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From bustling market scenes to quiet alleys, each image reflects the nuanced stories of a community navigating through historical shifts. Budapest, as the capital of Hungary, experienced a mix of socialist architecture and historical landmarks, reflecting its rich cultural heritage. Despite the political constraints, there were moments of cultural vibrancy and intellectual activity, with a burgeoning underground cultural scene. Dissent against the regime grew, and calls for political reforms became more pronounced toward the end of the decade....

A highly infectious disease, polio attacks the nervous system and can lead to paralysis, disability, and even death. The symptoms – pain and weakness, fatigue, and muscle loss – can strike any time from 15 to 50 years after the initial disease. In 1952, more than 21,000 Americans contracted a paralyzing form of polio, and 3,000 died from it. Once infected, there was no treatment besides time and tending to the symptoms....

Members of the Resistance, now called the French Forces of the Interior, proceeded to free all French civilian prisoners in Paris. The Germans were still counterattacking, setting fire to the Grand Palais, which had been taken over by the Resistance, and killing small groups of Resistance fighters as they encountered them in the city. On August 24, another French armored division entered Paris from the south, receiving an effusion of gratitude from French civilians who poured into the streets to greet their heroes—but still, the Germans continued to fire on French fighters from behind barricades, often catching civilians in the crossfire....

Hetzenauer was also a recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross. The Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. He utilized both a Karabiner 98k sniper variant with 6x telescopic sight and a Gewehr 43 with ZF4 4x telescopic sight. He saw action against Soviet forces in the Carpathians, Hungary, and Slovakia. On 6 November 1944, he suffered head trauma from artillery fire, and was awarded the Verwundeten-Abzeichen three days later....

The early 19th century was marked by the aftermath of the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. This period saw a departure from the elaborate styles of the late 18th century, with men opting for simpler, more natural looks. Shorter, neatly trimmed hair became fashionable, often accompanied by sideburns and clean-shaven faces. This clean-cut style was influenced by military trends and remained popular throughout Europe and North America....

The photochrom technique is a complex method of imbuing black-and-white photographs with realistic color. It was relatively less expensive than real color photography and provided a unique and instantly recognizable style. The process was invented in the 1880s and was most popular in the 1890s. What is interesting is how little has changed after all these years; pictures of the cities are immediately recognizable and popular tourist sites of the 1890s such as The Cliffs of Moher, The Giant’s Causeway, and more, still remain popular today....

Apollo 11 splashed down at 11:49 a.m. (CDT), July 24, 1969, about 812 nautical miles southwest of Hawaii and only 12 nautical miles from the USS Hornet. Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy on July 16, 1969, carried the astronauts into an initial Earth-orbit of 114 by 116 miles. An estimated 530 million people watched Armstrong’s televised image and heard his voice describe the event as he took “…one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” on July 20, 1969....

They are seen holding hands, wrapping their arms around each other, sitting on each other’s laps with their legs entwined, and enjoying intimate physical contact without any evident worries. These photographs, mainly stereographs and daguerreotype, are part of a collection bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City, by Columbia University librarian Herbert Mitchell. As you can see, these pictures document men across all social standings, intellectuals, working men, teachers, painters, etc....

Shoulder pads, acid-washed denim, leg warmers, and neon colors all contributed to an era that can only be described as a fashion fiasco. While these trends may have been deemed ugly by some, they serve as a testament to the decade’s unique and unabashed self-expression. One of the most notable fashion trends of the 1980s was the use of shoulder pads. This peculiar trend aimed to make women’s silhouettes appear stronger and more authoritative....

The Bonneville Salt Flats are in Utah, USA, near the border with Nevada, and as the name suggests it’s a very big and very flat area of land. Speed freaks began using the terrain for racing way back in 1912. Since 1935, Bonneville’s been one of the primary venues for land speed record attempts, with most land speed records recorded between 1935 and 1970 set there. The flats were first recognized for their potential as a speed-testing ground by Bill Rishel, who in 1896 had cycled across the area to win a competition run by the newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst....

