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Engebi was the first of the Eniwetok Atoll to be invaded by American forces. The capture of Eniwetok would provide an airfield and harbor to support attacks on the Mariana Islands to the northwest. In the attack on Engebi American losses were 78 killed, 166 wounded, and 7 missing, totaling 251 casualties. All of Engebi’s defenders were killed, except for nineteen prisoners taken. Miller himself was killed during the invasion of Ebon Atoll a month later....

Looking back at the early 1900s, when cameras were just becoming more accessible, fishermen took pride in capturing their big catches and preserving the memory of their successful fishing trips. These black-and-white snapshots depict the fishermen standing next to their boats or along the shoreline, holding up enormous fish that they had just caught. The smiles on their faces reflect the satisfaction and pride they felt in their accomplishment, as they had not only caught a big fish but had also proven their skill and ability to provide for their families....

During the early 1990s, certain late 1980s fashion elements continued to be popular among people of all genders. However, the emergence of grunge and alternative rock music played a pivotal role in catapulting the simple and deliberately unkempt grunge look into the mainstream fashion scene by the year 1994. This anti-conformist approach to style also fostered the rise of the casual chic aesthetic. It included wardrobe staples like T-shirts, jeans, hoodies, and sneakers, which remained in vogue well into the 2000s....

In the early 20th century, sports rapidly grew into a beloved pastime for the rising middle class, and few captured this cultural shift as beautifully as Jacques Henri Lartigue. A passionate sportsman himself, Lartigue’s photography provides a window into the lively world of amateur athletics. His unposed, candid shots, compiled in a luxurious album, document the joy and energy that filled the sporting fields of the era. Whether racing, skiing, tennis, gymnastics, or hang gliding, Lartigue’s images reflect the vibrant spirit of early 20th-century athletics....

Despite the turmoil of World War II, Budapest remained surprisingly tranquil during this era. These rare images from Fortepan offer a glimpse into the city’s past, showcasing its residents going about their daily lives amidst the chaos of war. In the years leading up to 1939, Budapest was a vibrant cultural paradise. Its majestic architecture, a legacy of its past as the second capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, set the stage for a bustling café scene where lively discussions and intellectual debates flourished....

The woman photographed here, believed to have been a prostitute who serviced German occupiers, is having her head shaved by French civilians to publicly mark her. This picture was taken in Montelimar, France, on August 29, 1944. At the end of World War II, many French people accused of collaboration with Germany endured a particularly humiliating act of revenge: their heads were shaved in public. Nearly all those punished were women....

Their mission was part of Operation Greif commanded by the famous Waffen-SS commando Otto Skorzeny during the Battle of the Bulge. The operation was the brainchild of Adolf Hitler, and its purpose was to capture one or more of the bridges over the Meuse river before they could be destroyed. German soldiers, wearing captured British and US Army uniforms and using captured Allied vehicles, were to cause confusion in the rear of the Allied lines....

They were assigned the task of being Hitler’s personal bodyguards, a massive legion of SS soldiers would follow the Fuhrer wherever he went. They were also deployed in combat and were one of the most competent units in the war. In the beginning, as the party’s military arm, the SS recruited staunch Nazis and supporters and made sure to drill them properly as well as equip them with the best equipment....

A few of these people had cars, but most hitchhiked or “rode the rails”. A large portion of the people who rode the rails were teenagers, but there were also older men, women, and entire families who traveled in this manner. They would board freight trains and crisscross the country, hoping to find a job in one of the towns along the way. When there was a job opening, there were often literally a thousand people applying for the same job....

In these vintage photos, the LIFE magazine photographer Sam Shere captured the “indecent exposure” phenomenon at Rockaway Beach, New York in 1946. Starting with a sign that reads “wear robes to and from the beach,” Shere’s series shows women sunbathing in high-waisted two-pieces, men walking the boardwalk in just their shorts, and the way in which these beachgoers seem unphased by the cops writing them tickets for “indecent exposure.” In 1946 it was considered “indecent” when people walked around in their swimsuits anywhere but on the beach itself, and at Rockaway Beach in New York you were expected to wear a robe to and from the beach....

