History happens every day. In fact, history is happening every day, and even right at this moment. We might not realize that the period in which we live may one day be the subject of history books that children will learn about in school. Which events will make it into the books and which will be excluded?
For some perspective, we’re inviting you to look through this list of fascinating historical events you might not have seen before. Courtesy of the History Defined page that keeps curious netizens satisfied, we’ve compiled a collection of photographs that may shock you, make you say “Aww,” or make you nostalgic for the good ol’ days.
#1 A Member Of The Harlem Hellfighters (369th Infantry Regiment) Poses For The Camera While Holding A Puppy He Saved During World War 1, 1918
#2 A Ute Warrior Poses With His Dog On The Eastern Slope Of Utah’s Wasatch Mountains In 1873
#3 A Protestant Husband And His Catholic Wife Were Not Allowed To Be Buried Together. Here Are Their Headstones Reaching Across The Two Cemeteries In 1888
The photograph of death row inmates on this list might seem jarring, but prison baseball was actually quite a popular thing. Sing Sing prison in Ossining, N.Y., was one of the first institutions to try out baseball as a form of “self-government” for inmates in 1914. “Baseball would be the best way to cement an honor system among the men,” warden Thomas Mott Osborne said.
In fact, the teams became so popular that such Hall of Famers as Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, together with the New York Mets, came to play an honorary match against the prison team in 1929. Granted, the inmates lost 17-3, but it did set a precedent for future matches, which became a tradition.
#4 Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Was Arrested For Protesting In 1961. She Was Tested For Mental Illness Because Law Enforcement Couldn’t Think Why A White Woman Would Want Civil Rights
#5 This Is Port Authority Police Officer Christopher Amoroso On The Morning Of September 11th, 2001
After Saving This Pregnant Woman, Chris Decided To Go Back Into The Twin Towers For The 5th Time To Help Others Escape. He Didn’t Make It Out Alive.
#6 Blackfoot Tribe In Glacier National Park, 1913
Geishas are a cultural icon of Japan, and their hair is a vital part of the iconic look. In the past, the women would style their own hair, which they would have to take impeccable care of. But nowadays, geishas wear wigs called Katsura. They started using wigs after WWII, when there was a shortage of hairstylists.
The styling of the hair also depends on the seniority of a geisha. Those in training, or maiko, will have a red piece of cloth in their hair. After two or three years of their apprenticeship, maiko will have a triangular piece of cloth pinned to the back of their hair.
At the end of their apprenticeship, maiko will put tortoiseshell ornaments in their hair, silver wires that imitate the wings of a dragonfly, and a tuft of hair at the back of their head. Katsura wigs are reserved for mature geishas only.
#7 Protesting The High School Dress Code That Banned Slacks For Girls, Brooklyn, 1940
#8 Clara Gantt, Widow Of Army Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Gantt, Waited 63 Years For His Remains After He Was Captured And Died During The Korean War In 1951. His Remains Were Identified In 2013
#9 17 Year-Old Juliane Koepcke Was Sucked Out Of An Airplane In 1971 After It Was Struck By A Bolt Of Lightning
She Fell 2 Miles To The Ground, Strapped To Her Seat And Survived After She Endured 10 Days In The Amazon Jungle.
When you look at Chauncey Bradley Ives’s “Undine Rising from the Waters,” you might think it’s a sculpture from ancient Greece. Experts call his technique “illusionistic carving,” which was done masterfully for this particular sculpture. It depicts a scene from a 19th-century story by Baron Heinrich Karl de la Motte Fouqué, Undine.
It’s a story about a sea spirit that gained human form when she married a human king. After he cheats on her, Undine is set to take his life, and Ives’s sculpture is the moment she rises from the water to do this.
