1.
This is the Palazzo Braschi, which served as the political headquarters of Fascist Italian leader Benito Mussolini during the 1930s:
2.
Here’s what the same building looks like today:
3.
This is the scene inside a bar on Dec. 5, 1933, the day Prohibition was repealed:
4.
…and this is a scene outside a bar, much later in the night:
5.
Here’s what the first Allied landing on Normandy’s beaches looked like from above on D-Day, June 6th, 1944:
6.
Speaking of World War II, this was the scene in New York’s Times Square on the day Germany unconditional surrender:
7.
This is Audrey Munson, often called “America’s first supermodel,” pictured in the early 1900s. She appeared in films, worked as a model and artist, and spent much of her life speaking out for better treatment and equality in the workplace:
8.
You can still see sculptures modeled after her across New York City, including this one atop Manhattan’s Municipal Building:
9.
This is Queen’s Freddie Mercury (although I’m sure you already knew that), pictured here at 12 years old as a schoolboy in India:
10.
In case you want to feel bad about your finances, here’s an ad for some extremely cheap homes from 1955:
11.
Did you know the penny is officially retired? Here’s the U.S. Treasurer showing off the very last penny ever minted, last week on November 12th:
12.
This is Dorothea Lambert Chambers, seven-time Wimbledon champion and Olympic gold medalist, competing at the 1919 Wimbledon. She ultimately lost this match to another player, Suzanne Lenglen:
13.
Did you know a group of Japanese samurai visited the Great Sphinx of Giza in 1864? Well, they did:
14.
In post-World War I Germany, inflation was so bad that money was basically worthless and children would sometimes use the bills as building blocks:
15.
And others would shovel the worthless money into their furnaces to heat their homes:
16.
This is George Metesky, known as the “Mad Bomber of New York.” He spent 16 years terrorizing the city, planting bombs in public places that injured at least 15 people:
17.
On a lighter note, here’s perhaps the most ironic picture ever: a man transporting a huge load of used tires stopped on the side of the road with a flat tire:
18.
This is American swimmer Gertrude Ederle, who became the first woman to swim across the English Channel in 1926:
19.
This is what New York City’s Central Park looked like during the Great Depression:
20.
Here’s a group of guys racing on ostriches in the 1930s:
21.
In 1979, for one brief, glorious moment, Robin Williams joined the Denver Broncos cheerleaders, known as the Pony Express. Clearly, he was pretty excited:
22.
This fantastically named man is Sol C. Korn, pictured here in 1945 doing what he did best, individually testing cigarettes:
23.
Here’s a Native American man looking down at the newly built Central Pacific Railroad in California:
24.
Only one photo of the infamous Billy the Kid exists. Here’s a look at him:
25.
Pope Leo was apparently a big Blues Brothers fan. Here he is in 1982, dressing the part of a man on a mission from God:
26.
This is boxer Hattie “The Mad Hatter” Madders, named the “Most Scary Woman in the UK” during the 1880s. And yeah, you can see why:
27.
Here’s what a tattoo parlor looked like in the early 1900s, specifically in 1919:
28.
Here’s a student from the University of Madras who tied their hair to a nail in the wall to stay awake and avoid falling asleep:
29.
This is the very dramatic scene from a Beatles concert held in the fall of 1963:
30.
This is just an extremely complex array of wires, located in Pratt, Kansas, around 1900:
31.
This is Kate Ward, also known as Camberley Kate, perhaps the greatest dog lover in history. Over her lifetime, she rescued more than 600 stray dogs from the streets of England:
32.
This 1912 photo shows a woman on New York’s Lower East Side carrying an enormous box of goods on her head:
33.
And, finally, here’s a sweet picture of a Navajo baby in a traditional papoose being greeted by a friendly lamb:
