20 Seldom Seen Interesting Images From History

1.

A women prepares for her tanning session in NYC, US in 1930. The crude tanning methods had unforeseen dangers such as skin cancer and even severe burns, with only eyewear to protect any of the patients. Beauty methods for thousands of years often had ways of killing the people using them, from the Egyptians and their soaps and creams to the Chinese and how they changed the shape of their figures to even how royals lightened their skin in Europe hundreds of years ago to this.

2.

British soldiers question suspected insurgents during the Aden Emergency Insurgency in what is now Yemen in 1965. The uprising was a lot of protests and guerrilla warfare, with designed hit and run raids and assassinations against British targets. The British would often retaliate against locals, especially protesters by either jailing them or, in rare cases, executions. This uprising took 4 years before the British withdrew, and despite constant demonstrations, its death total was actually light when compared to similar uprisings in Africa and the Middle East around the time. Upwards of 100 British troops and 17 loyal South Arabian soldiers were killed, with nearly 600 combined wounded. Up to 400 insurgents were killed, with another 1700 wounded and countless others jailed.

3.

Japanese prisoners of war on Guam bow their heads as they listen to a radio broadcast of Emperor Hirohito announcing Japan's unconditional surrender in 1945. As the war came closer to an end, more and more Japanese soldiers actually did surrender rather than kill themselves or try suicidal attacks. It even got to a point where dropping the atomic bomb was questioned whether it was even necessary after how quickly Japan lost Manchuria when the Soviets began their advance in Asia. Its a debate historians still argue today as each side has valid points for the dropping and against it.

4.

2 Soviet soldiers wearing unique tartar caps sometime in the mid 1930s. The caps are unique and are not in too many pictures of the Red Army of the time period.

5.

A phone booth in Leningrad, Russia in 1929.

6.

Michigan National Guardsman move down a looted street as a small boy shows he is not armed during the destructive riots in Detroit, US in 1967. The riots started with a police crackdown, which resulted in a huge respond from the black communities. This was during a time of heavy racial tensions in the US. In fact, in the summer of 1967 alone, 159 documented race riots occurred throughout the country. This one was the worst.

7.

Continuing from the previous picture, the rioters spent 4 days destroying many buildings and clashing with police and the military. They attacked white and black owned business alike, and trashed some neighborhoods. They fought directly with police and the army, killing up to 10 of them. When it was all said and done, a total of 43 people were killed, with nearly 1,200 wounded. Another 7,000 people were arrested, and some 2,000 buildings were destroyed. This picture shows a white middle class residential area with many homes burned to the ground. It was a truly ugly riot for those who lived it.

8.

Children affected by Thalidomide in a special primary school in England in 1968. The drug was sold by a German pharmaceutical company right over the counter in the late 1950s and 1960s to cure many things, including morning sickness for pregnant women. However, that caused around 10,000 worldwide cases of phocomelia, which is when your limbs do not grow properly, which the drug itself caused. Around half of those babies survived, and ended up like these children. It took over a decade to get the drug to stop selling to pregnant women, and the scandal caused harder regulations on the effects of such drugs. Interesting note though, the drug is still in use in certain variations that treats things like cancer and leprosy.

9.

Protesters are confronted by the military in Burma (now Myanmar) in 1988. This was part of the 8888 Uprising, which had over 2 million civilians take part in. It started with student protests, and saw monks and civilians join in huge numbers. Like similar movements around the world, these were pro-democratic movements, demanding changes. And also like similar movements especially in Asia at the time, the response from the government was brutal. Sometime after this picture was taken, the soldiers would fire into the crowd. At major demonstrations around the country, similar actions took place. The government soldiers killed up to 10,000 people, wounding countless more. Tens of thousands of people fled, joining insurgent groups in neighboring countries to fight back.

10.

A women wears a special facial mask with cubes filled with cold water to protect her makeup somewhere in the US in the 1930s. As movies and magazines grew in popularity, more and more bizarre inventions and techniques surfaced for women to accentuate their looks or features.

11.

