While many stories from the past fill us with warm feelings of nostalgia, that doesn’t mean that every moment from history is meant to make us look back and smile. The images and stories collected here harken back to moments that we tend to look away from, but it’s important that we look these stories right in the face and take them in. That’s the only way to truly understand the past, and in a way, understand our present.
Poverty ran rampant in the early 20th century. People were broke all over, especially in the American South, but if you were lucky enough to own an animal that created food you had a leg up. Families who owned chickens were not only able to feed themselves, but with enough eggs it’s possible that they had a product to sell to people who weren’t lucky enough to be in the same position.
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Inuits have been in the Arctic Circle and in Greenland for generations, and at their most nomadic these indigenous people stretched all the way across Canada. During the 19th century Inuits were hired on by British and New England whalers to help beef up their whaling operations. Not only were the Inuit people better suited to the freezing weather than others, but they knew the Atlantic Ocean and its intricacies better than anyone else in the area.
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The British Royal Family has been traveling to Balmoral Castle in Scotland for years to get away from the hustle and bustle of British life, often during the summer when the weather is at its most amenable. Unlike many of the places where the Royal Family travels, Balmoral is privately owned by the monarch. Acquired in 1842 by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the castle has been in their family ever since. In fact, Queen Elizabeth loved the estate so much that she spent her final moments on the grounds, and passed away there in September 2022.
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Faris Tuohy was a member of the 3rd Battalion during World War II, and as a member of the 22nd Marine Regiment. During the battle of Engebi in Eniwetok Atoll he fought head to head with Japanese soldiers, with his battalion killing more than 700 enemy combatants. The capture of Eniwetok created space for an airfield and a harbor to further support attacks on the Mariana Islands.
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As the USSR broke apart in 1990, the one true sign of freedom moved in and set up shop – McDonald’s. This first McDonald’s in Russia was the largest of its kind at the time, with seating for 900 and a staff of 600 workers to make sure that Big Macs and McNuggets were served quickly and efficiently. One journalist referred to the restaurant as, “the expression of America’s rationalism and pragmatism toward food.” Two years after the opening of the first McDonald’s in Russia, the Soviet Union completely fell apart and Mikhail Gorbachev stepped down as the head of the government.
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In the early 20th century there was no simple way to move lumber from one place to another. Today, anyone driving through the Pacific Northwest is sure to see trucks hauling massive logs up and down the highways, but that wasn’t the case in the early 20th century. At the time, lumberjacks used horses to haul lumber, or they pushed logs down the river.
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In 1988, Ernest Robison’s son was born paralyzed from the neck down due to a lack of oxygen. Robison’s son passed away due to complications from his condition when he was only 11-years-old. Instead of purchasing a standard headstone, Robison built a custom stone that illustrates his son reaching to Heaven. Robison didn’t stop there. He created a non-profit organization that puts rehab equipment in the hands of people with disabilities who can’t afford said equipment.
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When they were together there was no cooler couple than Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall. They first started dating in 1977 and were immediately lavished with public attention and all manner of gossip rag stories, but when you’re as cool as these two you have to love that kind of myopic focus, right? The couple married in a private ceremony in Bali, Indonesia, before settling down in London in 1990 with their four children. When the couple broke things off in 1999, their Bali marriage was called null and void by the High Court of England and the couple went their separate ways.
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In this terrible story from 1936, a 21-year-old German citizen named Otto Richter who was living in the United States had to choose between becoming a fugitive or being deported to Germany, which was the last place anyone wanted to be. In order to return to the United States he would then have to travel to Canada (if he could get there) and request legal entry into America. In spite of the fact that he escaped from Nazi Germany, Richter was sent back to his home country never to return again.
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On March 20, 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono tied the knot in Gibraltar after a three-year love affair. As romantic as Gibraltar is, it wasn’t always their first choice. Initially, they wanted to be married on a boat to France, but when that didn’t pan out they chose the first place they could wed once Lennon’s marriage to his first wife was finalized. