Amazing Photos from History

Japanese war criminal, Tojo Hideki, attempted suicide after the surrender. He was saved and resuscitated by Allied forces, who then hanged him – September 8, 1945. After recovering from his injuries, Tojo was moved to Sugamo Prison. While there he received a new set of dentures made by an American dentist. The phrase “Remember Pearl Harbor” had been secretly drilled into the teeth in Morse code.


The catapult officer risks his life saving the pilot from a crashed and burning Hellcat on the USS Enterprise, 1943


Hitler’s Office


Adolfo Hitler talking to Mussolini through the window of a train in Brennero, 1940


Benito Mussolini (second on the left) hanging from a lamppost in Piazzale Loreto, Milan along with other fascists, 29 April, 1945


Lyndon B. Johnson yelling at the pilots of a nearby plane to cut their engines so that John F. Kennedy could speak as Kennedy is seen trying to calm him down. Taken during the 1960 presidential campaign in Amarillo, Texas


The Royal Navy on the way home from France with Queen Victoria on board, who had just visited Napoleon III, 1858


Residents of West Berlin show children to their grandparents who reside on the Eastern side, 1961. The building of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 divided families and neighborhoods in what had been the capital of Germany. The Wall represented a uniquely squalid, violent, and ultimately futile, episode in the post-war world. Life was changed overnight in Berlin. Streets, subway lines, bus lines, tramlines, canals and rivers were divided. Family members, friends, lovers, schoolmates, work colleagues and others were abruptly separated. In some cases, children who had been visiting their grandparents on the other side of the border were suddenly cut off from their parents.


German soldier lighting his cigarette with a flamethrower, 1917. The flamethrower, which brought terror to French and British soldiers was used by the German army in the early phases of the First World War in 1914 and 1915 (and which was quickly adopted by both). The Flammenwerfers (flamethrowers) tended to be used in groups of six during battle, each machine worked by two men. They were used mostly to clear forward defenders during the start of a German attack, preceding their infantry colleagues. They were undeniably useful when used at short-range, but were of limited wider effectiveness, especially once the British and French had overcome their initial alarm at their use. The operators of Flammenwerfer equipment also lived a most dangerous existence. Quite aside from the worries of handling the device – it was entirely feasible that the cylinder carrying the fuel might unexpectedly explode – they were marked men; the British and French poured rifle-fire into the area of attack where Flammenwerfers were used, and their operators could expect no mercy should they be taken prisoner. Their life expectancy was therefore short.


“Mountain Chief” recording Blackfoot songs for the Smithsonian in 1916