“History Defined”: 40 Incredible Photos That Capture The Essence Of The Past

The Instagram account History Defined, with over 150,000 followers, excels in sharing knowledge through captivating images. Dedicated to exploring history’s most fascinating people and events, History Defined brings the past to life in a visually engaging way. 

#1 A Photo Of Freddie Mercury, 1958

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#2 A Young Boy Gets A Photo Taken Moments After The First Plane Hit The World Trade Center. Notice The People In The Background Who Have Not Yet Noticed

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#3 Sergeant William Henry “Black Death” Johnson Of The Harlem Hellfighters Wearing His Croix De Guerre Medal Ca. 1918. In Northern France, Johnson Single-Handedly Fought Off A German Raiding Party Receiving 21 Wounds In Order To Save Fellow Soldier Pvt Needham Roberts

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#4 A Young Agatha Christie

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#5 Douglas Bent, A U.S. Navy Petty Officer, Was Captured During The Vietnam War. His Captors Thought Him Unintelligent, Earning Him The Moniker “The Stupid.” He Feigned Ignorance, Opting To Hum A Song Instead Of Speaking

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While in captivity, bent maintained this act, leading his Vietnamese captors to believe he suffered from a mental disorder. After being freed and returning to the United States, Bent astounded everyone by listing approximately 256 names of missing fellow pows. He had ingeniously memorized their names by associating them with the melody of “Old McDonald Had a Farm,” the same tune he hummed throughout his imprisonment

#6 Blackfoot Tribe In Glacier National Park, 1913

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#7 Gunnar Kaasen And His Team Of 13 Dogs, LED By The Siberian Husky, Balto, Completed The Last Leg Of A 1925 Trip To Deliver 300,000 Units Of Diphtheria Antitoxin To Nome, Alaska To Prevent An Outbreak. They Traveled By Night In Temperatures Of -23 °f (-31 °c)

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#8 Two Boys Show Each Other Different Skills, Kenya, 1962. 9-Year-Old Kevin From New York Had Come To Kenya To Join His Stepfather As Guest Of A Maasai Tribe, Where He And The Chief’s Son Dionni Became Close Companions

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#9 Mississippi’s First Interracial Couple Recognized By The State, August 3, 1970

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#10 Wo Men Remove The Preserved Carcass Of A Juvenile Mammoth That Was Unintentionally Excavated From The Permafrost In Siberia In 1977 By A Miner’s Bulldozer. ⁣ He Died At The Age Of 6-8 Months, Named “Dima” After A Local Creek, Some 40,000 Years Ago. His Stomach Still Contained Traces Of His Mother’s Milk

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#11 The Coney Island Sideshow Was Run By Martin Couney, Also Known As “The Incubator Doctor,” Who Saved More Than 7,000 Premature Babies Throughout His Lifetime By Exhibiting Them In Incubators And Allowing Visitors To Pay 25 Cents To View Them

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Back in the early 1900s, many eugenicists believed that premature babies were not worth saving because they were destined to die. But Couney challenged this idea by demonstrating the success of incubators, which he had first seen being used as “Child hatcheries” at the Chicago World’s Fair. By the time Couney’s Coney Island sideshow closed in 1943, nearly every hospital in America had adopted incubators

#12 The 1973 Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photograph “Burst Of Joy,” Taken By Sal Vedar. A Former Us Prisoner Of War Is Shown Being Reunited With His Family

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#13 Letter From John Steinbeck To Marilyn Monroe

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#14 Anne Frank Photographed With Her Sister Margot At The Beach In Zandvoort, Netherlands, In 1940

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#15 A Peruvian Woman And Her Baby In The Andes, 1930s

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#16 Two Girls Gallop Full Speed On Sheep In Cornwall, England 1969. Photo By John Drysdale

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#17 Photo Of A Soviet War Veteran Near The Eternal Flame On The Anniversary Of Victory Day, 1966

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#18 Teenagers Dressed For A High School Dance In The 1920s

