Photos That Allow You to Travel Back in Time

If you are a rabid history buff like us who loves to explore rare historical pictures, you must certainly be interested in taking a trip down memory lane today. This article features the rarest of all photos that significantly impacted the world’s history. Thanks to people who preserved these great images, we have a window to history’s most interesting moments. 

These photos also prove that the one invention that changed history is surely the camera, and photography is the most significant of all professions from a historical point of view. How else would we have secured glimpses of the past eras for our younger generation to study and research on? So, without wasting any time, let’s go through thirty historical images that impeccably captured an important event in history. You may find some of the events shocking and would not even want to believe that these actually happened. But that’s what time traveling back in the past is all about, right? Let’s get started!

This photo features the person who created basketball, James Naismith. Naismith was from Canada and taught P.E. at the YMCA International Training College. We see him playing basketball with his wife in the image, which is absolutely intriguing. Do you know where the first-ever game of basketball was played? It was in Springfield, Massachusetts. When asked why he named the sport basketball, Naismith said the name came to his mind because the ball passes via a hoop resembling a basket. In fact, at that time, players used peach baskets as a hoop, and the game only had 13 rules. You find it hard to believe, right? Times have changed, and we say the game has evolved for the better.

Do you remember Bruce? Yeah, that’s the name of the iconic white shark that played the main antagonist in Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster movie Jaws. It was released in 1975 when Spielberg was just 27 years old. Coming back to this giant shark, it was actually a mechanical object. When you watch the movie, you won’t get a hint that the shark isn’t real.

Kudos to Spielberg for creating this masterpiece using an unreal shark back in the early 1970s, as it wasn’t an easy feat to accomplish back then. Technological tools were limited, and so was the directorial creativity. Spielberg directed the movie intelligently that it might still give you goosebumps even though current movies feature mind-blowing graphical illustrations. In this particular photo, the young director is seen in a light mood as he poses with Bruce’s infamous jaws.

The world will never forget Elvis Presley as the undeniable and unquestionable king of Rock n Roll. But, most of us remember Elvis from his career’s peak time. This photo shows you the real Elvis before he became the global rock n roll icon.

Elvis was like any other guy next door before becoming a megastar. He lived a very minimalistic and simplistic life in his hometown Memphis, Tennessee. Before becoming a singer, Presley joined the U.S. Army in the 1950s and was stationed in Germany. You may not know that he served in the army actively between 1958 and 1960 and was later discharged from the military in March 1964. We are happy that this happened, or else the world wouldn’t have gotten to know this amazing musician.

Salvador Dali was a famous painter. Dali hailed from Catalonia in Spain and had a peculiar personality since he wanted to carve his own path and do things that no one dared to try. He defied social norms and felt proud of his rebellious ways. Salvador Dali’s life was just as colorful as his paintings are.

The photo you see here is one of the most unexplainable ones created by Salvador Dali. Here you see Dali traveling in a carriage that a goat hauls. If you feel surprised by his choice of animal to pull the carriage, don’t be. Salvador Dali was pretty fond of goats to such an extent that Dali used goat feces as perfume. So, now you know why the goat is such a vital part of this photo.

You may be familiar with diving suits, but we can bet you would never have thought that a diving suit could be made out of solid aluminum. It definitely isn’t a joke because the photo you see is of the world’s weirdest and probably the heaviest diving suit ever created. And it was created by Chester E. Macduffee.

Around a hundred years ago, deep-sea diving was a farfetched dream and a novelty. Macduffee first propagated the idea, and to give life to his dream he created this rather strange armor-like diving suit in 1910. Maybe he went utterly innovative or was afraid of what lies beneath the water, Macduffee made it using solid aluminum alloy. Today, it seems like a combo of Iron Man Mark 1 and B-9. This suit could take the diver to a depth of around 212 feet, and it weighed 34 stone. Inside the arm, there was a lever that the diver would squeeze for controlling the handle and the roller bearings-based joints allowed the diver enough freedom to move. Macduff is wearing his creation in this photo taken in 1911.

