22 Fascinating Photos Of Incredible Historic Moments From Decades Ago

Reviewing our history can be a fascinating pastime that reveals so much about the evolution of our species. Various things we take for granted now would not have been achieved if someone in the past had not fought for them. It’s amazing to look back on photographs that capture such rare moments. Allowing us the opportunity to gain more depth and understanding of those incidents.

#1 Mississippi’s first interracial marriage, August 1970.

Image source: historic

#2 On February 8th, 1943, Nazis hung 17-year-old Lepa Radić for being a Yugoslavian Partisan during World War II. When they asked her the names of her companions, she replied: “You will know them when they come to avenge me.”

Image source: historic

#3 A portrait of the Twin Towers in NYC made with the faces of the victims of the 9/11 attacks on the towers.

Image source: historic

#4 Barack Obama with his mother on Halloween (1964)

Image source: historic

#5 Princess Diana on a yacht in Portofino, Italy, in August 1997. She died on the 31st of the same month

Image source: historic

#6 1967: Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston marathon. After realizing a woman was running, organizer Jock Semple went after her to stop her. However, Switzers boyfriend and other runners provided a protective shield to protect her for the entire marathon.

Image source: historic

#7 Simone Segouin

Simone Segouin, mostly known by her codename, Nicole Minet, was only 18-years-old when the Germans invaded. Her first act of rebellion was to steal a bicycle from a German military administration, and to slice the tires of all of the other bikes and motorcycles so they couldn’t pursue her. She found a pocket of the Resistance and joined the fight, using the stolen bike to deliver messages between Resistance groups. She was an extremely fast learner and quickly became an expert at tactics and explosives. She led teams of Resistance fighters to capture German troops, set traps, and sabotage German equipment. As the war dragged on, her deeds escalated to derailing German trains, blocking roads, blowing up bridges and helping to create a German-free path to help the Allied forces retake France from the inside. She was never caught. Segouin was present at the liberation of Chartres on August 23, 1944, and then the liberation of Paris two days later. She was promoted to lieutenant and awarded several medals, including the Croix de Guerre. After the war, she studied medicine and became a pediatric nurse. She is still going strong, and this October (2021) she will turn 96.

Image source: historic

#8 When Jim Carrey met Stephen Hawking.

Image source: historic

#9 A member of the 369th Infantry Regiment (aka “Harlem Hellfighters”) holds a puppy that he saved during World War I (1918)

Image source: historic

#10 A young boy playing the banjo with his best friend, circa early 1900s.

Image source: historic

#11 One of the earliest photos showing a Native American with a wolf – unlike the myths created about wolves by settlers, Indians maintained a close and respectful relationship with wolves.

Image source: historic

#12 David Bowie chatting with Freddie Mercury backstage at Live Aid, 1985.

Image source: historic

#13 In 1964 a group of high school kids skipped class to go see the Beatles. They didn’t get into the concert but while they were driving Ringo pulled up beside them and snapped their picture. When they told their friends no one believed them. Fast forward 50 years and Ringo publishes a book of his photographs. They were in it. They retook the shot as a look today.

Image source: historic

#14 The creator of the popular cartoon Shrek, William Steig, drew his character from the professional wrestler Maurice Tillet. The real prototype knew 14 languages, played chess brilliantly, and despite his frightening face and great strength at first glance, he was a very modest and friendly man. He was born in 1903 in Russia, in the Urals, into a French family, which in 1917 returned to France in connection with the revolution.

Image source: historic

#15 This is such a powerful photo. It was taken in April, 1945, by Major Clarence Benjamin and shows a train of Jewish prisoners that had been intercepted by Allied Forces. This is the moment they learned that the train would not be heading to a Concentration Camp and they had been liberated.

Image source: historic

#16 The couple on the Woodstock album cover is still together 50 years later.

Image source: historic

#17 Members of the Blackfoot Tribe in Glacier National Park, 1913.

Image source: historic

#18 Horace Greasley

The man’s name on the left was Horace Greasley. He was a British POW famous for escaping over 200 times to visit his girlfriend, a local Jewish girl. Why did he keep going back? Loyalty. He returned every time with extra food or other contraband to share with his fellow captives. Greasley spent 5 years as a prisoner of war, during which time he served as camp barber and worked in the marble quarries. Following capture, the men were forced to march for ten weeks from France to Poland. The men suffered deplorable conditions and spent a winter, in temperatures as low as -40C, lodged in an old horse stable. Those who survived the march and train transfer were beaten, tortured, and starved. Greasley was once beaten so badly he lay unconscious for 2 days. In 2008, his biography, “Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell?” was published. Two years after its release, he died at age 91. When I see this photo, I always admire the defiance in his face. He refused to be broken. Be that guy. Oh and by the way, the German officer he’s staring down is Heinrich Himmler.

Image source: historic

#19 “The Kiss of Life”

Randall Champion accidentally touched a low-voltage line, electrifying himself and stopping his heart. A fellow linemen J.D. Thompson performed mouth-to-mouth CPR until paramedics arrived. Champion survived. This famous photo is known as “The Kiss of Life.” (1967) (Photo by Rocco Morabito) Taken in 1967 by Rocco Morabito, this photo called “The Kiss of Life” shows a utility worker named J.D. Thompson giving mouth-to-mouth to co-worker Randall G. Champion after he went unconscious following contact with a low voltage line. They had been performing routine maintenance when Champion brushed one of the low voltage lines at the very top of the utility pole. His safety harness prevented a fall, and Thompson, who had been ascending below him, quickly reached him and performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He was unable to perform CPR given the circumstances, but continued breathing into Champion’s lungs until he felt a slight pulse, then unbuckled his harness and descended with him on his shoulder. Thompson and another worker administered CPR on the ground, and Champion was moderately revived by the time paramedics arrived, eventually making a full recovery. What’s even more incredible is Champion not only survived this thanks to Thompson, but he lived an extra 35 years. He died in 2002 at 64 years old. Thompson is still alive today. Rocco Morabito was driving on West 26th Street in July 1967 on another assignment when he saw Champion dangling from the pole. He called an ambulance and grabbed his camera. “I passed these men working and went on to my assignment”, says Morabito. “I took eight pictures at the strike. I thought I’d go back and see if I could rind another picture”. But when Morabito gets back to the linemen, “I heard screaming. I looked up and I saw this man hanging down. Oh my God. I didn’t know what to do. I took a picture right quickly. J.D. Thompson was running toward the pole. I went to my car and called an ambulance. I got back to the pole and J.D. was breathing into Champion. I backed off, way off until I hit a house and I couldn’t go any farther. I took another picture. Then I heard Thompson shouting down: He’s breathing!”.

Image source: historic

#20 On November 27, 1967, a soldier of the 30th regiment of the Baekma Division (백마부대) rescues Vietnamese children at the battle of Dien Can. This soldier’s name is An Sang-Byung (안상병).

Image source: historic

#21 This is a colorized photo of 16 year old German soldier, Hans-Georg Henke, crying as he is captured by the US 9th Army in Germany on April 3rd, 1945. He was a member of the Luftwaffe anti-air squad and burst into tears as his world crumbled around him. His father died in 1938, but when his mother died in 1944 leaving the family destitute, Hans-Georg had to find work in order to support the family. At 15 years of age he joined the Luftwaffe

Image source: historic

#22 German Soldiers React To Footage Of Concentration Camps, 1945.

Image source: historic