There's a forum on reddit called History Porn and it showcases historically strange, fascinating, important...what have you...pictures from the earliest forms of the medium to the near present. I thought it would be cool to post anything of historical interest or importance that you find online.
I'll start with this in honor of my recent DC trip...the earliest known picture of the capitol building and white house. Taken in 1846 believe it or not.
First picture of American war dead presented to the public in September 1943. It was taken during the battle of Buna in New Guinea in February 1943 in Life magazine. President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved its publication. President Roosevelt feared that the American public might be growing complacent about the war and its horrific toll.
I've been stockpiling pics for my science and psychology of photography class this June. As I organize and prep for the course I look forward to contributing to this thread.
Very cool. Looking it up 1,714,000 German soldiers went MIA. No doubt many ended up as tree fertilizer. I had a distant relative who ended up as a Russian POW, but made it back to Germany in the late 1940s. One of the very few. His home was turned over to the Poles so he ended up in Hamburg.
When I was in Okinawa in the late 1970s I could not believe the number of other GIs with metal detectors. Unexploded ordinance was found every day, often in old tombs. One time some military brats went exploring the old tombs and blew themselves up.
JMarkJohns wrote:In lieu of the weekend:
Bet Hitler was really pissed they spelled Adolf wrong.
A picture that says more than 1000 words. Marines during the Battle of Cape Gloucester on the island of New Britain, 1944. Posing with captured Japanese battle flags. That is the look of a group of guys who have seen a lot of shit and had to do and endure a lot of horrifying things.
I have a lot of romanticism about us all rising to the occasion and beating this pandemic like the Greatest Generation emerged victorious from World War II and created further greatness. Then I saw this:
"What you got to say for yourself? Been drinking a lot of sodas?"
Merkin wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 7:40 pm
Thought we had a "this day in history" thread but couldn't find it.
Never seen a phenomena like the Beatles since.
I remember it in that strange way that memory holds onto things that long ago.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition …There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”
Merkin wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 7:40 pm
Thought we had a "this day in history" thread but couldn't find it.
Never seen a phenomena like the Beatles since.
I remember it in that strange way that memory holds onto things that long ago.
AFAIAC, that was the moment that "The Sixties" began...
“If you have the choice between humble and cocky, go with cocky. There's always time to be humble later, once you've been proven horrendously, irrevocably wrong.”