One of the most inspiring things about historic photographs is that it allows you to see things from a different perspective, they serve as true images of a moment in time. This selection of photographs, in particular, serve as a reminder of the endurance of the human body through cruel, heartless and devastating events. You probably wouldn’t find them in any textbook.
The molten radioactive core after the Chernobyl accident Known as the “Elephant’s foot”
The Elephant’s Foot could be the most dangerous piece of waste in the world:
30 seconds of exposure: Dizziness and fatigue will find you a week later
120 seconds of exposure: Your cells will soon begin to hemorrhage
240 seconds of exposure: Vomiting, diarrhea and fever
300 seconds of exposure: You have 2 days to live
When a nuclear disaster is referred to as a meltdown, this is not figurative language but is literally what happens. High-energy particles cause radioactive materials get hotter and hotter until they melt and turn into a sort of lava. At Chernobyl, on April 26, 1986, this happened due to the loss of sufficient coolant. Eventually the radioactive lava flow cooled enough to solidify and was dubbed the Elephant’s Foot.
This photograph was taken 10 years after the disaster. At the time, the Elephant’s Foot was emitting approximately one tenth of the radiation it had originally. This is still a great deal of radiation, at this level 500 seconds would leave you with radiation sickness and just over an hour would be lethal.
The team that took this picture was only able to do so with mirrors. The damage to the photograph is due to the radiation. Although the radiation had died down by the time this photograph was taken, I’d imagine that the man in the photograph would have experienced some side effects of radiation exposure.
Gadget: The First Atomic Bomb
General George S. Pattons dog on the day of Pattons death, December 21, 1945
Control room of the UB-110 German submarine, 1918
Young Winston Churchill, 1895
Reynaldo Dagsa, A politician in the Philippines, photographs his own assassination
USAAF B-25 sinks Japanese destroyer Amatsukaze off the coast of Xiamen China, April 6, 1945
Illegal picture inside the Supreme Court. A man faked a broken arm and hid a camera in his cast
Einsteins desk. Photographed a day after his death
The first photograph upon discovery of Machu Picchu, 1912
Underwater detonation of 15 kiloton nuclear weapon
Using banknotes as wallpaper during Hyperinflation Germany, 1923
Laughing at Auschwitz. SS auxiliaries poses at a resort for Auschwitz personnel, 1942
Turkish official teasing starved Armenian children by showing bread during the Armenian Genocide, 1915
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, with his wife, on the day they were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, June 28, 1914
Two German soldiers and their mule wearing gas masks in WWI, 1916
The Cologne cathedral stands tall amidst the ruins of the city after allied bombings, 1944
Henry Ford receiving the Grand Cross of the German Eagle from Nazi officials, 1938
Using a traditional Japanese blade 17-year-old Otoya Yamaguchi assassinates socialist politician Inejiro Asanuma in Tokyo Japan
Germans testing a Messerschmitt Bf 109 E3, 1940
Execution of a German Communist in Munich, 1919
Nazis singing to encourage a boycott of the allegedly Jewish-founded Woolworths, 1933
Annual midnight swearing-in of Nazi SS troops Feldherrnhalle Munich, 1938
U-118 a World War One submarine washed ashore on the beach at Hastings Sussex England
An illegal picture atop the Giza pyramids in Egypt
Testing a bulletproof vest 1923
Gas masks for babies tested at an English hospital, 1940
A V-1 flying bomb buzzbomb plunging toward central London, 1945
Samuel Reshevsky, age 8, defeating several chess masters at once in France, 1920
The last Jew in Vinnitsa, 1941
The 2800 year old kiss
A picture of 14-year-old Regina Kay Walters taken by serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades shortly before he murdered her
East German soldier passing a flower through the Berlin Wall before it was torn down, 1989
The first World Series Game in New York, 1912
The last picture that was taken of the Titanic before it sank
JFKs funeral in the Capitol Building, 1963
