1.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, President Truman undertook a gut renovation of the White House. This is what it looked like inside during construction:
2.
Here’s another section of the White House, the Blue Room, under construction during that same period:
3.
And here’s what the Blue Room looks like today:
4.
This is the window from which Charles Lindbergh’s baby was kidnapped in 1932, sparking one of the most infamous criminal cases in American history:
5.
This is a group of unemployed workers in 1930 during the Great Depression, offering to do a day’s work for a dollar and each wearing a sign stating the type of work they can do:
6.
In 1921, over 80,000 people attended heavyweight championship boxing match between Georges Carpentier and Jack Dempsey:
7.
Here’s what that fight looked like from above:
8.
This is John Clem, known as the “Drummer Boy of Chickamauga.” At just 12 years old, he fought for the Union in the Civil War and went on to become the youngest noncommissioned officer in U.S. military history:
10.
This is what the eastern end of 13,000 miles of the Great Wall of China looks like…
11.
And this is what the western end of the Great Wall of China looks like, stretching out into the Gobi Desert:
12.
Here’s another angle of the eastern end:
13.
Here’s a very brave photographer riding in a plane about to drop a nuclear test bomb on the Marshall Islands:
14.
And here’s a photo of a bomb going off in the Marshall Islands, taken during one of the U.S. nuclear tests there:
15.
Speaking of which, this dome was installed over Runit Island in the Marshall Islands in order to cover the crater left from a nuclear bomb test and contain the radioactive materials:
16.
Here’s a picture of Judy Garland hanging back stage with the Munchkins, taking some time to herself on the set of The Wizard of Oz:
17.
This is a picture of astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott looking extremely chill after landing the Gemini 8 in the Pacific Ocean:
18.
Back in the early 20th century, people were allowed to climb all over the Great Pyramid of Egypt:
19.
… Even if they were definitely not wearing pyramid-climbing-appropriate gear:
20.
And here’s another group of tourists casually standing on top of the Great Pyramid in heels:
21.
Released in 1983, this is what the first commercially available cellphone, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X looked like:
22.
This is a British satellite photo taken in 1941 near Bergen, Norway, that helped locate the German battleship Bismarck, known as the “most powerful vessel afloat,” and led to a massive mobilization of Allied ships and the ship’s eventual sinking:
23.
Longtime United States Congresswoman and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced her retirement earlier this past week. To give some perspective on how long she has been in and around politics, here she is in the early 1960s at age 17 with John F. Kennedy:
24.
Speaking of presidents, Dwight D. Eisenhower was actually an avid painter. Here he is painting his three grandchildren and daughter-in-law:
25.
This is a prototype combat helmet developed during World War I designed to protect the wearer’s eyes from flying debris:
26.
Speaking of World War I, here’s a photo of a hospitalized World War I soldier being handed the magical early 20th-century cure-all… a pack of cigarettes:
27.
And here’s another nurse lighting a soldier’s cigarette in a hospital during World War II:
28.
In the late 1800s, Niagara Falls actually froze over solid enough for people to walk on it:
29.
See that big earthen pimple? That’s what Mount Vesuvius looks like from space:
30.
This horrifying thing is a vintage swimming mask that was designed to protect the skin from the sun and presumably terrify the neighborhood children:
31.
Did you know that Fidel Castro was an avid baseball fan? Here he is on the mound, throwing some absolute CHEDDAR toward a batter:
32.
While we’re at it, here’s Che Guevara playing first base on the same team as Castro:
33.
This is what Mount Rushmore before the presidential heads were carved into it…
34.
And this is Mount Rushmore today:
35.
Finally, here’s a man commandeering his very strange yet powerful invention, the one… the only… the Goat-Mobile:
