Within months, in order to de-Polonize annexed lands, the Soviet NKVD rounded up and deported between 320,000 and 1 million Polish nationals to the eastern parts of the USSR, the Urals, and Siberia. There were four waves of deportations of entire families with children, women, and elderly aboard freight trains from 1940 until 1941. These civilians included civil servants, local government officials, judges, members of the police force, forest workers, settlers, small farmers, tradesmen, refugees from western Poland, children from summer camps and orphanages, family members of anyone previously arrested, and family members of anyone who escaped abroad or went missing....

The Blitz intensified in both England and Germany, with the first thousand-bomber air raid on Cologne, and the German bombing of British cathedral cities. In the Pacific, the Japanese continued their expansion into Borneo, Java, and Sumatra. The ‘unassailable’ British fortress of Singapore fell rapidly in February, with around 25,000 prisoners taken, many of whom would die in Japanese camps in the years to follow. But June saw the peak of Japanese expansion....

Written in Cyrillic script, they include such slogans as “Hitler kaputt” and names of individual soldiers. Most of the writings are just “From [Russian City] to Berlin” or just “[Russian City] – Berlin” with a name or “Kilroyski was here” . On the base of the pillar on the right, directly above the statue’s head it says “From Moscow to Berlin, Major Yakovlev”. On the left pillar in the circle with the star, it says “From Leningrad to Berlin” with a name after....

A few years later, he came up with the concept of an enormous vehicle nicknamed “The Rhino”. Defining features were its massive slanted front wheels, which had six-foot diameters and weighed 1,500 pounds each. The wheels were also hollow, which allowed the Rhino to float, meanwhile, a hydrojet propelled it forward along the water body. The odd-looking vehicle weighed five tons and could travel with ease through deep sand, mud, and water....

However, this picture only tells half the story, with the other part of the story being the damage that the shells from these cases inflicted upon the enemy. This photograph was taken by Tom Aitken, and may well have been used for propaganda purposes. The original caption reads: “Official photograph taken on the British Western Front in France. Some shell cases on the roadside in the front area, the contents of which have been dispatched over into the German lines”....

One of the most captivating ways to delve into Toronto’s bygone days is through this remarkable collection of photographs that chronicle the everyday life of the city in the 1960s. These images, taken by gcosserat on Flickr, offer a unique glimpse into a bygone era, showcasing the people, places, and moments that defined the city during this transformative decade. As the 1960s began, Toronto’s skyline comprised a collection of buildings tinted with sepia tones, featuring banks, hotels, and church steeples....

The thylacine was relatively shy and nocturnal, with the general appearance of a medium-to-large-size dog, except for its stiff tail and abdominal pouch similar to a kangaroo’s, and dark transverse stripes that radiated from the top of its back, reminiscent of a tiger. The thylacine was a formidable apex predator, though exactly how large its prey animals were is disputed. Originally, the thylacine had been found on the Australian mainland and New Guinea and was confined to Tasmania only in historic times....

During the Saipan battle, the Americans faced the Japanese determination to resist to the death and to not allow the American occupiers to take either soldier or civilian alive: the greatest banzai charge of the war took place on Saipan and left over four thousand Japanese soldiers dead. Then, if this was not enough, a direct order was given by Emperor Hirohito ordering civilians on the island to kill themselves rather than be taken alive....

The greatest destruction came from the fires the quake ignited. The earthquake ruptured the gas mains even as it allowed ignition accidents in various ways from the hundreds of open flames being used for lighting and cooking. The wooden buildings caught fire easily, and the water mains damaged by the quake were useless for firefighting. The fires ravaged the city for three days before burning themselves out. The maelstrom destroyed 490 city blocks, a total of 25,000 buildings, and made over 250,000 homeless....

Captain Nieves Fernandez was the only known Filipino female guerrilla leader. Working with guerrillas south of Tacloban, Miss Fernandez rounded up native men to resist the Japanese. She commanded 110 natives who killed more than 200 Japanese with knifes and shotguns made from sections of gas pipe. The Japanese offered 10,000 pesos for her head. She was wounded once. The bullet scar can be seen on her right forearm. Filipinos call that weapon a bolo, basically a long knife....

