In 1957 the new virus was first reported in Singapore, in February of that year, and then worked its way to Hong Kong. In June the disease had made its way to America. Patients were often able to pinpoint the start of Asian flu (that’s what it was named) to the very minute with wobbly legs and a chill followed by prostration, sore throats, running nose, and coughs; together with achy limbs (adults), head (children), and a high fever following....

Growing long hair was done in part so that elaborate updos could be treated using the voluminous hair that grew – as opposed to using rats, pads, or the Victorian versions of hair extensions. Many women, even if they had extremely long hair, would use rats made from their own hair when a hairstyle called for lots of volume. “Letting her hair down” is an idiom today for getting relaxed, as opposed to being “up tight....

In the early 20th century, radium paint was used on numerous household items without a second thought. However, that changed when factory workers, who were frequently exposed to radium paint, began to fall ill and die. These workers, known as the Radium Girls, often succumbed to radiation poisoning, while others fought against it. They ultimately won, but the victory came at a great cost. When radium was first discovered, it was believed to have health benefits....

In the 1960s, post-war consumerism was in full swing, and people were eager to embrace the new consumer culture that promised to bring them happiness and prosperity. The 1970s, on the other hand, saw the emergence of a more self-aware and socially conscious consumer culture that reflected the shifting political and cultural landscape of the time. In the 1960s, shopping was primarily done in brick-and-mortar stores, with large department stores being the dominant retail players....

Then, most strikingly, we see a woman in shorts, a patterned top, and a military hat in the center. The photograph of this young female fighter would become a symbol of women’s involvement in the Resistance. Her name was Simone Segouin, also known by her nom de guerre Nicole Minet. When this photo was taken she was 18 years old. The girl had killed two Germans in the Paris fighting two days previously and also had assisted in capturing 25 German prisoners of war during the fall of Chartres....

The elites of the era would often hold “Mummy Unwrapping Parties”, which, as the name suggests, had the main theme in which a Mummy would be unwrapped in front of a boisterous audience, cheering and applauding at the same time. During that period of time, the well-preserved remains of ancient Egyptians were routinely ground into a powder and consumed as a medicinal remedy. Indeed, so popular was pulverized mummy that it even instigated a counterfeit trade to meet demand, in which the flesh of beggars was passed off as that of ancient mummified Egyptians....

These knitted tubes, originally designed for dancers to keep their legs warm during rehearsals and performances, underwent a spectacular metamorphosis, becoming a cultural fad that captivated the masses. Legwarmers were originally designed for practical use by dancers to keep their legs warm during rehearsals and performances. In the world of dance, it is essential for performers to maintain flexibility and prevent muscle stiffness, especially during warm-up exercises or between routines....

The space to live in was small, the working condition was really bad, fumes and smog everywhere. It’s not difficult to imagine how unpleasant life would be for someone who had not taken a bath or had a proper change of clothing for six months. However, the crew of German torpedo-boats was treated like royalty when they docked because of the difficulty of their jobs. Upon docking, the crew filed out on shore leave and were generally given whatever they wanted while a cleaning crew scrubbed the submarine from top to bottom....

It was already two years into a desegregated school-busing in Massachusetts, a scheme that forcibly bused students to schools often far from their homes in an effort to diversify schools, but the protests in favor of the old system were still raging. Forman managed to capture a photograph that would later become iconic. The photograph depicts a white teenager, Joseph Rakes, assaulting a black man, lawyer, and civil rights activist Ted Landsmark, with a flagpole bearing the American flag as Landsmark was on his way to a meeting in the courthouse....

Scrawling such messages on artillery shells in World War II was one way in which artillery soldiers could humorously express their dislike of the enemy. The 333rd Field Artillery Battalion suffered tremendous casualties in the early stages of the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944, being overrun on December 17. The survivors ended up in the 969th Artillery Battalion for the rest of the battle, where they provided vital fire support for the 101st Airborne Division during the siege of Bastogne....

