Iconic photographs capturing milestones in history: the fall of the Berlin Wall, Rasputin, the slave market, etc

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Photography is a way to look into the past. The pictures give us an idea of what life was like in those times, which today are very different from ours. They can show a tragedy, a triumph, or simply how everything has changed and is changing in the world, becoming a part of history.

1. Allen Swift and his Rolls-Royce

This photo shows a gentleman over a hundred years old who has been driving the same car for over eighty years - a 1928 Rolls-Royce Phantom.

2. Harlem fighters

During the Great War and World War II, African Americans and black soldiers fought for the freedom of the world against enemy forces. These men were from the 369th Infantry Regiment, known as the Harlem Hellfighters. They won the Croix-de-Guerre and received medals for bravery in battle. This photo shows soldiers proudly displaying their medals. The original image was black and white, but over time it was colored in order to convey all the beauty of people.

3. Witches

It is said to feature Victorian witches posing for a photograph in 1875. Nevertheless, experts have some doubts on this score. After all, it is difficult to imagine the women of the coven brazenly posing at a time when they would not have been burned at the stake for their craft.

4. World Trade Center

Construction of the famous World Trade Center building began in 1966 and was not completed until 1973. At the same time, this magnificent view of the towers was captured by the rays of sunlight shining between the two buildings and reflected in them. After the tragic event in 2001, this photograph became one of the most memorable in history.

5. Buying cigarettes

Not so long ago, cigarettes were considered to be very healthy. They were sold not only in stores and pharmacies, but also in hospitals. As a testament to this crazy time, this photograph of a man buying cigarettes from his hospital bed was taken in the 1950s.

6. Nikola Tesla and his tests

This 1899 photograph is interesting not only because it shows the magnificent Nikola Tesla, but also because it may be one of the first photomontages of that time. The experiment that the viewer is observing appears to show Tesla sitting next to his invention, emitting large electrical discharges in the air.

However, the image is actually a double exposure. Sparks of electricity clicked in a dark room when Tesla was not there. Then they made a picture of Nikola when he entered the room and turned off the cars. Thus, thanks to double exposure and shutter speeds, an incredibly realistic picture was obtained, which even today is considered the height of professionalism.

7. Child worker

This photograph dates from 1908 and shows a child laborer working in a South Carolina factory. The photo showed that the factory was full of children working as well as adults, but the chief foreman of the factory claimed that they had "just come to help."

8. The arrest of the suffragette

This 1914 photograph shows the leader of the women's suffrage movement arrested outside Buckingham Palace in 1914. Emmeline Pankhurst was the leader of the movement at the time and tried to get the petition across to King George V. Later, in 1918, the Suffrage Movement succeeded in getting women to vote. But this image captured in the picture is a worthy tribute to the difficulties that women of that time went through, fighting for their rights.

9. Ruins of the World Trade Center

This picture was taken in late September 2001 from a height of thousands of meters above the streets of New York by a Cessna jet. The photo shows the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the destruction of the World Trade Center building, which are clearly visible in the middle of the image.

10. Nagasaki

One of the most powerful and iconic photographs in history. It depicts the moment of the explosion of the atomic bomb that destroyed the Japanese city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. This and the explosion of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima were carried out by the Americans at the final stage of World War II.

11. Beyond the Berlin Wall

A very interesting photo, it shows people who crossed the border from East Berlin to West on November 10, 1989. The photograph clearly shows how young people are looking with interest in adult magazines, thereby rejoicing in the fall of the Iron Curtain.

12. Initiation of a Nazi SS officer

What you see in this picture is the initiation of a Nazi SS officer in 1938, just before Hitler invaded Poland.

13. Radio transmission

Before television became an everyday household item, there was such a thing as radio. Radio was the ultimate form of communication and entertainment. This is a photograph of a recording of a crime radio show called "Bandit Bandits" in the 1930s.

14. Courier dog

The picture shows a German courier dog. They were used to convey messages across battlefields. This dog, literally hovering in the air in a jump, carried the message during the German offensive in January 1918.

15. Bullying a black teenager

This photograph, taken on June 10, 1960, shows one of the most infamous periods in American history. White teenagers verbally abuse a black guy during a civil rights meeting.

16. Rasputin

The Russian mystic Rasputin is known for escaping death three times. Here he is shown in an apartment on Gorokhovaya Street in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1914.

17. Slave Market

Another photograph from a very troubling time in American history. This photo shows spectators at a slave auction in Easton, Maryland, in the 1850s.

18. Marilyn Monroe

The picture shows the legendary couple Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio in Banff, Canada. This photo was taken on August 19, 1953, five months before they got married.