15 Incredible Historical Photographs

This is a selection of photographs of some of the most important or
famous historical events that have occurred since photography was
invented. In 1884, George Eastman developed the technology of film to
replace photographic plates, leading to the technology used by film
cameras today; nevertheless, many images exist from before that time
that we taken via other photographic methods. Click the photographs for
a larger view.

1. The First Photograph [France, 1826]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Taken by Nicéphore Niépce, this is the first photograph ever taken
which still exists. He called his method heliography (sun writing) and
this photograph took 8 hours of exposure time (hence sunlight on both
sides of the building).

2. Looking Down Sacramento Street [San Francisco, 1906]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This photo was taken on April 18th, 1906. It is the most famous
photograph of the devastation caused by the great fire and earthquake.
It was taken by Arnold Genthe on a borrowed camera.

3. Breaker Boys [Pennsylvania, 1910]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This is a photograph of breaker boys – child labour used to separate
coal from slate. This image helped lead the nation to outlaw child
labour. The photo was taken by Lewis Hine who travelled the United
States taking photographs of child labourers.

4. The Lynching of Young Blacks [Indiana, 1930]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This photograph was taken after the lynching of two young black men
accused of raping a white girl. They were hanged by a mob of 10,000.
The faces of the crowd are very telling. A third man was saved by the
girls uncle who said he was innocent.

5. Migrant Mother [Oklahoma, 1936]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This photograph of Florence Owens Thompson (32 year old mother of 7)
is one of the great representations of the Great Depression. The
photograph was taken by Dorothea Lange after Florence had sold her tent
to provide food for her children.

6. Hitler in Paris [Paris, 1940]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This photograph was taken of Adolf Hitler visiting Paris with his
architect Albert Speer, on June 23, 1940. Hitler’s army had captured
Paris and Hitler went to admire his new City.















7. The Last Jew in Vinnitsa [Ukraine, 1941]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This was found in the personal album of an Einsatzgruppen soldier.
It was labelled on the back “The last Jew of Vinnitsa”. All 28,000 of
the Jews living there were killed at the time.

8. V-J Day [New York, 1945]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This is one of the most famous photographs from the Second World War.
The soldier and the nurse are unknown but people have come forward to
claim the fame. Apparently the nurse slapped the soldier immediately
after. The event was the celebration of the end of the war and it was
taken in Times Square by Alfred Eisenstaedt.

9. Soviet Flag raised above the Reichstag [Berlin, 1945]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Soviet Union soldiers Raqymzhan Qoshqarbaev, and Georgij Bulatov
raising the flag on the roof of Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany in
May, 1945. The photograph was taken by Yevgeny Khaldei.

10. Vatican II Begins [Vatican City, 1960]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This is a photograph of Pope John XXIII signing the document that
officially started the Second Vatican Council. After his death, Pope
Paul VI continued the council which was to change the Catholic Church so
much that has become barely a reflection of what it was before. On his
deathbed, John XXIII is rumoured to have said “Stop the council!”

11. The Body of Che Guevara [Bolivia, 1967]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

After capturing and killing Guevara (Marxist revolutionary), the
Bolivian army showed this photograph to prove that he was dead. His
death dealt a death blow to the socialist revolutionary movement in
Latin America and the Third World.

12. Execution of a Viet Cong Guerrilla [Vietnam, 1968]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Photographer Eddie Adams took this photograph of Nguyen Ngoc Loan,
South Vietnam’s national police chief executing this Viet Cong captain.
Adams later said that he regretted that the world did not see Loan as a
hero for his actions in Vietnam.

13. Footprint on the Moon [Lunar, 1969]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong put his left foot on the rocky Moon.
It was the first human footprint on the Moon. They had taken TV cameras
with them. The first footprints on the Moon will be there for a million
years. This photograph was taken by Buzz Aldrin.

14. Phan Th? Kim Phúc [Vietnam, 1972]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The girl in the centre of this photograph is 9 year olf Kim Phúc.
She is running from a napalm attack which caused serious burns on her
back. The boy is her older brother. Both survived. This photo (by
Huynh Cong Ut) became one of the most published of the Vietnam war.

15. Tiananmen Square [China, 1989]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Probably the most famous image from the student uprising in China in
1989, this photograph shows a single person blocking the tanks that were
emerging on the square. The man survived but shortly after the square
was filled with innocent blood.
-listverse.com-