Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
then open in external browser
and click "Open in External Browser" 
“Jim Carrey Homeless At 12”: 50 Historical Pictures That Speak A Thousand Words
There are some moments in time that are so incredible that they're almost unbelievable. The "receipts or it didn't happen" things.
Like a man born with three legs, four feet and 16 fingers who worked as a circus performer by day and built a relatively "normal" life with his wife and four kids. Or how a guide dog saved her owner's life by leading him down 78 flights of stairs in the World Trade Center before they collapsed on the morning of the 9/11 attacks.
Facebook pages Old Historical Pictures and Old Photo Archive share such "receipts" of fascinating stories from years gone by. The unique and rare vintage photos include some surprising facts about famous folk, as well as extraordinary tales of ordinary people.
Bored Panda has put together a compilation of the best. Keep scrolling as you take a peek behind the curtain of history and don't forget to upvote your favorites.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
At 18, Elizabeth Cochrane lived in Pittsburgh when she read an article titled What Are Girls Good For, which claimed their only purpose was to have children and manage the home. Outraged, she wrote an anonymous rebuttal that impressed the local newspaper editor so much that he hired her.
Following the custom of the time, he gave her a pen name taken from a Stephen Foster song: Nellie Bly. Passionate about investigative journalism, Bly was assigned to "women’s topics" like fashion and society.
However, after exposing the harsh conditions of factory workers, she traveled to Mexico at just 21 to report on the working-class population. Her writings got her into trouble with the authorities, forcing her to flee.
At 23, she was hired by Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and undertook the investigation that made her famous: she posed as a patient in the Women’s Lunatic Asylum in New York. Her shocking report led to reforms in the treatment of the mentally ill.
In 1889, inspired by Around the World in 80 Days, she embarked on a solo journey around the globe. Her return after 72 days set a record and made her an international celebrity. At 31, she married industrialist Robert Seaman and left journalism, helping run his business and patenting two inventions.
During World War I, she returned to reporting, becoming one of the first women to cover an active war zone. She passed away on January 27, 1922, at the age of 57, leaving behind a groundbreaking legacy in journalism.
Gossameringue 4 months ago (edited)
This chick ruled. I mean, to do what she did with her life is incredible. No matter the gender. But specially as a female when so much opposition and prejudice existed against a woman attempting to do anything inside the world that men had carved out for themselves.
Susie Elle 4 months ago
The gender matters here, considering the time. She was born in 1864.
Load More Replies...
primeline31 4 months ago (edited)
The book she wrote is titled "Ten Days in a Mad-House" on Blackwell's Island, NYC (now posh Roosevelt Island) and you REALLY should read it (free online at Project Gutenber, U of Pa, etc.). In her time, a husband who wanted to rid himself of his wife could have her condemned just on his say-so. A landlord could do the same to a tenant. Reading the short book is truly horrifying. I highly recommend it.
Sparkle 4 months ago
I watched the movie. She truly was a strong amazing woman.
Load More Replies...
Bananaramamama 4 months ago
Yeah. She probably was a b***h. Probably obstinate, stubborn, counterintuitive, defiant and disobedient. All the great men and women who have worked towards positive change often are. But good job commenting on her physical expression from two photos.
Load More Replies...
Black Cat 4 months ago
I think the incels were there long before that, they were the ones ensuring women had scant opportunities to live without a man in their lives.
Load More Replies...
If history classes were as fascinating as the stories on this list, I might have paid a lot more attention. Sometimes it's not the famous historical figures who hold the most interesting stories. But rather the ordinary people who never made it into the text books.
Take Francesco (Frank) Lentini for example. Born in 1889, with three legs, a fourth foot extending from his knee, sixteen fingers and two nether regions. His rare condition developed while he was in the womb. Lentini had a parasitic twin connected at the bottom of his spine. As time passed, he became the dominant twin, and the other one stopped developing.
The baby's parents wanted his extra leg amputated but surgeons weren't willing to carry out the procedure at the risk of his life. He grew up being taunted and bullied because of his appearance, and earned the nickname "the little monster."
RELATED:
#2
Biracial Family taken circa 1900, Tennessee, USA. He was Jim Turner, from an affluent white family in Henning, TN, and his wife Carrie Turner, a schoolteacher. Their sons George, William, and Hardin, who became a doctor. This is a stunning portrait of a family who defied societal norms and embraced their mixed heritage with pride, showcasing that love knows no boundaries.
JK 4 months ago
I'm more impressed by the family's accomplishments at a time when mixed families were frowned upon.
Load More Replies... Dr Jimmy 03 4 months ago
Y'all pay no mind to the odd stares. Photographic technology was such the subject(s) had to hold a pose, and a stare, for multiple seconds or else be blurred in the image. I do have an issue with which AI-bot still can't deal with singular-plural breaks: which son, or sons, became physician/physicians?
Stephanie Did It 4 months ago
Half the time, AI can't even determine gender, as it randomly changes "he" to "she" and vice versa within an article. Also true that grinning for the camera wasn't the custom. People preferred to look dignified in photos.
Load More Replies...
Sarah Bailey 4 months ago
What is around the wifes neck? At first I thought it's those metal loops, then it kind of looks like it's photo malfunction...or possibly part of her dress? Any thoughts?
patricia patricia 4 months ago
Years ago, photos required a long exposure, like several minutes. Keeping a straight (serious) face for several minutes is much easier than smiling. That's why you'll never see people smiling in old photos.
Load More Replies... #3
The last American slave ship docked illegally in Mobile, Alabama in 1860, carrying about 160 West African captives. Among them was Cudjo Lewis, who recognized how his birth culture might be erased while toiling in this new land.
So when he was freed, he purchased two acres and started a self-sufficient community of survivors of the last slave ship. Known to outsiders as Africatown, Lewis' neighborhood was modeled on his West African home, where extended families lived together, members conversed in their regional languages, and partook in traditions that might otherwise be lost to them in America. Today, Africatown still exists and houses the descendants of the nation's last slave ship community.
MaryHadaLittleLamb 4 months ago
This is wonderful, and i am also angry... I am a 53 year old American - and I never heard of this. Why?? This should be celebrated and talked about more! But this country no longer resembles the America I used to know. It breaks my heart what's happening to my country.
HardBoiledBlonde 4 months ago
"Barracoon: The Story of the Last Black Cargo" by Nora Neale Hurston is an excellent book that I highly recommend.
Load More Replies...
Rob D 4 months ago
To any American being honest with themselves they still are.
Load More Replies...But Lentini would go on to overcome his challenges and make history. In 1898 he traveled to America, and within a year, people were paying money to see him perform at the circus.
Instead of the "little monster," the Italian was billed as "The Three-Legged Sicilian," "The Greatest Medical Wonder of All Time, "The Great Lentini," and "The Only Three-Legged Football Player in the World," reports History Expose.
Lentini's talents, and extra leg, earned him celebrity status and a lot of money. He got married, had four kids, got divorced, got married for a second time and lived life to the fullest. He sadly died of lung failure in 1966, at the age of 77.
#4
In January 1925, a diphtheria epidemic tore through Nome, Alaska. The closest medication was over 500 miles away — and the only way to transport it was by dog sled. More than 20 mushers volunteered to set up a relay to quickly move the antitoxin serum to Nome through brutal winter conditions in temperatures of 30 degrees below zero. Though a dog called Togo completed the longest and most dangerous part of the route, it was a husky named Balto who led the final team of dogs into Nome with the life-saving medicine and became a national hero.
SlightlyTarnished 4 months ago
Ya know, now there is a vaccine for diphtheria. Falls on RFK Jr's deaf ears. The arsehole.
Auntriarch 4 months ago
And presumably he's old enough that he will have had the vaccine.
Load More Replies...
Rebecca O’Donnell 4 months ago
I’m glad they mentioned Togo, too. Balto is always mentioned. And both deserve heaps of praise and steak dinners for their phenomenal job.
CD Mills 4 months ago
I've never understood why they didn't celebrate all of the dogs and all of the people(mushers) who drove the sleds. {Do you 'drive' sleds or...?}
Wild Cream 4 months ago
I mean this is kind of a good point 😅 the lead dog/human do a lot of work but so do the rest of the pups/mushers. (It’s like when your team accomplishes something great at work and only your manager gets credit because he was technically in charge haha)
Load More Replies... Jay Scales 4 months ago
I watched a BBC documentary about this - fascinating story. 'Icebound: The Greatest Dog Story Ever Told'.
Wild Cream 4 months ago
Balto was one of my favourite animated movies as a kid 😊 Balto and Togo are the goodest puppers and I hope they were spoiled for the rest of their lives
Jane Hower 4 months ago
It was what started the IDIDEROD or however it's spelled. AND, a bit of trivia, the city of NOME is a 'misnomer' because when the map was made the guy didn't know what name it was so he just wrote NAME on the map and someone thought it said NOME!!! Funny how mistakes become history.
The Cute Cat 4 months ago
This should be a reason why USA never have a minister or president that anti-vaxxer.. Yet, now Trump is president and that anti-vaxxer guy is The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services
#5
For over 15 years after his father Bob Ross died in 1995, Steve Ross couldn't bring himself to stand in front of an easel, let alone teach his painting classes. But now, the son of the famed "happy trees" painter has picked up his brush again — and he's teaching the Bob Ross technique in various states.
Gossameringue 4 months ago
I'm still astounded how Bob Ross was a former Air Force Master Sergeant. And good for his son to overcome his trauma in his own time.
JK 4 months ago
I like his odd approach because it encourages people to find a creative release. No painting, or other creative work has to be perfect. It never will be, and that is the fun.
Load More Replies...
Peter Bear 4 months ago
We don't make mistakes, we just have happy accidents. And everyone needs a friend, even trees.
Major Harris 4 months ago
"AND I WILL MAKE YOU INTO HAPPY LITTLE AIRMEN! DO YOU HEAR ME?" msgt. and drill instructor bob ross
PrettyJoyBird 4 months ago (edited)
We are rewatching his PBS series. We love it. Husband dressed up as Bob Ross for Halloween!
Stephanie M 4 months ago
Bob Ross always makes me happy, just like the trees. Comes across on screen as such a nice man.
#6
7 Oct 1943, Ottla Kafka, beloved sister of author Franz Kafka, was gassed on arrival at Auschwitz after volunteering to escort a group of orphans from the Terezin ghetto so they wouldn’t be afraid.
Jamee 4 months ago
Heartbreaking,I honestly can't believe there are ignorant people that say it was faked ,that it's not real ..
Stephanie Did It 4 months ago (edited)
Just imagine what the world would have been like if all those horribly erased people had been allowed to live and contribute their full potential. They might have cured diseases, inspired students, and enriched society for everyone. I don't understand how anyone can deny or minimize their suffering.
It's not only human beings who go down in history for their heroic acts. The name Roselle deserves a special mention. The yellow labrador was taking a nap under her owner's desk one morning when she woke to the building shuddering. People were shouting and chaos ensued but the dog calmly got up and did what she was trained to do.
She led her blind owner Michael Hingson from his 78th-floor office down dozens of flights of stairs until they reached the bottom. "It wasn’t until they were outside that the group realized the extent of the damage caused to the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks," reports All That's Interesting.
With people running and screaming, Roselle led Hingson through the crowds and to a subway station. Just ten minutes later, the North Tower collapsed.
#7
The day after she graduated high school in 1964, Dolly Parton left her home in Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains and boarded the first bus to Nashville with a suitcase made of cardboard — and filled with songs. She quickly impressed Nashville's country music moguls with her compositions, but they insisted that her voice just wouldn't make her a star.
veirdbuttrue 4 months ago
She has got to be better looking than Jolene!!!! Dolly is just so beautiful and still is!!
Load More Replies...
Novlette Williams 4 months ago
.....but they insisted that her voice just wouldn't make her a star. Ha Ha Ha Ha Lol. She sure showed them.
Robin Roper 4 months ago
Dolly Parton began singing professionally at the age of 10, appearing on local radio and television shows in Knoxville, Tennessee. She made her debut at the Grand Ole Opry at the age of 13 in 1959.
Michael Largey 4 months ago
They were right. It isn't her voice that has made her a star. It's everything else about her that did it.
#8
A child with polio learning to walk inside parallel bars (around the time physical therapy was born).
Polio causes paralysis in approximately one out of every 200 cases. Survivors like this two-year-old child, often underwent months or even years of physical therapy to regain mobility.
Polio Rehabilitation Center Sudbury General Hospital, Canada, 1953.
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 4 months ago
Exactly what I was going to say. You go, little girl!!
Load More Replies... 
sofacushionfort 4 months ago (edited)
Polio tore through Canada in 1951. Joni Mitchell and Neil Young were among the stricken children who survived
CD Mills 4 months ago
My dad had Polio as a child. My Nana, his mom, had made appointments to immunize all six of her kids. Two weeks before the Polio vaccine was brought to town, my dad fell ill. You would never meet a bigger vaccine cheerleader than him, and we've spread that generationally, we understand, too.
#9
A sharecropper mother from Transylvania, Louisiana, educates her children at home, focusing on letters and numbers. (1937)
CP 4 months ago
No one made the Transylvania/vampire connection? There is a broken funny bone epidemic on this website.
Svenne O'Lotta 4 months ago
No, you just have to actually say something funny. We all know Dracula lived in Transylvania. Where's the joke?
Load More Replies... Roselle received an award from the American Kennel Club in 2002 in honor of “canine excellence” among service dogs.
"Two years later, a veterinarian diagnosed Roselle with immune-mediated thrombocytopenia, a disease that affects blood platelets," reports the All That's Interesting. "Hingson believes the toxic air conditions that she faced helping him escape on 9/11 caused her condition."
Roselle lived another seven more years before she crossed the rainbow bridge on June 26, 2011, with Hingson by her side.
#10
In January 1965, an Alabama woman named Annie Lee Cooper lined up at her county courthouse to vote. This was not her first attempt, as she had been turned away from the polls just two years earlier. And after failing the impossible literacy tests made to keep Black people from the ballot box, Cooper decided that this time would be different.
When a notoriously racist cop named Jim Clark began to demand that she abandon her spot in line, Cooper did her best to ignore him. But when he poked her in the neck with his billy club, Cooper took action — and punched him square in the face.
Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago
Annie Lee Cooper lost her job and got blacklisted just for trying to vote - in 1962. More here: https://www.pushblack.us/news/she-raised-her-fist-he-could-raise-his-baton and here: https://allthatsinteresting.com/annie-lee-cooper
XenoMurph 4 months ago
And now they are saying that any black person they don't like, and women, only got their jobs as "DEI hires". Apparently only white men deserved their roles.
Load More Replies... 
Ahnjunwan 4 months ago
I think she is lucky that she was not just shot. 1962 is not that long ago, when exactly was the USA actually land of the free?
martin734 4 months ago
I don't think it ever was unless you are incredibly wealthy.
Load More Replies...
Fuhleeheece 4 months ago (edited)
James Gardner Clark, sheriff of Dallas County, Alabama, was proud of himself for enforcing segregation until the day he died. Earning the hate since 1965.
Cydney Golden 4 months ago (edited)
This is the history we are not supposed to teach and the people who lived it are supposed to just let go of so some white Americans don't have to feel bad.
#11
On January 27, 1945, Soviet scouts in southern Poland stumbled upon what appeared to be an abandoned N*zi camp near the town of Oświęcim. They had no idea that the camp even existed and were stunned to see thousands of emaciated and brutalized prisoners, some barely clinging to life, staring at them through the barbed-wire fence.
Peter Bear 4 months ago
And never let it happen again. Because it IS happening again. Here. Now. In the United States, at the time that I post this. DO NOT LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN!
Load More Replies... Rob D 4 months ago (edited)
They just opened a concêntration camp in Florida. If you haven't heard of it look up Alligator Alcatraz. If your link is to a conservative news source, scroll down to the comments. Tells you everything you need to know about conservatives/Christians/Republicans. They are relishing the misery and suffering and can't hide it in the comments. True colors from the truly vile.
Peter Bear 4 months ago
As of the time I'm writing this comment, this is happening again, in real-time, right here in the US. We are illegally kidnapping people with zero due process and sending them to concentration camps. Our government has just announced they are going to resume slavery as legal. DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN.
CP 4 months ago
The saddest part is we have learned nothing. The country that is a direct result of this atrocity has become the perpetrator.
Lyone Fein 4 months ago
You have your facts wrong. For 20 years Israel was providing free food and medicine to the people of Gaza every week. And Hamas was stealing all of that aid and then selling it to its own people at exorbitant prices. Now Hamas is killing Palestinians who seek out food at drop sites. Who is really the perpetrator?
Load More Replies...
Marlene Ricker 4 months ago
Every time I see pictures of the death camps, it just tears my heart out!
Lori T Wisconsin 4 months ago
They look like the poor immigrants locked up in Trump ICE prisons. History repeating itself……
#12
Cop stops the traffic so a mother cat holding a kitten can cross safely. According to the book "Great News Photos and the Stories Behind Them", photographer Harry Warnecke missed the original crossing but convinced the cop to reenact it three times - to the consternation of irate motorists - until he got the shot just right. It was the craziest thing that happened that year. New York, 1925.
Fellfromthemoon 4 months ago
That's one thing, to convince the cop to stop the traffic three times. The bigger achievement was to convince the cat to cross the road three more times; moreover, to carry the kitten too.
#13
In 1871, Anna Swan married Martin Van Buren Bates in London. It was an eye-catching wedding — as both the bride and the groom stood almost 8 feet tall and, in fact, the bride was a bit taller.
DowntownStevieB 4 months ago
Before I ready this I was thinking "wow, their kids look really mature!"
Jay Scales 4 months ago
According to Wikipedia, her son (who died within a day) was the largest and heaviest baby ever recorded. 22lbs and 28 inches tall
Gianna B D 4 months ago
She had to marry him. He was the only one she could see eye to eye with.
Blayze Infyrno 4 months ago
This is another story with a Canadian connection. Anna Swan was born in Nova Scotia.
#14
A young Carrie Fisher watches her mother Debbie Reynolds perform on stage. (1963)
The Other Guest 4 months ago
GNU Carrie Fisher. She drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra.
Maim 4 months ago
Why the downvote? This is literally what she wanted printed in her obituary.
Load More Replies...
#15
Soba noodles deliveryman in Tokyo, Japan. 1935. Photo by the Mainichi Shimbun.
LooseSeal's $10 Banana 4 months ago
And sometimes I can't even get a bowl of cereal to the table!
Wild Cream 4 months ago (edited)
This always blows my mind - like HOW? I imagine even leaning the tiniest amount one way or the other could topple everything. How does he get off the bike? How does he put everything down? How much does this weigh - he looks like he’s carrying it effortlessly?
#16
Street urchin found by Thomas Barnardo in Whitechapel that led to his orphanage and later a ragged school to educate the East destitute!
CP 4 months ago
"Kid should have chose his parents better", capitalists everywhere whether they realize it or not..
Rob D 4 months ago
Anyone that thinks there's a just or loving God is out of their fûcking minds; borderline criminally.
David Andrews 4 months ago
"Ragged schools" were charitable institutions set up to educate children in poverty in London, and often provided additional services like food, clothing etc for them
Load More Replies... msf 4 months ago
Amazing society put up with such poverty. It is important to continue to fight against empathy fatigue. I live in Berkeley CA and I know a bit about that.
#17
“Of course, we tried to keep in mind how hard it was for the child. She was hungering for the world outside, for life with other children, and when my wife came up, Anne would greet her with an almost unpleasant curiosity. She would ask about /.../ our daughter. She wanted to know what [she] was doing, what boyfriends she had, what was happening at the hockey club, whether [she] had fallen in love. And as she asked she would stand there, thin, in her washed out clothes, her face snow-white, for they all had not been out of doors for so long. My wife would always bring her something, a pair of sandals or a piece of cloth; but coupons were so scarce and we did not have enough money to buy on the black market.”
(Johannes Kleiman) Photo: Anne (right) with her friend Sanne Ledermann, around 1935.
Rob D 4 months ago (edited)
Know this for fact. The EXACT mentality (mentality not necessarily agenda) that eventually lead to the holocàust, is fully embraced by Christian conservative republicans in America right now. 1:1. It may not manifest in antisemitic genocide, but know that the underpinnings, just watching while a neighbor gets quietly escorted away, is happening as we speak at Republican voters behest and enjoyment. If you've ever wanted to hate a Nazî, know that your republican neighbor is becoming a modern facimile 100%.
R Dennis 4 months ago
Literally watched a MAGA Tiktoker today say that after seeing translated Adolph speeches, he was saying the same things they were and that he wasn't wrong or bad... that's who and what they are.
Load More Replies...
#18
In 1938, Bertha Hill, a coal miner's daughter from West Virginia, was captured doing the family’s laundry — a task that required strength, perseverance, and hard work. The laundry wasn’t done with the convenience of running water, as the family had to carry water uphill from a nearby spring to wash their clothes. This photo, taken by M.P. Wolcott, highlights not only the daily hardships faced by coal miner families but also the resourcefulness and dedication required to make life work in the mountains. For Bertha and others like her, even routine chores demanded significant physical effort, yet these tasks were often done with little complaint, as they were essential for keeping the family going. The image is a poignant reminder of the resilience of coal miner families in rural Appalachia during the Great Depression.
Auntriarch 4 months ago
My garden is very dry because we've had no rain. I decided to bring my bathwater downstairs by the bucket full to put on my borders. I gave up after one. How this lady and my nans, and Forrest's nan, would laugh at me.
Wild Cream 4 months ago (edited)
For real 😂 I grew up with horses (this was only 15-20 years ago), and in the winter when their water buckets froze, we had to fill 6-8 big heavy buckets of hot water in the bathtub and lug them an acre away to the barn, to pour in the water buckets to melt the ice. Twice a day from Nov-Feb. It made me feel like a farm maiden from the 1600s 😂 and it was not fun. Not fun at all.
Load More Replies...
Cathy Carey 4 months ago
The worst part of doing laundry by hand is that the soap is so hard on your skin.
Mary Tonningsen 4 months ago
I remember my Granny's stories about scrubbing my Dad's diapers "until they were snowy white' on a washboard after boiling the water on the stove, etc. (this was after I'd complained about how many Pampers I'd had to change each day with my newborn baby!). God, what a hard life she had!
Lil be lil 4 months ago
I still do a lot of hand laundry and rinse rinse rinse because the apt house machines don't get all the soap out and I have sensitive skin.
XenoMurph 4 months ago
If your grandmother's life was also hard, you can put up a picture too. One person's experience does not negate another's
Load More Replies... #19
Margot is a pretty young lady. She dresses well and wears fashionable glasses. Margot is also athletic. She plays tennis, likes to skate and rowing with her classmates. She is a member of the “society for the promotion of water sports among young people” and win first price in a rowing match in Zaandam, together with her three teammates. She is also a member of a tennis club. In 1941 Jews were forbidden to be members of tennis clubs. Margot is also forbidden to take part in the rowing matches. Her teammates shows solidarity and refuses to take part, too. Photo: Margot (wearing sunglasses) with her classmates on a tennis court during the summer of 1940.
Chonky Panda 4 months ago
Yeah they could've at least added her last name..
Load More Replies... 
azubi 4 months ago
So even those who need to know it might understand it.
Load More Replies... Stephanie Did It 4 months ago
Margot Frank also kept a diary, like younger sister Anne, but it was never recovered. What a treasure it would have been.
At Least I'm Not You 4 months ago
The girls would be ridiculed and shamed in the U.S. today. "How dare they not play because one teammate is different!" But an XY pretending to be an XX [which is a scientifically accurate fact] is stunning and brave these days...
#20
Children going to school having to cross a river by pulley, Modena, Italy, 1959
Sasha Twin 4 months ago
Theres a show I watched on youtube about the dangerous ways some kids have to get to school it was crazy. I cant remember what is called tho
Doofnuts 4 months ago
Every one of those kids are wearing shoes, so how tough could it have been (lol)
not a sock 4 months ago
they're not even carrying sacks of coal slung over their backs pfft
Load More Replies... #21
Before Barbie's official debut in 1959, most young girls were given baby dolls as toys, meaning that they often found themselves playing the role of a mother or a caregiver. But since Barbie looked like an adult woman, it allowed girls to imagine a variety of different futures and careers for themselves, ranging from cheerleaders to doctors to astronauts. While much has been said about this iconic doll, not everyone knows about its creator, Ruth Handler.
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 4 months ago
Barbara Millicent Roberts. Not to be confused with Margaret Hilda Roberts. A far less pleasant individual.
Load More Replies...
Roxy222uk 4 months ago
The original ‘teenage doll’ was designed to appeal to adult men and came from Germany. It is a shame that the proportions weren’t amended when they were launched onto the American market (and the rest) as a toy for children.
Svenne O'Lotta 4 months ago (edited)
No, this is true. That was the inspiration. They changed it, of course, but Barbie was inspired by German dolls sold at sleazy stores.
Load More Replies... Rachel Pelz 4 months ago
"Adult careers" while their feet can't wear anything but high heels and their body proportions are not human.
Susie Elle 4 months ago
True, but it was a step forward from the norm at the time, probably
Load More Replies... Fat Harry (Oi / You) 4 months ago
That doesn't mean children couldn't imagine it. Just because you lack imagination, doesn't mean children of days gone by did.
Load More Replies...
EJN 4 months ago
They should have made Barbie with a smaller b**bs and hips if they wanted all girls to feel they were like Barbie...
Svenne O'Lotta 4 months ago
THEY HAVE. Short ones too. Disabled Barbies. A Barbie with an insulin pump came out recently. Do your research before complaining.
Load More Replies... #22
When Calvin Graham was 11 years old, he began shaving, convinced it would make him look older than he was. He also practiced speaking in a deep voice, pretending to talk like a man.
Two years later, he forged his mom's signature to enlist in the U.S. Navy and ended up being awarded both the Bronze Star and Purple Heart before he turned 14.