An aerial view of The Highway of Death in Iraq in 1991. The highway was 6 lanes and used by the Iraqi Army to invade Kuwait. It was also being used during their retreat. While retreating, coalition forces, and mainly US planes, attacked the column destroying more than 2000 vehicles and killing up to 600 people. An unknown number of civilians either as hostages or part of the column were also killed. It became controversial when the images of the charred bodies appeared to the public. Hundreds of people burned alive screaming in an unimaginable horror. Survivors tell the story as if it is straight out of a terror film. Many of those pictures can be seen online, but they are truly gruesome. Most Iraqi forces still escaped, and the objective of the bombings wasn't even achieved. Almost immediately following the bombing and possibly because of it, the US ceased operations against Iraq. This decision would keep Saddam Hussein in power for another 12 years.

12.

Chilean soldiers stand at attention in Santiago, Chile in 1978. This was under the dictator Augusto Pinochet, who modelled much of his military's style after the Nazi's. The dictatorship was brutal at times. In 17 years, some 3,000 political opponents "disappeared", another 20,000 tortured and imprisoned, and even further another 200,000 exiled. The military dictatorship which ruled Chile in some capacity up until 1990, started in 1973 with a US backed coup. As the US government and its CIA had done numerous times throughout the world in the last 100 years, they chose who should head a foreign country by installing a supposed US friendly dictator with disastrous results.

13.

Jews praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Israel in 1899. The entire area was controlled by the British at the time, but prayer was allowed. Often in the history of the Middle East and especially Israel, when the area was controlled by an outside group such as the Romans to the Christian Crusaders to the Muslim Ottoman Empire to the British Mandate, the local Jews, Christians or Muslims could still pray their own way, but if they paid a tax (the taxes of course being depended on the religion of who was in control at the time).

14.

Great Blizzard of 1888 that hit much of New England. Some 400 people died, and so much snow fell that power lines, street lights, and most of the areas were completely immobilized. Also know as the Great White Hurricane, It hit as far down as Maryland and all the way up to Canada. Parts of New England got 60 inches of snow. Most people in the major effected areas could not leave their homes for up to a week. It was so bad it actually helped convince officials to move lines of communication underground to avoid a repeat scenario.

15.

A special lesbians cabaret in Paris, France in 1930. France was quite open to accepting open lesbian culture and open nude forums unlike much of the world at the time, and had been doing it for some time. For example, some of the very first French films were pornographic or had plenty of nudity. They also had very sexual postcards, which I have featured in other parts of this series, and many magazines and clubs open with provocative delights.

16.

Leader of the French Communist Party Georges Marchais parades down Maputo, Mozambique in 1980. The country at the time was controlled by a 1 party system with Marxist ideals, and was embroiled in a Civil War as pro-democratic forces started an insurgency. Georges Marchais showed support from his native France as he hoped to spread Communism deeper into Africa and eventually the West. He even ran for the French Presidency the following year.

17.

A magazine article detailing a beauty pageant in Egypt in the 1950s. Pageants and open appreciate for women's beauty was sweeping the world, and Egypt was no different. Unlike most Arab nations, Egypt has been more open to such things in the past 70 years than some of its neighbors, even with dictatorships and constant political issues.

18.

Chinese officials punish a lawbreaker in Shanghai, China in the late 1800s. Whipping the mans butt with a paddle a certain number of times was a common punishment. They would also put prisoners heads through large wooden devices, tie them to a cross with their knees on sharp metals, and many other brutal torture tactics. Sadly, sometimes the crimes could be very minor, such as stealing a loaf of bread or insulting the wrong person.

19.

People in some early bumper cars in Chicago, US in the late 1920s. Invented just the decade before, they became huge attractions for the original theme parks and tourist boardwalks across the world by the 1930s.

20.

Jewish women and children arrive at Auschwitz Concentration Camp from Hungary in 1944. The men had either already been separated for work camps or killed. Hungary before this was a member of the Axis powers, but Germany feared they would switch sides and invaded and took them over in early 1944. Up until then, Hungary only sent a small portion of their Jewish population to Nazi control, around 50,000 total in 4 years. After the takeover, the Nazi's sent every Jew they could in Hungary to Auschwitz. Within 1 year of occupying Hungary, the Nazi's shipped out some 500,000 Hungarian Jews to be gassed. They ramped up the process even as the war was lost to kill as many as possible. Jews, such as these pictured, would be put on a train straight from a ghetto, then spend hours heading to Auschwitz. Once there, they would get right off the train, lead into a changing room, stripped, moved into a gas chamber disguised as a shower, and killed. This process ran day and night right up to the week the camp was liberated in 1945. This picture is taken by an SS officer for an album, and sadly, every single person in the picture would be dead within an hour of it being taken.