The Capilano Suspension Bridge is a simple suspension bridge crossing the Capilano River in the District of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The current bridge is 140 meters (460 ft) long and 70 meters (230 ft) above the river. The bridge was originally built in 1889 by George Grant Mackay, a Scottish civil engineer and park commissioner for Vancouver. It was originally made of hemp ropes with a deck of cedar planks, and was replaced with a wire cable bridge in 1903....

During WWII, the Germans used the term “askaris” for Red Army deserters who formed units fighting against the Red Army and in other actions on the Eastern Front. They were largely Ukrainians and Russians. Askaris troops were not part of SS, they were just auxiliary troops. The word askari is a loan word from Arabic meaning “soldier”, which in turn is from Persian (lascar – meaning “army”). In the context of World War II, the term often has connotations of collaborationism, and (in the case of the occupied Soviet territories) of anti-Bolshevism (and widely presented by Germans as such)....

Mining coal has always been a dangerous and challenging occupation, requiring workers to dig deep underground, often in cramped and dangerous conditions. In this article, we present a collection of vintage photos that offer a glimpse into the daily struggles and hardships of coal miners in the early to the mid-20th century. These photographs capture miners at work, as they use pickaxes, shovels, and other tools to extract coal from deep within the earth....

All the men — at this time in their 70s and 80s — are wearing the Saint Helena medals, issued in August 1857 to all veterans of the wars of the Revolution and the Empire. The men were well into old age when the pictures were taken, and some were clearly struggling to stay still for the length of the camera’s exposure (hence the blurring on some of the pictures)....

On October 25th, 1917, Liberty Day was held in New York and the authorities started an unprecedented publicity campaign to convince the public to buy the bonds. To make things more interesting, the government rolled out a magnificent display: a three-engine Caproni bomber plane flew low among the skyscrapers, a parade of military motorcycles traveled up 5th Avenue, and a captured German U-boat submarine decorated with the American flags inside Central Park....

Also, it’s an example of persuasive advertising where the skulls and the language are used to cause fear and to motivate. Atabrine was the tradename for Mepacrine (also called quinacrine). Mepacrine was initially approved in the 1930s as an antimalarial drug. It was used extensively during the Second World War by US marines fighting in the Far East to prevent malaria. Of all the enemies American soldiers confronted during World War II, malaria proved to be among the most stubborn....

In the prosperous postwar era, millions of Americans moved into new housing, especially in the rapidly growing suburbs. They spent heavily on housing, appliances, furniture, clothing, and automobiles. The coming of television in the 1950s dramatically enlarged the arena for advertising. With most families having automobiles, and more leisure time, travel holidays became much more common, and the motel and tourism industries eagerly supported large-scale advertising. The 1960s were advertising’s “coming of age,” when the industry mastered the language of TV, appropriated the medium of photography, and produced work of unprecedented creativity....

A fleet of 95 target vessels was assembled in Bikini Lagoon. At the center of the target cluster, the density was 20 ships per square mile (7.7 per km²), three to five times greater than military doctrine would allow. The stated goal was not to duplicate a realistic anchorage but to measure damage as a function of distance from the blast center, at as many different distances as possible. The arrangement also reflected the outcome of the Army/Navy disagreement about how many ships should be allowed to sink....

The Library of Congress writes: “As middle-class mass entertainments gained increasing popularity in the late nineteenth century, so did the impetus to instruct this new audience in the ways of appropriate public behavior.” Moreover, these slides had another function. Most early movie theaters had only one projector so glass slides (or lantern slides, as they were originally called) were used as pauses when reels were being worked on or changed....

The inception of roller skating traces back further than one might imagine, dating back to the 18th century. The early designs, however, differed significantly from the sleek and modern skates we recognize today. These skates were used in theater and musical performances, possibly to simulate ice skating onstage. Early roller skating was done in a straight line because turning or curving was very difficult with the primitive skate designs of the time....