Did you know that the first Tour de France happened in 1903? Or that there existed a Fat Men’s Club in New York, whose members had to weigh over 200 pounds and learn a secret handshake and password to enter? These are only a few facts from the Facebook group ‘History Images’. The group serves us as a window to the past through various pictures.
It consists of more than 544,000 people who are engaging in discussions, exchanging information and gathering their knowledge.
Bored Panda has gathered some of the finest pictures for your curiosity, so without further ado, see them below.
#1 Testing Prototype Space Suit Intended For Use In Nasa’s Apollo Moon Landing Program, Mojave Desert, California 1962
Image credits: History Images
Photos provide us with a powerful lens through which we can see and understand history. This Facebook page’s ‘History Images’ act as visual documentation, capturing significant historical events, cultural shifts, and everyday life.
Although photos can be pretty factual, the history of our world has been shrouded in tales and riddles. From ancient civilizations that left behind incredible structures to unexplained disappearances and mythical figures, let’s peel back the layers of time and intrigue ourselves with some unsolved mysteries of history.
#2 A Indigenous Man Topples A Statue Of Spanish Conquistador Diego De Mazariegos On The 500th Year Anniversary Of The Discovery Of The Americas. Chiapas, Mexico, 1992
Image credits: History Images
#3 Mount Rushmore Is Under Construction. This Photograph Was Taken In 1932 While Workmen Were Carving The Face Of George Washington
Image credits: History Images
Most of us have heard the tales of Britain’s King Arthur and his magical sword, Excalibur. The story has been alive for around 1000 years and as of today, no one knows if it’s real.
The interesting fact is that the ancient warrior is linked with places all over Britain and the story might have been about a real person, just not so magical. What we surely know is that real royals have been named after him and that to this day, this story inspires us.
After all, the king is meant to unite the Britons in their darkest time: “Legend has it that he’s not actually dead, just sleeping, and that one day, when Britain needs him most, he will rise again and defend the country.”
#4 Man In A Pressure Suit With A Beaker Of Boiling Water In A Vacuum Chamber Simulating An Altitude Of 65,000 Feet, Feb. 8, 1953
Image credits: History Images
#5 Tippi Hedren Having Her Cigarette Lit By A Crow On The Set Of The Birds, 1963
Image credits: History Images
#6 A Sami Woman, Toddler, And Infant In Lapland, Finland, 1917
Image credits: History Images
Another mystery is the location of Egypt’s beloved Cleopatra’s tomb. According to ancient writers, she and her lover Mark Antony were buried together in a tomb in 30 B.C.
Plutarch wrote that “the tomb was located near a temple of Isis, an ancient Egyptian goddess, and was a lofty and beautiful monument containing treasures made of gold, silver, emeralds, pearls, ebony and ivory”.
The exact location is a mystery up to this day, though The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities recently made a claim that they found it. Archeologists discovered a tunnel under Egypt’s ancient Taposiris Magna Temple that may lead to the long-lost tomb.
#7 French Actress And Animal Lover Brigitte Bardot Pose For A Photo With A Harp Seal Pub In Newfoundland, Canada. Mar 1977. Bardot Traveled To Newfoundland To Publicly Oppose Seal Hunting
Image credits: History Images
#8 A Peanut Vendor From 1890, Wearing A Suit Made Of Peanuts
Image credits: History Images
#9 A Japanese Samurai In Full Armor With A Sword, 1867
Image credits: History Images
Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25th, though there are debates that he wasn’t really born on this day. According to ‘Live Science’, “the date Dec. 25 may have been chosen because it’s close in time to Saturnalia, a Roman festival that celebrated the god Saturn.
The earliest records of Dec. 25 being the birthday of Jesus date to the fourth century A.D. — more than 300 years after his birth”. According to ancient records, early Christians were never able to decide on the day; in fact, even the exact year is unknown. Thus many Catholic branches celebrate Christmas on a different day.
#10 Bodybuilder Relna Brewer Showing Her Strength By Ripping A Phone Book Apart, 1938
Image credits: History Images
#11 Tourists Having Tea And Sunbathing At The Top Of The Great Pyramid, 1938
Image credits: History Images
#12 Stoney First Nation Member, Guide Samson Beaver With His Wife Leah And Their Daughter Frances Louise, 1907. (Photo Taken By Mary Schäffer)
Image credits: History Images
Let’s learn about one of the big world wonders, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and debate whether it was real. The ancient city of Babylon was located around where modern-day Iraq is and was believed to have the impressive hanging gardens with plants at a height above ground level. The date of their existence is not surely known and modern-day archeologists have not been able to locate the remains of such a place.