The living logo of MGM is perhaps one of the most iconic illustrations ever to be created for a production house. We hope you remember the logo, where a lion is seen roaring before the movie starts. This was an innovative way of promoting a company, and considering that it was done way back in the 1920s, this seems pretty outstanding.

The photo we are showing here was clicked in 1928. In this photo, the sound crew is busy capturing the roar of Jackie the lion, who was very famous back then. Not many people know that capturing the right intensity and tone of the roar was not as easy as it may appear to be. Many lions auditioned for this part, and most of them were used for the roar. Jackie even appeared in all Tarzan movies, and his roar is probably the most commonly associated sound with MGM studios.

Marilyn Monroe’s real name was Norma Jeane Mortenson. She was born in 1926 and evolved into a fine actress, model, and singer. In fact, Marilyn was among the industry’s most famous actresses during the 1950s and 60s. Her movies grossed around $200 million, which would be around $2 billion today.

Marilyn was famous for her sex appeal and incredibly apt comic timing, a rare combination in actresses. Another aspect of her personality that added to her fame was her stunning looks and glowing skin. This photo was taken in 1955, where you can see Marilyn without wearing makeup. In one of her interviews, Monroe revealed her beauty secret- Vaseline. That’s right. Vaseline was Marilyn’s go-to drugstore cosmetic staple that she applied liberally before applying makeup. Now you know the secret behind her glowing and smooth skin, don’t you?

Do you know what a phonograph is? We bet you haven’t heard of it, ever, right? So, for your information, this device was used in old times for preserving music. After all, SSD drives and USBs weren’t available back then. Still, the enormous size of the device makes it appear amusing. No one would believe that it was used for storing music.

This picture features Frances Densmore, and the other person in this photo is the Mountain Chief- the Blackfoot Tribe leader. Densmore, a professional ethnomusicologist, was tasked to preserve music traditions from different ethnic groups, such as the Native American tribes. Between the 1890s and the 1950s, Densmore dedicatedly recorded Native American music through 20 books, 2,500 Graphophone recordings, and 200 articles. We all should thank Densmore for accomplishing this daunting task otherwise, such crucial cultural traditions would have been lost in the sands of time.

Disneyland is one of the world’s most famous and widely visited amusement parks. The first Disneyland was opened in Anaheim, California, in 1955. What makes this park different from other Disneyworld amusement parks is that this one was designed and built under the supervision of Walt Disney himself.

Since 1955, Disneyland has remained the best theme park in the world. This photo shows the earlier days of the park in 1961. Here, you can see a cafeteria inside the park, which was added a few years after Disneyland opened to the public. The staff members are waiting for customers with their costumes on and welcome meals ready. This picture holds special significance because it’s pretty rare to see two of Disney’s famous characters, Goofy and Snow White, lunching together and appearing in the same frame. Today, there are 6 Disneyland parks located in Florida, California, Paris, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.

Now that’s definitely a unique way to play chess. It is like taking the physical participation in the game to a whole new level. The photo was taken in 1924, days after the Communist Revolution took place in Soviet Russia and Tsar, was killed with his family. This was a pretty troubling time for the entire region.

And this photo is proof of that. Times must have been really hard as actual humans are used to playing a chess game. That’s weird and very offensive. This game was held in Leningrad, aka St. Petersburg, in 1924, and the chess masters of the day were Ilya Rabinovich and Peter Romanovsky. Are you wondering how they played the game? They used a telephone to call in their moves, and the people paying chess pieces and horses moved across this massive chessboard on the Palace Square. The Soviet Union’s Red Army played the black pieces, and Soviet navy members were the white pieces. The day looks sunny and extremely hot. It must have been difficult for them to play without getting exhausted.

Do you remember Princess Leia? The fictional character from the Star Wars franchise and probably one of the series’ most memorable female characters. The character of Princess Leia was brought to life on the silver screen by actress Carrie Fisher.