#10 David Bowie And Iman, 1992-2016
#11 East German Soldier Helps A Little Boy Sneak Across The Berlin Wall The Day It Was Erected In 1961
#12 The 9000 Who Never Made It Home, 1945 This Is A An Art Piece Dedicated To Those Who Died On D-Day. It Was Designed By Andy Moss And Jamie Wardley
One historical photograph in this list includes a Ute warrior posing with his dog. The Ute are a tribe of Indigenous Americans in the mountains, or what we currently call Utah and Colorado. Interestingly, the Ute creation story includes the figure of a dog as well: along with the Creator, there was a Coyote who lived on Earth in ancient times.
#13 On July 17, 1967, A Florida Lineman Named Randall Champion Accidentally Touched A High-Voltage Line — Which Sent 4,000 Volts Of Electricity Through His Body And Stopped His Heart
Luckily, His Friend And Fellow Lineman J.d. Thompson Was Close Enough To Perform Mouth-To-Mouth Resuscitation.
#14 Gunnar Kaasen And His Team Of 13 Dogs
Led By The Siberian Husky, Balto, Completed The Last Leg Of A 1925 Trip To Deliver 300,000 Units Of Diphtheria Antitoxin To Nome, Alaska To Prevent An Outbreak.
#15 Undine Rising From The Waters (1880) By Chauncey Bradley Ives
According to the Ute creation story, the Creator sent the Coyote with a bag of “sticks” to the sacred valley. He forbade him to open the bag or look at what was inside it. His curiosity got the better of him, and the Coyote opened the bag before reaching his destination.
People spilled out of the bag and ran in many different directions. Coyote, unable to catch them and put them back inside the bag, reached the valley and let out the remaining people, who were the real Utes. As punishment for his foolishness, the Creator cursed the Coyote to forever run the Earth on all fours “as a nightcrawler.”
#16 Temporary Nypd Headquarters At A Burger King, September 11, 2001
#17 A Team Of Archeologists LED By Professor Kutalmis Grkay Of Ankara University Recently Unearthed Three Ancient Greek Mosaics In The Turkish City Of Zeugma
#18 Anne Frank Photographed With Her Sister Margot At The Beach In Zandvoort, Netherlands, In 1940
The first photo taken after the explosion at Chernobyl that you’ll find in this list belongs to photographer Igor Kostin, who was one of the five photographers tasked with documenting the disaster. Although he spent some time in the radiation zone, he didn’t end up with radiation poisoning and passed away in 2015 in a car crash at the age of 78.
#19 Elsie Alcock, Born In 1918, Has Lived Her Entire Life In The Same House On Barker Street In Huthwaite, Nottinghamshire. Remarkably, She Was Born In The Very Home She Still Lives In Today
#20 Cats Blackie And Brownie Catching Squirts Of Milk During Milking At Arch Badertscher’s Dairy Farm, Fresno, California, 1954
#21 Dutch Boys, Recently Liberated From A German Labor Camp, Ride A ‘Freedom Train’ Home, May 5th 1945. Photo By Menno Huizinga
Anatoly Rasskazov, another of the five photographers, had a different fate. He took photos of the reactor the morning after the disaster, when the officials sent him to take photos to see the scope of it. He took photos from a helicopter above the reactor and then from a car on the ground.
When he tried to develop the film, all of it from the first camera was burned by radiation. The film from the second camera was slightly blurry, but still visible. Because of the exposure to radiation, Rasskazov was left with a permanent radiation burn on his forehead and had “blood diseases and cancer,” from which he passed away in 2010.
#22 John Candy Took This Picture Of Conan O’brien While Conan Was His Tour Guide At Harvard University In 1984
#23 In 1990, The Windshield Of British Airways Flight 5390 Came Off At An Altitude Of 17,000 Feet. This Triggered A Sudden Decompression In The Cockpit, Resulting In The Captain Being Partially Ejected Out Of The Aircraft
#24 A Photograph Of A Fire Truck Rushing To The Scene Of 9/11. All Six Of The Firemen In Ladder 118 Lost Their Lives Saving People In The World Trade Center
Today, Times Square in New York is the epitome of entertainment and consumerism. But in the ’50s, as evident from the photograph in this list, it emanated a vintage coolness many of us are so nostalgic for. In the ’50s, the landmark wasn’t as dangerous and seedy as it became from the 1960s until the 1990s. But disreputable businesses still reared their ugly heads at high speed.
