10 Historical Photos Everyone Should See

1. The very first photo of a human being, 1838
To be more precise, it’s a daguerreotype image of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris, made by Louis Daguerre from his window in the spring of 1838. There could have been a lot more people in the image, but because of the long exposure, Daguerre managed to capture only a shoe cleaner and his client.






2. An Indian tattoo on the face of a white woman, 1863
Olive Oatman’s parents were killed in 1859 when she was only 14 years old. She herself was kidnapped by Indians and then sold into the slavery of the Mohave. After 5 years spent in the tribe, the young woman managed to return to American society. Perhaps the Mohave treated Olive not as a slave but as an equal because they made her tattoos they themselves wore.


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3. The first known photograph of an obscene gesture, 1886
Apparently, the photographer did something wrong to baseball player Charles Radbourn because he, without thinking twice, showed the middle finger at the camera. This act remains in world history as the first obscene gesture captured in a photo.

Nigeria doesn't belong to any cabal, Nigeria belong to everybody.



4. Students after a snowball fight, 1893
This is what these Princeton students looked like after a seemingly innocent snowball fight. They could easily be mistaken for soldiers who have just returned from a battlefield or for the victims of furious bees.





5. A sculptor helps a veteran disguise the consequences of injuries, 1917
At the beginning of the 20th century, plastic surgery was far from perfect, but it had an alternative: masks replacing lost parts of the face. One of the experts in making such masks was the sculptor Anna Coleman Ladd. Of course, this method couldn’t make the face as it was before, but many people who suffered went on to have relationships and stopped thinking of suicide.







6. The tallest person in the history of medical observations, 1930s
The “Alton Giant,“ Robert Pershing Wadlow, still remains the tallest man in the world’s history: he was 272 cm (8′ 11”) tall and weighed 199 kg (439 lb). Unfortunately, Robert lived a short life and died at the age of 22 in 1940.





7. A German worker refuses to raise his hand in the Nazi salute, 1936
This man’s name is August Landmesser. With his gesture, he expressed disagreement with the policy of the Third Reich because of which he couldn’t marry a Jewish woman, Irma Eckler. Irma was later sent to a concentration camp, where she was killed, and August entered a penal battalion and disappeared.





8. Beer in the fuel tank of a fighter plane, 1944
Of course, the beer wasn’t fuel. This was the way it was carried to British soldiers fighting in Normandy during World War II. And before they started to pour beer into fuel tanks, barrels were attached to the fighters instead of munition.






9. The future Queen Elizabeth II serving in the army, 1945
During World War II, the future Queen of England served in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service as a mechanic and ambulance driver. In this photo, Princess Elizabeth holds a clock in her hands — a gift from her coworkers.





10. American soldiers returning home, 1945
After the military action in Western Europe was finished, the dreadnought Queen Elizabeth safely delivered American soldiers to New York.