This face belongs to Terry Sawchuk, a 36-year-old goalie for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Re-created here, by a professional make-up artist and a doctor, are some of the more than 400 stitches he had earned during 16 years in the National Hockey League. Ter…
Supposedly 22,000 Nazi supporters attended a German American Bund rally at New York's Madison Square Garden in February 1939, under police guard. Demonstrators protested outside. Aside from its admiration for Adolf Hitler and the achievements of Nazi Ge…
A punt gun is a type of extremely large shotgun used in the 19th and early 20th centuries for shooting large numbers of waterfowl for commercial harvesting operations and private sport. A single shot could kill over 50 waterfowl resting on the water's surf…
General Anton Dostler was a general of the infantry in the regular German Army during World War II. In the first Allied war trial after the war, Dostler was found guilty of war crimes and executed by firing squad. He ordered and oversaw the unlawf…
It's so odd to see that an object roughly the same size as a large car can destroy an entire city and leave radioactive damage for lifetimes afterwards. Fat Man was the codename for the type of atomic bomb that was detonated over the Japanese city of Na…
The embassy is an official state function and since the Third Reich outlived Hitler by six weeks, it would be odder if they did not raise the flag when the head of state died. Actually, Hitler's death wasn't officially announced until May 1st, but the O…
It’s amazing that this broadside ironclad was designed and built without the aid of computers. Someone put pen to paper and designed this. Then the parts were made by hand in some fashion or another. USS Galena was a wooden-hulled broadside ironclad bui…
In October 1918, Hitler and several comrades were temporarily blinded due to a British mustard gas attack near Ypres in Belgium. After initial treatment, Hitler was hospitalized in Pasewalk. While there on 10 November, Hitler learned of Germany's d…
Roza Shanina was a Soviet sniper during World War II who was credited with fifty-nine confirmed kills, including twelve soldiers during the Battle of Vilnius. Shanina volunteered for the military after the death of her brother in 1941 and chose to be a …
These American soldiers probably got ambushed by German machine guns when they were attempting a routine street crossing at the wrong time. They're at a crossroads, a good spot to ambush an advancing army. This photo is taken during the early hours of t…
This is one of the first batches of bananas that was sent to Norway. It had a weight of 3,000 kilos and came in crates/boxes. One of the people in this picture is Christian Mathiessen, the founder of Norway's biggest fruit importer, Bama. Norway was the…
A dramatic overhead shot by Neil Leifer, generally regarded as one of the greatest sporting images of all time, features the prostrate form of Cleveland Williams while Muhammad Ali strikes a victory pose during a knockdown in their 1966 title fight. As …
A somewhat odd photo and not terribly exciting unless you are aware of the details. Harold Agnew’s smile sort of disconnects the viewer from the reality of the situation. That box is the direct cause of the deaths of approximately 70,000 people. That li…
All these German prisoners of war were captured following the Falaise Pocket battle. By the evening of 21 August 1944, the pocket had been sealed, with c. 50,000 Germans trapped inside. Many Germans escaped but losses in men and equipment were huge. The…
Germany deliberately starved occupied Soviet territories by plundering their food for German use. This was the "Hunger Plan", which starved to death millions of people. It was in part a practical decision to have German forces live off the land, but it …
Fifteen pensive-looking faces, each man contemplating his fate as they await the enemy barrage to lift and prepare to repel an enemy assault. The original text on reverse: "Real photo taken of German infantry in a dug out. This is a typical dug out, and…
Born a male but raised as a female, Dora Ratjen competed on the female German track team. He set a world record for the high jump at the 1938 European Athletics Championships but competed as a female at that event. His true identity was discovered while ri…
Muhammad Ali became a close associate to Malcolm X and he looked to Malcolm much as a mentor. They knew each other as active members of the Nation of Islam until Malcolm X left the group in 1964 and was killed in 1965. Ali didn’t leave the group until 1…
A room full of women are working hard at emulating the “real danger” present in the master poster hanging in the background. It looks like some kind of class, like a high school or college art class. They may be all working on the same poster because th…
This is troopship Queen Elisabeth. Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary were used as troop transports during the Second World War. Their high speeds allowed them to outrun hazards, principally German U-boats, usually allowing them to travel without a convoy. …