19 Fascinating Photos From Our History's Vault
A glimpse into mankind's storied past.
Published 8 years ago in Wow
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The Kaibiles, a special counterinsurgency force of the Guatemalan army that would eventually be accused of human rights violations, march in Guatemala City, Guatemala, in 1988. If you read up on what these guys did, its almost unthinkable in many ways the atrocities they did to their own people. Most of their actions occurred during the 35 year Guatemalan Civil War that finally ended in 1996.
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Adolf Hitler reacts to being kissed from a very excited American woman during the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin, Germany. German idealism was accepted and even in some circles popular in the US, before they invaded their neighbors, slaughter millions of innocent people, and became the enemy of the world.
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Soldiers who are part of the international coalition to free Kuwait after Iraq had invaded it stand next to a knocked out tank after the Battle of 73 Easting in the Gulf War in 1991. The Iraqi armor was so outdated the coalition absolutely obliterated any who did not run. Some 160 Iraqi tanks, 180 Iraqi personnel carriers, and 80 other Iraqi wheeled vehicles were destroyed, along with around 1,000 Iraqi soldiers killed. The coalition lost 2 vehicles, 1 to friendly fire, and had officially 1 killed. Some tank crews compared it to shooting fish in a barrel.
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3 Japanese teens show the Wings sign and also show their tickets to a cancelled Wings concert in Toyko, Japan in 1980. The concert was cancelled when Paul McCartney was arrested at the airport after he was found with marijuana in his luggage. The tickets cost around $20 USD at the time. These fans loved Wings, but when the journalist asked them if they also liked The Beatles, the young girls had little to no clue about McCartney's former band.
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A French military policeman using a metal detector checks for weapons from civilians heading into town in Algeria in 1956. This was during the brutal Algerian War of Independence, when systematic assassinations and executions, torture, bombings, and attacks of domestic civilians on both sides dominated the fighting. Large scale battles were rare, and 1 million Europeans living in Algeria fled. This was part of the numerous countries post WWII who pushed for independence from European control. Algeria, being so close to France and having 150 years of integration already, was one of the countries France really wanted to keep. Vietnam would be another.
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Soldiers pose with captured Japanese flags at the end of the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942. The 6 month campaign was brutal, with the soldiers completely cut off at times continuing to fight an enemy that never stopped. This victory was huge, as it stopped the Japanese advance in their tracks, but showed how horrific the Pacific fight on every island would be. That appears to be very evident on the men's faces in this picture.
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John Henry Patterson poses with the first of 2 lions he killed at Tsavo, British Eash Africa (now Kenya) in 1898. The lions hunted together, and attacked the railroad workers. Originally it was believed they killed over 100, but modern estimates put it at more like 30. Still, a surprising large number of dead for the 2 man eaters who wreaked havoc before Patterson eventually killed them both. The film The Ghost and the Darkness portrays this event.
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Children play on a war torn street in Madrid, Spain in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War. The war would last another 3 years, and was not only major for Spain of course but the world, as many countries including Nazi Germany, the UK, and France sent advisors and watched the fighting play out with modern weapons.
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Soldiers injured in a recent bombardment get treatment during WWI in 1916. This is the complete photo, as most have only seen the man sitting on the left in close ups. He is the famous WWI shell shocked soldier. Notice his eyes are focused in a scary gaze at the camera as he appears to have fallen into madness.
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3 Portuguese soldiers laugh as a child shines their shoes in Angola in 1972. This was part of the Portuguese Colonial War that lasted 13 years until 1975. Despite at the time Portugal was winning the ongoing war, major political problems at home and increased pressure from other nations forced them to withdraw from Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea, eventually granting each nation their independence.
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Local businessmen destroy a Japanese made car in 1988. Other American car companies suffered in the 1980s as Japanese vehicles were cheaper and more reliable. Some major US car companies even had to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to avoid going under. In response, American business owners large and small made a heavy "Buy American" push in the late 1980s as the quality of Japanese goods soared. Japanese currency and international business influence also rose drastically, and this forced the American companies, especially the car companies, to improve their quality, which some did. The push however worked for many companies, and to this day many people take pride buying a sometimes inferior product, possibly even for more money, as long as it was made in America.
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