This character was introduced in the first Star Wars film, released in 1977. Leia’s character was the princess of the Alderaan planet and a member of the Imperial Senate. Leia was also the agent of the Rebel Alliance. The character became so popular that Fisher received accolades for her performance, and the character became a feminist hero, the most inspiring adventure heroine, and an icon during the 1980s. This photo shows a rare father-daughter moment where Leia is at the beach with her father. The photo was captured in 1983.

This is another very special and inspiring photo taken in 1967. It is special because it features Kathrine Virginia Switzer. She is an American marathon runner, television commentator, and author. Switzer’s claim to fame is that she redefined gender roles for women in America.

It happened when Switzer participated in the 1967 Boston Marathon and became the first woman to register as a competitor in the race officially. That’s when the world noticed that women could also compete in sports alongside men, and their skills were way more expansive. Back in those days, people considered women as merely capable of running household errands. But, Switzer changed this perception. She competed in the race and finished at four hours and twenty minutes, beating most male runners. Later in 1972, her efforts paid off as women were allowed to participate in the marathon officially.

We all have watched The Bachelor series, where an eligible bachelor searched for his life partner. Don’t you think it has become too easy to meet your perfect match? With so many online dating platforms available and social media, finding a match is no more difficult.

As you can see in the photo, a group of bachelors is posing against a log cabin in Montana, and they are searching for a wife. The picture was taken in 1901. The sign at the top right side indicates that the person is single and looking for a life partner. Back then, a wife was regarded as an asset as they helped their husbands in their jobs in rural America, looked after their homes, and gave birth to many children who would later join their fathers in their jobs. But around a hundred years ago, things weren’t as convenient and straightforward.

The Titanic was marketed as the biggest vessel of all time and an unsinkable ship. There’s no doubt that the first claim was on point as the ship was magnificent and magnanimous. But, regarding the second claim, we have serious doubts as the promoters of the vessel went way overboard with that.

The proof is that the Titanic couldn’t reach its destination and sank on its maiden journey. This shows how dangerous exaggerating could be. The vessel sank pretty unceremoniously after hitting an iceberg. Around 1,500 people on board the Titanic died. The incident was dubbed one of the world’s worst maritime disasters. The ship’s last stop was in Queenstown, Ireland, at Roches Point, currently known as Cobh. This photo is the last image of the Titanic moments before it sank.

All that we are aware of regarding Titanic’s interior is through James Cameron’s movie Titanic. We have heard that the Titanic was a luxurious vessel, but most of us haven’t ever seen the interiors of the liner, so we have a bleak idea about its magnificence. But, now you can look at the liner’s stunning room, which is no less than a five-star hotel. Imagine it was the early 1900s when this gorgeous ship was designed.

What you see here is one of the elegant staterooms aboard Titanic. The Titanic was a gigantic ship, measuring around 882 feet in length and 175 feet in height. Dubbed the Ship of Dreams, the vessel included a gym, swimming pool, a photography darkroom, Turkish baths, and 3 cigar rooms. So, this was a well-made ship from the interior stability aspect, but from the safety aspect, it was flawed. This flaw played a key role in Titanic’s doom.

Titanic’s sinking was no less than a national disaster because the ship took away around 1,500 people with it. The ship’s owner White Star Line not just suffered substantial financial loss but also reputational damage. Its sinking was reported in local and international media as the news had shocked the world.

The photo you see here was taken on 16 April 1914, just a day after the ship sank. You can see a newspaper vendor Edward John Parfett sitting outside the office of Titanic’s owner in London. The ship’s sinking was a massive shock for the world, and its news spread like wild fire. Almost all newspapers across the globe made it a headline because the ship was believed to be unsinkable.

This photo is iconic because it showcases two legendary personalities- Charlie Chaplin and Helen Keller. It was taken in 1919 when the two legends met for the first time. There’s no doubt that these two personalities were the living legends of their time and two of the century’s most admired figures.

Chaplin was a world-famous comic actor and author, while we all know the reason behind Helen Keller’s popularity. She was a disability rights advocate and achieved unprecedented fame because of her conviction to educate people with disabilities. The contribution of both these personalities to making the world a better place is matchless, which makes this photo extraordinary. We are thankful to the cameraman who captured this image and documented the historic moment in its glory.

