Spyridon Louis, a previously unrecognised water carrier, won the event to become the only Greek athletics champion and a national hero. When the modern Olympics began in 1896, the initiators and organizers were looking for a great popularizing event, recalling the ancient glory of Greece. The idea of a marathon race was conceived by Michel Bréal based on the legend of Pheidippides. This Athenian soldier first completed a two-day run to seek Spartan help against the invading Persians in the Battle of Marathon, and then ran from the town of Marathon to Athens days later to announce the victory, dying as a result of his heroic efforts....

The SS Morro Castle, named after a fortress that guards Havana Bay, was a luxury cruise ship of the 1930s that was built for the Ward Line for runs between New York City and Havana. On the morning of September 8, 1934, en route from Havana to New York, the ship caught fire and burned, killing 137 passengers and crew members. At around 2:50 a.m. on September 8, while the ship was sailing around eight nautical miles off Long Beach Island, a fire was detected in a storage locker within the First Class Writing Room on B Deck....

Svolvaer, Lofoten. These magnificent color postcards from the late 19th century depict the breathtaking mountains, fjords, glaciers, and towns of Norway. The postcards were created by the Detroit Publishing Company using the Photochrom process. Photochrom produced colorized images from a single black-and-white photographic negative via the direct photographic transfer of the negative onto lithographic printing plates. The process is a photographic variant of chromolithography (color lithography). Because no color information was preserved in the photographic process, the photographer would make detailed notes on the colors within the scene and use the notes to hand paint the negative before transferring the image through colored gels onto the printing plates....

No one expected the 1969 Woodstock concert and festival to draw a crowd estimated at half-million — nor that the gathering would become a legendary touchstone for the counterculture of the 1960s and a unique event in the history of music. Held in the open air on Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in Bethel, New York, Woodstock 1969 can now be looked upon as one of the most important events of the twentieth century....

These remarkable photographs, taken by Cynthia Hilsden during a journey through Yugoslavia in the early 1980s, offer a rare glimpse into daily life across the country. From the historic streets of Dubrovnik to the bustling avenues of Zagreb, the images show a nation that was, at the time, a unique blend of socialist governance and relative openness compared to other Eastern Bloc states. The cities featured in the collection include Postojna, Ljubljana, Trogir, Split, Dubrovnik, Zagreb, Kolocep, Neum, Blagaj, Mostar, and Sarajevo....

A soldier with a pack Reindeer, on slippery ice, near the tiny village of Nautsi, in northern Lapland, Finland, on October 26, 1941. For most of Finland’s history, the country had lived on the periphery of world events, but for a few weeks during the winter of 1939-40, Finland stood at the center of the world stage. Finland’s stand against Soviet aggression aroused the world’s admiration. The Winter War, however, proved to be only a curtain-raiser for Finland’s growing entanglement in World War II....

In the golden age of silent cinema, one figure shone brighter than most: Buster Keaton. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression that earned him the nickname “The Great Stone Face”. Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton’s “extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929” when he “worked without interruption” as having made him “the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies”....

The Last Jew of Vinnitsa, 1941 A picture from an Einsatzgruppen soldier’s personal album, labeled on the back as “Last Jew of Vinnitsa”. It shows a member of Einsatzgruppe D just about to shoot a Jewish man kneeling before a filled mass grave in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, in 1941. All 28,000 Jews from Vinnitsa and its surrounding areas were massacred at the time. There were two mass shootings in Vinnitsa, on the 16th of September, and the other on 22nd September....

In the summer of 1978, a routine helicopter flight over the dense forests of southern Siberia turned into one of the most extraordinary discoveries in modern Russian history. A pilot, tasked with scouting landing zones for a group of geologists near the Mongolian border, was surveying the unforgiving terrain when something unexpected caught his eye near the basin of the Abakan River—a small, hand-built structure nestled between the trees....

Venus the bulldog, the mascot of the destroyer HMS Vansittart. These images are part of the book Weird War Two , a book from the Imperial War Museums that explores the stranger side of the Second World War. A war as extensive and long-lasting as World War II produces an incalculable number of artifacts. And museums as big and well-stocked as the Imperial War Museums have plenty of the ones you’d expect to find: tanks, jets, helmets, guns, and the like....

