Almost immediately after the development of the pedal-driven velocipede in the 1860s, people began to use the bicycle for delivery purposes. David V. Herlihy’s 2004 book on the early history of the bicycle contains several references to bicycle messengers working during the late 19th century, including a description of couriers employed by the Paris stock exchange in the 1870s. During the bicycle boom of the 1890s in the United States, Western Union employed a number of bicycle telegraph boys in New York City, San Francisco, and other large population centers....

The propaganda officers just changed Sieg to Viktoria, alluding to the “Germano-Latin” tradition. They said the use of V’s by civilians was a sign of support for Germany. They just used Viktoria because it had to start with V, and the V originally meant “V for victory” when Churchill used it, so they probably needed something similar in order to not make it too obvious. When the Germans started their campaign, Churchill noted that they probably meant “verloren”, German for defeat....

San Francisco’s very existence was the triumph of imagination over reality. In 1846 the site was largely barren sand dunes fringed with wind-stunted oaks and populated mainly by billions of fleas that tormented man and beast alike. In 1846 the scraggly little village of Yerba Buena, named after a local shrub, was clustered near the lip of Yerba Buena Cove in San Francisco Bay. It would be transformed by the discovery of gold in 1848....

Day after day tourists with cameras wander into surrounding Griffith Park or troll up and down the streets for the Hollywood Hills, looking to position themselves for the best possible angle on the sign. To moviegoers and so many others, the sign represents the earthly home of that otherwise ethereal world of fame, stardom, and celebrity – the goal of American and worldwide aspirations to be in the limelight, to be, like the Hollywood sign itself, instantly recognizable....

A new generation of ships became central to the naval race: the dreadnoughts. Named after the Royal Navy’s HMS Dreadnought, these ‘castles of steel’ came to symbolise naval power in the early 20th century. The dreadnoughts represented a revolution in warship design and yet their construction was based on the centuries-old definition of the purpose of naval campaigning as being the head-on confrontation of two opposing battle fleets. During the First World War, not only did senior naval officers trained in the days of sail learn to command brand new ships and weaponry untested in wartime; they also witnessed a transformation in warfare that turned the war at sea from a traditional surface encounter into a complex balancing act of defensive strategies and covert tactics involving two new and unforeseen dimensions: under water and in the air....

With five levels of cast iron shelving, a fabulous foyer, checkerboard marble floors, and an atrium lit by a skylight ceiling, the place was breathtaking. Unfortunately, that magnificent maze of books is now lost forever. Patrons entered on Vine Street beneath the busts of William Shakespeare, John Milton, and Benjamin Franklin. A vestibule led to the cathedral-like main hall, four stories tall, topped with a massive skylight roof. The floor was checkerboard marble tile....

In Nipomo, California, Lange came across Florence Owens Thompson and her children in a camp filled with field workers whose livelihoods were devastated by the failure of the pea crops. Recalling her encounter with Thompson years later, she said: “I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions....

During the Edwardian era in North Shields, England, women were frequently apprehended for “Larceny.” This encompassed a wide array of offenses under common law, defined as the “unlawful taking of personal property from an individual or business.” Such acts included thefts as varied as pilfering clothes from a washing line, taking food from a table, or stealing personal items like jewelry and money. The majority of women brought into the North Shields Police Station faced larceny charges, although habitual offenders were labeled as “Thieves....

The picture was taken by Jimmy Sime on 9 July 1937 outside the Grace Gates at Lord’s Cricket Ground during the Eton vs Harrow cricket match. It has been reproduced frequently as an illustration of the British class system. The Harrovians were Peter Wagner and Thomas “Tim” Dyson, who had arranged to be at Grace Gates at 2 pm, where Wagner’s father would pick them up and drive them to Russ Hill, the Wagners’ country home in Surrey, for the weekend....

But RFK’s funeral, particularly the train that took his body from New York City, following a funeral Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, to Washington, D.C., brought the country together: An estimated 2 million ordinary Americans gathered beside railroad tracks to honor him as the train passed by. On board the train that day, on assignment for LOOKmagazine, was staff photographer Paul Fusco, who ended up taking thousands of photographs of mourning faces, tributes, and patriotic displays along the way....

