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“Be A Witness To The Events That Changed Mankind”: 40 Important Historical Photos That Might Change Your Perspective On Things
Although we cannot get into the minds of the people waiting in a queue on a cold day in Chukotka, Soviet Union back in 1985 to get wine, or what the daredevil sky boys who built the Empire State Building in 1930-31 were thinking when balancing unsecured on the 88th floor, we can get a fairly good glimpse into the wonders of history.
Thanks to photography, a new means of visual representation that debuted in 1839 and startled the entire world, a lot of incredible moments of the past are now carved into film forever. So today we’re taking a miscellaneous history class, one you wouldn’t have skipped at school, thanks to this educational Facebook page titled “Historic Photographs.”
With almost 2.5M followers, the page is an online destination for rare historical photos and incredible stories behind them. Below we selected some of the most captivating ones, so pull your seat closer!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Long Before Color-Sensitive Film Was Invented, Russian Photographer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky Took 3 Individual Black And White Photos, Each With A Filter (Red, Blue And Green) To Create High Quality Photos In Full Color. This Self Portrait Is Over 110 Years Old
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#2
On August 23, 1989, About 2 Million People From Latvia, Estonia And Lithuania Formed A Human Chain That United All 3 Countries To Show The World Their Desire To Escape The Soviet Union And The Communism That Brought Only Suffering And Poverty. This Power Stretched 600 Km
#3
Mary Wallace: First Female Bus Driver For Chicago Transit Authority, 1974 (Colorized)
#4
Rosa Parks Sits At The Front Of A Bus Following The End Of Racial Segregation By The Transit Company, Circa 1965
#5
Stoney First Nation Member, Guide Samson Beaver With His Wife Leah And Their Daughter Frances Louise, 1907. Photo Taken By Mary Schäffer
ScrupulousScribbler 4 years ago
This picture shows that no matter your race, gender, heritage, culture, or religion, we all share the same feeling of love and happiness when it comes to having a happy, supportive family around you
#6
World War One Memorial In Vácrátót (Hungary)
Random Anon 4 years ago
This monument needs to be preserved to remind us, there is nothing to gain from wars. It's 2022 and people are still at it.
#7
A Dapper Group On Their Way To Church, Chicago 1940s
#8
German Soldier Helps A Little Boy Sneak Across The Berlin Wall, 1961
#9
The Level Of Detail On The Column Of Marcus Aurelius In Rome Which Was Completed Around Ad 193
#10
Negotiation Between The Zoo Director And Escaped Chimpanzee. Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 1988
#11
Residents Of West Berlin Show Their Children To Their Grandparents Living In East Berlin, 1961
#12
20-Year-Old Helen Mirren Dressed For Her Role As Cleopatra In A Theatrical Production, 1965
#14
Us Cavalry Soldiers Pose In Front Of A Tree Known As The "Grizzly Giant" 1900. The Tree Still Stands
#15
Pablo Picasso Painted This When He Was 15 Years Old
Anna Nowak 4 years ago
I've read that he did that in order to finish art school. They wouldn't let him graduate without completing classical art course. Not sure if it's true tho.
#16
Lt. Col. Robert Stirm, Is Greeted By His Family, Returning Home After More Than Five Years As A Prisoner Of War In North Vietnam. Burst Of Joy Is A Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photograph By Associated Press Photographer Slava "Sal" Veder, Taken On March 17, 1973 At Travis Air Force Base In California
#17
Sailors Saluting A War Veteran, Leningrad 1989
#18
The Sioux Nation Of Native Americans Teepees Spread Across The Great Plains In 1800s (Image Believed To Have Been Taken In The Dakota Territory)
Patti Vance 4 years ago
when ever i see these kinds of pics i think of how ignorant the white/europeans were to think that they were savages or less than them. they had/have a very unique culture and community that seemed to have far less conflict than the whites. they had a form of government that was respected. they even possessed the same kind of values and morals although they were expressed in different ways. even today there are those that think that people of another race are not as 'good' just because of racial/cultural differences.
