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Adolf Hitler, Hermann Goering, Wilhelm Keitel, and Heinrich Himmler. April 20, 1941. Five years later all the four would be dead, three suicides, and a hanging. This is probably the last peaceful moment they had, two months later the invade of the Soviet Union would begin. You can almost see the distaste that Himmler had towards Goring here. Goering was the head of the Luftwaffe and in the beginning Hitler’s right-hand man....

The 2000s was a decade that left behind some of the most memorable—and sometimes questionable—fashion moments in recent history. It was an era defined by experimentation, blending old and new, and embracing bold statements that reflected the rapid globalization and technological boom of the time. From the futuristic aesthetics of Y2K to the casual wear influenced by hip-hop and indie culture, the decade’s style became a true patchwork of cultural and social trends....

Christmas is usually associated with comfort and cheer, but these images tell a very different story. Far from the warm and jolly figure known today, vintage photographs reveal a version of Santa Claus that feels unsettling, awkward, and sometimes outright disturbing. Stiff costumes, vacant stares, and uneasy children transform what should be joyful holiday moments into scenes that feel closer to a nightmare than a celebration. This is the stranger side of Christmas history, where Santa’s smile often failed to reassure....

As modern technology rapidly advances, jobs that once seemed like the stuff of science fiction are now becoming everyday realities. However, as new opportunities emerge, many roles that were once essential have faded into history. This list explores jobs that have vanished, illustrating how these once-common positions have been replaced by the demands of an evolving job market. Some of these roles might seem almost unbelievable today—it’s hard to imagine that people, not machines, once carried out these tasks....

McDonald Brother’s store in San Bernadino, California, 1953. When McDonald’s was first founded in the 1940s by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald, it was actually a barbecue-centric restaurant, serving items like ribs and barbecued pork sandwiches. But once Ray Kroc took the restaurant over, he simplified the menu, streamlined the operation, and conquered the world. Siblings Richard and Maurice McDonald opened the first McDonald’s at 1398 North E Street at West 14th Street in San Bernardino, California, on May 15, 1940....

Picasso’s self-portraits are important because they span his entire career, and we can trace how his manner of self-depiction changed over time. It’s interesting to compare the self-portraits from, for instance, the Blue Period to those done when he was working in a Cubist mode only a few years later. In a way, his self-portraits reflect different periods of his artistic maturity and art career. Pablo Picasso didn’t see the changing methods as an evolution, but simply as different expressions at that moment in time....

Playpen sofas from the 1970s were a unique and innovative furniture design that reflected the cultural and design trends of the era. These sofas were characterized by their modular and versatile nature, often consisting of individual seating units that could be rearranged to create various seating configurations. The earliest use of the word “playpen” cited in the Oxford English Dictionary is 1902. Constructed with an array of materials, Playpen Sofas were a visual feast....

Street demonstration on Nevsky Prospekt just after troops of the Provisional Government have opened fire with machine guns. July 17, 1917. In the first days of July 1917, a spontaneous uprising erupted in Petrograd. The July Days, as this uprising became known, was fuelled by several factors: the Provisional Government’s attempt to escalate the war effort, a collapse in the government ministry, and a constant stream of Bolshevik propaganda condemning the government and calling for a transfer of power to the Soviets....

The Sunset Limited is a long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak, covering a 1,995-mile (3,211 km) route between New Orleans and Los Angeles. Along this expansive journey, it makes key stops in cities such as Houston, San Antonio, and El Paso, Texas, as well as Tucson, Arizona. Before Amtrak began operations on May 1, 1971, the Sunset Limited was managed by the Southern Pacific Railroad. This train holds the distinction of being the oldest named passenger service in the United States, first introduced in November 1894 as the Sunset Express....

South Vietnamese Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan, chief of the national police, shoots Vietcong officer Nguyen Van Lem, also known as Bay Lop, on a Saigon street on Feb. 1, 1968. After Nguyen Ngoc Loan raised his sidearm and shot Vietcong operative Nguyen Van Lem in the head he walked over to the reporters and told them that: “These guys kill a lot of our people, and I think Buddha will forgive me”....

