118 Amazing Historic Photos That May Surprise You

 We may read volumes upon volumes of history books and make our teachers proud. But there’s nothing more all-telling than real pictures that document wonders of the past. With Joseph Niepce’s camera obscura used in 1827, humans realized that capturing fleeting moments and preserving them was possible. And they never looked back.

This time, we are taking you on a heartfelt roller coaster that will take us back to the past. From the image of the nine kings of Europe photographed together for the first and only time to the snap of workers painting the Eiffel tower, these are one-of-a-kind moments.

In an unstaged manner, they reveal what genuinely made humans proud, moved them to tears, or left them heartbroken. Sometimes, the pics just show what kept them busy during the day. Fasten your seat belts, relax, and enjoy the time travel.

#1 

In 1969, When Black Americans Were Still Prevented From Swimming Alongside Whites, Mr. Rogers Decided To Invite Officer Clemmons To Join Him And Cool His Feet In A Pool, Breaking A Well-Known Color Barrier

2 

A Policeman In San Francisco Scolds A Man For Not Wearing A Mask During The 1918 Influenza Pandemic, 1918

3 

Charles Thompson Greets His New Classmates At Public School No. 27 In September 1954, Less Than Four Months After The Supreme Court Ruled That Racial Segregation Was Unconstitutional. Charles Was The Only African-American Child In The School. Photo By Richard Stacks For The Baltimore Sun

#4 

Members Of Dutch Resistance Celebrate The News Of Adolf Hitler's Death, April 1945

#5 

Margaret Hamilton And The Handwritten Navigation Software She And Her Mit Team Produced For The Apollo Project, 1969

6 

Statue Of David By Michelangelo, Encased In Bricks To Prevent Damage From Bombs, During World War 2

#7 

A Serbian Soldier Sleeps With His Father Who Came To Visit Him On The Front Line Near Belgrade, 1914/1915

8 

Incredible Photograph Of A German Soldier Going Against Direct Orders To Help A Young Boy Cross The Newly Formed Berlin Wall After Being Separated From His Family, 1961

#9 

An American Soldier Cradles A Wounded Japanese Boy And Shelters Him From The Rain In The Cockpit Of An Airplane During The Battle Of Saipan While Waiting To Transport The Youngster To A Field Hospital. July, 1944

10 

Princess Diana Shakes Hands With An Aids Patient Without Gloves, 1991

11 

Young Queen Elizabeth As A Mechanic During WW2 (C. 1939)

12 

A Man Arrested For Cross-Dressing Emerging From A Police Van, New York, 1939

13 

May 20, 1910: The Nine Kings Of Europe Photographed Together For The First And Only Time

 

Jewish Prisoners After Being Liberated From A Death Train, 1945

 

Louis Armstrong Playing For His Wife, Egypt, 1961

 

A German Soldier Returns Home Only To Find His Family No Longer There. Frankfurt, 1946

Freddie Mercury With His Mother, 1947

Anne Frank’s Father Otto, Revisiting The Attic Where They Hid From The Nazis. He Was The Only Surviving Family Member (1960)

A Hired Reader Reads To Cigar Makers Hard At Work In Cuban Cigar Factory (Ca. 1900-1910). Because Many Cigar Factory Employees Were Illiterate Lectors Were Hired To Read Novels, Poetry, Nonfiction Works, And Newspapers Determined By Consensus

 

A Man Rides A Bus In Durban, Meant For White Passengers Only, In Resistance To South Africa’s Apartheid Policies, 1986

Soldiers Returning Home From WWII, 1945

 

Albert Einstein, His Secretary Helen (Left), And Daughter Margaret (Right) Becoming U.S. Citizens To Avoid Returning To Nazi Germany, 1940

When Nazis Asked Lepa Radic Who Were Her 'Accomplices' Before They Hanged Her She Responded: 'You'll Know Them When They Come To Avenge Me.' Young Serbian Girl Was Hanged At The Age Of 17 Near Gradiska In 1943. During The Battle Of Kozara, She Lost Her Father, Brother (15) And Her Uncle