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#19 Mister Rogers Received A Letter From A Blind Girl Who Was Concerned About His Fish, As She Had Heard Him Mention Them. Worried That They Might Not Be Getting Fed, He Started A Heartwarming Tradition. At The Conclusion Of Each Subsequent Show, He Would Narrate, “I’m Feeding The Fish”

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#20 At 3 A.m. One Night In 1988, Hawaiian Singer Israel Kamakawiwo’ole Called A Local Studio And Said He Needed To Record Something Immediately. He Pleaded With The Engineer: “Please, Can I Come In? I Have An Idea.” Kamakawiwo’ole Recorded The Iconic Version Of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” In One Take, Which Would Soon Touch Countless People Across The Globe

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#21 In 1925, A Man Flying From Casablanca To Dakar Photographed A Barbary Lion In The Atlas Mountains. This Photo Is Special Because It’s The Last Known Picture Of A Wild Barbary Lion Before They Went Extinct

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#22 The Jaws Of An Ancient Megalodon Shark That Lived Around 23 To 3.6 Million Years Ago vs. A Modern-Day Great White

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#23 In November 1943, Berlin Zoo Faced Heavy Bombing From Allied Forces. Within Minutes, A Devastating 30% Of The Zoo’s Population Had Perished. Despite The Chaos, Keepers Risked Life And Limb To Rescue Panicked Animals

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#24 Calamity Jane At The Grave Of Wild Bill Hickok In Deadwood, South Dakota, 1903

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#25 Little Girl And Her Pet Toad At A Pet Show, Venice Beach, California, 1936

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#26 In 1902, 18-Year-Old Alice Roosevelt Was Known For Her Rebellious And Independent Spirit. Alice Was Known For Her Unusual Habits, Such As Wearing Pants, Driving Cars, Smoking Cigarettes, Betting With Bookies, And Dancing On Rooftops

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#27 American Soldier Reunites With His Wife At Train Station Fittingly Named”New Hope.” Us, 1945

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#28 Wedding Rings Removed From Holocaust Victims Before They Were Executed, 1945

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#29 Spanish Woman Fighting For The Republican Loyalists In The Spanish Civil War

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#30 Monet With A Pigeon On His Head, And His Wife Alice, Venice, 1908

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#31 Witold Pilecki, A Member Of The Secret Polish Army, Intentionally Let Himself Be Caught By German Policemen During A Roundup In Warsaw To Get Arrested & Be Sent To Auschwitz To Set Up A Resistance Network There. The Mission Was A Success

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#32 Two Brothers From East And West Berlin Reunite At Checkpoint Charlie After The East German Government Agreed To Open The Wall For Christmas, 1963

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#33 British Soldier Retrieving Bandages From The Kit Of A Dog During Wwi, 1915

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#34 This Photo Shows John Lewis Being Arrested In Tennessee In 1961 For Organizing And Participating In Civil Rights Demonstrations

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#35 This Photograph Shows A Native American Man Looking Over The Newly Completed Transcontinental Railroad In Nevada In The Year 1869. Let’s Assume The Man Was Around Forty And Was Born In The 1820s. The Changes He Must Have Seen Are Astonishing

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#36 Longmen Grottoes In Henan Province, China. Over 2,300 Caves Filled With Over 100,000 Statues Of All Sizes, 4th-10th-Centuries Ad

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#37 Four Physicists Take A Walk: Albert Einstein, Hideki Yukawa, John Wheeler, And Homi Bhabha, 1954

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#38 Pictured Here Is Willemien Rieken. She Was Only 9 Years Old When She First Began Laying Flowers On The Grave Of William Edmond, A British Soldier Who Fought And Died To Liberate Her Dutch Village. From The Day He Died, And For 75 Years, She Looked After His Grave And Kept His Memory Alive

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#39 One Of The Greatest Discoveries Of Archaeology: Oseberg Viking Ship, Tønsberg, Norway, C. 834 Ad

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#40 The 1949 Nash Airflyte Was Designed With Seats That Reclined Into Convertible Beds. In 1936, Nash Motors Introduced The “Bed-In-A-Car” Feature. Actress Carol Burnett Said She Was Probably Conceived In A Nash Sleeper Seat

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