These images offer an authentic and unvarnished view of Seattle’s past, showing the city’s evolution in various aspects. During the 1870s, Seattle’s economy was intricately tied to its geographical location. Situated on the Puget Sound, the city emerged as a hub for trade and commerce. One of the defining economic drivers of this era was the timber industry. The waterfront was adorned with lumber mills, and the seemingly endless forests of the Pacific Northwest provided a steady supply of timber....

Between the war years of 1942 and 1944, trains carried 98 percent of military personnel and more than 90 percent of freight for the military. These incredible photos show how women in America helped keep the railroads running smoothly and helped maintain this vital part of the war effort. By the end of the war, some 116,000 women were working on railroads across the United States. The pictures are taken in April 1943 by the Office of War Information photographer Jack Delano who captured the women of the Chicago & North Western Railroad roundhouse in Clinton, Iowa, as they kept the hulking engines cleaned, lubricated, maintained, and fixed the trains....

He spent the next two weeks traveling across Northern Europe, visiting the Faroe Islands, spending a week in Iceland, and then visiting Bergen on his way back. He was later quoted as saying that he had the idea of attempting to reach Moscow even before the departure, and he saw the trip to Iceland (where he visited Hofdi House, the site of unsuccessful talks between the United States and the Soviet Union in October 1986) as a way to test his piloting skills....

The enchanting world of the 1960s was marked by the irresistible allure of dapper, globetrotting spies, captivating the imagination of an entire generation. Mirroring this suave trend, the cologne industry of the decade ingeniously infused fragrances with exotic odors, while ad campaigns exuded sophistication and elegance. On the other hand, the 1970s emerged as a transformative era characterized by earthy fashion statements such as brown, denim, corduroy, and a celebration of natural masculinity, with body hair being embraced as a symbol of rugged appeal....

Anecdotal reports suggest that some rat-catchers would raise rats instead of catching them in order to increase their eventual payment from the town or city they were employed by. This, and the practice of rat-fights, could have led to rat-breeding and the adoption of the rat as a pet—the fancy rat. Rat-catchers ran high risks of suffering bites and infections but helped prevent these from spreading to the public. They would capture rats by hand, often with specially-bred vermin terriers, or with traps....

Two-wheeled carriages were drawn by horses and raced around a stadium called a hippodrome, making oval-shaped laps. From four to six chariots competed in a single race, normally consisting of seven laps around the circus. The racing chariots were light, fragile affairs, easily smashed in a collision, in which case the driver was often entangled in the long reins and dragged to death or seriously injured. In the early 1900s, chariot racing was all but forgotten outside of history books, but all that changed when some daredevils strapped motorcycles to the front of chariots and revived the sport using modern technology....

One lahar, consisting of three pulses, did most of the damage. Traveling at 6 meters (20 ft) per second, the first pulse enveloped most of the town of Armero, killing up to 20,000 people; the two later pulses weakened buildings. Another lahar killed 1,800 people in nearby Chinchiná. In total 23,000 people were killed and 13 villages in addition to Armero were destroyed. Omayra Sánchez was a little 13 year old girl who lived in Armero when the “Nevado del Ruíz” erupted....

From the early beginning of his leadership in the Nazi Party, Hitler had publicly stated in his 1924 autobiography (Mein Kampf) that he would create a union between his birth country and Germany, by any means possible. On the morning of 12 March, the 8th Army of the German Wehrmacht crossed the border to Austria. The troops were greeted by cheering German-Austrians with Nazi salutes, Nazi flags, and flowers. Because of this, the Nazi annexing was also called the Blumenkrieg (war of flowers)....

Following the German invasion of France in May 1940, the well-respected eight-four-year old was asked to form a government. Seeing the French army defeated, the “Hero of Verdun” asked for an armistice. On 22 June, 50 miles northeast of Paris, the French officially surrendered, the ceremony taking place in the same spot and in the same railway carriage that the Germans had surrendered to the French on 11 November 1918....

Two or three rats would always be found on a dead body. They usually went for the eyes first and then they burrowed their way right into the corpse. Trench conditions were ideal for rats. Some of these rats grew extremely large. It was not uncommon for rats to start gnawing on the bodies of wounded men who couldn’t defend themselves. Many troops were awakened by rats crawling across their faces....

