Photos From History Thread

[Liquid]

1954 Chrysler New Yorker

It's not a period photograph but this is Howard Hughes' personal car. By this time, his compulsions had began to get the better of him. His personal car was fitted with a huge and heavy aircraft-grade air filter to ensure that the temperature, conditions and humidity in his car were absolutely perfect.

 

[Ibonibo]

I saw this site, and thaught I would share it here

http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/

There are some quite shocking, sad photos on there, so it's not for everyone. But that's history, humanity. And highly interesting

Neil Armstrong immediately after his, and mankind’s, very first moon walk, 1969.

A soldier faints from the heat at a crucial moment during the Trooping the Colour to mark Queen Elizabeth’s birthday in 1970.

Five Australian former prisoners of war catch up on news from home after their release from Japanese captivity in Singapore, September 1945.

Rudolf Hoess on the gallows, immediately before his execution, 1947.

Muslim members of the Waffen-SS 13th division at prayer during their training in Germany, 1943

During the Vietnam War on June 18, 1965 173rd Airborne Brigade Battalion member Larry Wayne Chaffin smiles for the camera.

This was a way for testing helmets back in 1912.

 

[Liquid]

Keystone Cops, 1914

One of the first truly successful comedy groups to appear on screen. Their calamitous escapades have become an endearing trope for over one hundred years now; the jerky film movement filmed in slow motion so it looked amusing in playback coupled with slapstick physical comedy and zig-zag chase scenes.

The most famous Keystone Kop is probably Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin is not in this photograph but some of the regular Cops are; the chief is Ford Sterling, behind him is Edgar Kennedy, with bulging eyes is Al St. John and on the far right is Fatty Arbuckle.

Some of their films are currently available on YouTube:

The Bangville Police (1913)
Barney Oldfield's Race For Life (1913) - Features the classic "damsel tied to a railway track"
A Thief Catcher (1914) - Charlie Chaplain's earliest Keystone Cop short
Love, Loot & Crash (1915)

 

[BobK]

I saw this site, and thaught I would share it here

http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/

Wow. That site is a gold mine. Thanks for sharing! 👍

I'd hate to admit how many of those photos I saw in the news.

 

[Liquid]

It's taken me 18 pages to realise I hadn't posted one of my favourite curiosities ever.

Robert Wadlow, 1918-1940

The tallest human being ever for whom there is absolutely irrefutable evidence. At 8ft 11in / 2.72m he was an absolute giant of a man. In the first photograph he is standing with his father, who was a perfectly normal 5ft 11 / 1.79m.

His height was due to a pituitary gland defect and he actually showed no signs of stopping his incredible growth by the time of his premature death aged 22, due to an infected blister around his ankle.

Birth: 1ft 8in / 0.51m --- 8lbs 6oz / 3.8kg
Aged 1: 3ft 6in / 1.07m --- 3st 3lbs / 45lbs / 20kg
Aged 5: 5ft 7 / 1.69m --- 10st / 140lbs / 64kg
Aged 10: 6ft 5in / 1.96m --- 15st / 210lbs / 95kg
Aged 15: 7ft 10in / 2.39m --- 25st 4lbs / 354lbs / 161kg
Aged 20: 8ft 7in / 2.62m --- 34st 12lbs / 488lbs / 221kg
Aged 22: 8ft 11in / 2.72m --- 31st 3lbs / 439lbs / 199kg

Here he is at the age of 12 alongside future world heavyweight boxing champion Primo Carnera, who himself was 6ft 5in / 1.96m.

 

[Lizard]

He must have had difficulty going through doors.

 

[SVT Cobra GT]

I dated a girl last year who said she was a distant relative of his. Like a great uncle or something.

 

[Liquid]

And he really does look like Steve Merchant.

 

[Touring Mars]

Peter Sellers as US President Merkin Muffley in the 1964 film 'Dr. Strangelove' by Stanley Kubrick.

The custard pie fight scene was never used.

 

[Liquid]

Eventual Site Of The Hoover Dam, 1904

Hoover Dam Being Filled In With Concrete, 1934

Lower Dam & Power Stations Under Construction, 1934

Reverse Of The Hoover Dam As The Reservoir Fills, 1935

Completed Dam, 1942

 

[Liquid]

East Berlin/West Berlin Border, 1955

Stand-off between border guards as a young girl makes a successful crossing into West Germany. 6 years later the Berlin Wall was erected to stop people fleeing to the west.