#25 Average American Family In Detroit, Michigan, 1954. A House, Car, And Enough To Support A Family, All On A Ford Factory Worker’s Wages!
#26 A Father Looking For His Two Missing Sons That Went Missing During The War, Mitrovica, Kosovo, 1999
#27 An Unknown Soldier, Vietnam, 1965
Schoolgirls might have protested the slacks ban back in the 1940s, but similar policies persist in schools to this day. For example, in 2018, a North Carolina charter school forbade girls from wearing pants and shorts to “promote chivalry and respect.” In 2019, a judge found that ban unconstitutional, but the school pushed back and lost in court again in 2023.
#28 On August 8, 1982, The Red Sox Were Playing. Jim Rice Saw 4 Year Old Jonathan Keane Bleeding Profusely From His Head
#29 Kmart Employees In North Carolina Watching The Moon Landing (July 16, 1969)
#30 In 1962, Test Pilot George Aird Narrowly Survived When His English Electric Lightning F1 Suddenly Nosedived
Which of these photographs taught you the most today, Pandas? Let us know your favorites by upvoting them and sharing your thoughts about the most memorable events in the comments! Also, if you’re looking to see more rarely seen moments from history, head over to our previous articles here, here, and here!
#31 Anne Frank’s Father Otto, Revists The Attic Where He And His Family Hid
#32 Monet With His Wife Alice, 1908
#33 A Geisha After Washing Her Hair, Before Styling It, In Japan In 1905
#34 Shoichi Yokoi, The Japanese Soldier Who Hid In The Jungle In Guam For 27 Years To Avoid Capture, Weeps Upon His Return To Japan In February 1972
#35 Australian Soldiers Being Thrown Into The Air By The Shockwave Of An Explosive Device That Their Boat Crashed Into. Everyone Survived. 1942
#36 Photos Of Peter Dinklage When He Was Young
#37 Audrey Hepburn With Her Pet Deer, 1958
#38 Marcy Borders – “Dust Lady” After Escaping The North Tower Of The World Trade Center On 9/11. She Would Die Of Cancer At Age 42
#39 This Is The First Image Captured Of Chernobyl, Taken 14 Hours After The Explosion On April 26, 1986
#40 Onlookers Witnessing The Challenger Explosion Shortly After The Space Shuttle Took Off, January 28th, 1986
#41 Hippy High School Fashion In The 1960s
#42 In 1974, Japanese Photographer Masahisa Fukase Photographed His Wife, Yōko Wanibe, Every Morning From The Window Of Their Apartment In Tokyo As She Left For Work
#43 This Is A Photo Of A British Veteran Of The Napoleonic Wars Posing With His Wife. He Can Be Seen Wearing A Campaign Medal, Commemorating The Fact That He Served In Spain
#44 On September 11, 2001, Gary Box, A 35-Year-Old Firefighter Stationed In Brooklyn, Vanished Without Leaving Any Trace
#45 In 2018, Researchers Excavating White Sands National Park In New Mexico Uncovered A 1.5-Kilometre Trail Of 427 Ice-Age Footprints
Most Belong To A Young Woman Who Appears To Have Been Walking Quickly Across The Mudflats Of A Long-Vanished Lake About 10,000 Years Ago.