However, American sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who was hired to design and execute the project, rejected that site because the rock there was too eroded and unstable and instead chose nearby Mount Rushmore with its solid granite rock face. Borglum also proposed that the four heads in the sculpture symbolize the first 150 years of the United States: Washington to represent the country’s founding; Jefferson, its expansion across the continent; Roosevelt, its development domestically and as a global power; and Lincoln, its preservation through the ordeal of civil war....

This seemingly modest assortment of goods, meticulously allocated through a complex system of distribution, belies the profound challenges that defined life in communist Poland during that era. Each item, from the staple grains to the precious drops of cooking oil, carries within it the weight of an economic system strained to its limits and a society that defied adversity with unwavering determination. This tableau offers a glimpse into a bygone era when rationing was more than a bureaucratic practice – it became a defining thread in the intricate tapestry of daily existence, shaping the experiences and aspirations of an entire nation....

The Spanish flu strain killed its victims with a swiftness never seen before. In the United States stories abounded of people waking up sick and dying on their way to work. The symptoms were gruesome: Sufferers would develop a fever and become short of breath. Lack of oxygen meant their faces appeared tinged with blue. Hemorrhages filled the lungs with blood and caused catastrophic vomiting and nosebleeds, with victims drowning in their own fluids....

Rescued East African slaves taken from a dhow aboard HMS Daphne, a British naval ship used to prevent the transportation of enslaved people. They were freed from Arab slave traders between November 1st and 4th of 1868. The HMS Daphne was sailing along the coast of Zanzibar to enforce a treaty with the Sultan of Zanzibar that said he was supposed to control the slave traders. Instead, he was profiting from it....

Men’s hair in the seventies was a joy to behold. There was a little bit of variation throughout the decade, from long to short, blow-dried and bouffant to spiked and bleached, with “overgrown” being the look that most people associate with the decade. Hairstyling and grooming were no longer simply for women – hair products were now marketed to men, and many happily used them. Moustaches and mutton chops were in, even fake facial hair was worn and accepted....

The most notorious of these groups was the “German-American Bund”, which tried to model itself as an American arm of Hitler’s Third Reich. Although these groups wore uniforms and touted swastikas, in reality, they had few ties to Nazi Germany and their support among the larger German-American community was minimal. Nevertheless, the group strongly promoted hatred for Jews and strove to bring Nazi-style fascism to the United States. Initial support for American fascist organizations did come from Germany....

The crisis was unique in a number of ways, featuring calculations and miscalculations as well as direct and secret communications and miscommunications between the two sides. The dramatic crisis was also characterized by the fact that it was primarily played out at the White House and the Kremlin level with relatively little input from the respective bureaucracies typically involved in the foreign policy process. In October 1962 President John F....

These early photographs, taken by Émile Béchard in Cairo, Egypt during the 1870s, present vivid portraits of local figures such as shopkeepers, street merchants, workes, and dancers. Béchard, active in Cairo from 1869 until 1880, focused on capturing Egyptian subjects through an orientalist lens. His work provides a fascinating glimpse into the everyday lives and vibrant culture of 19th-century Egypt, highlighting the unique characters and atmosphere of the era....

Despite an exhaustive 10-day search operation, eventually abandoned due to the absence of any signs of the flight, Juliane defied the odds. After 11 days of solitary survival in the rainforest, she was rescued by local fishermen, emerging as the sole survivor of the tragic incident. Born on October 10, 1954, in Lima, Juliane Koepcke is the only child of German zoologists Maria and Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke. Her parents were engaged in scientific work at Lima’s Museum of Natural History at the time of her birth....

Socialist regimes now held power across one-fifth of the globe, ruling a combined population of almost 800 million people. Maintaining a friendly and productive relationship between Moscow and Beijing was seen as crucial for the survival and advancement of socialism. In late 1949, Mao traveled to Moscow to meet Joseph Stalin for the first time. Recognizing the need for unity at a time of growing opposition, Stalin and Mao signed a bilateral treaty called the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance....