30 Images From Our Dark Past That Will Give You Goosebumps

Humans have gone a long way throughout the years. We’ve come from building homes from sticks and mud to building glass skyscrapers. However, our long story has never been smooth-sailing progress toward the best. History also has its worst, its deepest, and darkest moments.

#1 The Earliest Known Picture Of The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, Taken Just Moments After The Meltdown And Explosion Of Unit 4 On April 26, 1986

Image source: Igor Kostin

This is believed to be the first photograph ever taken of the accident, and the only photo that survives from that morning. Igor Kostin was a photographer from Kiev who became world famous for his images of the the clean-up operation. Kostin claims the image is very noisy because radiation was destroying the film in his camera. Of all the shots he took on that flight, this is the only one that wasn’t ruined.

#2 Nagasaki, Japan, Under Atomic Bomb Attack

Image source: Library Of Congress

#3 Adolf Hitler And His Entourage Walk Near The Eiffel Tower In Paris On June 23, 1940, Following The Occupation Of France By The Nazis

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

#4 Croatian Soldier In Front Of A Wall That Says “God If I Die Young Send Me To Heaven In Hell I Have Already Been”

#5 Anne Frank’s Father Otto, Revisiting The Attic Where They Hid From The Nazis. He Was The Only Surviving Family Member (1960)

Image source: Arnold Newman

Later the photographer Arnold Newman recalled taking of this photo: “The mood was depressing, and I immediately began photographing him. After a few moments, the Westertoren bells next door began to ring, and Frank turned to me and said: ‘Those were the bells that Anne wrote about.’ He suddenly broke down completely, weeping uncontrollably, and then so did I. We never met again. To this day when I lecture or tell this story to people, I find I choke up; I still can’t help myself.”

#6 An Ambulance Driver From The Indian Army Clenches His Hands, Indicating The Intense Pain In His Leg Which Has Been Almost Completely Blown Off. Korean War (1951)

Image source: revolutionbubbletea

#7 Nazi Rally Attended By The 20,000 Americans. Madison Square Garden, 1939

Image source: grittzcz, Marshall Curry

#8 Instant Of Test Nuclear Detonation Captured By Harold Edgerton’s Rapatronic Camera With Shutter Speed Of One Hundred Millionth Of A Second. Circa 1950s

Image source: synternia, Harold Edgerton

Automatic camera by Harold Edgerton situated 7 miles from blast with 10 foot lens. Shutter speed equaled 1/100,000,000 of a second exposure.

#9 The Gadget, The First Atomic Bomb, 1945

Image source: U.S. Department of Energy

#10 Rear View Of Woman Standing At Berlin Wall, In The West Sector, With Hands Raised. After Waiting Three Hours To See Her East Berlin Friends And Relatives

Image source: Dan Budnik

#11 With Her Brother On Her Back, A War-Weary Korean Girl Tiredly Trudges By A Stalled M-26 Tank At Haengju, Korea. 1951-09-06

Image source: National Archives

#12 Human Zoos Existed. These Photos Taken In 1904, Where Us Government Imported 1,300 Indigenous Filipinos From Different Tribes To Display At The St. Louis Exposition In 1904

Image source: Library of Congress, Library of Congress

Filipino Zoo Girl was displayed at the Coney Island Zoo in 1904. She was a zoo attraction among the monkeys and lizards to show off the new US possessions in the Philippines. She was bound by ropes. Visitors threw her peanuts.

#13 Coal Miners In Belgium Crammed Into A Coal Mine Elevator, Coming Up After A Day Of Work, Circa 1900

Image source: reddit.com

#14 The Dog Tags Of 58,307 US Soldiers Killed During The Vietnam War At The Harold Washington Library Center, Chicago

Image source: sasha_man123

#15 Runaway Slave Peter, Exposing His Severely Whipped Back

Image source: JaeSolomon, Wikimedia Commons

Peter had received a severe whipping for undisclosed reasons in the fall of 1862. Peter escaped in March 1863 from the 3,000 acre plantation of John & Bridget Lyons, who held him and 40 other people in slavery at the time of the 1860 census.

Baton Rouge, La., 2 April, 1863: “Overseer Artayou Carrier whipped me. I was two months in bed sore from the whipping. My master come after I was whipped; he discharged the overseer. The very words of poor Peter, taken as he sat for his picture.”

#16 “A Watch Stopped At 08:15 AM Found In Hiroshima”. August 1945

Image source: tiggerclaw, abcnews

#17 A Patient Undergoing Treatment For Mental Illness, Germany 1890

Image source: unknown

This 1890 photo depicts a woman forced into a crucifixion pose and facing a wall. The woman is a patient at a mental institution, undergoing treatment. Believe it or not, forced standing was considered a legitimate part of treatment for mental illness in 19th century Germany.

#18 Ebensee Concentration Camp Prisoners. 1945

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

#19 Father Luis Manuel Padilla Holds A Wounded Government Rifleman Shot Down In The Streets Of Puerto Cabello, Venezuela

Image source: Hector Rondon, Through A Historic Lens

During a bloody revolt against President Betancourt in June 1962.

#20 Hungarian Jews Being Selected By Nazis To Be Sent To The Gas Chamber At Auschwitz Concentration Camp, Auschwitz Album 1944

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

#21 An Inmate At The Rab Concentration Camp

Image source: Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Commons

#22 A Ku Klux Klan Child And A Black State Trooper Meet Each Other, At A Klan Rally Protest In Gainesville, GA (1992)

Image source: Todd Robertson

Innocence is mixed with hate. The toddler approached the trooper, who was holding his riot shield on the ground. Seeing his reflection, the boy reached for the shield.

#23 Dorothy Counts, The First Black Student To Attend An All-White School In The United States. Shown In This Photo Teased And Mocked By Her White Male Classmates

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

#24 A Scene At A London Railway Station Showing Troops Arriving While Kiddies Who Are Being Evacuated From London Leave

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

#25 A Few Of The Thousands Of Wedding Rings The Nazis Removed From Holocaust Victims To Salvage The Gold

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

The U.S. troops found rings, watches, precious stones, eyeglasses, and gold fillings, near Buchenwald concentration camp. 1945 May 5.

#26 Red Rebels Are Being Executed In Varkaus During The Insurrection In Finland In 1918

Image source: Ivar Ekström

#27 Nurses In Their Bomb Trenches Between Hospital Wards. France 1918

Image source: pubwithnobeer, ajhydell.com

#28 Blanche Monnier Was A Woman From Poitiers, France, Who Was Secretly Kept Locked In A Small Room By Her Aristocratic Mother And Brother For 26 Years

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

She was eventually found by police, then middle-aged and in an emaciated and filthy condition; according to officials, Monnier had not seen any sunlight for her entire captivity.

#29 George McLaurin, First African-American Student Admitted To The University Of Oklahoma, Forced To Sit Apart From White Students. 1948

Image source: toshiro-mifune, Library of Congress

#30 War In Ukraine

Image source: dguttenfelder, dguttenfelder