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This is one of the last pictures ever taken of President William McKinley, shot moments before he was assassinated in Buffalo, NY in 1901:
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During World War II, the USS Trigger got close enough to Japan on patrol to take a picture through its periscope of Mount Fuji:
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This is what the menu for Alcatraz prison looked like on March 13th, 1956:
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Speaking of which, here’s what a typical Alcatraz cell looked like:
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Here’s a scene from the 1924 Olympics gold medal hockey game between the USA and Canada:
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In the mid-80s, the Statue of Liberty was completely covered in scafolding while being renovated:
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This is a picture of the first Ferris Wheel ever, designed specifically for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair:
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Here’s what the view looked like from it:
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Here’s a group of people casually enjoying a swim while, in the distance, an atomic bomb detonates:
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Speaking of which, people were so caught up in atomic-mania at they crowned a “Miss Atomic Bomb” in 1957. Here’s what she looked like:
11.
This is a Japanese painting from 1854 of an American:
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Here’s a picture of what the subject of the drawing actually looked like:
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Pictured here are a bunch of daredevils hanging out in a 45-foot cross setion of a pipe used to build the Hoover Dam:
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This is a picture of what Las Vegas looked like in the 1800s:
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Here’s Louis Armstrong serenading his wife at the Great Sphinx of Giza in 1961:
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This is what the Brooklyn Bridge looked like while it was under construction:
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Here’s what the bottom of Manhattan looked like in 1933:
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And here’s what that same part of New York City looks like today:
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President Woodrow Wilson had notoriously poor dental health. Here you can see a rare photo of him smiling:
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Here are two Union Civil War soldiers messing around in a picture and holding each other’s cigar:
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Speaking of which, this picture from 1915 shows what the USA-Mexico border looked like in Arizona over 100 years ago:
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This the only picture of Abraham Lincoln’s actual casket. It was lost for almost 100 years and rediscovered in the 1950s:
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This photo shows two women being led off a beach by police in 1922 for violating a law that banned abbreviated bathing suits:
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Some of the women being arrested even fought back:
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This is American soldier Ivan Babcock in 1945 wearing the recovered Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire, found hidden deep inside a German castle:
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In the late 1940s and early 1950s, President Truman undertook a gut renovation of the White House. This is what it looked like inside during construction:
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Here’s another section of the White House, the Blue Room, under construction during that same period:
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And here’s what the Blue Room looks like today:
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Here’s what the first Allied landing on Normandy’s beaches looked like from above on D-Day, June 6th, 1944:
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Speaking of World War II, this was the scene in New York’s Times Square on the day Germany unconditional surrender:
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This is the window from which Charles Lindbergh’s baby was kidnapped in 1932, sparking one of the most infamous criminal cases in American history:
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This is John Clem, known as the “Drummer Boy of Chickamauga.” At just 12 years old, he fought for the Union in the Civil War and went on to become the youngest noncommissioned officer in U.S. military history:
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Here he is as a much older man in 1916 after being promoted to major general:
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In 1921, over 80,000 people attended heavyweight championship boxing match between Georges Carpentier and Jack Dempsey:
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Here’s what that fight looked like from above:
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This is what New York City’s Central Park looked like during the Great Depression:
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Only one photo of the infamous Billy the Kid exists. Here’s a look at him:
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This is Harriet Tubman with members of her family and some of the formerly enslaved people she helped free during the Civil War, circa 1887:
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This is what the World Trade Center looked like at the very beginning of its construction:
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While campaigning for president in 1912, Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest but survived because the bullet was slowed by a steel glasses case and a folded speech in his jacket pocket. This is the shirt he was wearing that day:
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This is a group of World War I soldiers creating a “Human Liberty Bell” at Camp Dix in 1918:
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The Michelin Man not only used to be absolutely terrifying, but he used to run with a gang of several other musically inclined Michelin men:
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This is the cross-section of the 1,300 year-old Mark Twain sequoia tree, cut down in 1892 for display in New York:
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This is the crew of the USS Hunchback, taken in Virginia at the end of the Civil War. Unlike the army, the Union’s navy was actually integrated:
45.
This is Dr. James Naismith, the man who invented basketball at the age of 32:
And this picture, from the early 1900s, shows an early basketball game, kneepads and all:
And here’s what is apparently the first EVER basketball team:
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This picture, taken in 1942, shows a New York Times employee creating that day’s layout of the Sports page:
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These are the very first employees of Coca Cola, pictured here in Atlanta in 1898:
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At first glance, this just looks like a regular old-timey baseball team photo. But look a little closer and you’ll spot what many believe is the very first captured moment of someone, well… flipping the bird:
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Let’s get a closer look:
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This is a picture of a drive-in movie from 2001. Just kidding, it’s from the 1930s, too:
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Near the end of World War I, American soldiers about to be sent to Europe made a human Statue of Liberty:
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This is the Chicago Union Giants, one of the top Negro League baseball teams of the early 20th century:
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Here’s a scene from one of the first Daylight Saving Time observances, with these helpful folks showing others how it worked:
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Hate Daylight Saving Time? You’re not alone. People have been annoyed by it for decades… Just look at these little protesters from the 1960s:
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Last year, President Trump demolished the East Wing of the White House to make way for a massive new ballroom. Here’s what the East Wing looked like right after it was constructed in 1902:
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And here’s what it looks like today, post-demolition:
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This is what the Gateway Arch in St Louis looked like while it was under construction:
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This is the terrifying mask Edward Paisnel, also known as the Beast of Jersey, wore during his attacks on victims:
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Artist Gilbert Baker created a mile-long pride flag for the 1994 NYC Pride Parade. This is what it looked like in action:
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Here’s what one of New York City’s very first double-decker buses looked like:
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This is a look at the main drag of the gold rush town of Deadwood, pictured here in 1876 in the Dakota Territory:
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This is a picture of astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott looking extremely chill after landing the Gemini 8 in the Pacific Ocean:
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On the day their rocket blasted off to the Moon, the Apollo 11 astronauts enjoyed a breakfast of steak and eggs, chosen to minimize bathroom needs during the early stages of the flight:
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This is Alfred Stratton, an 18-year-old who lost both arms in the Civil War after being struck by a cannonball. He survived the war but passed away a little over a decade later, at the age of 29 or 30:
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This is what California’s Highway 101 looked like in 1912:
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This is a group of unemployed workers in 1930 during the Great Depression, offering to do a day’s work for a dollar and each wearing a sign stating the type of work they can do:
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This is Audrey Munson, often called “America’s first supermodel,” pictured in the early 1900s. She appeared in films, worked as a model and artist, and spent much of her life speaking out for better treatment and equality in the workplace:
You can still see sculptures modeled after her across New York City, including this one atop Manhattan’s Municipal Building:
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This is a tower built out of barrels containing alcohol that was due to be destroyed at the start of Prohibition in the United States:
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Speaking of Prohibition, this was the scene inside a bar on Dec. 5, 1933, the day Prohibition was repealed:
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…and this was the scene outside a bar, much later in the night:
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