Every photograph is an immortalized moment. Through the years, they become a time capsule of a bygone era, a reminder of how life was once.
The internet is rich in resources of noteworthy images from the past, and this subreddit is an excellent example. With over three million members, it has no shortage of pictures featuring landmark events and renowned figures, whether in monochrome or full color.
As part of We’s recurring series of articles, we’ve compiled this best-of-all-time list for you to enjoy. Whether or not you’re a history buff, prepare to be fascinated and maybe even learn something new.
#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
RELATED: #2 When They Realized Women Were Using Their Sacks To Make Clothes For Their Children, Flour Mills Of The 1930s Started Using Flowered Fabric For Their Sacks. (1939)
#3 Cop Stops The Traffic In New York So A Mother Cat Holding A Kitten Can Cross Safely C.1925
Since we’re on the subject of historical photos, one that stands out is the ‘Lunch Atop A Skyscraper.’ For the uninitiated, it shows a row of 11 construction workers enjoying lunch seated on a steel beam 850 feet above the streets of Manhattan.
The photograph was taken on September 20th, 1932. According to Smithsonian Mag, it was a publicity stunt to create a buzz for the imminent completion of what turned out to be the Rockefeller Center. And yes, it is all real.
#4 100,000 Iranian Women March Against The Hijab Law, Tehran 1979
#5 Albert Einstein Defying The Prevailing Racial Climate At The Time By Visiting Lincoln University, Pennsylvania — The First Degree-Granting Black College In The Us — To Teach A Class. He Was An Outspoken Civil Rights Advocate For Black Americans. Photographed In 1946
#6 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
The fiery still image of the Hindenburg exploding in mid-air is another all-time classic, outside of its grim and tragic nature. It was a Nazi creation meant to use their supposed engineering skills as propaganda.
Instead, the vessel caught fire from static electricity on May 6th, 1937, resulting in the combustion. Thirty-six people lost their lives.
The photo, however, was so iconic that legendary rock band Led Zeppelin used it as the cover image of their first album.
#7 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
#8 Princess Diana Shakes Hands With An Aids Patient Without Gloves, 1991
#9 Meet The “Night Witches”, Fearless Russian Female Pilots Who Bombed Nazis By Night, 1941
#10 A Native American Mother And Her Child – 1900s
#11 “Happiest Man In China”, Taken In 1901 By British Anthropologists After Deciding To Document The Chinese. The Chinese Didn’t Know Photos Were A “Serious Matter” And Decided To Be Goofy, Hence The Pose And Smile
#12 Jewish Prisoners After Being Liberated From A Death Train, 1945
Fast forward to more recent times, specifically to June 15, 1995. The “Trial of the Century” involving O.J. Simpson was front-page news. From it came the infamous photo of the disgraced NFL star trying on a pair of gloves that were evidence. It was a key moment that led to his eventual acquittal.
However, the photo of Simpson with the bloodied gloves likewise became part of history. It was also a subject of many spoofs and mockeries, which lingered until his death this past April.