“The Drunk Basket.” In The 1960s, Bars In Istanbul Would Hire Someone To Carry Drunk People Back To Their Homes

 

Rosa Parks's Booking Photo Following Her February 1956 Arrest

 

WWI. A Canadian Soldier Tries To Comfort A Little Belgian Baby, Who Was Hurt And Whose Mother Was Killed By An Artillery Shell. November 1918

Mobsters Hide Their Faces At Al Capone's Trial 1931

David Isom, 19, Broke The Color Line In A Segregated Pool In Florida On June 8, 1958, Which Resulted In Officials Closing The Facility

Nikola Tesla, The Last Photo Ever Of The Famous Scientist, 1st Jan 1943

September 3, 1967: The Day Sweden Switched From Driving On The Left To The Right Side Of The Road

 

Teenage Dating In Diner, 1950s, The States

 

Ruth Lee, A Hostess At A Chinese Restaurant, Flies A Chinese Flag So She Isn’t Mistaken For Japanese When She Sunbathes On Her Days Off In Miami. Dec. 15, 1941

 

Inside Of An Airplane In 1930

A Nurse With A Sick Child During Smallpox Epidemic, Wrocław, Poland, 1963

 

Workers Painting The Eiffel Tower, 1924

 

Russian Inmate Points An Identifying And Accusing Finger At A Nazi Guard Who Was Especially Cruel Towards The Prisoners In Buchenwald Camp

Portrait Of Arctic Explorer Peter Freuchen And His Wife, Fashion Illustrator Dagmar Cohn, 1947

 

Ruby Bridges, The First African-American To Attend A White Elementary School In The Deep South, 1960

 

Allied Soldiers Mock Hitler Atop His Balcony At The Reich Chancellery, 1945

Nintendo's First Headquarters In Kyoto, Japan (1889)

 

"Human Fly" George Willig Scales The Exterior Of The World Trade Center's South Tower In 1977. Completing The Climb In 3.5 Hours, He Was Arrested At The Top After Signing Several Autographs, And Was Fined $1.10 By The City - A Penny For Each Floor He Passed

 

A French Women Welcomes An American Soldier Two Days After Liberation. Strasbourg, France, 22 November 1944

 

A Member Of The Ku Klux Klan Stands Behind A Police Officer For Protection, After A Mob Surrounded His Klan Rally In Austin Texas, 1983

 

Crowd In Times Square, New York City Celebrating The Surrender Of Germany, May 7th, 1945

 

A Game Of Human Chess St Petersburg Then Leningrad Russia Circa 1924

 

Into The Jaws Of Death, 6th Of June, 1944

 

7'3'' (221cm) Jakob Nacken, The Tallest Nazi Soldier Ever Chatting With 5'3'' (160cm) Canadian Corporal Bob Roberts After Surrendering To Him Near Calais, France In September Of 1944

 

Soviet Citizens Look At The "Wall Of Sorrow", Honoring The Hundreds Of Thousands Of People Killed By Stalinism. In 1988, The Soviet Government Allowed Information Regarding The Victims Of Stalin's Great Purge To Become Public

 

Nuclear Explosion Less Than One Millisecond After Detonation (1952)

 

18-Year-Old Keshia Thomas Protects A Fallen Man, Believed To Be Associated With The Ku Klux Klan From An Angry Mob Of Anti-Clan Protestors. Ann Arbor, Michigan USA. 1996 By Mark Brunner

Union And Confederate Soldiers Shaking Hands At The 1913 Gettysburg Reunion

"Eyes Of Hate", A Photograph Of Goebbels After He Finds Out His Photographer Was Jewish, Geneva , September 1933

 

Here Is How An Ukrainian Immigrant Celebrated Stalin's Death, 1953

 

The Apollo 14 Landing Capsule (1971)

 