Major Harris 4 months ago
and was put in to the brig (navy jail) when it was discovered for forging documents. public pressure got the charges dropped and he was given an honorable discharge and his medals restored, minus the purple heart. as a navy veteran, 86-95, i am amazed that he managed the physical training of boot camp at that age! ricky schroeder played him i think.
Ronnie Beaton 4 months ago
Yeah, the TV movie was called "Too Young the Hero" if I remember correctly.
Load More Replies...
Courtney Christelle 4 months ago
My grandfather enlisted in the Navy, claiming to be 18 when in reality he was only 16. Once, on a boat he was driving to drop off some soldiers, an enemy sniper took out his gunner sitting right next to him. So my grandfather started firing the mounted gun with one hand and driving the boat with the other. I didn’t hear this story until after he passed so I can’t ask him about it.
Neb 4 months ago
Only with parents, unfortunately. Unsupervised kids are not allowed... outside or at home.
Load More Replies... Smeghead Tribble Down Under 4 months ago
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the movie, ''Too Young The Hero'' is based on him.
#23
27 January 1945 | On Saturday, at around 9 a.m. the first Soviet soldier from a reconnaissance unit of the 100th Infantry Division appeared on the grounds of the prisoners' infirmary in Monowitz. The entire division arrived half an hour later. The same day a military doctor arrived and began to organize assistance. In the afternoon soldiers of the Red Army entered the vicinity of the Auschwitz main camp and Birkenau. Near the main camp, they met resistance from retreating German units. 231 Red Army soldiers died in close combat for the liberation of Auschwitz, Birkenau and Monowitz.
Two of them died in front of the gates of Auschwitz main camp. One of them was Lieutenant Gilmudin Badryjewicz Baszirow. The first Red Army troops arrived in Birkenau and Auschwitz at around 3 p.m. and were joyfully greeted by the liberated prisoners. After the removal of mines from the surrounding area, soldiers of the 60th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front marched into the camp and brought freedom to the prisoners who were still alive. On the grounds of the main camp were 48 corpses and in Birkenau over 600 corpses of male and female prisoners who were shot or died in the last few days.
At the time of the Red Army's arrival, there were 7,000 sick and exhausted prisoners in the Auschwitz, Birkenau and Monowitz camps. Read about the final days of the operation of the German N*zi camp Auschwitz, the tragedy of evacuation, the moment of liberation by the Soviet Army on 27 January 1945 & fate of some 7,500 liberated prisoners in our online lesson full of accounts of Survivors.
Rachel Pelz 4 months ago
Dying did not stop with liberation, as some were sick and/or so emaciated that their bodies could not handle regular food. (Learning this struck me pretty hard...so much suffering comtinued.)
- 4 months ago (edited)
Years ago, an elderly survivor told me that he was fortunate that the soldier assigned to his care had a background in medicine. The survivor was ready to gorge on food, but the soldier only fed him a little at a time at the beginning. Others were not so lucky.
Load More Replies...
Nimitz 4 months ago
Always remember that the Allies did NOT liberate the camps where queer people were sent. Being gay or lesbian was illegal in Germany, so many of our people were left to die while others were liberated.
Lil be lil 4 months ago
People don't know that the "mentally ill", disabled and "sexual deviants" were the first along with Gypsies and Jehovah Witnesses to be imprisoned as social undesirables, they were gassed. I don't know if any survived. Trump has a special obsession with gay and trans people and also with the "mentally ill" that are being "sent to our borders" along with immigrants.
Load More Replies...
turk 4 months ago
I visited these camps a few years ago. The large piles of children's shoes preserved behind glass is an image that will never leave me. The Germans wanted to make sure they didn't waste the leather. Also, the home where the military officer who ran the camp, and his family, complete with playground equipment in the yard for their children, had a view of the chimneys of the ovens just a couple hundred yards away.
EJN 4 months ago
This is an example of what fascism brings to a country. Racism or any prejudice against another group of humans - like Palestinians, Latinos, Jews, Muslims - can lead to this outrageous inhuman treatment of others. We should never forget and never allow racism or prejudice to allow some people to ignore the laws and mistreat fellow human beings.
#24
Born on Dec. 4, 1961, Rocky Dennis had a rare disease known as craniodiaphyseal dysplasia that contorted the bones in his face. His life became the inspiration for the 1985 film Mask.
Doctors predicted that Dennis would die by the age of seven.
#25
Finnish personnel disarm a floating sea mine from a small wooden rowboat in the Gulf of Finland near Haapasaari, Autumn 1944. Photo by SA-Kuva.
Kabuki Kitsune 4 months ago
Contact mine. This type wasn't magnetic, and required a ship to actually hit it. They're safer than you think, as it would take several tons of pressure to cause the detonators of the mine to depress, and set it off.
Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago (edited)
The thing is, those protuberances don't look like traditional "Hertz horns" - lead tubes with glass vials of sulphuric acid inside them, which when broken would energize a lead-acid battery and so set off the mine; I've seen quite a lot of real (inert) contact mine casings on display at various coastal spots here in the UK and they all look to have traditional Hertz horns. So I'm wondering: is what we see in this photo a mine with a more modern detonator type? Or something else entirely intended purely for training purposes? One might imagine a spring-loaded mechanism intended to give an external indication if the trainee messed up and bashed it hard enough that it'd set a real mine off?
Load More Replies... Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago
That's rather small for a shipping mine. Also, those horns are what sets the thing off in the usual case. Perhaps this is a training exercise? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_mine#Contact_mines "The mine's upper half is studded with hollow lead protuberances, each containing a glass vial filled with sulfuric acid. When a ship's hull crushes the metal horn, it cracks the vial inside it, allowing the acid to run down a tube and into a lead–acid battery which until then contained no acid electrolyte. This energizes the battery, which detonates the explosive'
Kabuki Kitsune 4 months ago
I'm thinking it's an older contact mine. Looks to be one of these: WAMRUS_Min...08_pic.jpg 
That's the model 1908 contact mine. They were smaller than your typical mines, and continued in service until the 1960's.
#26
The head of the Statue of Liberty on display in Paris during the World's Fair in 1878. Seven years later, the entire statue would be disassembled and shipped to New York.
Laura MG 4 months ago
France should take it back, the reason it was given to America is no longer relevant
Margaret H 4 months ago
No matter how often I see her face, I cannot help imagining her saying, "If one more boss grabs me there again, I'm going to do some serious damage with this damned crown!"
Johnnynatfan 4 months ago
Fixing the immigration system here should not mean shipping people to f*****g gulags. Being undocumented it a civil matter not a criminal one. If the GOP actually gave a s**t about fixing immigration they would have passed the immigration bill that was before congress before the election. They chose not to because they don't actually want to fix it, they want to campaign on it so gullible Americans continue to vote for them. And to top it all off the administration is targeting green card holders who did follow the law. But keep drinking the Kool aid.
Load More Replies...
#27
When Jim Carrey was 12, his father lost his job as an accountant. The family became homeless and lived out of a Volkswagen van that was too small for everyone, so Carrey and his brother slept in a tent outside. When his father finally did find work again, it was at a tire factory, and just to make ends meet, Carrey and his brother had to work there too, doing odd jobs as janitors and security guards for eight-hour shifts after a full day of school. Eventually, he dropped out at age 16 and never returned.
Upstaged75 4 months ago
WHY? Just downvote and report it. All you're doing is making sure everyone immediately goes to look at it now. So really you're promoting it. They get hidden once they get enough downvotes. No need to be a "martyr". 🙄
Load More Replies...
EJN 4 months ago
I don't really understand why that comment was considered toxic or why it was downvoted so much. It could be a way to say "tough sh*t" and that would be unkind and insensitive, but on the other hand, it could be an applause for someone who survived a very difficult life, and people who do live a difficult life deserve applause.
Michelle C 4 months ago
I have to admire the family’s resilience in spite of their circumstances in which no one should ever have to live. Thank God they got out alive and well (ish).
Cathy Carey 4 months ago
"so Carrey and his brother slept in a tent outside." They made the kids sleep outside?!
Paul Sloan 4 months ago
I can tell by the, below comments, there are a lot of “under achievers” here.
XenoMurph 4 months ago
It should be our aim to make our kids lives easier. Hard lives make PTSD, alcoholics, addicts, and suicides. The few "strong people" you see are the ones you only find out later have terrible mental health issues but hid them really well.
Load More Replies... #28
The last known photograph of Tsar Nicholas II, on the grounds of his royal residence, 1917.
David Andrews 4 months ago
I'm not going to defend the Tsarist regime, however literally millions were killed in the USSR under Stalinism though purges, the g***g system, famine (both accidental and purposely), mass executions and ethnic cleansing campaigns.
Load More Replies...
#29
When it was 10 cents to call someone. NYC in the 1980's.
Janissary35680 4 months ago
Do these still exist? Every time I see one of these I'm reminded of that gag scene in "Superman" where Clark Kent races around to find a phone booth to change in and encounters a phone stand instead.