#13 Mogadishu, 1993. An Italian Soldier Gives Food To A Local Orphan
#14 American Troops Treat A Wounded Dog On Orote Peninsula, 1944
#15 Atelier Photo: “A Lesbian Couple In Semi Drag Wedding Attire”; Kingdom Of Hungary – Budapest, 1920
#16 Margaret Hamilton And The Handwritten Navigation Software She And Her Mit Team Produced For The Apollo Project, 1969
#17 A Man Rides A Bus In Durban, Meant For White Passengers Only, In Resistance To South Africa’s Apartheid Policies, 1986
#18 Tokyo Residents Mourning Hachiko. He Would Regularly Meet His Owner, Professor Ueno, At Shibuya Station After He Returned From Work. Sadly, Ueno Died On May 21, 1925 & Never Returned. However, Hachiko Would Return To The Station Every Day For 9 Years, Waiting For Him To Come Back, 1935
#19 Stoney First Nation Member, Guide Samson Beaver With His Wife Leah And Their Daughter Frances Louise, 1907. Photo Taken By Mary Schäffer
#20 Here Is How An Ukrainian Immigrant Celebrated Stalin’s Death. 1953
#21 Arnie Supporting Disabled Athletes, 1983
#22 A Beach In Iran A Few Months Before The Islamic Revolution, 1979
#23 Six-Year-Old Austrian Boy “Werfel” Receiveing A New Pair Of Shoes At The Am Himmel Orphanage, Donated By The Junior Red Cross In America (Colorized). Published In The Life Magazine In 1946
#24 Ruby Bridges, The First African-American To Attend A White Elementary School In The Deep South, 1960. Colorized
#25 A Man Arrested For Cross-Dressing Emerging From A Police Van, New York, 1939
#26 1972: 3 Women On The Streets Of Kabul, Afghanistan
#27 Anne Frank’s Father Otto, Revisiting The Attic Where They Hid From The Nazis. He Was The Only Surviving Family Member. (1960)
#28 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
#29 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
#30 Young Queen Elizabeth As A Mechanic During Ww2 (C. 1939)
#31 Albert Einstein, His Secretary Helen (Left), And Daughter Margaret (Right) Becoming U.S. Citizens To Avoid Returning To Nazi Germany, 1940
#32 Nakano Takeko (Onna-Musha Of The Aizu Domain) In Imperial Japan, She And Other Women Fought In The Battle Of Aizu In October 1868 During The Boshin War, When On October 16th, She Was Killed In Battle By Rifle Shot. Shown In Full Samurai Armour, C. 1860 – 1868
#33 African-American Boys On Easter Morning, Southside, Chicago, Illinois, April 1941 [colorized]
#34 A Policeman In San Francisco Scolds A Man For Not Wearing A Mask During The 1918 Influenza Pandemic, 1918
#35 A Man Guards His Family From The Cannibals During The Madras Famine Of 1877 At The Time Of British Raj, India
#36 Russian Inmate Points An Identifying And Accusing Finger At A Nazi Guard Who Was Especially Cruel Towards The Prisoners In Buchenwald Camp. Colorized
#37 British Soldiers (Interrupted During Drag Show Rehearsals By A German Raid) Manning A Bl 6-Inch Mk Vii Naval Gun At Shornemead Fort, England In 1940
#38 A U.S. Marine Rescues Two Vietnamese Children During A Gun Battle At The City Of Hue, During The Tet Offensive Of The Vietnam War – 1968
#39 In 1945, The Auschwitz Death Camp Was Discovered And Liberated By The Red Army
#40 A German Soldier Returns Home Only To Find His Family No Longer There. Frankfurt, 1946 – By Tony Vaccaro
#41 West German School Children Pause To Talk With Two East German Border Guards Beside An Opening In The Berlin Wall During The Collapse Of Communism In East Germany In November 1989 (Photo: Stephen Jaffe)
#42 Annette Kellerman Promotes Women’s Right To Wear A Fitted One-Piece Bathing. She Was Arrested For Indecency. (1907)
#43 Woman Cutting Her Birthday Cake In Iran 1973, 5 Years Before The Islamic Revolution
#44 Rosa Parks’s Booking Photo Following Her February 1956 Arrest
#45 Martin Luther King Jr. Removing A Burnt Cross From His Front Yard In 1960
#46 David Isom, 19, Broke The Color Line In A Segregated Pool In Florida On June 8, 1958, Which Resulted In Officials Closing The Facility