The Canals of Venice are considered a symbol of peace and romance. People worldwide visit the city especially to explore the gondola rides. But this photo, taken in 1956, tells an entirely different story as it shows the canals’ ugly side. Many of us may not believe it, but that’s the truth. The Canals of Venice are pretty ugly.

You can see the massive reserves of sludge and slime being disposed of from the canals. Generally, Venetians are pretty defensive of their city’s historical value as the world’s romance hub. However, when it comes to the canals’ sorry state, even they cannot deny that it needs the government’s attention. Around the nearby residential areas, people frequently complain about the bad odor they cannot get rid of. Cleaning the canals is a tedious task, so probably the government only tries to present them as a sign of perfection but doesn’t really do something to make them picture-perfect.

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest and oldest of all the pyramids in Egypt. It is located in the Giza pyramid complex surrounding the current Giza in Greater Cairo, Egypt. For your information, the pyramid was discovered much before the world’s most popular tourist destinations, back in the 1970s.

At that time, just cryptologists and archeologists used to visit this site. For some, these pyramids were merely tombs and an object of beauty for some. But for a vast majority of the people across the globe, these were monuments laden with mystery. The photo here features palm trees and the well-preserved pyramids in the background. It makes one wonder how people in the ancient eras managed to accomplish building such gigantic structures.

There’s no doubt that Coca-Cola is the world’s favorite cola. The fizzy beverage was invented way back in the nineteenth century. But you might find it surprising that such a popular drink that had taken the United States by storm didn’t arrive in France for almost a century.

That’s right. Coca-Cola was introduced in France in 1953. Isn’t it weird that such a trendy soft drink was missing from the broader European market for so long? When Coca-Cola arrived in France, the company used Eiffel Tower to attract consumers. They made the tower the drink’s official slogan. However, French vendors and consumers were skeptical of drinking a new soda despite all their efforts. It took the French quite some time to get familiar with the drink. Before this happened, vendors refused to sell Coca-Cola. This photo depicted the first reaction of the French public when they looked at the drink, and it is clear that they weren’t impressed.

Today, nuclear weapons are no more a novelty. In fact, they have become a compulsory part of every developed country’s military weaponry. After what happened in Hiroshima during WWII, developing nations easily get threatened by mentioning nuclear weapons. The biggest threat superpowers use to ensure their supremacy is nuclear weapons.

However, a few decades back, this wasn’t as common as now. The photo featured here shows the first successful testing of the atomic bomb. The event took place at the end of WWII. The war played a crucial role in popularizing the inclusion of nuclear weapons, so all developed nations started creating their own range of nuclear missiles. As always, Americans were the first to explore new, destructive technologies, so they were the first to start testing. The USA chose Bikini Atoll for testing nuclear missiles. It is one of the 23 islands part of the Marshall Islands. Americans tested so frequently on the land, air, and underwater that Bikini Atoll became uninhabitable for humans, given the dangerous levels of radioactivity on the island.

We all know what Pablo Escobar is famous for. He was a drug lord and underworld kingpin. This is one of the rarest pictures of Escobar, where he is posing right in front of the White House. It was taken in 1981. Isn’t it amusing that the most wanted criminal in the world was casually strolling around such a well-guarded area in Washington D.C.?

The boy you see standing with Escobar is his son. He had one son whom he loved very much. Maybe he wanted his father to get a picture outside the White House, and that’s how this photo happened. Anyways, the Medellin drug cartel leader doesn’t look as dangerous here as he actually turned out to be. He smuggled drugs, including cocaine, from Columbia and was pretty ruthless. He didn’t spare people who went against him and adopted extreme measures to make sure he remained dominant in illegal drug trading. This photo, however, shows his softer side.

Paris’ Eiffel Tower is the epitome of love and romance. People from across the globe throng the city to get engaged or married or just to enjoy the city’s vibe with their loved ones. But, this photo shows us how difficult it must be for the authorities to maintain the tower’s reputation as the symbol of love.