The exact date is unknown, however, based on few Soviet sources, these typical faces sketches were made in 1960-1965. In the nomenclature of the USSR, people weren’t classified based on their race or ethnicity. USSR documents carried two entries: grazhdanstvo (citizenship): Soviet and nationalnost’ (nationality): Armenian, Russian, Jew, Kazakh, etc. This “nationality” was not equal to citizenship or residence in one of the constituent SSRs, but independent. You could be a Soviet citizen with “nationality: Kazakh” born and raised in the Ukrainian SSR....

Felix Dadaev, a former dancer and juggler, had been ordered to work to the Kremlin as Stalin’s body double. For more than half a century, Dadaev remained silent, fearing a death sentence should he dare to open his mouth. But in 2008, at the age of 88, and with the apparent approval of the Putin regime, he finally came forward to write his autobiography. It explains that he was one of four men employed to impersonate the supreme leader, taking his place in motorcades, at rallies, on newsreel footage, etc....

The first Allied troops landed on the Italian peninsula on September 3, 1943, and Italy surrendered on September 8 (although Mussolini’s Italian Social Republic was established soon afterwards). The first American troops landed at Salerno on September 9, 1943. The Germans launched fierce counterattacks. The U.S. 5th Army and other Allied armies broke through two German defensive lines (Volturno and the Barbara Line) in October and November 1943. After a heavy winter and challenges that it posed to the Allies, Rome fell on June 4, 1944....

These photos show the Atlantic Wall fortifications during the construction phase and later after the war ended. It was truly an amazing engineering feat. Most of the images were taken by Paul Virilio and published in his 1975 book Bunker Archeology. The Atlantic Wall (or as the Germans called it Atlantikwall) was an extensive system of coastal defenses and fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the coast of continental Europe and Scandinavia as a defense against an anticipated Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe from the United Kingdom, during World War II....

One of the earliest mobile libraries in the United States was a mule-drawn wagon carrying wooden boxes of books. It was created in 1904 by the People’s Free Library of Chester County, South Carolina, and served the rural areas there. Another early mobile library service was developed by Mary Lemist Titcomb. As a librarian in Washington County, Maryland, Titcomb was concerned that the library was not reaching all the people it could....

The pilot in front looking at the camera plane is doing the same thing. Planes were much slower and simpler back then. This kind of formation today would be the stuff of stunt fighters. Flying that close was usually done in bad weather so they could maintain visual contact with the plane in front of them and so forth to the flight lead. The Flying Tigers were a group of American fighter pilots that flew for China in the early part of 1942....

Many times this picture is labeled as a photo of a British grave and the wreckage of a British plane. At first look that is what it seems to be, but further research shows another story. What we actually have here is the grave of a 2nd Lieutenant of the South African Air Force in front of the wreckage of his Martin Maryland Mark II. A translation of the German inscription reads: “Here rests an unknown English lieutenant, fallen during air combat on June 14th, 1941“....

The people of Chicago were chased out of their city by one of the most destructive fires the world had ever seen, an event that came to be known in history as “The Great Chicago Fire”. The wall of flames roared and rumbled with a terrifying noise. Burning debris rose into the air on hurricane-like winds. The fire raced with speed that it literally nipped at the heels of those who ran from it....

It began with a simple boycott of Jewish shops and ended in the gas chambers at Auschwitz as Nazi Germany attempted to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe. In January 1933, after a bitter ten-year political struggle, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. During his rise to power, Hitler had repeatedly blamed the Jews for Germany’s defeat in World War I and subsequent economic hardships. Jews at this time composed only about one percent of Germany’s population of 55 million persons....

It should have been the commercial coup of the century, leading to massive worldwide sales. For this was the car chosen to star in the blockbusting Back to the Future film trilogy (1985–90). Unfortunately, the DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) had already gone bust, and production of the car had ended before the first movie was released. The problems were all commercial. Savvy entrepreneur John Zachary DeLorean had honed his engineering and management skills in the cut-throat world of American auto manufacture, notably when developing the iconic Pontiac Firebird muscle car....