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God is responsible for plagues. These posters were published in the Soviet anti-religious magazine, Bezbozhnik (“The Godless”) from 1922 to 1941. The main purpose of the magazine was to thwart any religious beliefs that were supposedly too distracting for the working class. The publication included works by cartoonists N. F. Denisovsky, M. M. Cheremnykh, D. S. Moor, K. S. Eliseev, and others. The circulation of “Bezbozhnik” reached 200 thousand copies in 1932....

The launch of the first iPhone in 2007 is often remembered as the day modern technology took a decisive turn. But the story of how it came to be began years earlier, under a veil of secrecy inside Apple’s headquarters. In 2004, the company assembled a team of around 1,000 employees for a project so confidential that it was given the code name “Project Purple.” Led by Tony Fadell on hardware, Scott Forstall on software, and Jony Ive on design, this group was tasked with building a device that would merge the power of a computer with the convenience of a phone....

A woman reaches into her bag, which rests on a fallen Soviet hammer-and-sickle on a Moscow street in 1991. In December of 1991, as the world watched in amazement, the Soviet Union disintegrated into fifteen separate countries. Its collapse was hailed by the west as a victory for freedom, a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism, and evidence of the superiority of capitalism over socialism. The United States rejoiced as its formidable enemy was brought to its knees, thereby ending the Cold War which had hovered over these two superpowers since the end of World War II....

Wireless Private Phone and Television. Translation of the verso: Each person has their own transmitter and receiver and can communicate with friends and relatives using certain wavelengths. But television technology has become so advanced that people can talk and watch their friends in real-time. The transmitter and receiver are no longer bound to the location but are carried in a box the size of a photo apparatus. These future fantasy collectible cards were published by the German company Echte Wagner in the first half of the 20th century....

Head measuring device for helmets, 1973. The Natick Soldier Systems Center (NSSC) is responsible for the technology, research, development, engineering, fielding, and sustainment of U.S. military’s food, clothing, shelters, airdrop systems, and Soldier support items. Construction on the research facility that became known as Natick Army Labs began 50 years ago in 1962. After World War II, officials wanted a centralized Quartermaster Research and Development center to create modern equipment for its modern military....

In the early 1930s, groups of eager thrill-seeking stunt drivers would perform stunning acts in front of an audience. They performed an array of stunts such as wrecking cars, driving the car through a firewall, ramp to ramp style stunts where the stunt driver hurtled over several cars or city buses. One of these daredevils was Jimmie Lynch who traveled with his troupe throughout the United States to perform spectacular stunts in flimsy cars....

Toronto in the 1900s was a different city from the one we know today. The center of business had moved west of the historical Town of York site and the skyline was undeveloped. The tallest structures were the Temple Building at 10 stories and the Trader’s Bank Building at 15 stories. A new downtown to the west of Yonge and King Streets was built. The City of Toronto moved into a new City Hall, built at the head of Bay Street at Queen Street....

When President Truman moved into the executive mansion in 1945, they found the White House badly in need of repair after twelve years of neglect during the Depression and war. Floors groaned and creaked, winds blew in and out, strange sounds echoed in unusual corners. Why? Because it was on the brink of collapse. No overstatement. It remained standing, said the Commissioner of the Public Buildings Administration, only “by force of habit....

Star Wars is an American epic space-opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. Lucas’s success as a writer and director with American Graffiti (1973) gained him the backing of 20th Century Fox, which put up $9.5 million for the production of the first Star Wars film. The film, directed by Lucas, was in production for four years, with scenes shot in Tunisia and Death Valley, California, and on soundstages in England....

The Rutland State Fair in Rutland, Vermont, renamed the Vermont State Fair in 1972, is one of the oldest state fairs in the United States. It started in 1846 and originally started out as a one-day event. By 1849, the fair had become so popular the Rutland Rail Yard put extra cars on trains to bring people from western New York and Vermont. It moved to a two-day event and then expanded to three days in 1893 as more and more attractions were added....

Body of frozen Soviet soldier propped up by Finnish fighters to intimidate Soviet troops, 1939. Finnish defenders sometimes, though very rarely, took fallen frozen Russian soldiers and posed them upright as psychological warfare. Although rare, a few cases have been documented. Common Russian soldiers and Finnish troops had a great deal of respect for the dead and would allow both parties to retrieve and bury their dead in peace and would make impromptu ceasefires for such occasions....

Throughout six decades of cinema, few images have proved as enduring as the Bond girl stepping into frame, captivating audiences while standing beside the world’s most famous secret agent. From the earliest films to the latest blockbusters, these characters became part of the visual identity of James Bond. Their style, confidence, danger, and allure helped shape what the franchise became, making them not only supporting players but cultural figures in their own right....

The 19th century saw a big shift for the butcher shops, with the population growing and many of those quickly populating the towns and cities, urban butcher shops were an important part of people’s daily life. Eating meat became popular across all sections of society during the Victorian era. Increased urbanization meant that people as a whole became more dependent on butchers and butcher shops, and the cost of meat was relatively far lower than it had been in previous generations....

Newsies at Skeeter’s Branch. They were all smoking. St. Louis, Missouri. 1910. After the Civil War, the availability of natural resources, new inventions, and a receptive market combined to fuel an industrial boom. The demand for labor grew, and in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many children were drawn into the labor force. Factory wages were so low that children often had to work to help support their families....

In 1889, Paris hosted an Exposition Universelle (World’s Fair) to mark the 100-year anniversary of the French Revolution. More than 100 artists submitted competing plans for a monument to be built on the Champ-de-Mars, located in central Paris, and serve as the exposition’s entrance. The commission was granted to Eiffel et Compagnie , a consulting and construction firm owned by the acclaimed bridge builder, architect, and metals expert Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel....

Cassandra Gay Peterson, better known by her stage persona Elvira, Mistress of the Dark , is an American actress and cultural icon whose mix of gothic glamour, quick wit, and camp humor defined a generation of horror entertainment. Her rise to fame began on Los Angeles television station KHJ-TV, where she hosted Elvira’s Movie Macabre, a late-night program showcasing B-movies with a comedic twist. Dressed in her signature black gown and towering beehive hair, Elvira’s playful attitude and self-aware charm turned what could have been a niche role into a pop culture phenomenon....

Born in 1935, Elvis Aaron Presley, also known mononymously as Elvis, was an American singer and actor who left an indelible mark on the world of music and entertainment. Recognized as the “King of Rock and Roll,” he is celebrated as one of the most influential cultural figures of the 20th century. Presley’s vibrant interpretations of songs and his daring performance style, which often pushed the boundaries of societal norms, resonated deeply with audiences....

Photography has come a long way since its inception, and the journey has been marked with some remarkable milestones. From the earliest forms of photographic processes to the revolutionary digital age, photography has been a driving force in the way we capture and document the world around us. In this article, we’ll take a journey back in time to explore the famous first photographs in history, some of the oldest photos to have ever been captured....

Starting in 1897 and continuing through 1930, the hilly topography of central Seattle was radically altered by a series of regrades, in what might have been the largest such alteration of urban terrain at the time. The regrading strategy was adopted for one main reason—economics. The idea was that reshaping the land would open up the city to more commerce. The earliest urban planners for the city believed that if the streets were at regular angles and at a level elevation, business would thrive....

First class of Swissair in 1960s. Life was once simpler. There was only one class for passengers on airline flights. Initially, it was a very ‘adventurous’ class – open cockpits and high rates of fatalities. It then evolved to become comparatively luxurious and ridiculously expensive, even extending to sleeper suites – thought of as a modern introduction but actually dating back to the flying boats of the late 1930s....