BrunoVI 4 months ago
Those phones are precisely what Superman was vexed by way back in the 1970s.
Load More Replies... Gossameringue 4 months ago
The last public pay phone in New York City was removed on May 23rd, 2022.
Day Andie 4 months ago
Well, I remember when it was 10 cents in the late 70s when I was in high school, and it lasted at least until the early 80s in upstate Pennsylvania. Then it jumped to 25 cents about 85. Long distance was expensive: I needed a half-ton of quarters to call my boyfriend in Pittsburgh for 6 minute.
RomanceRadish 4 months ago (edited)
I was horrified seeing movie characters rip an entire page out of a phone book in a telephone booth - how inconsiderate!
Panda Cat 4 months ago
I bought the first Moosewood cookbook and Barbara Kafka’s Microwave Gourmet at thrift stores and discovered in both cases that someone had cut out pages from them.
Load More Replies... BrunoVI 4 months ago (edited)
As someone who was around in the 1980s, it sure as hell did NOT cost 10 cents. They were initially designed to handle dimes the best, but by the 1980s, they cost a small fortune. Using your own damned phone cost 25 cents a minute. There was a reason why it seemed like every kid in America was named "Mom-I'm-at-Billy's-and'll-be-home-by-8": Carrying around enough dimes to pay for such a call would cause gravity to pull your pants down at least on one side.
SM 4 months ago
It started costing a dime in the late 1950s / early 1960s, 15 cents in the 1970s, and a quarter in the 1980s.
Load More Replies... #30
Annie Edson Taylor poses with her cat and the barrel she successfully rode over Niagara Falls in 1901.
Black Cat 4 months ago
I don't think the cat went over the falls. It's just sitting on the barrel for the photo.
Load More Replies...
Cathy Carey 4 months ago
And what exactly did that accomplish - having others try it and die. Stunts like that do no one any good at all and in fact do harm more often than not.
#31
12-year-old Addie Laird working at a cotton mill in Vermont, 1910.
Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago (edited)
Here in the UK, it was parliament which put an end to child labour - the first such law dating to 1842, back when unions were illegal. (okay, it wasn't great - boys over ten could still work underground - but still, a good first step) (edited to correct the century: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mines_and_Collieries_Act_1842)
Load More Replies...
Nimitz 4 months ago
Good news Americans! It's now legal for kids to work unsupervised in overnight shifts. Are you tired of winning yet?!
turk 4 months ago
The same Florida bill allowing this, makes note that this is also legal on school nights and takes away the previously mandated 15 minute breaks. But Republicans are "pro-children", right? No wonder they want to take away abortion. They need labor.
Load More Replies...
Cydney Golden 4 months ago
Now Texas and Florida have lowered the age to work so kids can work in factories at night...on a school night. Easy to see what they value in some states.
#32
An elderly resident of Berlin sits among the ruins, Berlin. Germany, 1945.
Rachel Pelz 4 months ago (edited)
So heartbreaking that similar pictures can be taken in Kyiv, Gaza, Aleppo and too many other places today. Btw, 80 years after WW II, there are still unexploded bombs from WW II in German cities. Discovered during construction of new buildings and so far deactivated without harm (that I am aware of), just evacuation of the surrounding area (during deactivation). 80 years after this war ended. How much time will it take to remove landmines and everything in today's war-struck areas? How many people killed or maimed, long after the fighting has stopped?
Foxglove🇮🇪 4 months ago
Landmines should be banned. Good progress had been made over the last 30 years or so but the war in Ukraine looks like they're making a comeback.
Load More Replies... Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago
My grandparents all played a tiny role in ensuring that this was the outcome of German military aggression back then (the men fought; the women kept things going at home in terrible conditions) - the necessary total defeat of an insane, warmongering, genocidal culture. My heart doesn't break over seeing that old man - he was almost certainly part of the problem, and could count himself lucky that he was still alive. His compatriots totally destroyed the home of one of my parents and badly damaged the home of the other. They also got close to kílling all the Jews in Europe. If I sound unsympathetic to that old man's plight, it's because I am. Yeah, I knew one of the Jews who escaped Hitler.
Load More Replies...
lwolf1952 4 months ago
The people were filled with propaganda and idolized one man. Sound familiar?
Load More Replies... #33
Schools out! Bucoda, WA, 1942. Photo by Arthur Rothstein.
Khavrinen 4 months ago
Huh, I'd never heard of Bucoda, but when I looked it up on Google Maps, it was less than 100 miles from where I grew up. Very small town; says population is only 600 now, so this must have been ALL the kids in town in 1942.
Bored Trash Panda 4 months ago
Same, I grew up in Tacoma and then lived in Olympia in high school. Even went to Centralia a lot for the outlet mall. Never head of Bucoda.
Load More Replies...
Huddo's sister 4 months ago
Not uncommon at that time, especially in rural areas. Shoes saved for 'best' mostly worn to church. In winter, if it got cold enough, many would wear boots, usually hand me downs.
Load More Replies...
Stephanie Did It 4 months ago
How nice to see children actually smiling and happy! Today's students coming out of school look grim and miserable. Childhood was so different in centuries past, in spite of the turmoil of the times.
#34
Rosemary Kennedy was unlike her siblings, and after a convent failed to control her "urges" when she was in her early 20s, Joseph Kennedy had his eldest daughter lobotomized and institutionalized.
What was once a bubbly woman who wanted to be a kindergarten teacher was turned into a barely functional individual who could only shriek and grunt.
Teachzebra 4 months ago
RFK Jr. says he never heard about mental illness or autism when he was younger. That’s because this is what his family did to anyone who was slightly different
Nimitz 4 months ago (edited)
She was mutilated in 1941 where they removed most of her frontal cortex, the part of the brain where most thought occurs. She was reduced to an animal by her "loving Christian" family because they refused to accept a woman who didn't want to be owned by men. Always remember that she was a fully grown adult, and they effectively m******d her for being independent.
Panda Cat 4 months ago
I don’t think they removed the tissue but destroyed the connections between lobes.
Load More Replies... 
Peppy 4 months ago
I believe this was a pretty widespread way of “dealing “with young women who were intelligent independent and didn’t want to marry the first man who showed some interest in them, and god forbid they showed any sexuality, it’s shocking to think that at any time a woman could be sent to an asylum by their father or husband right up to the 1970’s at least in the Uk
Ms.GB 4 months ago (edited)
You should see the old checklists of reasons for commiting your wife/daughter to a mental institution.
Load More Replies...
Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago
The procedure was considered too harmful for use in the USSR: "in 1939, Soviet reviewers expressed alarm at the procedure's severe complications and a reported 5 percent mortality rate, while also questioning its efficacy, observing that symptoms like fear, depression, and agitation often resolved spontaneously without necessitating such a dramatic procedure. These reviews suggested lobotomy should not be performed in the USSR." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobotomy#Criticism
tori Ohno 4 months ago
This was done to alot of independent, and se xually active women in the past by rich people. Apparently enjoying your bed antics wasn't allowed back then.
Lowrider 56 4 months ago
Once she was lobotomized her family, the Kennedys, never visited her or even acknowledge her.
Stephanie M 4 months ago
From what I know about the Kennedys, they were, (still are), a family of sociopaths. RFK jnr needs to acquaint himself with the FACTS before he opens his mouth
#35
Emily Dickinson decided to withdraw from society and live a life of near-total seclusion in her family's home in Amherst, Massachusetts. While the exact reasons for her reclusiveness remain a mystery, this choice became a defining feature of her life and legacy. In her late twenties, Dickinson began to retreat from public life, rarely leaving her home and communicating with the outside world primarily through letters. Despite her physical isolation, she maintained rich and meaningful correspondences with friends, family, and literary figures, including Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a prominent editor and abolitionist. Their letters reveal a deep intellectual connection, with Dickinson often sharing her poetry and thoughts on life, nature, and art. One particularly fascinating event during this period was Dickinson's "white dress" phase.
Around the early 1860s, she began wearing only white clothing, a choice that has sparked much speculation among scholars. Some believe it symbolized her purity, her identity as a poet, or even her desire to separate herself from societal norms. This eccentric habit added to her mystique and contributed to her reputation as the "Belle of Amherst," a figure both enigmatic and captivating. Despite her seclusion, Dickinson's creative output during this time was extraordinary. She wrote nearly 1,800 poems, many of which explored themes of death, immortality, nature, and the human soul. Her decision to live a life of solitude allowed her to focus intensely on her craft, resulting in some of the most innovative and enduring poetry in American literature. Emily Dickinson's withdrawal from society and her dedication to her art make her one of history's most fascinating literary figures. Her life reminds us that creativity often thrives in the quietest corners, away from the noise of the world.
persephone134 4 months ago (edited)
Things I learned when I visited the Dickinson Homestead in Amherst. She had red hair. She is 18 years old in this picture. This is the only official photograph of her that exists. There are a few others that are unconfirmed. Both she and her sister never married, living at the homestead until their deaths. She was from one of Amherst's most influential families, so whatever she did with her life would create gossip in that small town. Her brother built a house neighbouring the Dickenson homestead. His marriage was unhappy, rumour has it Emily and her sister in law were VERY fond of each other. He looked a lot like a young Joaquin Phoenix.