Wedding Bands That Were Removed From Holocaust Victims Before They Were Executed

 

The Uniform Of Archduke Franz Ferdinand From 1914, Whose Assassination Triggered The Outbreak Of World War I

 

'big Nims' Of The United States 3rd Battalion, 366th Infantry, Laughing At The Sight Of His Comrades With Gas Masks On, 1918

 

The Waiting Room Of Chicago's Union Station (1943)

 

German SS Guards, Exhausted From Their Forced Labour Clearing The Bodies Of The Dead At Bergen-Belsen, Are Allowed A Brief Rest By British Soldiers But Are Forced To Take It By Lying Face Down In One Of The Empty Mass Graves, 1945

 

Young Angela Merkel Having A Schnaps With Fishermen On The Island Of Rügen During Her First Mp Campain In Summer 1990

 

The Walled City Of Kowloon (1989)

 

Babies Who Lost Their Parents During The Vietnam War Being Airlifted Back To The United States For Adoption, 1975

Unit Control Desk Of The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, April 18, 1983

 

Abraham Lincoln's Hearse As It Passes An Ornamental Arch At 12th Street In Chicago, Il (1865)

 

Only One Of Two Photographs In Existence Of The Us Supreme Court In Session. Cameras Are Forbidden In The Supreme Court, But This Photograph Was Taken By A Young Woman Who Concealed Her Small Camera In Her Handbag, Cutting A Hole Through Which The Lens Peeped, 1937

 

Fire And Fury: B-25s Are Pictured Flying Past Mount Vesuvius In Italy As Lava And Ash Spews From The Top Of The Volcano. The Eruption Killed 57 As It Destroyed The Village Of San Sebastiano And San Giorg In March 1944 While Allied Forces Were Battling For Supremacy In The Skies

 

A Coca Cola Advertisement Made By Spreading Grains For Pigeons In Saint Mark's Square, Venice, 1960

 

Motel Manager James Brock Pours Muriatic Acid In The Monson Motor Lodge Swimming Pool, To Get Black Swimmers Out Of The Pool. June 18, 1964

 

Eniac: The First General-Purpose Digital Computer (C. 1947-1955)

 

The Imprint Of A Mitsubishi Kamikaze Zero Along The Side Of H.M.S Sussex. 1945

 

View Of Boston, The Oldest Surviving Aerial Photograph Ever Taken. October 13th, 1860

 

A US Marine Gives A Cigarette To A Japanese Soldier Buried In The Sand. Iwo Jima, 1945

 

Construction Of The Golden Gate Bridge, Circa 1934

 

Arnold Schwarzenegger Seeing NYC For The First Time (1968)

 

Three Young Russian Women And A Little Girl Recently Liberated From A Slave-Labor Camp By The U.S. Army Lay Flowers At The Feet Of Four Dead American Soldiers, April 18, 1945, Hilden, Germany

 

The First Successful Flight By The Wright Brothers At Kitty Hawk, NC (1903)

 

Pelé Takes A Break During The Filming Of Escape To Victory – In The Stadium Of A Jewish Team Filled With Nazi Flags In A Communist Country In 1981

 

What Is Now The Fully Developed Las Vegas Strip, 1955

 

New Map Of Europe Displayed Outside Philadelphia's Independence Hall After WWI (1918)

 

At 4:31 Am, An Unauthorized Photo Taken Of Stalin Inside Of The Kremlin Shows The Very Moment He Was Informed That Germany Had Began Their Invasion Of The Soviet Union. It Was Taken By Komsomolskaya Pravda, Editor In Chief. He Was Ordered To Destroy It, But Instead Saved It. June 22, 1941

 

JFK's Funeral At The Capitol. November 1963

 

Indian Soldiers Arriving In France, World War I, 1914

 

A Woman Mourns After The Us Navy Downs An Iranian Passenger Jet On 3 July 1988, Carrying 290 Civilians Including 66 Children

 

