Mount Vesuvius eruption of the volcano occurred in March of 1944

 The same Mount Vesuvius that erupted in 79 AD and buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum under layers of rock and ash has actually erupted several times throughout history. In fact, it is the only volcano located on the European mainland that has erupted in the last several decades. The last significant eruption of the volcano occurred in March of 1944. This eruption destroyed four nearby villages. During the eruption, the U.S. Army Air Force was stationed in nearby Terzigno and the volcanic eruption damaged several aircrafts, but not these B-25 bombers who got a bird’s eye view of the eruption. 

Japanese-American family waiting for relocation to internment camp, 1942,

 Japanese-American family waiting for relocation to internment camp, 1942, photo by Russell Lee for the Office of War Information

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, all Japanese, whether citizens or not, living on the West Coast were rounded up and sent to “internment camps” in the interior Mountain West. In 1988, the US government apologized and paid restitution to all camp survivors

tornado struck the town of Waynoka, Oklahoma

 When this tornado struck the town of Waynoka, Oklahoma, in May of 1898, someone was prepared with a camera to capture the twister. Some claim that the two unidentified gentlemen in this photograph were engaging in storm chasing when this image was taken, but David Hoadley, who was born in 1938, a whole forty years after this photograph was taken, is the first recognized storm chaser. Hoadley began his career as a storm chaser in 1956 in North Dakota, using date from nearby airports and weather offices. Hoadley founded “Storm Track” magazine. If the men in this pic were, indeed, storm chasing, they were most likely just amateurs who liked to watch wicked weather.

St. Valentine's Day Massacre

 On February 14, 1929

Chicago gang war between Al Capone and George "Bugs" Moran culminates with several Moran confederates being gunned down in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Reenactment of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, which occurred when reputed members of the Al Capone gang disguised themselves as policemen and murdered members of the George "Bugs" Moran gang in a garage, located at 2122 North Clark Street in the Lake View community, being held by Cook County Coroner Dr. Herman N. Bundesen and investigators, Chicago, Illinois, 1929. 

Bloody Sunday

 Bloody Sunday or Red Sunday is the name given to the events of Sunday, 22 January [O.S. 9 January] 1905 in St Petersburg, Russia, when unarmed demonstrators, led by Father Georgy Gapon, were fired upon by soldiers of the Imperial Guard as they marched towards the Winter Palace to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

Bloody Sunday caused grave consequences for the Tsarist autocracy governing Imperial Russia: the events in St. Petersburg provoked public outrage and a series of massive strikes that spread quickly to the industrial centres of the Russian Empire. The massacre on Bloody Sunday is considered to be the start of the active phase of the Revolution of 1905. In addition to beginning the 1905 Revolution, historians such as Lionel Kochan in his book Russia in Revolution 1890–1918 view the events of Bloody Sunday to be one of the key events which led to the Russian Revolution of 1917.

The statue of King George III

 The story of the statue of King George III that once stood in New York’s Bowling Green is well known - the statue was dragged from its plinth by a revolutionary mob five days after the signing of the Declaration of Independence (and a month and a half before New York was recaptured by the British). After being abused and broken apart it was shipped to Litchfield, Connecticut, where it was melted down and cast into musket balls, the perfect metaphor of revolutionary struggle and triumph.

Less well known is the part of the story where the convoy bearing the king’s broken remains stopped overnight in Wilton, Connecticut. During the early morning hours American Loyalists living in the area took a number of the statue’s pieces and hid them in various locations in the town. Those pieces included one of the king’s arms. It remained concealed - apparently buried for decades, perhaps centuries, in a garden plot - until 1991, when a resident of the town who lived in a home owned by Tory Job Burlock rediscovered it. It is now about to go up on auction.

Teddy Roosevelt running for the presidency

 This photo is a fake. It was created for a political ad when Teddy Roosevelt was running for the presidency for the Progressive Party, whose mascot was the moose. During this election, Roosevelt was running against Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic candidate, and William Howard Taft, the Republican incumbent. The photography firm of Underwood and Underwood carefully cut a photograph of Roosevelt on a horse and superimposed it on the image of a moose crossing a river. This image appeared in the September 8, 1912, edition of the New York Tribune.

Golden Gate Bridge. In the 1930s

 It took some guts to work on the construction of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. In the 1930s, there was an unwritten rule regarding high-steel bridge construction projects like this one…for every $1 million in cost, the engineers should expect one fatality among the workers. But the $35 million Gold Gate Bridge had an impressive safety record with only 11 deaths. A huge net suspended under the work site is credited with saving at least 19 people. Those 11 construction worker deaths are overshadowed by the more than 1,500 people who have thrown themselves off the bridge, making it the top suicide bridge in the world.

The Washington Korean War Memorial

 One of the most haunting memorials in Washington is the Korean War Memorial. You can see the war in the faces of the 19 men portrayed. They’re tired, they’re far from home, they’re afraid, they’re determined, they’re vigilant. Their gazes follow you as you pass. They await whatever happens next but they’re prepared, nothing escapes their attentiveness.

