Fighting in North Africa stemmed from the area’s strategic importance to the Commonwealth. Egypt’s Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, was a vital transport artery. Oil in particular had become a critical strategic commodity due…
The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict. The crisis was unique in a…
At a time when censors used a heavy hand to keep the American public from knowing and seeing the carnage in the Pacific during World War II, this ground-breaking photograph of dead American soldiers confronted the American public for the first time with th…
Travel back in time with stunning vintage portraits that offer a captivating glimpse into the diverse cultures of the world, from Brazilian headhunters, Persian hermits to Indian snake charmers, over a century and a half ago. Frank Carpenter embarked on h…
These captivating photographs from the LIFE archives provide a unique window into mid-20th century China, during a period chronicled as “the last days of Shanghai”. The images were taken by photographer Jack Birns, who was sent to China to take pictures and…
Back in the Cold War era, much like other Americans, we used to think that all Soviet women dressed plainly and had tough lives due to their challenging circumstances. We imagined them in simple, practical clothes. But these fashion pictures tell a diff…
The Great Depression, a somber epoch in American history, is often characterized by the stark imagery of hardship. Traditionally, these images have been captured in grainy black and white, offering a glimpse into an era defined by Hoovervilles, snaking unem…
The Seattle area was inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent European settlers. Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived from Illinois via Portland, Oregon, on the s…
These vintage photos capture the teenage girls' fashion and style of the 1950s. During this time, the fashion was more conservative and gender-specific than it is today. Teenage girls were expected to wear skirts and dresses in all but the most casual circumst…
These amazing color photographs show the streets of Los Angeles between the 1940s and 1960s. During the early 20th century, Los Angeles continued to boom and by the early 1920s, it had overtaken San Francisco in size. By 1939 it had a population of over 1.5…
On September 2, 1945, Japanese representatives signed the official Instrument of Surrender, prepared by the War Department and approved by President Harry S. Truman. It set out in eight short paragraphs the complete capitulation of Japan. The opening words,…
These photographs show Chicago's African-American community, primarily the South Side, and are taken by photographer John H. White, who went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photojournalism in 1982. His portraits of everyday life stand the test of time,…
Nobody could tell exactly when it began and nobody could predict when it would end. At the outset, they didn’t even call it a depression. At worst it was a recession, a brief slump, a “correction” in the market, a glitch in the rising curve of prosperit…
In 1972, the United States federal government, which was looking to document living conditions among Native American communities, employed the services of photographer Terry Eiler to visit the south-west of the country and give an outsider view into the li…
During the era of silent film, recommendations for behavior were displayed on title cards before a screening, offering advice including "Ladies, kindly remove your hats", "Loud talking or whistling not allowed", "Please applaud with hands only", etc. The Li…
These stunning photographs of car wrecks in the 1930s were captured by Leslie Jones, a famous photographer who worked for the Boston Herald-Traveler from 1917 to 1956. Jones documented daily life in Boston and surrounding areas and some 40,000 of his negati…
January 28, 1986, was an exceptionally cold day in Florida, where freezing weather is rare. The beaches near the Kennedy Space Center were crowded with people who had come to watch the launch of the space shuttle Challenger, which had been postponed on sev…
The history of the Vietnam War is one that has been complicated by politics, and it is a history that is still being written and rewritten. The war involved a fratricidal conflict between the communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and …
The flight attendant occupation took permanent shape in the 1930s as “women’s work,” that is, work not only predominately performed by women but also defined as embodying white, middle-class ideals of femininity. As the nascent commercial aviation indus…
In 1920, the southeastern part of Europe was a miserable place. The endless wars, beginning with the First Balkan War in 1912, continuing with World War I in 1914-1918, and other ethnic conflicts, had disrupted countless lives. The American Red Cross ha…