago
I can't believe that the Germans missed an opportunity to install a beer helmet to go along with it.
#45
B-17 American Bomber 43-37563 from the 728th Bomb Squadron of the US Army Airforce encounters German Anti-Aircraft artillery fire. The black smoke shown in the image are detonating 88mm caliber shell. Photograph taken in 1944.
#46
A woman photographed standing on the frozen Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri in February 1905.
#47
An Irish man sharing a pint with his son in Dublin, Ireland, during the 1950s.
PeepPeep the duck 1 year ago
My dad would let me and I would take a small sip and then be disappointed because how can anyone thinks beer tastes good 😂
Load More Replies... Julie S 1 year ago
If an Irish baby isn't drinking Guinness from their baby bottle can they even call themselves Irish?
Roan The Demon Kitty 1 year ago
I remember drinking Guinness shandy's from a young age. (tbf though, I'm half irish and half romanian, so... xD)
Load More Replies... #48
First World War German Field Marshal, August von Mackensen, photographed in c. 1915. He was one of Germany’s most prominent and competent military leaders and remained a committed monarchist until his death in November 1945 at the age of 95. His life spanned the Kingdom of Prussia, the North German Confederation, the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, The Third Reich, and the post-war Allied occupation of Germany.
Eastendbird 1 year ago
Sorry I can't see this without thinking of Mitchell and Webb - "Are we the baddies?"
Beak Hookage 1 year ago
I thought the skull on the hat was a Nazi thing, but nope. Apparently they were just carrying on with something that already existed.
martin734 1 year ago
That is the uniform and emblem of the Prussian Hussars. The Totenkopf was worn by the Hussars since the mid 18th century.
Load More Replies... martin734 1 year ago
It is the Totenkopf, the emblem of the Prussian Hussars since the mid 18th century.
Load More Replies... #49
Soviet peasants listening to the radio for the first time. Taken at some point in 1928.
Tiger 1 year ago
I love how they all look absolutely stunned 😂 lady in the middle looks like she thinks she’s hearing the devil speak
Donald 1 year ago
Enjoy your Cholera, it'll be inside on my memory foam mattress.
Load More Replies... #50
The only known photograph from the event, President Abraham Lincoln Lincoln delivering his second inaugural address on the east front of the United States Capitol. Taken on the 4 March 1865.
G A 1 year ago
Dunno why you got downvoted. He really was, and he had a high pitched voice, too.
Load More Replies... GlixDrap 1 year ago
I was going to comment that there was a better shot of him on April 14th but that would be in poor taste.
Anonymouse 1 year ago
And the man who would kill him is standing behind him up on the balcony!
Bryn 1 year ago
For those that would like to see where (because you can't see in this photo: https://www.onthisday.com/photos/john-wilkes-booth-at-lincolns-inauguration)
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#51
The Empire State Building in New York City photographed in 1941.
Tiger 1 year ago
This photo was taken from New Jersey, a whole state away (if I have the right source! Take this with a grain of salt cause I haven’t confirmed)
Allen Scherr 1 year ago
The whole "state away' is simply across the river to New Jersey.
Load More Replies... #52
A logging family photographed with a 1300 year old tree they cut down, 1892.
Kira Okah 1 year ago
There is zero indication that the people in the picture cut this tree down. The caption is incorrect, the photo was taken 20 years after the tree was felled.
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Robert Cosgrove 1 year ago
Normal size tree but average height of a man then was around 1 foot tall. The blade shown is actually cutting edge from roll of clingfilm (saran wrap)
Beak Hookage 1 year ago
So in other words it's a hoax? I sure as hell can't really see that "saw" actually working.
