Fifty fascinating photos taken throughout history
These 50 photos taken throughout history tell humanities story so far, through it’s best moments, its worst and the moment in between – the moments that would otherwise be forgotten if they weren’t photographed. When you look at these you can’t help but wonder what photos people will look back one day to remember the 21st century.
Before you leave, visit our ‘Olden Day’s image gallery for more vintage photos – link at the end of the image gallery.
Note: 60+Club does not own rights or claim ownership of the below images. Photography credit has been referenced where possible from sourcing images.
The burning monk, 1963.
Deputy Mayor Ernst Kurt Lisso and his family after committing suicide by cyanide to avoid capture by US troops, 1945.
A guard of honour passes out as Queen Elizabeth II rides past during the Trooping the Colour parade, 1970.
Australian soldiers after their release from Japanese captivity in Singapore, 1945.
Australian soldiers carrying Prime Minister Billy Hughes down George Street in triumph, after his return from the Paris Peace Conference. Sydney, Australia, 1919.
Italian Cavalry School, 1906.
The shells from an allied creeping bombardment on German lines, 1916.
Elephant-mounted machine-gun, 1914.
Testing football helmets, 1912.
The remains of the astronaut Vladimir Komarov, a man who fell from space, 1967.
Simone Segouin, the 18 year old French Résistance fighter, 1944.
Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces with gas masks and rubber gloves during a chemical attack, Battle of Shanghai, 1937.
NASA scientists with their board of calculations, 1961.
Conrad Schumann defects to West Berlin, 1961.
The ruins of Dresden, 1945.
Female IRA fighter, 1970s.
A KKK child and a black State Trooper meet each other, 1992.
Bison (American buffalo) skulls to be used for fertilizer, 1870.
Fidel Castro smoking a cigar and wearing two Rolex watches during a meeting with Khrushchev, Kremlin, 1963.
Theodore Roosevelt’s diary the day his wife and mother died within hours of each other on Valentine’s Day, 1884.
Subscribe to our newsletter
Feeding polar bears from a tank, 1950.
Job hunting in 1930’s.
Women boxing on a roof, 1938.
American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell confronting Martin Luther King Jr., 1965.
The class divide in pre-war Britain, 1937.
German soldiers react to footage of concentration camps, 1945.
The last public execution by guillotine, France, 1939.
The ruins of Berlin at the end of the War, 1945.
John F. Kennedy’s coffin lies in state in the Capitol Building, 1963.
Evelyn McHale who leapt to her death from the Empire State Building, 1947.
American soldiers returning after V-Day to New York harbour on a crowded ship, 1945.
Due to a shortage of stockings in 1942 women would paint them on instead.
Georges Blind, a member of the French resistance, smiling at a German firing squad, 1944.
This was a mock execution attempting to get the resistance fighter to talk. It didn’t work. Georges did not divulge any information. Blind died in a concentration camp later the same year.
The Reichstag covered in graffiti after being seized from the Nazis by the Red Army, 1945.
100,000 Iranian women March against the hijab law, Tehran 1979.
German soldier gives bread to an orphaned Russian boy, 1942.
Turkish official teasing starved children with bread during the Armenian Genocide, 1915.
The first ever press pictures of dead U.S. soldiers that were presented to the public, “The Face Of War”, 1943.
Maori Battalion haka in Egypt, 1941.
Testing a bulletproof vest in 1923.
Subscribe to our newsletter
General Patton’s dog on the day of Patton’s death on December 21st, 1945.
Einstein’s desk photographed a day after his death.
A lucky British soldier showing off his damaged helmet, 1918.
Aftermath of The Great Fire of Toronto in 1904.
Navajo riders in the Canyon de Chelly, Arizona. 1904, photo taken by Edward Curtis.
Relatives of Titanic survivors waiting for their loved ones at Southampton, 1912.
U.S. gun crew from Regimental Headquarters Company, 23rd Infantry fires a 37mm gun against German entrenched positions on the first day of the Meuse-Argonne offensive (September 26, 1918).
The bodies of Benito Mussolini and other fascists hung up for display after being executed, 29 April 1945 in Milan.
Russian soldiers in a Gaoliang field. Russo-Japanese war, 1904-1905. Photo taken by Prokudin-Gorsky.
Highway of Death, The result of American forces bombing retreating Iraqi forces, Kuwait, 1991.
While you’re here, visit our ‘Olden Day’s image gallery for more vintage photos.
Subscribe to our newsletter