Appomattox Court House

 The Surrender That Ended The Civil War While historians can argue about when exactly the Civil War ended, the widely accepted narrative states that it came to a close on April 9, 1865, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Pictured: Soldiers wait outside the court house in Appomattox as the higher-ups work out the official terms of surrender. Timothy H. O'Sullivan/Library of Congress

Menotomy (American Revolution)

 The fighting around Foot Of the Rocks in modern Arlington (then called Menotomy) as Brig. Gen Hugh Earl Percy leads the combined British forces (Lt. Col. Francis Smith’s corps of light infantry and Grenadier companies and Percy’s own 1st Brigade) back to Boston following the actions at Lexington and Concord. In the background light infantry can be seen screening the right side of the column. About 3:45 pm, April 19, 1775. By A. Lasall Ripley. 

The Wawona Tree

 The Wawona Tree, also known as the Wawona Tunnel Tree, was a famous giant sequoia that stood in Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park, California, USA, until 1969. It had a height of 227 feet (69 m) and was 26 feet (7.9 m) in diameter at the base.

The Wawona Tree fell in 1969 under a heavy load of snow on its crown. The giant sequoia is estimated to have been 2,300 years old. When the giant tree fell, there was much debate over what to do with it. It has remained where it fell primarily for ecological reasons, but still serves as a popular tourist destination. Because of their size, giant sequoias can create vast new ecosystems when they fall, providing habitat for insects and animals and allowing new plant growth. It is now known as the Fallen Tunnel Tree.

Photo ca. 1925. 

“Petersburg, Virginia. Federal Soldiers Removing Artillery From Confederate Fortifications April 1865”

 “Petersburg, Virginia. Federal Soldiers Removing Artillery From Confederate Fortifications April 1865”

The Siege of Petersburg: The Longest Military Event of the Civil War

Nine and a half months, 70,000 casualties, the suffering of civilians, thousands of U. S. Colored Troops fighting for the freedom, and the decline of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of No. Virginia all describe the Siege of Petersburg. It was here Gen. Ulysses S. Grant cut off all of Petersburg’s supply lines ensuring the fall of Richmond on April 3, 1865. Six days later, Lee surrendered. 

American waterways

 In the late 1800’s, American waterways provided a vast network of entrepreneurial opportunities, linking communities both large and small in a way that roads and railroads could not yet accommodate. A variety of floating businesses thrived in this way, traveling between locations when work was slow or conditions warranted. Among them, were photography studios. Utilizing on-board skylights, some photographers advertised their portrait services, while others operated as galleries, selling river and town views captured in their travels.

The Rosetta Stone

 The Rosetta Stone is a rock stele, found in 1799, inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in 3 scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion is Demotic script, and the lowest is Ancient Greek. Because it presents essentially the same text in all 3 scripts with only minor differences, the stone provided the key to the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Monument in Cemetery, Mt. Williamson, 1943

 Monument in Cemetery, Mt. Williamson, 1943, photo by Ansel Adams

Thousands of Japanese Americans were taken from their homes, rounded up by the US government in 1942 and relocated to internment camps where they remained until the end of World War II in 1945. The photo above was taken at the Manzanar internment camp (the Manzanar War Relocation Center) at the foot of the Sierra Nevadas in California’s Owens Valley. Ansel Adams, already a well-known and successful photographer, went to the camps in 1943 to document what he felt was a great injustice.

Iwo Jima

 IWO JIMA U.S. MARINES

U.S. Marines receive Communion from a Marine chaplain on Iwo Jima. The battle for the island was extremely costly for both sides: only about a thousand of the 25,000 Japanese defenders survived; the Americans suffered about 26,000 casualties. The island was not fully secured by the American forces until March 26, but the needed airfields were up and running earlier. (AP Photo/Joe Rosenthal)

Christ the Redeemer

 Construction of the head of Rio’s Christ the Redeemer statue, 1927.

Grace McKinley

 Grace McKinley walks her young daughter to school through a throng of pro-segregation activists who are holding a sign that reads “God is the author of Segregation”. Nashville 1958.

The statue of Zeus at Olympia, Greece

 The statue of Zeus at Olympia, Greece, was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and arguably the most famous statue of its day. Once built as a shrine to honor the Greek god Zeus, this statue was considered the incarnate of the Greeks’ most important god, and not to have seen it at least once in one’s lifetime was considered a misfortune. The size of a four story building and seven times the height of an average man, it was the tallest statue of the Mediterranean world. It also remained the statue to whom the original Olympic Games were played in honor.

Child Labor 1909

This photo taken in the streets of New York. Two brave Yiddish children protest the lack of child labor laws in 1909. The old photos of New York are very interesting as you see other cultures that are fresh to the USA, before being integrated.

Okapi

 This photo was taken in 1915 in the Congo. The man in the photograph is a Hunter and he is sitting and posing with his trophy, proudly. The trophy is a male okapi which was found in the Congo. The animal appears as a mythical creature of sorts.

Valentina Tereshkova

 Russia’s own Amelia Earhart, Valentina Tereshkova. She was the first woman in space and this portrait of her is from 1963. The photo shows a woman who is brave, beautiful, confident, and brilliant. A true inspiration for women.

George Washington’s headquarters tent

 George Washington’s headquarters tent. His two tents are the only two surviving American officer tents from the 18th century. Both were kept and even displayed by George Washington Custis, Washington’s step-grandson & father-in-law of Robert E. Lee

William H. Lee House

 William H. Lee House, also known as Billy Lee Farm, is a historic home located at Lewiston, Bertie County, North Carolina. It was built about 1820, and is a two-story, three bay, hall and parlor plan frame Federal style I-house. It has a side gable roof and rests on a brick pier foundation.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.