1.
This is Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria, a ruler known, among other things, for his rather large forehead:
2.
“Surely his forehead can’t be that large,” you think. Well, this is what he looked like in real life:
3.
Last week, President Trump demolished the East Wing of the White House to make way for a massive new ballroom. Here’s what the East Wing looked like right after it was constructed in 1902:
4.
And here’s what it looks like today, post-demolition:
5.
Yesterday afternoon, the massive Category 5 Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica. Here’s an incredible and terrifying shot of what it looked like from inside the eye of the storm:
6.
By now, you’ve probably heard about the massive heist at the Louvre in France, where millions of dollars’ worth of priceless jewels were stolen just a week ago…
7.
Well, among the pieces stolen from the museum is Empress Eugénie’s pearl tiara, containing over 200 pearls and thousands of diamonds:
8.
Here’s that same tiara pictured (well, painted) here on Empress Eugénie in the mid-1800s:
9.
Here’s another piece that was stolen from the museum, Empress Marie Louise’s emerald necklace and earrings:
10.
And here’s Empress Marie-Louise depicted here wearing that necklace in 1810:
11.
In case you forgot or just want to pretend it doesn’t exist, the clocks go back this weekend. Here’s a scene from one of the first Daylight Saving Time observances, with these helpful folks showing others how it worked:
12.
Hate Daylight Saving Time? You’re not alone. People have been annoyed by it for decades… Just look at these little protesters from the 1960s:
13.
Pictured in the center is Armi Kuusela, Miss Finland and the winner of the very first Miss Universe pageant in 1952:
14.
Here’s Armi ten years later with a big lamp above her head:
15.
Here’s a young woman dressed as “NIGHT” for Halloween in the early 1900s:
16.
This is the Coffee Queen of 1940, Peggy Van Vliet, posing inside the “world’s largest iced coffee glass” with, well, an iced coffee:
17.
Before RADAR was invented, people had to get creative to listen in on the battlefield… really creative. We’re talking “wear-giant-cones-on-your-head” creative:
18.
Or use enormous Looney Tunes-esque listening devices creative:
19.
Or use devices called “WAR TUBAS” to listen in:
20.
Here’s what a similar machine to that one looks like today:
21.
One of the biggest fads of the 1950s was “phonebooth stuffing,” where-in a bunch of people would, well, stuff themselves into a phonebooth:
22.
Here are two Union Civil War soldiers messing around in a picture and holding each other’s cigar:
23.
This is an absolutely ENORMOUS tower that was built entirely out of alcohol confiscated during Prohibition:
24.
Among the more unusual events at the 1908 Olympics was the sport of Bicycle Polo. Here are the German and Irish teams facing off in a match for the ages:
25.
This is an actual political cartoon from the early 1900s, warning against the dangers of electricity:
26.
This is Frank “Cannonball” Richards performing his signature feat: being struck in the stomach by a 140 pound cannonball:
27.
This strange looking guy is Gharial, an endangered species of crocodile with an incredibly narrow snout found in India:
28.
Here’s another angle of my man Ghary:
29.
I’m sure you’re familiar with Queen Victoria, Britain’s maybe-most famous monarch who ruled for 60s years during the 1800s…
30.
Well, did you know she was only 4 feet 11 inches tall? Here’s what I presume to be an average-sized man standing with some of her dresses:
31.
In 2022, NASA’s Curiosity rover captured this strange cylindrical object on the surface of Mars:
32.
This is Mrs. Priscilla Boatwright, a former slave born in 1846. She’s pictured here at age 108 using the old-fashioned stove she apparently used three times a day:
33.
Here’s a mother and son casually watching a nuclear bomb test in the distance:
34.
For one brief, magical moment top-loading dishwashers were a thing:
35.
And, finally, this is what ordering Pizza Hut online looked like back in 1994:
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