Thousands of images are taken daily of events from across the world. From the first photographs taken dating back to before the American Civil War, to the alien-technology-quality images today, pictures of people, buildings, places, and objects have held many meanings, both positive and negative.
It's just not images that shack the world: videos, speeches, demographics, documents, and graphs also send an output to the world. From Hitler's Mein Kampf to the Challenger Accident in 1986.
Below are some of the most historic events off the top of my head that everyone probably remembers from the 20th century.
Images are from Google
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| 1903: Wright Brothers First aircraft flight performed by the Wright Brothers using their Kitty Hawk craft in South Carolina. Marked the beginning of aviation technology for the human race. |
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| 1904 - 1914: Panama Canal Construction of the Panama Canal begins in 1904 and ends in 1914. At the time, this region of Panama was part of the US, and some parts are still US Territory. Senator John MaCain's homeland. |
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| 1912: Titanic Disaster The "Unsinkable" Titanic gives eye opening results of a crash test gone wrong. The ship, which has the length equivalent to about the Empire State Building, sank on the morning of April 15th, 1912. |
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| 1914 - 1918: Battle(s) of Ypres Battle of Ypres was fought five different times across 4 years during the First World War. These battles also set records for both sides. The first former colonial state (Canada) to defeat a European power (Germany) on European soil. The first extensive use of chemical agents as a form of weapons by the Germans (Unlike popular beliefs, the Russians were the first to use chemical agents as a form of weapon). You can still go and see the massive trenches dugout by both sides in Belgium, France, Luxembourg, other low countries of Europe. |
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| 1917: Bolshevik Revolution Nothing defines the Bolshevik Revolution more than, blood, vodka, Mosin-Nagants, Lenin, and blood. Basically a French Revolution with a Communist twist happened here as the citizens of Imperial Russia turned against the Tsar (or Czar) and resulted to Socialism for equality between all economic classes of people. This caused the Russians to tap out early during WWI (1917) so they can deal (unsuccessfully) with the revolution. |
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| 1919: Ratification of the 18th Amendment Bad news for alcoholic psychopaths. Just when you're getting turnt up after World War 1 ends, your government bans beer.The 18th Amendment banned the sale, production, and redistribution of any alcohol from 1919 from the Wilson Admin to the Roosevelt Admin in 1933. Kick-started the roaring 20's high-alcohol-intake era and you probably read about this in The Great Gatsby. |
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| 1923: Kanto Dai-Sinsai A rare image of fire-bombed Tokyo after the Pacific War. PSYCH! If you knew your history, you wouldn't get caught. The Kanto Dai Sinsai was Japan's worst earthquake nightmare until Higashi Nihon Dai-Sinsai of 2011. A vast majority of the city was in ruins, (similar to the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906), as fires spread uncontrollable to the wooden paper houses in Tokyo. |
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| 1929: Stock Market Crash Stock market crashes after too many people "bought on margin". Resulted to the world getting nerfed over by the Americans in Wall Street. Beginning of the Great Depression into the 1930's. |
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| 1933: German Federal Election of 1933 The National Socialist German Worker's Party (NSDAP) takes control of German politics in 1933. Marked the end of the Weimer Republic that was leading Germany from 1919 to 1933. NSDAP or the Nazi Party controls Germany from 1933 to 1945. |
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| 1939: Invasion of Poland On September 1st, 1939, the German Army crosses the Polish border to commence invasion operations. The outdated, outgunned, and outnumbered Polish forces were defeated in less than a month. The invasion ended with the German-Soviet Frontier Treaty which split Poland into two: German side and Soviet side. Marks the beginning of the Second World War. |
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| 1942 - 1943: Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the most bloodiest battles in not only the Second World War, but in the history of man kind. Fought from fall of 1942 to the summer of 1943, intense urban Close-Quarter combat and street fighting led to the complete annihilation of the German 6th Army and casualties in the millions for both side. A turning point of the war for the Soviets as the remaining German forces are pushed all the way back to the fatherland after this campaign. |
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| 1945: Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki President Truman approves the usage of Nuclear Weapons bombing on the cities of Hiroshima and Kokura. The 15 kilo-ton "Little Boy" was dropped over Hiroshima on the morning on August 6th, 1945. The slightly larger "Fat Man" had a blast yield of 21 Kt, and was detonated over Nagasaki instead of Kokura on August 9th, 1945. Due to poor weather, both bombs missed their intended targets by about 2 miles, and both bombs resulted with similar results. |
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| 1950-1953: Korean War The Korean War was fought between the North and South Korean nations for three years. It was the "first" major cold war-era war fought between communism and democracy. The US-led newly-formed United Nation fought alongside the South Koreans, while China, and later the Soviet Union aid the North Koreans. The war ended with a treaty and a Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that exists even to today. In addition, it is the first war using integrated units (units were built disregarding colour of skin) of solders for the first time since President Truman orders Executive Order 9981. |