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Kira Okah 1 year ago (edited)
The photo is from ca. 1910, this family is posing in front of a 20 year old log. I can't find anything showing that they cut this down. Alright, look, this image is in the public domain. Since I can't link the wikimedia, here is a museum posting it 10 years ago with the caption pointing out that this capton is wrong: https://www.flickr.com/photos/47154409@N06/14037928816/
#53
59 ½ Mulberry Street, a back alley in Manhattan, New York City, better known as “Bandit’s Roost” due to being the most dangerous area in Mulberry Street which to the photographer Jacob Riis epitomized the worst of New York City’s slums. Photo taken in 1888.
Roni Stone 1 year ago
This photo looks like a half-dozen places I've seen in Appalachian coal mine towns. They just didn't wear bowlers. Poverty has a universal face.
Load More Replies... Damned_Cat 1 year ago
It kind of puts a different spin on Dr. Seuss's "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street"
#54
President Lyndon Johnson listens to a tape sent by Captain Charles Robb (his son-in-law) from Vietnam. Taken in 1968.
Tiger 1 year ago
“There’s a photo of President Lyndon B. Johnson currently circulating on Twitter that purports to show LBJ overcome with emotion at the thought of so many deaths during the Vietnam War. It’s an iconic image, but the photo is being taken out of context. In reality, Johnson probably isn’t mourning the deaths of 40,000 U.S. soldiers in the summer of 1968. He’s positioning his head so that he can understand what’s being said on an audiotape recording playing from the speaker in front of him.“
Tiger 1 year ago
“The photo was taken by presidential photographer Jack E. Kightlinger in the Cabinet Room of the White House on July 31, 1968 and is available at the U.S. National Archives and LBJ Presidential Library websites. The image has been used in countless documentaries about the Vietnam War and supposedly shows how much Johnson struggled emotionally with the human toll of the war.“
Load More Replies... #55
An aerial view of Manhattan, New York City taken in 1931.
ZuriLovesYou 1 year ago
Did you really expect it to be just forest forever?
Load More Replies... #56
Hans Langseth, the man who held the record for the world’s longest beard, posing for a photograph in c. 1912 when he was in his 60s.
#57
An unemployed lumber worker called Thomas Cave with his wife in Oregon, USA in August 1939. He has his social security number tattooed on his arm.
#58
The final photograph taken of Vladimir Lenin. He is seen with his sister Anna Ilyinichna Yelizarova-Ulyanova and his doctor A. M. Kozhevnikov in Gorki in May 1923.
#59
Legendary film director, producer, and screenwriter, Alfred Hitchcock, photographed holding a pitchfork on the lawns of Pinewood Studios, at Iver, Buckinghamshire, the United Kingdom on 22 July 1971.
Beak Hookage 1 year ago
Fun fact, he had no belly button due to an operation and loved to freak people out by suddenly pulling up his shirt to show off his weirdly smooth stomach.
Tiger 1 year ago
“Alfred Hitchcock may have behaved inappropiately towards Tippi Hedren during the filming of The Birds. Hedren said there were several incidents where she was subjected to sexual harassment from the famed director.”
Beak Hookage 1 year ago
Her daughter Melanie Griffith was later quoted as saying "he was a m**********r and you can quote me on that".
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Richard Graham 1 year ago (edited)
Mel Brooks describing a dinner he had with Alfred Hitchcock “He invited me to dinner at his favorite restaurant at the time, it was Chasen's. He had his own booth; he had his own waiter. The headwaiter was always very nice to him, somebody named George. He ordered a shrimp cocktail to begin, with cocktail sauce. And a sirloin steak, which was at least two inches thick. And a baked potato crammed full of chives and sour cream. And then he ordered a separate plate of asparagus with hollandaise sauce. And some sliced tomato on lettuce and there was some kind of blue cheese dressing on that. For dessert he had, I don't know, two bowls of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce, with strawberry or something on top. After the meal, and after two cigars, Hitchcock called "Oh, George." Headwaiter ran over, and he said, "George, I'm really peckish tonight. Do it again." And less than five minutes, there was a shrimp cocktail. Yes, he ate the entire meal again! He ate it all!"
#60
A power house mechanic working on a steam pump in 1920. Photo taken by Lewis Hine somewhere in the United States.