Bartlet for world domination 4 months ago (edited)
To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee | One clover, and a bee | And revery | The revery alone will do | If bees are few.
Pyla 4 months ago (edited)
I think she's beautiful. Read her work. Quite a beautiful soul. ( I didn't down vote you, btw)
Load More Replies...
#36
They don’t make ladies' hats like they used to!
CD Mills 4 months ago
I'm glad these types of hats are out of fashion. I can't imagine trying to go through my day having to deal with a big, floppy hat. It had to get in the way and be generally fuss-worthy. The only good thing about those hats was the big, gnarly hatpins that doubled as self-protection for the ladies. ;)
Susan Reid Smith 4 months ago
Then there were attempts to limit the length of hat pins!
Load More Replies... Cathy Carey 4 months ago
I would hate having to dress like that. Don't get me wrong; she is very pretty and all but gosh how do you have any fun at all in garb like that - all you can do is parade around looking pretty and have people look at you.
Huddo's sister 4 months ago
My grandad told me that there were two ladies that used to go to his church. They were sisters and always wore new hats to church and tried to outdo each other. The minister ended up doing a sermon on vanity and women were discouraged from wearing hats in his church after that.
Cydney Golden 4 months ago
This hat is covered with birds' feathers. That fad led to many birds going nearly extinct.
#37
Motorcycle police in the 1920's.
Chonky Panda 4 months ago
This photo may be AI, but these vehicles did exist
Load More Replies... #38
Born with three legs, four feet, 16 fingers, and two p**ises, Frank Lentini was a sight to behold, even among circus performers. One of the most famous sideshow attractions of the late Victorian era, Lentini eventually amassed a small fortune while building a relatively "normal" life with his wife and four children.
SomeGurlOnline 5 months ago
Why can't there be a legit source on this site within each post? I know to click the link/name under the entry, however I don't have Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, etc. Anyone with me? Regardless, citing a source should be bare minimum for websites.
bernie bulk 4 months ago
just a question...how does one have 4 feet with 3 legs ???and was his name Jake ? perchance
K. LNU 4 months ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lentini There is a photo where you can see a foot coming out of his third leg, right at the knee. Thus 4 feet with 3 legs.
Load More Replies... 
#39
Kids playing marbles in Missouri. (1940s)
#40
An unidentified young man standing in front of Koreshan Unity general store on the Estero River, Florida c.1890-1910
#42
A man named Earl Tupper invented Tupperware in the 1940’s, but the American public simply didn’t like plastic.
The Company nearly went under until it took a cue from its leading seller, a woman named Brownie Wise in Miami, Florida. Ms. Wise and her mother had pioneered the idea of Patio Parties, which quickly caught on and became the now-famous Tupperware parties.
Michael Largey 4 months ago
One of my exes went to a party featuring s*x toys. The hostess called it a Schtupperware Party.
Stephanie Did It 4 months ago
In my 20s, I loved Tupperware parties because they gave away the most clever little gadgets to the guests. The hostess received some great things, too.
#43
Teenagers Cramming into a VW Beetle, 1964
Rose the Cook 4 months ago
The was a trend at one stage in Australia in the 60s to see how many students could fit into a phone box. No apparent reason.
Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago
Because "the most people to fit in a small car" was a fun "let's break a record" stunt people did back then. Just for a laugh, really - quite harmless.
Load More Replies...
#44
The great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller, aspiring explorer and ethnographer Michael Rockefeller had no interest in managing his family's empire upon graduating from Harvard in 1960. Instead, he set out for the remote wilds of Dutch New Guinea to collect art made by the largely uncontacted Asmat people. But before he could reach the Asmat, Rockefeller's boat capsized and he was forced to attempt an arduous swim to shore.
Despite a gargantuan search effort and a media firestorm, Rockefeller was never found and the authorities eventually declared him dead due to drowning in 1964.
Susie Elle 4 months ago
The Asmats were cannibals, if I remember correctly? Not to imply he was eaten, just that this picture is kind of unsettling
CD Mills 4 months ago
"Not to imply he was eaten", why not? Half of the world thinks that they ate him.
Load More Replies... turk 4 months ago (edited)
There is a famous video (taken by a National Geographic exhibition) of the tribe with a light-skinned member that is speculated to be Rockefeller. Or it could just be an individual with albinism. Since he had to swim about 14 miles to shore, it's also very possible he drowned or was attacked by a shark or saltwater croc, considering the waters there are full of them. Or he made it to shore and was eaten by the tribe. It's doubtful we will ever know.
Celtic Pirate Queen 4 months ago
I don't know, that guy on the right seems to think he looks mighty tasty.
Laura Gillette 4 months ago
From this article last year (link below), there is more evidence that he was killed and cannibalized by the Asmat people, likely as retribution for other white people's (Dutch military officers--the Dutch were colonizing their land shortly before this visit) having burned their homes, sacred places, fishing boats, and taken their weapons--and killed the most prominent men in the community, when those men tried to defend their village. When Michael swam to shore after his boat capsized, he was alone and without a gun, so they saw their chance to avenge their community members. https://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/michael-rockefeller.htm
The Cute Cat 4 months ago
Actually, the region at the time is in dispute between Indonesia and Dutch. So to say it is in Ditch Indies is wrong.
#45
These coal miners are buying groceries in the company store, still covered in coal dust. This company store was in Pursglove, West Virginia.
JK 4 months ago
The "company store" is where you spend your paycheck to get supplies to live on. It was a form of keeping employees enslaved to the company because it took most of your paycheck to live, and you had to spend it at their store. Not sure much has changed.
R Dennis 4 months ago
You load sixteen tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt Saint Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go I owe my soul to the company store
Load More Replies... Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago
And that, boys and girls, is why workers need trade unions. It was the unions who forced the mine owners to provide washing facilities at the pit head, so the miners could get clean before they got home rather than after.
General Anaesthesia 4 months ago
"Sixteen Tons", Tennessee Ernie Ford, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTCen9-RELM
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 4 months ago
I sing my granddaughter to sleep with this song.
Load More Replies... 
HelyerT 4 months ago
They had to sign a bond that they wouldn’t work at t work at another mind and no other mine would hire them so if the other mine paid more they werent allowed to leave. Their pay in tokens to be spent at the mine owners over priced store kept them in debt and this system didn’t end until the 70s.
Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago
HelyerT: the system you're talking about was outlawed here in England in stages from 1464 (!) to 1940; various acts with various provisions which don't seem to have been hugely protective until 1831 and the followup Act in 1887. (yes, England - Scotland's legal system is different; Scotland was covered by the 1940 Act)
Load More Replies... 
#46
Worm vending machine. (1957)
AtMostAFabulist 4 months ago
Fishin' worms, fishin' worms, everybody's wishing they had fishin' worms
BrunoVI 4 months ago (edited)
How do the worms hold onto the quarters? (Oh, you mean worm-vending machine. It's becoming archaic, unfortunately, but if an adjective modifies the adjective in front of it and not the noun in front of both of them, you can show this by sticking a hypen between them. Or to be fairly certainly archaic, since "vending machine" has become an independent concept, you could show it's a compound noun by hyphenating the two. Germans would make one word and eventually English people will probably too.
Ace 4 months ago
The hyphen has already been dropped fro a huge number of words, as regular Countdown viewers will be aware. But you redanrty is somewhat misplaced here, I think.
Load More Replies... #47
The Noonans take a drive in their car with their 14 Children, 1920s.
Fellfromthemoon 4 months ago
Two of my great-grandparents had 11 siblings. In one family, four children survived into adulthood, in the other, five.
Load More Replies... turk 4 months ago
I worked with a guy who retired recently who has 18 children. He was in that weird quiverfull religious cult. He literally rode them around in a small school bus he bought. Dumbest and laziest electrician I ever met. But I suppose he had no energy left for work.
Roxy222uk 4 months ago
How on earth did he support such a large family on the wage of one dumb and lazy electrician? Did the wife also work? Because if she did she must have been on her knees.
Load More Replies... Kabuki Kitsune 4 months ago
Big families were common until the 1930's, due in no small part to the fact that the mortality rate was such that 1 in 5 children wouldn't survive to adulthood. Common annoyances today, like influenza, diarrhea, food poisoning, broken bones, and infections... could be fatal then. So, by having larger families, there was a high chance that at least one of the children would survive.
