21 Rare and Fascinating Historical Photos

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Who isn't a history buff? Everybody loves a cool photo from the past, especially when it's one you haven't seen before.

These 21 rare photos from history will hopefully trigger that history lover inside of you, and teach you a fact or two along the way. Here are 21 fascinating historical photos.

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An unauthorized photo taken of Stalin inside of the Kremlin shows the very moment he was informed that Germany had begun their invasion of the Soviet Union. It was taken by Komsomolskaya Pravda, editor in chief. He was ordered to destroy it, but instead saved it. June 22, 1941.

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What is now the fully developed Las Vegas strip, 1955.

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1970s photo of Kim Jong Il shaking hands with his future wife and singer Ko Yong Hui. She would become the mother of Kim Jong Un.

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Residents of an invalid home for disabled railway employees, modern day Belarus, 1901.

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Before alarm clocks, people were employed to wake workers up with a long stick. A knocker-up was a profession in England and Ireland that lasted well into the late 1920s.

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RMS Olympic, sister ship of Titanic, photographed in Thompson dry dock. 1911.

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Native American girl with her dog, circa 1920.

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Baby race at New Jersey’s Palisades Park, 1955.

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Muhammad Ali joking around the Giza pyramids in the 1980s.

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Cuban women soldiers at the training camp of Punda, near Luanda, Angola, in January 1989.

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A giant volcanic mushroom cloud explodes some 20 kilometers high from Mount Pinatubo, June 12, 1991.

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"Margaritas," the Carlist women's organization, are preparing for a military parade on the Avenue of Freedom. San Sebastián, Spain, 1936.

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French partisan checking his personal weapon, occupied France 1942 - 43.

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The Titanic at the docks of Southampton, April 10th, 1912.

16.

FMLN Guerilla raiding the Sheraton Hotel in San Salvador with a "surprised guest." November 1989.

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Soldier stands besides his M60 machine gun, which is mounted on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to deter rioters from entering the building during the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination riots in Washington D.C. April 1968.

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GIs of the 2nd Infantry Division celebrating Christmas in Belgium, December 1944.

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North Korean founder Kim Il Sung declares his son and future leader Kim Jong Il to be the supreme commander of the Korean People's Army during a speech in 1991.

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Sayid Abdullah, the last Khan of Khiva of the Khongirad dynasty. He ruled from 1918 until the monarchy was abolished following the Red Army invasion in 1920.

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Norwegian Crown Prince and his family snow sledding in 1934.

22.

Women of the Literacy Corps of Iran, 1962-1979.