30 Photos That Look Ordinary Until You Know The Backstory

Tadeusz is holding in his hands the best picture of 1987, as chosen by National Geographic, which shows Dr. Zbigniew Religa keeping watch on his patient after performing the first heart transplant surgery in Poland, which took 23 hours. In the lower right corner, one of his colleagues who fell asleep after the surgery is seen. Even though the surgery was considered almost impossible at the time, Dr. Religa took the chance and the patient - Tadeusz Zytkiewicz - even out-lived his savior.

If not for these three men in the picture - Alexei Ananenko (second left) and soldiers Valeri Bezpalov (center) and Boris Baranov (far right) - millions of lives would have been lost during the catastrophe of Chernobyl. Ten days after the meltdown, the plant's water-cooling system had failed, and a pool had formed directly under the highly radioactive reactor. Without cooling, the lava-like substance could easily melt through the remaining barriers, dropping the reactor's core into the pool. If this would have happened - it might have set off steam explosions, firing radiation high and wide into the sky, spreading across parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. In the photograph, engineer Alexei together with Valeri and Boris are fitted with protective gear after they volunteered to dive down into the waters and drain the fluid near the reactor during the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster in Pripyat, Ukraine in 1986. The mission was successful and while the damage was still vile, the three heroes prevented what could have been a much more devastating event. Surprisingly and luckily enough, all of the three men survived.

This pigeon delivered a message from a trapped battalion of soldiers in WW1 saving nearly 200 men. She was shot multiple times and ended up losing a leg and an eye. The soldiers gave the pigeon a wooden leg and gave her the name “Cher Ami” (although the pigeon was female, the French 'Ami' is of a masculine form) meaning “Dear friend”.

The couple in the picture are Elisabeth and Bengt - the photographer, Donna Ferrato, came to know them through a photo project she did on wealthy swingers. That particular night in 1982, in the suburban couple's home, the two got in a fight while Donna was taking pictures. The argument escalated quickly, and you can see in the photo Elizabeth being hit by her partner. Donna wanted to get the pictures published, but all the magazine editors contacted, refused. But the photographer knew that something has to be done and such vile actions should finally be brought into the daylight, so, in 1991 she published a book 'Living With the Enemy'. The book chronicled events of domestic violence and their aftermath. Donna's work blew the lid off the very contraversial topic at the time and thanks to her, in 1994 Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act.

A touching photo, captured by Claude Detloff in Vancouver as the soldiers of the Duke of Connaught’s Own Rifles marched off to fight in the World War II. The emotions seen in the parents' and child's face and their body language combine together to make it into an unforgettable image, freezing the heart-wrenching moment forever. Luckily, the father of the boy returned safe and sound in October 1945.

The humiliating and fury-inducing moment was frozen in time on May 28, 1963 by Fred Blackwell, a photographer for Jackson Daily News. From left to right, at the white-only counter at a Woolworth’s five-and-dime store in Jackson, sits three protesters: John Salter, a sociology teacher and students Joan Trumpauer and Anne Moody. All three were from the Tougaloo College - a black college, which became the core of the civil rights movement in Mississippi. While sitting at the counter, the party was assaulted by an angry white mob, who were pouring ketchup, mustard and sugar on John, Joan and Anne.