Post-First World War aerial photograph of Stonehenge. Stonehenge, on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire in southern England, is certainly one of the most well-known and well-studied prehistoric megalithic monuments. Scholars had determined that there was a very long process of construction and use of Stonehenge (approximately 3000-1500 BCE), with many additions and alterations made to the site during three distinct phases of building and renovation. The monument consists of a number of large upright standing stones (menhirs), enclosed within a circular ditch (or henge) with a series of 56 burial pits on the interior of the ditch....

In 1969, as images of the Vietnam War dominated headlines around the world, John Lennon and Yoko Ono chose an unexpected stage for their protest: a hotel bed. Rather than marching in the streets, the couple turned their celebrity, their marriage, and relentless media attention into a carefully staged experiment aimed at challenging how peace could be discussed, photographed, and communicated. Initiated by Ono and Lennon during a two-week period in Amsterdam and Montreal, the Bed-In for Peace was conceived as an alternative form of protest, borrowing its structure from the idea of a sit-in....

Fighting in North Africa stemmed from the area’s strategic importance to the Commonwealth. Egypt’s Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, was a vital transport artery. Oil in particular had become a critical strategic commodity due to the increased mechanization of modern armies. Britain, which was the first major nation to field a completely mechanized army, was particularly dependent on Middle Eastern oil. The Suez Canal also provided Britain with a valuable link to her overseas dominions–part of a lifeline that ran through the Mediterranean Sea....

Riding the Rotor at Kennywood Park near Pittsburgh in 1955. The Human Spinning Rotor or simply “The Rotor” was invented by a German scientist, Ernst Hoffmeister, and was financially supported by businessman Carl Friese. They operated a Rotor in West Germany at Oktoberfest in 1949. Hoffmeister and Friese had an agreement that established Friese would have sole rights to sell the ride in the United States. In the early 1950s, Mark Myers purchased manufacturing rights to construct the Rotor in the United Kingdom from Hoffmeister....

The Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM) was a covert nuclear weapons program developed by the United States Navy in the mid-to-late 1960s. It utilized the W54 nuclear warhead, which was transported in an H-912 container and deployed by Special Operations Forces. A two-man team was responsible for placing the device at its designated target, setting the timer, and then making a swift escape. Their extraction was carried out by either a submarine or a high-speed watercraft, providing a quick and discreet departure....

Frederick Fleet, 24, the lookout who first spotted the iceberg. He went on to serve in both World Wars. In 1965, he experienced depression and later hanged himself. The history of Titanic, of the White Star Line, is one of the most tragically short stories ever. The world had waited expectantly for its launching and again for its sailing; had read accounts of its tremendous size and its unexampled completeness and luxury....

Conversation pits and sunken living rooms were very common from the 1950s until the 1980s, but they drew inspiration from much older design forms, including traditional gathering spaces from ancient China and medieval Spain. The pits initially gained popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, but the 1970s is the period most closely associated with the design. A conversation pit is an architectural feature that incorporates built-in seating into a depressed section of flooring within a larger room....

Until the end of the 1930s, the best women’s stockings were made from silk. This changed in the United States when DuPont began manufacturing nylon in 1939. Nylon stockings went on limited sale in October of that year followed by a national launch at selected stores in 1940. Eager American shoppers bought up the new nylons even though they were priced the same as those made of silk. DuPont struggled to keep up with demand and American women were still complaining of shortages in 1942 when the United States joined the war....

The day 100,000 Iranian women protested the headscarf. On 8 March 1979, more than 100,000 women gathered on the streets of the Iranian capital to protest against the new Islamic government’s compulsory hijab ruling, which meant that women would henceforth be required to wear a headscarf when away from home. The protest was held on International Women’s Day, and the images show women from all walks of life — nurses, students, mothers — marching, smiling, arms raised in protest....

A Vietnamese mother and her children wade across a river, fleeing a bombing raid on Qui Nhon by United States aircraft on September 7, 1965. The photo depicts a South Vietnamese mother fleeing through a river. She and her four children were forced to leave their village, Qui Nhon, near Quinbonso. The U.S. Air Force had asked all inhabitants to evacuate the village because the Vietcong had been using it as a base camp to fire at the U....