Huddo's sister 4 months ago (edited)
My grandad was the youngest of 9 boys, born in 1928. Somehow managed to all live long lives, except one who died as an infant. Death listed as 'failure to thrive' though likely cystic fibrosis. Five even enlisted in WWII and all came back alive.
Load More Replies... 
CD Mills 4 months ago
I'm surprised he climbed off his wife long enough to learn to drive! Geeze dude, get off her!
Roxy222uk 4 months ago
That only proves they had s*x 14 times, which of itself is not excessive.
Load More Replies...
Nikki Spears Gross 4 months ago
I'm only 48 and the youngest of 13 kids have 25 nieces and nephews, plus 12+ great nieces and nephews. I was my Parent's late surprise baby, so both were over 40 years old by the time I came along in 1977.
#48
Unexploded parachute mine, Liverpool November 1940
Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago
I think that one's been defused - there's what looks like an empty screw threaded socket about half way down the side facing the camera. "Naval mine dropped from an aircraft by parachute" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parachute_mine
Matty507 4 months ago
The bigger clue to it being diffused is the two people stood next to it 🤣
Load More Replies... Rusty 4 months ago
More annoying — you need a golden pickaxe to get rid of it😬
Load More Replies... #49
Home economics was one of those classes that gets a bad rap today, but which was really useful back in the day. Young ladies in those days were expected to understand homemaking and skills like pattern cutting, sewing, and home decor were likely to be used often once she married and had a family. While some never quite got the hang of it, many girls were practically sewing masters by the time they graduated high school, thanks to what they learned both at home and in home ec classes. Many home ec classes that followed in the 1980s onward didn’t even teach sewing and those that did focused on small projects that didn’t require much time, patience, or skill.
Duane Ringlein 4 months ago
When I was in high school back in the late 60s early 70s, they had a class called family living where boys and girls were taught basic skills of sewing and cooking nothing as in depth as home ec, just the basics.
Huddo's sister 4 months ago
In the 2000s my school had split it into Food Technology and Textiles, but both were only required for a semester, then were electives. We did have a compulsory class in year 10 called Economy and Society where we learned how to apply for jobs, do interviews, make budgets, rent a house etc.
Load More Replies... Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago
Properly speaking "home economics" covers all the skills needed to run a home - most especially looking after the finances. It's not just sewing and cooking.
hardrad2009 4 months ago
I wish school showed me how to do elementary plumbing or how to fill tax forms or other official documents or how to cook simple dishes etc.
Load More Replies... Eastendbird 4 months ago
What is this AI written sexist claptrap? It "gets a bad rap" because, in many cases, girls had to do Home Economics while boys did Woodwork and Metalwork. There was no choice in the matter. My first Home Economics lesson was, I kid you not, how to iron a man's shirt.
Michael Largey 4 months ago
It would have been better for both groups if they had switched classes.
Load More Replies... Nimitz 4 months ago (edited)
Glamorized all to hell. My grandmother told story of how that was ALL girls learned at school. Basic math skills were taught so they could do the family shopping, a little social studies and reading so they could provide men with interesting conversation, and no other knowledge. Those classes were bride factories, and if you were NOT the ideal lady, the teachers, especially the nuns, would beat the s**t out of you every day till you submitted.
Christine M Quigley 4 months ago
I wish they would bring home EC back to schools. Help many young adults with 'adulting'.
G'ma B 4 months ago
Schools today leave out the most important things … Middle School should focus on Home Economics and Repairs Shop plus Personal Finances studies. High School should focus on Career and College Prep. studies. The way it was done in our schools CORRECTLY in the pre WWW internet days.
Kabuki Kitsune 4 months ago
Until a few years ago, many seed and feed companies sold their bulk product in bags that were made out of fabric with various patterns on them. The lettering for the company was either sown on, or printed with a kind of ink that would easily wash out. This was to allow the sacks to be reused and made into clothing. il_570xN.3...8_p626.jpg 
Christina Born 4 months ago
Graduated in 1996. Learned sewing in home ec, making clothes. Still sew. Finally got a dream machine a couple of years ago...an overlock serger!
#50
Testing football helmets, 1912.
Major Harris 4 months ago
as one who was a star defensive end in high school in the early 80s, i admit that i would probably do this for fun with a modern helmet! LOL!
#51
When Charles Stratton was born in 1838, he was a normal baby of slightly above-average weight. But at six months old and 25 inches tall, he simply stopped growing. By the time Stratton was four, showman P.T. Barnum had heard about the mysterious boy who wouldn't grow, and promptly offered Stratton's parents three dollars a week to let him display the boy at his American Museum in New York City.
JK 4 months ago
There were convenience stores in Minnesota in the 1970s called Tom Thumb. Never knew where the name came from.
Load More Replies... #52
High School teenagers drive in Des Moines, Iowa, 1947.
Michael Largey 4 months ago
I can't be sure, but I don't think they're all wearing seat belts.
#53
Charlton Heston and Stephan Boyd on a scooter while shooting in Rome for the epic classic, BEN-HUR. 1959
Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago
Charlton Heston was the NRA president who exploited the Colombine High School M******e in the NRA's never ending fight to support universal access to killing machines - they held a pro-gun rally in Colorado shortly after. https://www.creators.com/read/daily-editorials/11/21/how-the-nra-used-the-columbine-m******e-to-make-gun-control-the-enemy and https://www.npr.org/2021/11/09/1049054141/a-secret-tape-made-after-columbine-shows-the-nras-evolution-on-school-shootings
Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago
Censorbot mangled the url: the mangled element should be m-a-s-s-a-c-r-e
Load More Replies... Michael Largey 4 months ago (edited)
The screenwriter, gay novelist Gore Vidal, disliked Heston and drove him crazy by inserting things into the script that insinuated that Heston's and Boyd's characters were in a gay relationship. When Heston complained to the director, it was taken out, but then Vidal would just put in something else in another scene.
#54
A hair salon in New York City. (1952)
#55
Teenagers listening to music and eating cookies with a glass of milk. (1948)
#57
When people moved entire houses by horses, late 1800s.
Janissary35680 4 months ago (edited)
Not by horses, but I've seen house moves like this twice. Once in the 50s in Seattle and once in the early 60s in northern New Jersey.
Andrew Burke 4 months ago
I remember looking out the window in the '80s and seeing a general store (about the size of that house ^ ) come down the street and turn at the corner!
Load More Replies... Janissary35680 4 months ago
Upvoted because on careful inspection, you're probably right. Horses likely wouldn't have been used for this. At least not those. They don't look like draughts.
Load More Replies... Day Andie 4 months ago
I rented a beautiful 3 bdrm stone house with lovely porches front and back in Boise, Idaho in the late '70s for $90/month. We had to move because the land was being cleared for a strip mall with a corporate grocery store. It just barely missed being on the historical register, which would have been a lot of hassle to deal with. I believe it sold for $5000 and cost at least that much to move. The people who got it moved it several miles west and put it on an acre of land. Pretty cool to see it raised up and on a trailer. The place just sold for a little over a million a couple years ago.
#58
Before she became Donald Trump's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod was a poor Scottish immigrant who boarded a steamship bound for America in 1930. With just $50 in her pocket, she moved in with her sister and worked as a maid — until she married an up-and-coming businessman named Frederick Trump.
Kabuki Kitsune 4 months ago
Considering she went through Ellis Island, no... no she is not. Ellis Island was the main entry point. People came off the ships there, went through a medical check, and a legal inspection. If they were found suitable, they were granted citizenship and allowed to enter NYC. Ellis Island stopped being used in 1954, after changes in immigration procedures.
Load More Replies... 
King Of Birbz 4 months ago
Trump wants to deport "illegal immigrants" so badly? duuuuude, your own mother was an immigrant, look in the mirror buddy
#59
Pre-Civil War Tourism and Exploration
After the war ended, Mammoth Cave transitioned from a saltpeter production facility into a world-renowned tourist destination that African Americans also helped to create. Enslaved men and women worked in the Historic Mammoth Cave Hotel to clean rooms, change linens, and prepare meals.
In the cave, some of the early guides were young enslaved men such as Stephen Bishop, Mat Bransford, Nick Bransford, and Alfred Croghan. These men, along with many others, discovered and helped develop cave tour routes that enhanced the visitor experience throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Each enslaved guide eventually saw his freedom, but their life was fraught with hardship in a time where the country was divided on their place in society. During their life they may have never realized the importance of their existence. However, today they are not viewed as slaves or lower class citizens but as legends. Their stories and discoveries continue to live on within the avenues of Mammoth Cave and in the words you will hear on our cave tours of today.
Mat (left) and Nick (right) Bransford near the entrance to Mammoth Cave.
MontanaMariner 4 months ago (edited)
These are the people that made/make America great, not the rich.
Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago
Ahem. Americans explored caves before history began. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_painting#North_America
#60
Zeiss mobile 9.5-inch refractor. California, 1933.