#47 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
#48 A French Boy Introduces Himself To Indian Soldiers Who Had Just Arrived In France To Fight Alongside French And British Forces, Marseilles, 30th September 1914
#49 In 1973, Marlon Brando Rejected His Oscar For The Godfather To Allow Sacheen Littlefeather To Protest Hollywood’s Portrayal Of Native Americans
#50 An Undercover Police Officer On Duty. New York, Brooklyn, 1 July 1969
#51 Johnny Depp Saved The Old Horse Goldeneye From Sleepy Hollow Who Played Crane’s Companion, Gunpowder. The One-Eyed Horse Was Originally Set To Be Euthanised After Production Was Completed. But Depp Stepped In And Adopted Goldeneye After Finishing The Movie – 1999
#52 A French Women Welcomes An American Soldier Two Days After Liberation. Strasbourg, France, 22 November 1944
#53 A Man Looking For A Job Wearing His Cv, England – 1930s
#54 A Man Browses For Books In The Old Public Library Of Cincinnati. The Building Was Demolished In 1955. Today An Office Building And A Parking Lot Stand Where It Used To Be
#55 Students Dance In Tiananmen Square Before The Arrival Of The Chinese Military, June 4th 1989
#56 Mass Demonstrations Against Soviet Union In Baku, The Capital Of Azerbaijan, 1989
#57 David Attenborough Entertains Prince Charles And Princess Anne With A Cockatoo. 1958
#58 A Young Barack Obama Spending Time On The Beach With His Grandfather. 1963
#59 Anne Frank And Her Sister Margot At The Beach, Zandvoort – August 1940
#60 Louis Armstrong Playing For His Wife, Egypt, 1961
#61 A Young Female Welder Photographed By Bernard Hoffman In Connecticut, Circa 1943
#62 French Soldiers Passing By A Dog Wearing Googles And Smoking A Pipe, 1915
#63 May 20, 1910: The Nine Kings Of Europe Photographed Together For The First And Only Time
#64 Rail Commuters Wearing White Protective Masks, One With The Additional Message “Wear A Mask Or Go To Jail,” During The 1918 Influenza Pandemic In California
#65 A Man Takes A Selfie Using A Stick Of Wood To Activate The Camera, 1957
#66 Night Fishing In Hawaii, 1948
#67 A Serbian Soldier Sleeps With His Father Who Came To Visit Him On The Front Line Near Belgrade, 1914/1915
#68 Jaques Biederer, The First Photographer In History Specializing In Erotic Photos. This Photo Was Taken In Paris In 1928
#69 A Makeshift Hospital In The Vietnam War, 1970
#70 A Mob Pours Sugar, Ketchup And Mustard Over The Heads Of (From Left) John Salter, Joan Trumpauer And Anne Moody During A Sit-In Demonstration At A Woolworth’s ‘Whites Only’ Lunch Counter In Jackson, Miss. – May 28, 1963. (Photo By Fred Blackwell/Associated Press)
#71 Statue Of David By Michelangelo, Encased In Bricks To Prevent Damage From Bombs, During World War 2
#72 A Boy’s Reaction Staring At A TV Screen For The First Time. (1948)
#73 Reporters Who Exposed The Watergate Scandal Watch President Nixon Resign, 1974
#74 The Queen Consort Of Mongolia, Genepil, In Mongolia. The Last Queen Consort And Married To The Bogd Khaganate, Bogd Khan, Until His Death On April 17th, 1924, When The Monarchy Was Abolished. She Was Killed During The Stalinist Purges In May 1938. Photograph Dated January 1st, 1923
#75 “The Drunk Basket.” In The 1960s, Bars In Istanbul Would Hire Someone To Carry Drunk People Back To Their Homes
#76 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
#77 A Boy And His Owl, 1933
#78 In 1941, The Photo On The Left Was Taken Of Soviet Soldier Eugen Stepanovich Kobytev On The Day He Left To Go To War. The Photo On The Right Was Taken In 1945 After The End Of The War, Just 4 Years Apart
#79 Female Snipers Of The 3rd Shock Army, 1st Belorussian Front, 775 Confirmed Kills, Germany, May 1945
#80 An Old Woman Leaving Her Home With Just A Portrait Of Her Husband And Rugs. Russian Soldiers Gave Her Just 5 Minutes To Pack Her Bags And Leave Before They Destroyed Her Home And Everything In It. Her Sons And Husband Were Already Dead. She Had Lost Everything. May 1995, Grozny