Postcards gave these new travelers a means to share their journeys with their friends and family at home. Postcards became such a popular commodity that the period from 1895 to the end of the Great War is now considered the golden age of the postcard. The popularity of postcards extended to postcards depicting images from European colonial possessions as well. While postcards from Africa served to reinforce stereotypes about the colonies they also served a larger purpose....

Intended to serve as lasting mementos for grieving families, these photographs often portrayed the departed in a serene and lifelike repose, creating a poignant connection between the living and the deceased. It is important to recognize that while postmortem photography did indeed find its place within the cultural landscape of the Victorian era, not every photograph featuring still or composed subjects from that time is a portrayal of the deceased....

Elizabeth was born in Mayfair, London, as the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth). Her father acceded to the throne in 1936 upon the abdication of his brother, King Edward VIII, making Elizabeth the heir presumptive. She was educated privately at home and began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In November 1947, she married Philip Mountbatten, a former prince of Greece and Denmark, and their marriage lasted 73 years until his death in April 2021....

By 26 February, Iraq had announced it was withdrawing its forces from Kuwait, but still refused to accept all the UN resolutions passed against it. Iraqi tanks, armored vehicles, trucks, and troops fleeing the allied onslaught formed huge queues on the main road north from Kuwait to the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Allied forces bombed them from the air, killing hundreds of troops in their vehicles in what became known as the “Highway of Death”....

Correct exposures in landscape photography often led to the sky being overexposed, for example. To circumnavigate this, photographers combined two images, each section with the correct exposure. Discoveries like the wet collodion process, which allowed photographers to combine multiple images on one negative, captivated the curiosity and creativity of photographers dating back to the 1850s. And, much like today, sometimes the tricks of the trade were used for, well, trickery....

These two men are manumitted slaves. Manumission is the act of a slave owner freeing his or her slaves. They borrowed the clothes and the hats just for the picture. It’s a posed photograph and a statement about being manumitted rather than a picture of a woman posing with her slaves. To answer the question of why they are dressed up but shoeless – it’s part of the old custom of using shoes to denote class, position, or wealth....

Boeing’s aircraft manufacturing facilities were critical to the war efforts of Allied forces. One B-17 Bomber cost a little over $200,000 to produce (that’s around $3,6 million in today’s economy). Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese submarines were spotted off San Francisco Bay and near Santa Barbara in 1942. The West Coast was the next presumed target for the Japanese so the U.S. decided to hide its major wartime factories....

These establishments, often run by local entrepreneurs and passed down through generations, offered personalized services, specialized goods, and a sense of community that larger retail chains struggled to replicate. These photographs not only document the architectural appearance of these stores but also encapsulate the societal and cultural fabric of the time. One striking aspect of these images is the diversity of the shops themselves Such stores encompassed a wide array of businesses, including neighborhood grocery stores, hardware shops, clothing boutiques, and corner pharmacies....

During this operation, the Soviet armies in Belarus completely destroyed the Army Group Center of the Wehrmacht, losing five times fewer people than the Germans. This photo was taken in the summer of 1944 by Emmanuel Yevzerikhin. In the Soviet photographic album, this photo is called “Stand to Death”. The soldiers and the guns look so futuristic. The gun is a D-1 howitzer, model 1943. In 1941, for various reasons, it was discontinued the mass production of 152-mm howitzer model 1938 (M-10)....

Held in the open air on Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in Bethel, New York, Woodstock 1969 can now be looked upon as one of the most important events of the twentieth century. From selecting the site to negotiating with the musicians, the concert’s organizers encountered obstacles. Many residents objected to the “lifestyle” of the concertgoers, specifically, their use of drugs and their opposition to the Vietnam War. The event finally went forward, scheduled for Friday, August 15, through Sunday, August 17, 1969 (the festival actually concluded on Monday, August 18)....