15 Fascinating Pics and Crazy Stories From History

1.

School children salute the flag in the US in 1915. This was known as the Bellamy salute and was the same as the Nazi salute well before the Nazis existed. Once Germany became an enemy of the US, the Pledge of Allegiance salute was formally changed.

2.

A mental patient is restrained in an Asylum in Yorkshire, England in 1869.

3.

A woman takes a portrait with one of her child slaves in New Orleans, the US in 1850.

4.

A child shows his missing limbs to missionaries in the Belgian Congo in 1905. The limbs were cut off by state militia after the family missed its quota of goods production. This was a common punishment in King Leopold's privately owned Belgian Congo at the time.

5.

People jeer as a woman has her head shaved for having a relationship with a Nazi after the liberation of Marseilles, France in 1944. She would be stripped to her underwear, have the Swastika written on her forehead, and paraded in the center of town shortly afterward.

6.

A promotional picture for the film “Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages”, which was a 1922 Swedish-Danish silent film.

7.

Monopoly board created by POWs held captive in the Philippines by the Japanese during WWII

8.

Arthritis-ridden Renoir painting flowers in his garden, circa 1910s

9.

A river pirate who killed at least 6 people including gouging a victims eyes out is awaiting his execution in China in 1900.He is standing on stones or wood beams. Each day, 1 will be removed as his head is secured on the top. Eventually he will have nothing to stand on and strangle to death.

10.

Alcatraz Prison Menu from 1946. The food in Alcatraz Prison was so good that the guards and prison staff ate the same exact meals as the prisoners. This was because the warden believed most trouble in prison is caused by bad food.

11.

The identification card of Anny Horowitz, a French Jewish girl murdered in Auschwitz, in 1940

12.

A Japanese balloon bomb. Late in WW2 the Japanese attached bombs to balloons and sent them drifting to the western US coast. The only one that killed anybody, killed a pastor’s wife and five kids on a Sunday School picnic in Bly, Oregon

13.

US intelligence images of how Hitler could have disguised himself, 1944

14.

Prison labor, Pitt County North Carolina, 1910. The prisoners were transported in caged wagons to road work projects. Note the cook, musician, armed deputy, and bloodhounds.

15.

Carrie Nation and Her Saloon Smashing Ax, 1901. Carrie Nation, like many women of her era, believed alcohol and alcoholism contributed to nearly all the world’s problems. Rather than simply march or give speeches (which she did), Carrie took her crusade one step further and used her little hatchet there to break up saloons and bars. Literally, hacking bars, tables, doors, bottles, and driving patrons away. She was arrested more than a dozen times for property damage, disturbing the peace, etc.