#46 In 1985, At The Age Of 30, Sharbat Gula Became The Face Of National Geographic’s Most Iconic Photograph
#47 N American Marine Tries To Communicate With Two Japanese Child Soldiers Captured On Okinawa, June 1945
#48 The Absolutely Massive Chain For The Titanic’s Anchor, C. 1909
#49 A German Child Meets His Father, A World War II Soldier, For The First Time 1956
#50 Spanish Archaeologist Manuel Esteve Wearing A Corinthian Helmet He Found In Jeréz, Spain (1938)
#51 Acrobat From The Ringling-Barnum And Bailey Circus, From Kodachrome Slides, From The Mid 1940s To 1950s
#52 Mount St. Helens Erupts In 1980
#53 Altamura Man Is One Of The Most Complete Neanderthal Skeletons Ever Found. His Fossilized Bones Still Lie At The Bottom Of A Sinkhole Near Altamura In Southern Italy, Where He Likely Fell And Starved More Than 130,000 Years Ago
#54 The Discovery Of The Ancient Statue Of Antinous Found In Delphi, Greece During An Excavation In 1894 (Colorized)
#55 An American Soldier In Vietnam Holds Up A Scolopendra Subspinipes, A Species Of Giant Centipede Found Throughout Asia
#56 John Goodman With His Daughter In 1990
#57 Lo Manh Hung A Child Photo Journalist Of The Vietnam War, 1968
#58 French Knife Grinders Were Called Ventres Jaunes (“Yellow Bellies” In English) Because Of The Yellow Dust That Would Be Released From The Grinding Wheel
#59 A Cat Nestled In A Carrier During An Air Raid, 1941
#60 Gasoline Prices In 1955
#61 Times Square In 1957
#62 Housewife Poses With A Weeks’ Worth Of Groceries In 1947. She Spent A Total Of $12.50 (Not Including Milk) To Buy Her Groceries
#63 Family On A Cross-Country Roadtrip In Their Station Wagon, 1964
#64 Photo Of An Ironworker During Construction Of The Columbia Tower, Seattle, 1984
#65 Dave Grohl At Kurt Cobain’s Funeral. Seattle, Washington (1994)
#66 Historydefined 1w In May Of 1861, 9 Year Old John Lincoln “Johnny” Clem Ran Away From His Home In Newark, Ohio, To Join The Union Army
#67 Life In The 1910s America. 20% Of Adults Could Not Read Or Write And Only 6% Of Americans Had Graduated From High School
#68 A Baseball Team Of Death-Row Inmates. Their Executions Were Delayed Only As Long As They Kept Winning, C. 1911
#69 The 1921 Boxing Match Between Jack Dempsey And Georges Carpentier Drew A Record-Breaking Crowd Of Around 90,000
Boyle’s Thirty Acres In Jersey City, New Jersey. The Largest Sporting Event In U.S. History At The Time.
#70 The Twin Towers From A Wheat Field In Manhattan
#71 A Young Private Waits On The Beach During The Marine Landing At Da Nang, 1965
#72 At Just 16, Robin Lee Graham Departed From California On A Solo Voyage To Sail Around The World
#73 Princess Grace Of Monaco Visiting Jfk At The White House, 1961
#74 British Infantryman In 1941 With A Long Wwi-Style Bayonet Affixed To His Rifle
#75 A Man Begging For His Wife’s Forgiveness Inside Divorce Court. Chicago, Ca. 1948
#76 Bruce Lee’s Workout Routine From The 1960s
#77 “Tragedy By The Sea” By John L. Gaunt. A Couple Is Photographed Moments After Learning That Their 19-Month-Old Child Had Been Swept Out To Sea (Hermosa Beach, California 1954)
#78 Different Angle Of The Meeting Of Sophia Loren And Jayne Mansfield In 1957
#79 Five Broadway Show Girls In A “Spaghetti Swooshing” Contest In Which They Had To Eat A Plate Of Spaghetti With Red Sauce Without Using Their Hands, 1948
#80 On September 25, 2000, 19-Year-Old Kevin Hines Attempted To Take His Own Life By Jumping Off The Golden Gate Bridge. Remarkably, He Survived This Harrowing Fall