#13 White Protesters Joined The March On Washington D.c. During The Civil Rights Movement, In August 1963
Image credits: History Images
#14 Reporters Who Exposed The Watergate Scandal Watch President Nixon Resign, 1974
Image credits: History Images
#15 Titanic Survivors Marjorie And Charlotte Collyer In New York Immediately Following The Sinking Of The Liner In 1912. [colorized]
Image credits: History Images
Some things we’ll never know, but sometimes that’s the fun of it all. Let’s admire the ‘History Images’ that freeze moments in time, honor the mysteries of history and embrace the ones that await us in the future. For it is through the exploration of the unknown that we truly come to understand ourselves and the world we inhabit.
#16 Porfirio Diaz And The Aztec Sun Stone, 1910
Image credits: History Images
#17 Indian Chief Speaking To Army Officers About The Construction Of Garrison Dam. North Dakota, 1946
Image credits: History Images
#18 Mermaids On The Set Film “Peter Pan”, 1924
Image credits: History Images
#19 Land Mower With Air Conditioning, Circa 1950
Image credits: History Images
#20 Ham Is The First Chimpanzee Astronaut To Return From His Legendary 16-Hour Flight In 1961 Year
Image credits: History Images
#21 Burlesque Costumes In The 1800s Were A Bizarre Affair. This Is Eliza Blasina Wearing A Horse-Head Headdress. If You’re Interested, I’ve Compiled A Gallery Of 10 Images Of Burlesque Performers From That Era
Image credits: History Images
#22 Albert Einstein At 5 Years Old. Munich, 1884. [colorized]
Image credits: History Images
#23 December 17, 1949: Santa Claus Rides A Motorbike With A Sidecar Down Oxford Street In London, England
Image credits: History Images
#24 The New Pramobile Made By Dunckley, London, England C. 1930
Image credits: History Images
#25 Three Jewish Children On Their Way To Palestine After Being Liberated From The Buchenwald Concentration Camp. The Girl On The Left Is From Poland, The Boy In The Center From Latvia, And The Girl On The Right From Hungary, 1945
Image credits: History Images
#26 An Old Photo Of A Samurai Was Taken By Felice Beato. Japan, Edo Period, 1865
Image credits: History Images
#27 The Endurance Ship Being Stuck In The Antarctic Ice (Forever), 1915
Image credits: History Images
#28 Motorcycle Chariots At New South Wales Police Carnival, 1936
Image credits: History Images
#29 On The Set Of The Movie “Godzilla”, 1998
Image credits: History Images
#30 Queen Sophia Of Greece, 1915
Image credits: History Images
#31 Twenty-Year-Old Arifa, A Member Of The Pro-Government Women’s Unit, Guarding Their Village From The Mujahedeen, The Democratic Republic Of Afghanistan, 1987
Image credits: History Images
#32 Annie Edson Taylor Poses With Her Cat And The Barrel She Rode Over The Fall, Of 1901
Image credits: History Images
#33 Portrait Of An American Soldier In 1918
Image credits: History Images
#34 Miners In The Serra Pelada Gold Mines In Brazil, 1980s
Image credits: History Images
#35 Two Of The Biggest Names In Japanese Cinema History: Actor Toshiro Mifune And Director Akira Kurosawa On The Set Of Seven Samurai, 1954
Image credits: History Images
#36 Gas Station In Germany, 1958
Image credits: History Images
#37 Aerial Photo Of The Enormous Hughes H-4 Hercules Wooden Aircraft Being Built – Playa Vista, California – February 1947
Image credits: History Images
#38 Maori Women From New Zealand In 1902
Image credits: History Images
#39 Photo Taken During The Construction (1847-1858) Of The Lighthouse On Tiny Bishop Rock In The Scilly Isles
Image credits: History Images
#40 Searchlights In The Night Sky During An Air-Raid Practice On Gibraltar, 20 November 1942
Image credits: History Images
#41 King Charles III On The Buckingham Palace Balcony After His Mother’s Coronation In 1953
Image credits: History Images
#42 Acrobats In Japan. Ca. 1900
Image credits: History Images
#43 Chippendales Night Club, The First Strip Club In La – 1979. Photo Via – Bettmann Archives
Image credits: History Images
#44 A Woman Wearing An Elaborate Headdress In Japan During C. 1870-1890s
Image credits: History Images
#45 Handsome Young Crow Boy Dressed Up In Sheepskin Chaps And Fringed Gloves, Circa 1910. Photo By Richard Throssel
Image credits: History Images
#46 “A Member Of The Auxiliary Territorial Service, Miss Elizabeth Amery, Computes The Range At 428 Battery, Coastal Defence Artillery Headquarters, Dover, December 1942.” Original Color Photograph
Image credits: History Images
#47 The First Tour De France, 1903
Image credits: History Images