The Eiffel Tower was erected in 1889, and since then, it has been painted only eighteen times. One of these rare occasions is featured in the photo here. It reveals how difficult it is for painters to paint the tower because it needs around 1,500 brushes, at least 25 painters, and approximately 60 tons of paint, along with an excessive amount of effort and motivation to get the task done. Believe it or not, it takes one full year to paint the Eiffel Tower.

Back in the 1800s, telephone towers were constructed to use overhead telephone lines. This photo shows the last telephone tower to be built. This particular tower was built in 1887 in Sweden’s Stockholm. It is interesting to note that approximately 5,500 telephones in Stockholm were connected to this tower.

Although this system proved beneficial for the people of Stockholm, it was eventually discontinued around twenty years later since telecom firms switched to underline cables and phone lines to prevent weather damages and other issues. This tower, called the Old Stockholm telephone tower, was a huge metallic structure and was in use until 1913. A fire erupted in 1952, which demolished the tower, and it was never resurrected.

Ham, the ape, is also known as Ham the Astrochimp and Ham the Chimp. You may be wondering why we call it Ham the Astrochimp. Ham was the first-ever great ape to go to the space. The chimpanzee was named after Holloman Medical Center in New Mexico, USA.

Ham’s journey to space began from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on 31 January 1961, and it made the entire ape species proud as they became the predecessors of space traveling. That’s because, after this trip, humans got the courage to go to space. Ham flew on the Mercury-Redstone 2 mission on a suborbital flight. This mission was a part of the Project Mercury launched under the U.S. Space Program. When Ham returned from space safe and unharmed with just a minor bruise on the nose, humans felt motivated, and that’s how space travel became a norm.

When we hear the word swimwear, all that comes to our mind is scantily clad women, two pieces bikinis, and exposing clothing. But, back in the early 1920s, things weren’t as liberal as they are today. Female modesty was a controversial and concerning issue for many, and swimwear was an integral part of the debate.

Swimwear used to be a highly controversial piece of clothing because if it was too short, people dubbed it inappropriate for women to wear. And, you won’t believe that there were specific guidelines and rules that women had to follow during that era to wear swimwear. This included elements like the bathing suit skirt’s length. There was an appropriate length of the skirt that women must not ignore. This photo was taken in 1922 at the Potomac River, Washington D.C. You can see how modestly these women are dressed despite wearing swimwear, and a cop is checking if they have followed the rules correctly.

There’s a tradition in the Navy that when a plane lands on the wrong carrier, before sending it back to where it belongs, the pilot will be made embarrassed by all with graffiti. That’s true, folks. Whether you believe it or not, parking spaces for naval aircraft are generally pretty tight. So, if a pilot mistakenly lands it on the wrong carrier, the crew uses graffiti art to tell them about the wrong turn.

Pilots are allotted a specific spot for naval carriers to park their aircraft, and there’s not enough room available for guest planes. Crew members present in the parking spot use graffiti to convey the message to the pilot that they aren’t welcomed. That’s what you can see happening in this photo. There’s a clear message for the pilot, and the crew has not left any stone unturned in making the pilot realize his navigational error.

Norwegians must love bananas a lot. At least that’s what this photo depicts. It was taken in 1905 when Norway welcomed the first-ever banana shipment. The shipment carried approximately 3,000 kilograms of bananas to Norway. We can get a glimpse of this near-historic moment from this photo.

The bananas came in boxes and crates, and the shipment was received by Norway’s Christian Matthiessen, who founded Bama, the country’s largest fruit importer company. Even today, bananas are hugely popular in Norway.

Do you know that in the USA, there was an era of Prohibition during which consumption, selling, and production of alcohol was completely prohibited with dire consequences for anyone who disobeyed? Lawmakers believed that alcohol is the primary cause of all social evils. Hence, they decided to ban it altogether. The prohibition started in 1920 and lasted until 1933. During this time, authorities confiscated alcohol barrels from all over the country, and placed them together to form a pyramid before setting them of fire.