The Lottery Used By The Selective Service To Determine Who Would Be Drafted For Vietnam First. In Each Capsule Is A Day Of The Year, Determining The Order Of Draftees By Their Birthday. Washington D.C. 1969

 

The Cologne Cathedral Stands Amidst The Ruins Of The City After Allied Bombings (1944). The Cathedral Suffered Fourteen Direct Hits By Aerial Bombs During The War But Did Not Collapse

 

Hitler Reacts To A Kiss From An Excited American Women At The 1936 Olympic Games

French Troops With War-Torn Flag, 1917

 

"The Eyes Of The World Are Upon You". June 5th, 1944. One Day Before D-Day

 

Nicholas II Of Russia With The Family (Left To Right): Olga, Maria, Nicholas II, Alexandra Fyodorovna, Anastasia, Alexei, And Tatiana. Livadiya, Crimea, 1913

 

New Yorkers Stop To Watch The "Seinfeld" Finale, Times Square, 1998

 

Soviet Peasants Listen To The Radio For The First Time, 1928

President George Hw Bush Gazes At The Capitol In Helicopter After Leaving Clinton Inauguration. 1992

John Lennon And Yoko Ono Bought A Large Billboard In Times Square In 1969 Declaring That 'War Is Over If You Want It'

 

Boy Standing In Front Of Fallen Statue Of Lenin, Ethiopia, 1991

 

18 Year-Old Muhammad Ali Stands Alone At The 1960 Rome Olympics

Hiroshima Before And After The Atomic Bombing On August 6th, 1945

The Guinness Brewery, Dublin, 1910

 

Lyndon B. Johnson Yelling At The Pilots Of A Nearby Plane To Cut Their Engines So That John F. Kennedy Could Speak As Kennedy Is Seen Trying To Calm Him Down. Taken During The 1960 Presidential Campaign In Amarillo, Texas

The Mcdonald Brothers In Front Of The Not Yet Opened First McDonald's, November 1948, San Bernadino, CA

Earliest Known Photo Of Chernobyl Disaster, Taken By Powerplant's Photographer, Dawn Of April 26th, 1986

Street Scene In Antwerp, Belgium, Showing Citizens Turning Out For Celebration A Few Hours After The Germans Surrendered And An End Of World War I. 11th November 1918

 

Fidel Castro Laughing At A Newspaper Headline While Visiting New York In 1959

 

Two Homeless Men Squat In The Shadow Of The Recently Completed World Trade Center In 1975...

 

Rasputin And His Followers, 1914

 

The First Public Demonstration Of A Computer Mouse, Graphical User Interface, Windowed Computing, Hypertext And Word Processing, 1968

 

Black Man Going Into The 'Colored' Entrance Of A Mississippi Theater (C. 1939)

 

Vladimir Kosma Zworykin Shows Off His Cathode Ray Television (1934)

Colored Photo Of Russian Peasant Girls (1909)

 

The Fenelon Place Elevator, One Of The Shortest And Steepest Railroads In The World

 

An Anti-Communist Revolutionary Holds A Molotov Cocktail Behind His Back During The 1956 Hungarian Revolution

 

A Soldier From The Hampshire Regiment Engulfed In Smoke During A Chemical Weapon Training Exercise, 1941

 

Soviet Soldiers, On Their Backs, Launch A Volley Of Bullets At Enemy Aircraft In June Of 1943

 

Robert H. Goddard And His Invention, The First Liquid Rocket (1926)

 

Washington D.C The Morning After The Assassination Of Martin Luther King, 5 April 1968

 

Ham The Chimpanzee Preparing For His Mercury-Redstone 2 Test Flight, Conducted On January 31, 1961

 

105mm Shells From An Allied Bombardment All Fired In A Single Day On German Lines, 1916

 

Richard Nixon Waves Goodbye As He Boards A Helicopter After Resigning The Presidency Earlier That Day (Aug. 9, 1974)

The Old And New Alignments Of Pennsylvania Route 61 Following The Centralia Mine Fire