The concealment was to encourage reluctant women to participate in the contest. One newspaper advised in 1927: “Older ladies need not feel timid about entering the contest. They have as much chance as their daughters.” The judge, often a policeman or a clerk, would walk up and down and judge the prettiest ankles – such as seen in the pictures collected in this article. Some pageants also judged prettiest shoulders, arms and legs....

It’s almost the hand of a space alien, a different species, or anything but the hand of a human being. Unfortunately, it can’t be ‘willed’ into being something else, it is the hand of a human being. A starving human being. Freelance photojournalist Mike Wells explained to Holland Herald magazine, in an interview after winning the World Press Photo of the Year award, that in 1980 he was in Africa working for the Save the Children Fund of the United Kingdom, covering their anti-polio campaign in Swaziland and Malawi....

Planes had been used for bombardment missions during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-1912. Yet, aerial warfare during the First World War marked a rupture with these past examples. It was the first conflict during which aircraft were involved on a large scale and played a significant role. At the beginning of the war, the usefulness of air machines was met with a certain amount of skepticism by senior officers on all sides....

Born in Sweden and raised in the United States, she captivated audiences with her magnetic presence in the entertainment world. But it wasn’t just her acting prowess that enthralled; it was her multifaceted talent—an actress, singer, and dancer—that solidified her as an icon. Her singing and acting careers span seven decades, starting in 1961. Initially, she was billed as a female version of Elvis Presley. She has a sultry, vibrant contralto voice....

Japanese convoy HOMO-03 left Hong Kong en route to Shanghai, consisting of subchasers CH-9 and CH-20, destroyer Amatsukaze, Kaibokan (escort destroyers) Coastal Defense Vessels No. 1 and No. 134, Tokai Maru Number 2, and Kine Maru on April 4, 1945. Attacks by U.S. Air Force B-24 Liberators on 5 April sank the two transporters, and the convoy broke up. The subchasers returned to Hong Kong while the destroyers headed for Amoy, China....

They snapped away at everything from the chaos of war to the birth of new inventions, as well as the everyday weird and wonderful sights. Think about Boston’s Great Molasses Flood or Los Angeles’ strange alligator picnics. These are just a few examples of the oddities that sprinkle our history. Whether it’s a photo of an unusually large vase or a failed attempt at an amphibious bicycle, these snapshots piqued the interest of both casual viewers and serious historians....

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. Karin, as hypothetically specified, was to be in the “middle-range”. It was a two-door, “butterfly” coupé (the doors opening upwards), with a very streamlined profile and a very low center of gravity. With its flush glass panels, partly covered rear wheels and its brown-tastic paint job, the Karin took ample inspiration from Gandini’s Lancia Sibilo and simplified the idea to its purest form....

It had to have been after the artillery was stopped. Those guys on the background aren’t standing around. They’re receiving orders or getting a briefing. Besides, they had stretcher-bearing details for recovering bodies. But why does it seem like more often than not dead soldiers end up face down? Soldiers tend to die as they’re moving forwards toward their objective. It’s not like in the movies. Providing the soldiers are killed instantly (headshot, shot to the heart, etc) they will drop instantly....

Condemned by an Islamic war tribunal for denouncing nine families to the Russians, the man in the photo is escorted 20 km outside Kabul for execution. The pictures were taken by the French photographer Alain Mingam who was covering Mujahideen rebels in Afghanistan. Largely because he was sympathetic to the Mujahideen’s cause fighting against the Soviet invaders, Mingam was specifically brought to a place to witness an execution. “For someone like me who didn’t cover the Vietnam war, the mujaheddin’s battle against the biggest army in the world was David versus Goliath: those bearded, turbaned men fascinated me....

Ambrose Everett Burnside (May 23, 1824 – September 13, 1881), as a Union Army general in the American Civil War, conducted successful campaigns in North Carolina and East Tennessee but was defeated in the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg and Battle of the Crater. He was a general that history has been overly cruel towards. He had been instrumental in securing early victories for the Union on the Atlantic coast. He was a fair administrator and had a decent strategic sense....