Der Kommissar 1 year ago
this photo is no doubt where Chaplin got his inspiration to make Modern Times
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#61
Charlie Chaplin selling war bonds at the foot of the United States Sub Treasury Building in Wall Street, New York City in 1918.
#62
Dr. Wernher von Braun, an aerospace engineer that was a leading figure in Nazi German rocket technology, and then United States rocket technology, photographed standing in front of five F-1 rocket engines in circa 1969.
Tiger 1 year ago
Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown. "Ha, Nazi Schmazi," says Wernher von Braun.
Janissary35680 1 year ago
… Gather 'round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun, A man whose allegiance Is ruled by expedience. Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown, "Ha, Nazi, Schmazi, " says Wernher von Braun. … Don't say that he's hypocritical, Say rather that he's apolitical. "Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department, " says Wernher von Braun. … Some have harsh words for this man of renown, But some think our attitude Should be one of gratitude, Like the widows and cripples in old London town, Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun. … You too may be a big hero, Once you've learned to count backwards to zero. "In German oder English I know how to count down, Und I'm learning Chinese!" says Wernher von Braun.
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DC 1 year ago
... usefulness is more important than guilt. Dr. von Braun was not just a scientist accepting the necessary concession to work in his field under a dictatorship, but a member of the SS, big time profiteer and actively encouraged setting up underground facilities, entire factories even, to produce his V2 missiles. Which, by the mode of manufacturing them, took more lifes in being made than in being deployed. Slave labour of - according to Nazi ideology - unlifeworthy people, who were meant to not survive their abuse in the first place, was used to make these. Usefulness over anything else - a major war criminal, he was. Fück him.
#63
25th President of the United States, William McKinley, walking up the stairs of the Temple of Music, on the day of his assassination, September 9, 1901. This was the final photograph taken of McKinley alive.
Kat Hoth 1 year ago
We've had 46 presidents so far and only 4 have been assonated, less than 10%
Load More Replies... #64
Boys of Ardingly School set off home at the start of the Christmas holidays in 1926.
#65
A coal miner and his family in their home in Scott's Run, West Virginia photographed on March 19, 1937.
Robert Cosgrove 1 year ago
Must have been hard work putting the daily newspaper on the wall every day
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What do you think ?
Tucker Cahooter 1 year ago
Good to see genuine historical pictures, and not "historical" pictures taken last month
Sara Frazer 1 year ago
For anyone else who likes to look at old photos there's this fantastic Hungarian website called Fortepan, they have THOUSANDS of photos spanning decades. Sometimes I like to sit with a drink huddled up in front of my laptop and click through the galleries for an hour or two. Highly recommend ☺️
Caroline Nagel 1 year ago
Tiger, thank you for all the extra info. It was a pleasure to read and learn a bit.
Bryn 1 year ago
While I love historical photos, I wish BP and the site they culled these from would site where they got them. Almost all of these are under copyright by the archives that own the original.
Chich 1 year ago
If you click on the small wording at the lower left of each it will take you to the site BP got them from. Not sure even with that if there is any copyright info
Load More Replies... Tucker Cahooter 1 year ago
Good to see genuine historical pictures, and not "historical" pictures taken last month
Sara Frazer 1 year ago
For anyone else who likes to look at old photos there's this fantastic Hungarian website called Fortepan, they have THOUSANDS of photos spanning decades. Sometimes I like to sit with a drink huddled up in front of my laptop and click through the galleries for an hour or two. Highly recommend ☺️
Caroline Nagel 1 year ago
Tiger, thank you for all the extra info. It was a pleasure to read and learn a bit.
Bryn 1 year ago
While I love historical photos, I wish BP and the site they culled these from would site where they got them. Almost all of these are under copyright by the archives that own the original.
Chich 1 year ago
If you click on the small wording at the lower left of each it will take you to the site BP got them from. Not sure even with that if there is any copyright info
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