In the United States, there was a time when drinking alcohol was illegal, and consumption, production, and selling of the beverage were prohibited strictly. There were massive protests against the consumption of alcohol because of the adverse health outcomes of the drink. This era in U.S. history is called the Prohibition era.

Lawmakers were sure that alcohol was the root cause behind all social evils, and hence, they decided to ban the drink altogether. The prohibition movement started in 1920 and ended in 1933. Whoever disobeyed had to face dire consequences.

In the 1950s, there was extreme segregation between whites and blacks in the USA. This segregation was so intense that black kids couldn’t get admission to an all-white school. But, one woman changed it all. Dorothy Counts-Scoggins, a civil rights pioneer, was able to get admission to North Carolina’s most famous and prestigious all-white school, the Harry Harding High School.

She made history by getting admission because she was the first black student in the school. This happened in 1957 when a fifteen-year-old girl gave hope to hundreds and thousands of black families that so far believed that good education was a farfetched dream. However, Dorothy was so severely bullied at the school that she was forced to leave it soon.

The police wearing life-saving bullet-proof vest on a day-to-day basis may seem like a norm now but things weren’t as easy few decades back. The first bullet-proof vest took a long time to be designed and when the designers were ready, it was time to test the vest for its main job, that is, protection against a bullet. To test the vest’s effectiveness in saving lives, a subject was asked to take a live bullet while wearing the vest. We would have loved to interview that guy to know how he felt at that time.

This picture shows a rare event of optical illusion where two bullets can be seen colliding into each other. This strange event occurred at Battle of Gallipoli during WWI. What happened was that the bullets were fired from opposite directions and one of them embedded itself into the other giving us this unimaginable event. The battle, fought between the Turks and the Allied forces, continued until 1916 and was one of the deadliest fights of WWI as the number of casualties was astoundingly high. The Turks emerged victorious as the Allies had no choice but to withdraw from the battle.

In 1938, Europeans but especially the British were living under the fear that a war may break out any day. Facing fear of a gas attack air raid… an inventor in Kent, England designed a gas proof stroller where a baby can be shield from an air raid. The “pram” had and air-tight lid with and window so mama and baby and see each other…and completed with a gas mask filter.

The stroller had a squeezable bulb at on the front so that the mother can squeeze out the stale air inside the stroller while replacing it with fresh filtered air. Mothers were also equipped with her own gas mask as she takes her baby out for a stroll.

When council housing and estates were being constructed across the United Kingdom, a primary concern of the developers was that young babies may not receive enough sun exposure. The tall apartment buildings couldn’t offer enough open space to give young children the necessary exposure to sunlight. This deprivation might lead to vitamin D deficiency. The developers came up with a startling solution. They built cages on the building walls and the parents had to fit the baby in them for sunlight exposure. We don’t know how the babies felt after being caged, but we certainly find this picture disturbing.

Audrey Hepburn is a timeless beauty and America’s most popular actress till date. She was a great actress and a sincere performer. But, we had no idea she was so sensitive and caring. On the sets of Green Mansions, she became so fond of a deer that she started caring for it with utmost dedication. She named it Pippin but used to call the deer Ip. Pippen became inseparable part of her life; Hepburn bottle fed the deer and kept her near always. The deer turned out to be a loyal pet of hers.

The Ku Klux Klan was a secret organization that primary objective of which was to eliminate the blacks from the planet. They were brutal with the black citizens, and went on a violent killing spree against the blacks every now and then. The aims of this group were no secret at all. Everyone knew about their activities but back then the society was by and large against the blacks, which thankfully isn’t the case now. This picture was taken in 1982 at a Colorado fair showing the members of the Klan casually walking around wearing their trademark robes and hats.

This photo showed the destruction of cutting down the giant redwoods in California from 1880 until the 1920s. In the 1850s, the northern coast of California was the home of Native Americans who occupied the land which covered more than 2 million acres of these beautiful giant redwoods.