Smeghead Tribble Down Under 4 months ago
I'm BIG into astronomy - that is one AWESOME telescope!
Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago
"Zeiss mobile 9.5-inch refractor. California, 1933. Mr Stoody who invented the drill bit hardfacing process, and his mobile 9-1/2 inch Zeiss telescope mounted on his '32 Ford, to share the extremely rare amateur astronomy scope experience with others." https://www.instagram.com/p/DHCS5StoQra/
#61
Mother and children, 1900.
Anthony Elmore 4 months ago
I see these photos and always like to play a game where I have to figure out if it's a postmortem family photograph or just old-timey people making the sort of face that people in the past made for photographs before the smile was invented.
Bryn 4 months ago
People didn't smile in old photos because the photos took so long. Also this is not a death photo.
Load More Replies... Susie Elle 4 months ago
I'm not sure, usually a hand or weirdly placed limb is a give-away, I don't see them here, but the kids do look eerily alike (but that's genetics for you lmao)
Load More Replies... #62
Pier Paolo Pasolini, the iconic Italian filmmaker, poet, and intellectual, is known for his bold and often controversial works that pushed societal boundaries. One of the most notable aspects of his life and career was his relationship with actor and muse, Ninetto Davoli. Davoli, who began working with Pasolini in the early 1960s, became a frequent collaborator and close confidant, embodying the idealized, raw, and natural beauty that Pasolini sought in his work. Their professional relationship evolved into a deep personal bond, with Davoli playing key roles in many of Pasolini’s films, including Accattone (1961), The Hawks and the Sparrows (1966), and Teorema (1968). Pasolini’s films were often a mixture of social commentary, sexual liberation, and political critique, all of which were expressed through characters like those portrayed by Davoli. The actor’s youth and physicality captured the essence of Pasolini's vision of the human body and spirit—both untamed and vulnerable. Beyond their artistic collaboration, their relationship was also marked by an intense emotional connection. Pasolini, who had a complicated personal life and a reputation for his unapologetic exploration of sexuality, found in Davoli a partner who both inspired him and provided a sense of companionship in his tumultuous world. The bond between Pasolini and Davoli, while often misunderstood, played a crucial role in shaping some of the most provocative and enduring works in Italian cinema. Pasolini's tragic and untimely death in 1975 left an indelible mark on world cinema, and Davoli’s memory of their time together remains integral to understanding the passion and complexity of Pasolini's art.
Chonky Panda 4 months ago
Apparently Pasolini was brutally m*rd*r*d in 1975.. Davoli is still alive today though
Multa Nocte 4 months ago
The fellow on the right (Ninetto Davoli) looks a little like Stephen Mangan.
#63
On September 20, 1991, the commercial fishing vessel Andrea Gail left port in Gloucester, Massachusetts for the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, planning to fill the boat with swordfish and return in a month. Instead, on October 29, three devastating storms converged, sending waves as high as 100 feet and striking the vessel with winds reaching 92 miles per hour in an event that would become known as the "Perfect Storm" of 1991.
At some point during the storm, the Andrea Gail vanished — and neither the ship nor its crew were ever seen again.
Nimitz 4 months ago
A bad movie that spits on the memory of lost sailors...
Load More Replies... #64
On January 5th, 1919, Boston experienced one of the most bizarre and tragic events of the 20th century. A sticky substance suddenly flooded the streets with a 15-foot wave traveling at speeds of 35 mph, destroying everything in its path. It's known as The Great Molasses Flood.
Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago
London had a beer flood in 1814 - eight people sadly died: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Beer_Flood
Anthony Elmore 4 months ago
I'm not sure if that counts the people who died AFTER the flood due to alcohol poisoning or not. If I recall, there were several people who effectively drank themselves to death via drinking the flood 'water'. To their credit though, despite how local media made it sound, they actually didn't binge on booze, the problem was what they drank was undiluted alcohol that was extremely potent. I might be thinking of the wrong flood, though. There have been multiple booze floods, I think.
Load More Replies... Kabuki Kitsune 4 months ago
Supposedly, in some areas where the flood happened, you can still smell the molasses on a hot summer day.
#65
A construction worker making preparations for the removal of the original Statue of Liberty torch in 1985. The old torch went on a tour of the US before it was moved to the Statue of Liberty Museum.
#66
During the Great Depression, families across America faced unprecedented economic challenges, and a typical scene often depicted their struggles to survive. In one such instance, a family of five huddles together in a ramshackle dwelling, its walls patched with scraps of wood and cloth to keep out the cold. The parents, weathered and thin, sit close to a modest wood stove, their faces lined with worry and exhaustion. Nearby, their children, clad in tattered clothes, play quietly with makeshift toys—sticks, stones, and tin cans. The setting is humble, yet the bond among the family members radiates a sense of resilience and determination.
The scarcity of resources is evident in every corner of their environment. The table bears a meager spread: a loaf of bread, some potatoes, and a jug of water. Each meal is carefully rationed to stretch for days. The mother, resourceful and industrious, sews patches onto old garments to ensure they last through another season, while the father scans newspapers for any signs of work. Despite their dire circumstances, the family clings to hope, sharing stories and laughter to buoy their spirits during dark times. This family’s experience was shared by millions during the Great Depression, a period marked by unemployment, homelessness, and widespread poverty. Yet, amidst the struggles, their story reflects the enduring strength of the human spirit. Communities often came together to share resources and support one another, highlighting the collective resilience that helped many endure the hardships of the 1930s. This familial unity and perseverance became a hallmark of survival during one of America’s most challenging eras.
#67
Rockstar Jerry Lee Lewis was 22 years old in 1957 when he married his cousin — who was just 13 at that time. Her young age, coupled with the fact that his divorce from his previous wife hadn't been finalized, completely destroyed his reputation.
Chonky Panda 4 months ago
And she had two kids with him as well, the first one was born when she was 14 yo 🤢🤢 wtf
Nimitz 4 months ago
Keep in mind that Mick Jagger, David Bowie, the guys from KISS, Elvis Presley, and so many more "Rockstars" ALL made a game out of sleeping with groupies as young as 14. All of them publicly admitted to sleeping with underaged girls, absolutely none of them were prosecuted if they were white. The practice continued into the 80s with no consequences
spacer 4 months ago
elvis only liked them young, losing interest in his wife once she got pregnant and older
Load More Replies... Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago
Yeah, but nah: his reputation recovered: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Lee_Lewis#Country_comeback (don't think I'm defending him - just reporting...)
Jessica Daus-Warner 4 months ago
Men marry children for one reason. And they should be jailed for life.
Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago
It's legal to marry a 16 year old here in the UK. 🤷
Load More Replies... Michael Largey 4 months ago
Well, when you have embraced the nickname "The Killer", maybe you aren't much concerned about reputation.
#68
A candid moment of a young boy at the dinner table in Claiborne County, Tennessee, is captured in the 1940s, with his mouth open wide as he prepares to take a bite. He holds a fork in one hand and a piece of bread in the other, with an eager expression speaking to the simple pleasures of a meal in the rural Appalachian region. Dressed in overalls and a long-sleeve shirt, his outfit depicts the simple lifestyle that most families living in this rural area had at the time. The table in front of him is filled with different dishes, which implies that the family managed to make do with what they had, probably using locally grown produce or home-cooked meals. The photograph shows the daily life of a rural family in the 1940s, where meals were a time to gather and share, despite the economic challenges of the era. The boy's enthusiasm for his meal captures a sense of warmth and comfort, evoking the nurturing environment of a family home. Provided through Joe Clark, this photograph lives in the Clark Family Photo Collection; it captures for posterity one of the aspects of life within Claiborne County during hardship. It testifies to rural families' spirit and community endurances. Through this photograph lies a poignant expression of the simplest joys of life in families at that time; the strength between families that characterized the 1940s was immense.
Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago
I can't make out any depth of field blurring. Look at the detail of the picture in the "hand-fork-food-mouth" area: that seems unrealistic; also, I see no knife. The caption stating "different dishes, which implies that the family managed to make do with what they had" - large, well filled dishes, which (bar one) don't seem to have been touched, yet the lad's plate is full? I think this one's probably AI.
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 4 months ago
I've seen this photo long before AI was a thing.
Load More Replies...
Add New Image
Explore more of these tags
What do you think ?
Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago
Interesting, but not entirely convincing - a few of those pictures were AI, with at least one totally incredibly caption.
Forrest Hobbs 4 months ago
Interesting, but not entirely convincing - a few of those pictures were AI, with at least one totally incredibly caption.
You May Like 49 Fascinating Photos Revealing What The World’s Capitals Looked Like Way Before Modern Times 43 Of The Oldest Surviving Pics That Give Us A Glimpse Into The Past 50 Historical Images With Backstories You Might Not Have Known
Viktorija Strelciunaite
Eligijus Sinkunas
Ilona Baliūnaitė
Related on Bored Panda