The thylacine, most commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger because of its striped lower back or the Tasmanian wolf because of its canid-like characteristics, was one of the largest carnivorous marsupials. The thylacine was relatively shy and nocturnal, with the general appearance of a medium-to-large-size dog, except for its stiff tail and abdominal pouch similar to a kangaroo’s, and dark transverse stripes that radiated from the top of its back, reminiscent of a tiger....

Before the internet made it effortless to delete a name, block a profile, or erase a face from the digital record, “unfriending” looked very different. It was a messy, physical act that required scissors, ink, or whatever tools were at hand. A falling out with a friend, the end of a romance, or a bitter family dispute could all leave their mark not just on memories, but directly on the photographs that preserved them....

A gold and black mourning brooch with a plait of the deceased’s hair under glass. Victorian mourning jewelry was popular during the late 1800s and was used as a tribute or memento to remind the wearer about their love for the person they had lost. Death was a regular occurrence in Victorian times, thanks to pervasive diseases like cholera and scarlet fever. For this reason, the loss of a loved one was not a shocking event, but a sad part of everyday life....

Ry-Krisp, a brand of rye crisp bread, was founded by Arvid and Erik Peterson, who immigrated to the United States from Sweden, and brought with them a recipe for traditional Swedish “crisp bread.” Crisp bread or knackerbrod was a staple of the 19th-century Scandinavian diet. It was often made of rye, required no yeast, and had an incredible shelf life. In fact, this type of cracker was traditionally produced only twice a year and was made with a hole in the center so that they could be efficiently stored on a single rod....

Women accused of racial defilement were publicly humiliated by being paraded through the streets with placards around their necks proclaiming their crime. German racial laws were strictly enforced and sexual relationships between Germans and Poles were illegal. The placard around her neck reads: “I ch bin aus der Volksgemeinschaft ausgestoßen! ” (English: “I am expelled from the People’s Community!”). Picture taken in Altenburg, Thuringia, Germany. 7 February 1942. The Nazis issued the Polish decrees on 8 March 1940 which regulated the working and living conditions of Polish laborers (Zivilarbeiter) used during World War II in Germany....

Unemployed men outside a soup kitchen opened in Chicago by Al Capone, 1931. Al Capone started one of the first soup kitchens. The kitchen employed a few people but fed many more. In fact, preceding the passage of the Social Security Act, “soup kitchens” like the one Al Capone founded, provided the only meals that some unemployed Americans had. They rose to prominence in the U.S. during the Great Depression....

Beneath the layers of ancient soil and forgotten ruins lie relics that have captivated and mystified historians for centuries. From the colossal stone statues of Easter Island to the intricate lines carved into the Peruvian desert, these rare archaeological finds offer profound insights into past civilizations. Each artifact, meticulously unearthed, reveals stories of human ingenuity, cultural rituals, and the relentless quest for knowledge. These treasures not only bridge gaps in our understanding of history but also inspire awe with their enigmatic beauty and historical significance....

The USS Shaw explodes after being hit by bombs during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in this December 7, 1941 photo. The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor began just before 8 a.m. local time Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. For over an hour, in two waves, some 350 Japanese aircraft—having taken off from six aircraft carriers 230 miles north of Oahu—attacked the naval base. Japanese forces wreaked havoc on US naval vessels and on US aircraft on the island’s airfield....

Members of the British Army maneuver a tank, or “landship”, over a trench during the Battle of Cambrai just west of the French town. When the British dispatched 400 tanks against the German army at the Battle of Cambrai in 1917, the result was a draw — but legend quickly declared the tank a winner following its first major role in combat. The Battle of Cambrai, fought in November-December 1917, proved to be a significant event in World War One....

When Citroën Karin was first presented at the Paris Motor Show in 1980, it couldn’t help but attract the astonished gaze of visitors. It was quite unusual to see a futuristic sci-fi pyramid in a motor show, let alone a pyramid on four wheels. Its name begins with “car”. It turns into “cara, carina”: “dear, darling” in Italian. Such was the wish of its Franco-Italian creator, Trevor Fiore, schooled in Britain and responsible for the Citroën Styling Department....