In 1983, Pope John Paul II and Agca met and spoke privately at the prison where Agca was being held. The Pope brought the photographer and the cameramen because he wanted the image in that cell to be shown around a world filled with unforgiving hatreds, with hostile superpowers, and smaller, implacable fanaticism. When the Pope arrived in his cell, Agca was dressed in a blue crewneck sweater, jeans, and blue-and-white running shoes from which the laces had been removed....

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, New York City’s subway system was one of the most dangerous places a person could be. Lucky for those of us who never had the chance to see it, Swiss photographer Willy Spiller was there, and the dark and atmospheric series of photos he took has now come to be known as Hell On Wheels. These photographs are a joyous and soulful trip in the bygone era of the New York subway system....

Back in the Cold War era, much like other Americans, we used to think that all Soviet women dressed plainly and had tough lives due to their challenging circumstances. We imagined them in simple, practical clothes. But these fashion pictures tell a different story, especially in the years before the Soviet Union ended. While these images are actually scans from the Burda Moden magazine, a Western-based publication printed in Moscow, they reveal that Soviet women’s fashion was more varied and colorful than we had thought....

Here, on a table set up outside a steel helmet factory in Lubeck, Germany, a display is set up, showing the varying stages of the helmet-making process for Stahlhelms for the Imperial German Army. At the beginning of World War I, none of the combatants were issued with any form of protection for the head other than cloth and leather caps, designed at most to protect against saber cuts. When trench warfare began, the number of casualties on all sides suffering from severe head wounds (more often caused by shrapnel than by gunfire) increased dramatically....

Her career began in entertainment with small roles in television shows and movies before she gained widespread recognition. However, it was her role on “Three’s Company” that propelled her to stardom. The series co-starred John Ritter and Joyce DeWitt in a comedy about two single women living with a single man who pretended to be gay in order to bypass the landlord’s policy of prohibiting single men sharing an apartment with single women....

The Aberfan disaster, caused by the collapse of a colliery spoil tip, tragically claimed the lives of 144 people, most of them children. This heartbreaking incident not only shed light on the dangers of coal mining but also showed a profound display of resilience and community spirit. A group of young schoolchildren at Pantglas Junior School had just begun their math lessons when a terrifying rumble filled the air. Within moments, tons of liquefied coal waste thundered down the hillside, crashing into the school building and nearby homes....

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will forever live in the pages of history as two of the most significant turning points in modern history, initiating the world into the nuclear age. At 03:49 on the morning of August 9, 1945, Bockscar carried Fat Man, with Kokura as the primary target and Nagasaki the secondary target. The mission plan for the second attack was nearly identical to that of the Hiroshima mission, with two B-29s flying an hour ahead as weather scouts and two additional B-29s in Bockscar’s flight for instrumentation and photographic support of the mission....

The first written record of tattoos in Japan was from 300 A.D., found in the text History of the Chinese Dynasties. In this text, Japanese men would tattoo their faces and decorate their bodies with tattoos which became a normal part of their society; however, a shift began in the Kofun period between 300 and 600 A.D where tattoos took on a more negative light. In this period criminals began to be marked with tattoos, similar to the Roman Empire where slaves were marked with descriptive phrases of the crime they had committed....

It was not always covered up like that; this set-up was displayed for the 1934 elections, in which Italians were called to vote either for or against the Fascist representative’s list. The “SI SI…” lettering (meaning “Yes Yes…”) was propaganda for one of the two plebiscite elections held during the Fascist Regime, where electors didn’t vote for individual parties (there wasn’t any but the Fascist one), neither for single candidates, but just voted “Yes” or “No” to a single list of candidates presented by the Duce himself....

Amid the chaos and violence of the Vietnam War, American soldiers adorned their helmets with intricate and often striking artwork. These helmet designs served as a means of personal expression, conveying messages of patriotism, camaraderie, and protest. Today, these helmets stand as powerful symbols of the human experience of war, offering a glimpse into the minds and hearts of those who lived through it. In this context, the study of helmet art of the Vietnam War is a fascinating and thought-provoking subject, shedding light on the intersection of art, history, and human psychology....