#19
Star Wars Characters Together From Left To Right : Han Solo, Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker And R2-D2, 1977
#20
There Was A Time When You Could See The Core Structure Of The Twin Towers. (1970, During The Construction)
#21
Silent Film Actress, Delores Costello, Drew Barrymore's Grandmother, 1928
#22
World War I Field: More Than 100 Years Later
#23
A Rare Example Where An Engineer Thought About The Mechanic. (Daf-Domburg Diesel From 1949. Made In The Netherlands)
#24
Niagara Falls Froze Over In 1883
#25
150 Million Year Old Dinosaur Footprints In France
#26
Marilyn Monroe Photographed By Earl Leaf 1950
#27
The First Photo Of Chernobyl On The Morning Of The Nuclear Disaster (April 26, 1986). The Heavy Grain Is Due To The Huge Amount Of Radiation In The Air That Began To Destroy The Camera Film The Second It Was Exposed For This Photo. Photo Taken By Igor Kostin
#28
Three Generations Of Women Outside Their Stone Cottage In Ireland 1927
#29
Bruce Lee And His Family In 1970
#30
Nan Wood Graham And Dr. Byron Mckeeby Pictured In 1942 Recreating Their Original Poses For The Iconic ‘American Gothic’. She Was The Painter’s Sister, And He Was Their Dentist
ScrupulousScribbler 4 years ago (edited)
I see the resemblance in the man, but I feel like the woman was given a more thin face, and her hair doesn't quite look the same
#31
The Seal Of Tutankhamun's Tomb (On The Third Golden Shrine) Before It Was Opened In 1923. It Was Unbroken For Over 3000 Years
#32
Shoemaker’s Lunch, 1944. Photo By Bernard Cole
#33
American Soldiers At Mass In The Rubble At Cologne Cathedral, March 1945
#34
The FBI Finger Print Files, 1944
#35
A 'Knocker-Up' In London (1929). Before Alarm Clocks, People Were Paid To Wake Clients Up For Work By Knocking On Their Doors And Windows With A Stick
#36
An Elevator Parking Lot In Chicago, 1930s
#37
The Roof Of An Old Fiat Factory. Yes, That Is A Track (Lingotto, Turin - Italy)
#38
A 32 Year Old Mom Trying To Start A New Life In California, March 1937
TuesdayDangerGirl 4 years ago
This looks like Florence Owens Thompson - the "Migrant Mother" photo by Dorothea Lange - actual backstory is pretty sad
#39
Monica Bellucci And Gianni Versace, 1995
Let’s All Just Try And Be Decent 4 years ago
To the people asking why this is relevant or historical or worth thinking about... Maybe because this man was an openly gay immigrant to America who worked hard and became hugely successful, and by all accounts was a lovely person in a loving, long term stable and happy relationship before being brutally assassinated on his own doorstep for no reason? I think there's probably a lot to learn from that in a lot of ways. Also, this picture was taken nearly 30 years ago, and he died 25 years ago, so I'm afraid that counts as the past, (history) I mean it was in a different decade, century, millennium, etc!
#40
Residents Of Hanoi Wait In Chest-Deep Sidewalk Shelters For The All Clear Signal, During An Air Raid Alert. Hanoi, North Vietnam, 1967
#41
In The Final Stages Of The Vietnam War In 1975, President Ford Ordered The Mass Evacuation Of Vietnamese Orphans From Saigon. Operation Babylift Saved More Than 3,000 Orphans
Hugh Willie Mungous 4 years ago
Is "saved" the appropriate word to use, do you think? Maybe relocated would be a better choice. I'm sure, after all, that the Vietnamese would have been more than capable of caring for their own orphans.
#42
Vintage Photo Documenting The Discovery Of An Ancient Maya Statue Deep Within The Jungles Of Honduras (1885)
#43
1956: For A Bet Whilst Drunk, Former Marine Thomas Fitzpatrick Stole A Small Plane From New Jersey And Then Landed It Perfectly On A Narrow Manhattan Street In Front Of The Bar He Had Been Drinking At. He Had Made A Bet With A Fellow Drinker That He Could Leave The Bar, Go To New Jersey, And Then Get Back In 15 Minutes. He Did Nearly The Exact Same Thing Two Years Later, After A Bar Patron Refused To Believe He Had Done The First One
#44
A Summer Day, 112 Years Ago. Autochrome Taken By Paul Bergon C.1910
#45
Homecoming Prisoner Of War - Vienna, Austria.1946. Photo By Ernst Haas
#46
The Original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel In New York City, Demolished In 1929 To Serve As The Site For The Empire State Building
#48
Abraham Lincoln At Antietam During The Civil War. Left: Allan Pinkerton, Right: Gen John Mcclernand. 1862. (Colorized)
#49
In 1864 Group Of Samurai Went On A Tourist Tour In Egypt And Took A Photo In Front Of Sphinx. They Were Members Of Ikeda Mission (Second Japanese Embassy To Europe)
#50
Piles Of Rifles Surrendered By German Soldiers After The End Of The Second World War, 1945
#51
Children Working In Coal Mines In Pennsylvania, 1911. (Photo By Lewis Hine)
#52
On Set Of Jaws Movie, An Effectsman Repairs The Shark's Teeth. 1974
#53
Fixing The Antenna On The World Trade Center, New York City, 1979. Photo By Peter B. Kaplan
#54
Egyptian Men Watch As The Graf Zeppelin Floats Over The Great Pyramids Of Giza, Egypt, While Atop The Great Pyramid Of Khufu. 1931
#55
A Civil Servant With A Manually Operated Traffic Signal, Philadelphia, 1922
#56
1300 Years Old Tree, Cut Down In 1891. Note The Events Correlated With The Tree's Circles
#57
Sir Winston Churchill, In 1895, Age 20
Carol Emory 4 years ago
He almost didn't make it to 20. A farmer saved him from drowning when he was a kid.
#58
Helen Keller Teaching Charlie Chaplin The Manual Alphabet. The Two First Met In 1918 Where Keller Would Communicate With Chaplin By Reading His Lips With Her Hand, Feeling The Movements Of His Jaw And Vibrations Of The Throat
#59
Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, And Lee Van Cleef On The Set Of The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966)
#60
How The Chevy Vega Was Shipped In 1971
M O'Connell 4 years ago
Apparently this reduced shipping costs by %40 over using traditional auto-carrier railcars.
#61
Benjamin Bowden Showing Off His Spacelander Bicycle On September 17, 1946
#62
A German Officer And An Nco Wearing Portable Sound Locating Apparatae To Detect Enemy Aircraft (This Was A Type Of Early Radar). Western Front, 1917
Random Anon 4 years ago
The first thing I thought about is Mickey Mouse cosplay. Yeah childish I know.
#63
Size Of Flag Flown On A Spanish Ship During The Battle Of Trafalgar, 1805.this Flag Was Flown On The San Ildefonso. The Ship Carried 80 Cannons And Howitzers. It Was Captured By The British Royal Navy During The Battle
#64
Huntington Beach, California, During The Oil Boom Of 1928
#65
Street In Hong Kong - 1950s. Photo By Fan Ho
#66
Robert Wadlow, The Tallest Person In Recorded History For Whom There Is Irrefutable Evidence. (1940)his Height Was 8 Ft 11 In (2.72 M) While His Weight Reached 439 Lb (199 Kg) At His Death At Age 22
#67
American Troops On Board A Landing Craft Heading For The Beaches At Oran In Algeria During Operation 'Torch', November 1942. (Colorized By Spektonz)
#68
Arnold Schwarzenegger Meeting Soviet Fans In Moscow, 1988
#69
Outdoor Gymnasium And Playground, Chicago, 1903
#70
A Young Woman Taking In The Scale Model For The Newly Planned World Trade Center. Late 1960s
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