20 Historical Photos You Have To See To Believe

1. The Crash of Air Florida Flight 90 (1982)

The flight crashed into Washington DC’s 14th Street Bridge killing 74 passengers and 4 motorists.

2. Cuban Missile Crisis – Florida, October 1962

As tensions rose between the US and the USSR over Cuba rarely seen mobile missile defence batteries were set up in public places in the Sunshine State.

3. A Canberra Bomber Showing Off at RAF Amberley 1955

4. Katherine Switzer, the First Woman to Run the Boston Marathon (1967)

It was against the rules for women to run. That didn’t stop Switzer, or the officials who tried to prevent her finishing.

5. Jacob Miller – Shot in the Head in the Battle of Chickamauga, September 1863

Mr Miller was interviewed when the photo was taken in about 1910 and mentioned that 30 years after the battle some lead fell out of his wound.

6. Two Bullets that Collided During the Battle of Gallipoli (1915-16)

7. Biggest Black Sea Bass Ever Caught (1903)

8. Goebbels Hated Jews (1933)

This astonishing portrait captures the moment when the Nazi Propaganda Minister learned that the photographer, Alfred Eisenstaedt was Jewish.

9. The World’s First Atomic Bomb (1945)

It was called Gadget and was tested at Trinity Site, New Mexico on July 16 1945.

10. Before and After Aerial Photos of Nagasaki (1945)

The bomb was dropped on August 9 1945 and killed up to 80,000 people. It was more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, but the damage was less due to the city’s topography.

11. Prohibition (c1925)

Alcohol from an illicit still pours from an upstairs apartment window.

12. The Only Known Injury from a Meteorite (1954)

Ann Hodges from Sylacauga, Alabama, was napping on her couch covered in a blanket when a softball-sized rock from outer space crashed through her roof and hit her on the hip causing massive bruising. There are no other known human casualties from the hundreds of meteorites that hit earth each year.

13. British Children Wearing Gas Masks (1941)

From 1938 by law every British adult had to carry an gas mask at all times when out of their homes. Parents had to carry extra masks for their children. There were regular gas masks drill at schools. Thankfully, there was never a need to use them for real.

14. Nazi Thanksgiving (1934)

They were giving thanks for being Nazis. 700,000 of them. Jeez.

15. The United States’ Last Public Execution (1936)

Rainey Bethea was hanged in public on August 14 1936 in Owensboro, Kentucky for the rape and murder of 70-year old Lischia Edwards.

16. Punt Gun (c1915)

Designed for shooting fifty birds at once with a pound of shot. These things were so effective that they were banned to prevent devastation of bird populations.

17. German POWs Watch Footage from a Death Camp

The photo says it all.

18. Arnie Gives a Gun Show (c1975)

19. Nine Kings at Windsor Castle (1910)

Gathered for the funeral of King Edward VIII of Great Britain.Standing, from left to right: King Haakon VII of Norway, Tsar Ferdinand of the Bulgarians, King Manuel II of Portugal and the Algarve, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Prussia, King George I of the Hellenes and King Albert I of the Belgians.Seated, from left to right: King Alfonso XIII of Spain, King George V of the United Kingdom and King Frederick VIII of Denmark.

20. Testing a Bullet Proof Vest (1923)

Yikes.