Marlon Brando's Makeup, The Godfather

 

[FoolKiller]

This popped up in my Facebook feed. I don't remember seeing it.

Famous musician's mug shots.

 

[Liquid]

What was Elvis arrested for?

 

[BobK]

Famous musician's mug shots.

No photos of Justin Bieber from one of the times he was busted?

Oh wait a minute -- you did say musicians. My bad.

 

[Adamgp]

What was Elvis arrested for?

Assault and Disorderly Conduct in 1956.

He got into a fist fight with a gas station owner.

 

[W3H5]

Is that Bowie up there on the middle right?

 

[Dennisch]

Is that Bowie up there on the middle right?

That's a yes.

 

[Dennisch]

 

[Liquid]

Commander Ian Fleming

During WWII. That's why Bond is a commander in the Royal Naval Reserve.

 

[lxmmy]

Manhattan Project​

Potsdam Conference​

Hiroshima

​

Nagasaki

Hirohito finally surrenders

​

 

[catamount39]

The first (guessing since these kinds of stunts were only pulled on special occasions) Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 "Big Boy" at ALCo's (American Locomotive Company) Schenectady, New York shops in 1941. The 596 ton beast is being pulled by 6 men, showing off the Timken roller bearings no doubt. The locomotive just fresh from the errecting shops, with only the tender having received a coat of black paint.

Judging by the piping on the handrails at the front (for the air pumps), I'm guessing this is from the latter of the "Group 1" 1941 builds like the 4014. 25 of these beasts in total would be built.

 

[SRV2LOW4ME]

I have this in HO scale and it's a beast in 1/87th as well.

 

[maxi25]

There's just something I find fascinating about old steam locomotives. I guess it's like what someone once said about how all the mechanical parts are outside to see in full motion. Those "Big Boys" where quite powerful right? I heard something like they could pull loads up to five miles long or whatnot.

 

[catamount39]

There's just something I find fascinating about old steam locomotives. I guess it's like what someone once said about how all the mechanical parts are outside to see in full motion. Those "Big Boys" where quite powerful right? I heard something like they could pull loads up to five miles long or whatnot.

The average train over the rough 1-2% grades of Sherman Hill, where the 4-8-8-4's were found most, wqs about 100-120 cars long. Tractive effort came in at about 135,000 pounds. They were capable of 80mph, but that was a safety factor. These in operation would have been limited to 50-70mph at most.

The end of the steam era came too early in the U.S., some of the N&W 2-8-8-2's built in the late 40's were as powerful as the Big Boy (though they were designed for slugging heavy coal drags of 100 cars in length in the Virginia's at 10-20mph usually, and then fast freights of 60-70 cars in length at 60mph), and had the C&O 2-6-6-6 Allegheny's been implemented properly, they could have exceeded their potential and enormous power of an estimated 7,500 drawbar horsepower (40mph), while the Big Boy at 40mph only produced 6,200 drawbar horsepower. Locomotives like the N&W Class J 4-8-4 were actually less expensive to maintain than diesels, and the 70" drivers they had were balanced well enough to hit 120mph. The engineering in the 40's was quite something.

The steam locomotive is the most beautiful, raw and vicious machine man has ever created. It leaves no secrets about it's power, and it can outperform what it's said to be capable of. They're almost alive, breathing, thundering beasts which I hope never leave this world. They may have been labeled as "obsolete", but they're capable of more than we think. Nothing is better than a steam locomotive running at full chat, or pounding up a mountain grade.

 

[Speedy Samurai]

Hirohito finally surrenders
View attachment 459529

​

This looks to be foreign minister Mamoru Shigemitsu.

 

[lxmmy]

This looks to be foreign minister Mamoru Shigemitsu.

It is. Signing Japanese instrument of surrender on behalf of Hirohito.

 

[Liquid]

Carl Jung & Sigmund Freud, 1907

Olympic Ads

Coca-Cola has been an Olympic Sponsor since the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. Here's one from the infamous 1936 Olympics:

"One People.
One Realm.
One Drink.

It's Coke"

Clint Eastwood Skateboarding

Rome, 1964

 

[lxmmy]

Truman's first meeting with Molotov. Probably the beginning of the Cold War.

​

 

[polysmut]

Two photos exist of blues musician Robert Johnson.

 

[Liquid]

1955