#81 Korean Mother Embraces Her Son, A Prisoner Of War Who Escaped His North Korean Pow Camp Shortly After The Signing Of The Korean Armistice Agreement, Which Ended The Widespread Fighting Of The Korean War, 1953
#82 Freddie Mercury With His Mother, 1947
#83 Geologist Thomas Griffith Taylor And Meteorologist Charles Wright In The Entrance Of An Ice Grotto. Terra Nova Expedition, Ross Island, 5 January 1911. Photo Taken By Herbert Ponting
#84 One Of The Many Selfies That Emperor Nicholas II Took Throughout His Life, (1868-1918)
#85 John F. Kennedy Campaigning Door-To-Door In West Virginia (1960)
#86 A Nurse With A Sick Child During Smallpox Epidemic, Wrocław, Poland, 1963
#87 Arikara Warrior ‘Bear’s Belly’ – North Dakota, USA – Photo By Edward Curtis 1909
#88 Max Schreck Relaxing Behind The Scenes Of Nosferatu, 1922
#89 Salvador Dali Painting “The Face Of War”, 1940
#90 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
#91 Visiting Quarantined Family And Friends At Ullevål Hospital, Oslo – Photo By Anders Beer Wilse – 1905
#92 A German World War II Prisoner Is Released By The Soviet Union And Reunited With His 12-Year-Old Daughter, Who Has Not Seen Him Since Infancy. 1956
#93 Coal Miners Coming Up A Coal Mine Elevator After A Day Of Work In 1920’s Belgium
#94 San Francisco’s Iconic Cliff House, Shortly Before It Was Destroyed By Fire In 1907
#95 Shoemaker’s Lunch, 1944. By Bernard Cole
#96 Into The Jaws Of Death, 6th Of June, 1944
#97 A Red Cross Nurse Writing Down Last Words Of Mortally Wounded Soldier, Taken Around 1917
#98 Grand Central Terminal, NYC, The Sun Can’t Shine Through Like That Now Due To The Surrounding Tall Buildings. 1929
#99 Frozen Niagara Falls, 1911
#100 A Smiling Girl In A Kimono On New Year’s Day. Japan, 1914
#101 In The 1890s, The Congo State (Controlled By Belgian Settlers) Allowed The Companies To Maneuver Almost Entirely Freely, Which Resulted In Various Atrocities, Including The Amputation Of Hands As Punishment For Those Who Refused To Collect Rubber
#102 [colorized] Three Scout Girls Collect Peach Pits, Which Will Later Be Processed To Make Gas Mask Filters During World War I. Washington, 1917-1918
#103 A Picture Of A Submerged Diver In 1899. Many Believe It To Be The First Photograph Taken Underwater
#104 Chief Low Dog – An Oglala Lakota Chief Who Fought With Sitting Bull At The Battle Of Little Bighorn, C. 1881
#105 On This Day 59 Years Ago, Soviet Space Mission Vostok 6 Was Launched With Valentina Tereshkova Onboard, Who Became The 1st Woman In Space! This Is Her During The Fifth Earth Orbit On June 16, 1963
#106 Jfk & Bill Clinton Greeting At The White House, In 1963
#107 Russian Conscript With His Family Before Being Deployed To The Front, Karachev, Bryansk, Russia, 1943
#108 Anti British Propaganda, Japan 1941
#109 Remember That Photo Of The Construction Workers Having Lunch On The Unfinished Empire State Building? Well Here’s The Photographer Charles Ebbets Taking That Photo. 9/20/1932
#110 Soldiers Returning Home From Wwii 1945
#111 Crowd In Times Square, New York City Celebrating The Surrender Of Germany, May 7th, 1945
#112 Eiffel Tower Under Construction, July 1888 [colorized]
#113 Lockheed Martin Employee Sally Wadsworth Working On The Fuselage Of A P-38 Lightning In California In 1944
#114 A Woman Overlooking A Snowy Mountain Pass In The Pyrenees Mountains, France – 1956
#115 Indigenous Children Forced To Pray To God In A Residential School Ran By The Canadian Government And Catholic Church Between 1930 And 1970, Unknown Location
#116 Acrobats Balance On Top Of The Empire State Building, 1934 [1271×1600]
#117 Commuters In New York On The Evening Of November 22, 1963
#118 [1200×803] An Enthusiast For Men’s Dress Reform Walking Down The Strand In London. The Mdrp (Men’s Dress Reform Party) Was Formed In The Interwar Years In Britain, 1930
#119 Inside Of An Airplane In 1930 [572×768]
