The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy fractured the nation just two months after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and five years after his brother John F. Kennedy was killed. But RFK’s funeral, particularly the train that took his body from…
By the beginning of 1945, the war which Germany had unleashed throughout the world had come back to consume it. In sharp contrast with what had occurred in 1918 in 1945, Germany fought, literally, to the bitter end. The Germans held out, although by ear…
It’s 1997, and Garry Kasparov is hunched over a chessboard, visibly frustrated. He’s fidgeting in between turns and shaking his head in disbelief as he waits for his opponent to put the final touches on an inevitable victory. Finally, Kasparov makes his…
Thirty vivid, oversize black-and-white photos from the Library of Congress show Detroit in the 1940s. Full-screen scenes show vintage vehicles, fashions, hairstyles, the Crowley-Milner department store, Cunningham's drugs, a streetcar, Chrysler's tank a…
The Minneapolis Morning Tribune obituary says Ga-Be-Nah-Gewn-Wonce (variously known as Kay-bah-nung-we-way, Sloughing Flesh, Wrinkled Meat or plain old — well, really old — John Smith) was reputed to be 138 years old when he died. Whatever his precise a…
The originally seven-car imperial train was intended for the heir of the throne Nicholas Alexandrovich (the future Nicholas II). It was built in 1894-1896 in the Main Car Workshops of the Nicholas Railway Line. And although the train was designed to acc…
Soviet soldiers duck under passing tanks during an intensive training before the Battle of Kursk. The goal was to desensitize them to this experience and also to teach them the importance of digging trenches and holes strong enough to resist being driven o…
It's Friday, the 13th of April, 1945. A few miles northwest of Magdeburg there was a railroad siding in a wooded ravine not far from the Elbe River. Major Clarence L. Benjamin in a jeep was leading a small task force of two light tanks on a routine job …
The photo shows Corporal Yukio Araki (age 17 years old) holding a puppy with four other young men (age 18 and 19 years old) of the 72nd Shinbu Corps. An Asahi Shimbun cameraman took this photo on the day before the departure of the 72nd Shinbu Corps fro…
Leonard Siffleet, an Australian commando during World War II, served in the M Special Unit of the Services Reconnaissance Department. While on a mission in Papua New Guinea, he was captured by partisan tribesmen along with two Ambonese companions. They w…
The photo is taken during the division training at Neuhammer. The romantic notions that Himmler had about the Bosnian Muslims were probably significant in the division's genesis. He was personally fascinated by the Islamic faith and believed that Islam …
This photo shows Marlene Dietrich passionately kissing an American soldier as he arrives home from World War II. It seems that the guy on the left holding her up is enjoying the view. It was first published in Life Magazine with the caption: “While sold…
Members of the French Resistance are photographed in the midst of a battle against German troops during the Liberation of Paris. We see a man in makeshift army fatigues to the left and a young man on the right. Then, most strikingly, we see a woman in s…
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…
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. …
Many animals were used during World War One. Horses, mules, dogs, and pigeons were vulnerable to poison gases so that special protection was necessary for them. Horses were equipped with gas masks over their muzzles and were protected from inhalation of…
In an event that is widely acknowledged to have sparked the outbreak of World War I, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nephew of Emperor Franz Josef and heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was shot to death along with his wife by a Serbian nationalist in Sar…
Air travel was once an experience shaped as much by style as it was by innovation, and few elements captured that spirit more vividly than the uniforms worn by early flight attendants. In an era when flying still felt unfamiliar to many Americans, presentat…
Before the surgeries, before the controversies, before his complexion became the subject of global speculation, Michael Jackson had the face of an ordinary kid from the American Midwest. Large dark eyes, a broad nose, warm brown skin, and a smile that took …
Tucked into train stations, arcades, and neighborhood drugstores, the photobooth offered something rare in mid-20th-century America: a brief moment of privacy in the middle of a busy public space. Behind a small curtain and within the tight frame of a s…