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| 1954: Operation Castle, Bravo Castle Bravo was the largest "accidental" nuclear detonation of the United States performed in the Bikini Atoll in the Marshal Islands. Originally estimated to yield 5 megatons, the early morning test on March 6th, 1954, a minor calculation error concluded with a "didn't see that coming" 15 mt blast yield that spilled radioactive elements to as far as the West Coast US. |
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| 1961: AN602, "Tsar Bomba" Have you ever wondered how to end the world? Well, the Soviets can show you a step-by-step procedure of how to do so. The Soviets dropped this monster on a test site in Novalya Zemla on October 30th, 1961. The crew members aboard the Tu-25 Bomber that dropped this thing weren't given full promises that they were coming back after this. The navigator gave a thumbs-up, the bombardier released the safety, and the pilots dipped real quick crossing their fingers that they weren't going to get knocked out of the sky. The bomb was even given a parachute to assist the pilots to escape in time. When it finally detonated, it had a blast yield equivalent to 50 mt, or all the explosives detonated in WW2 times ten. It's mushroom cloud soared to the top of the atmosphere, and blast shock waves felt three times around the world. It is responsible for about 25% of the radioactive elements found on earth (before Chernobyl). It is the largest man-made, nuclear explosion in the history of man-kind. Ironically, is the "cleanest" nuclear bomb ever detonated by any nation. |
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| 1969: Apollo 11 The US Space Program Apollo 11 landed the first humans on the Moon on July 20th, 1969. It marked a major achievement of space exploration and technological progress. As a memorial, the astronauts left the US flag and retro-reflector mirrors to prove that they were there on that historical day. However, there are countless conspiracy theories that exist that says the Eagle actually never went to the moon. Unfortunately, mankind has not returned to the Moon after Apollo 17. That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." - Neil Armstrong |
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| 1975: Fall of Saigon Thousands of civilians flood into US airbases to flee the fast approaching North Vietnamese Army to avoid being enslaved by them. This historic event marked the end of the Vietnamese War, and was one of the first global conflicts that America had lost to. On another note, thousands and millions of Vietnamese refugees were accepted into US land in exchange for the lose of their homeland. The capital city of South Vietnam was finally captured on April 30th, 1975, and Vietnam became reunited as one nation under Communism. |
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| 1977: Tenerife Airport Disaster The Tenerife Airport Disaster took place on March 27th, 1977 on the Canary Islands just off the coast of Southern Morocco. Two Boeing 747's collided into each other on the runway, and caused the death of 583 people and 61 survivors. Since the Canary Island is Spanish territory, the Spanish government had to lead the investigations. It is the deadliest aviation accident in history. |
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| 1986: Challenger Space Shuttle Accident On the morning of January 28th, 1986, the Challenger Space Shutlle lifted off only to explode 72 seconds later. An O-ring seal failed at lift-off, and caused a domino effect until the main orbiter housing five NASA astronauts and two Payload Specialist exploded, killing all seven crew members. About 17% of all Americans witnessed the launch live via television or being physically at the site. |
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| 1986: Chernobyl Disaster On 1:23 local time, Chernobyl reactor number 4 exploded into a massive fireball. Majority of the workers and engineers in the control room were killed immediately. Civilians living in the near-by city of Pripyat were given five minutes to grab personal belongings and evacuated immediately. The disaster spewed radioactive particles from Ukraine SSR to Belarus SSR within hours; many suffered from radiation poising and later developed Thyroid Cancer. This incident is categorized as the only Level 7 disaster until the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear power Plant Disaster in 2011. There is a 20 km exclusion zone in place even till' today, and people wishing to go inside must get special permission from the Ukrainian Government. Within the exclusion zone, many affects of radiation exposure litter the abandoned wasteland, complete with entire forests of dead trees (the "Red Forest") and number of mutated wildlife roaming the ghost town of Pripyat. This is on my bucket list to go here before I die. |
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| 1989 - 1990: Operation Just Cause In December of 1989, the US invades Panama to overthrow it's leader. Soldiers geared up an board rafts as the "Operation: Just Cause is a-go" transmission is broadcasted. Manuel Noriega was the de facto leader, general, and dictator of panama at the time from 1983. The US wanted to depose Noriega, and president elect Guillermo Endara who was pro-US, and eventually sign the Torrijos-Carter Treaty to hand over control of the Panama canal from the US to Panama. If you've played Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, you know what I'm talking about. |
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| 1990 - 1991: Operation Desert Storm Iraq decides to invade its tiny neighboring nation of Kuwait to gain access to its' rich oil fields. The United nation steps in to stop the Iraqis from preventing further damage. The United States, United Kingdom, France, and even Germany (who just reunited after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the Dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991) all pitch in to push Hussein back to their borders. This war is the precursor to the 2nd Persian Gulf War, namely, the Afghanistan War. |
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| 1994: South African Presidential Campaign Nelson Mandela becomes the first non-white head of state in the history of South Africa. He is the first president to take office after the fall of the Apartheid, and brought forth multicultural democracy. He served for one term (1994-1999) and is also the oldest person to become head-of-state in South Africa at the age of 75. |
And then people say I should be a historian, like please. I can't even feed myself if I become a historian...