#48 Departure Of A Red Cross Train Going To Switzerland, Budapest, Hungary, 1947
Image credits: History Images
#49 Hindenburg Airship, Flying Over Manhattan In 1937, Shortly Before The Disaster In New Jersey
Image credits: History Images
#50 Jacob White Eyes, Iron Tail And Buffalo Bill Cody At Caffè Greco In Rome During Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show Tour In Europe Back In 1890
Image credits: History Images
#51 A Janitor Sweeps The Floor Of The New York Stock Exchange Following The Wall Street Crash Of 1929
Image credits: History Images
#52 Saloon In Manitowoc , Wisconsin Note The Child Sized Beer. Circa 1890
Image credits: History Images
#53 Two Boy Scouts Caught Swimming Illegally Near Point Edward. Ontario, Canada, 1911 – By John Boyd
Image credits: History Images
#54 Henryka “Heniuta” Wieczorek, A Member Of The Polish Underground Resistance, On The Last Day Of The Warsaw Uprising: October 2, 1944. [colorized]
Image credits: History Images
#55 Servicemen Test Radiation Levels On Christmas Island After A Nuclear Bomb Test In 1957
Image credits: History Images
#56 Ocean Liners Docked At The New York Passenger Ship Terminal, New York City, Circa 1960
Image credits: History Images
#57 Diane Keaton And Al Pacino During The Filming Of The Godfather In 1972
Image credits: History Images
#58 Sagrada Família, 1905. Barcelona, Spain. Colorized
Image credits: History Images
#59 House Built From A Tree Stump. “The Stump House On The Lennstrom Farm Near Edgecomb, Washington” 1905
Image credits: History Images
#60 Testing Football Helmets, 1912
Image credits: History Images
#61 Bonnie Parker, Of Bonnie And Clyde Fame C.1933
Image credits: History Images
#62 The Manhattan Bridge Is Under Construction. March 1909
Image credits: History Images
#63 The First Image Of Mercury, Was Taken By Nasa’s Mariner 10 In 1974
Image credits: History Images
#64 Fat Men’s Club Of NY (1904) Members Had To Be At Least 200 Pounds, Pay A $1 Fee To Enter, And Learn A Secret Handshake And Password
Image credits: History Images
#65 Sculptor Felix De Weldon Working On The Plaster Model Of The Us Marine Corps War Memorial, C. 1954. His Artwork Is Located Just Outside Of Arlington National Cemetery, In Virginia
Image credits: History Images
#66 Afghan Hunter With A Fox-Mask, 1970’s
Image credits: History Images
#67 The Mississippi River Freezes Solid In February 1905. A Woman Standing On The Mississippi River Beneath The Eads Bridge At St. Louis, Missouri, With Dozens Of People Behind Her Seen Walking Across The Frozen River
Image credits: History Images
#68 Fire Drill In Cloth Hall Museum In Kraków, Poland. The Painting In “Prussian Homage” By Jan Matejko. Poland, 1930
Image credits: History Images
#69 Apollo 13 Splashes Down In The South Pacific. 17 April 1970
Image credits: History Images
#70 A Photo Of An Engineer Wiring An Early Ibm Computer, 1958 By Berenice Abbott
Image credits: History Images
#71 Panoramic Shot From An Airship Of San Francisco, Razed To The Ground After An Earthquake And Subsequent City-Wide Fire, 1906
Image credits: History Images
#72 Ottoman Soldiers The Defenders Of Gaza In 1917. (Colorized)
Image credits: History Images
#73 The Colossi Of Memnon, Two Huge Statues Of Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III That Stand Where His Mortuary Temple Was Once Located, As They Appeared In 1857
Image credits: History Images
#74 French Destroyer Le Triomphant Had Her Bow Painted By Her Crew In Late 1940
Image credits: History Images
#75 A Pan American World Airways Flight Attendant Preparing In-Flight Meals In The Galley Of An Airliner, Circa 1950
Image credits: History Images
#76 A Rare Photo Of A Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet Flown By Eric Winkle Brown, 1945
Image credits: History Images
#77 Hydroplane Racer Dean Chenoweth Crashes The Miss Budweiser Hydroplane After A Speed Record Attempt In Which He Reached Over 200 Mph, Lake Washington, Seattle, 1979
Image credits: History Images
#78 The Twin Towers Under Construction At The World Trade Center, 1971
Image credits: History Images
#79 Alexander II In His Office In The Winter Palace, Between Circa 1875 And Circa 1877
Image credits: History Images
#80 The Ruins Of The Roman Temple Of Mercury At Puy De Dôme And A Nearby Observatory, 1900
Image credits: History Images
#81 Capt. Lowell H. Smith And Lt. John P. Richter Performed The First Aerial Refueling Using 2 United States Army Air Service Airco Dh-4b Biplanes. 27 June 1923
Image credits: History Images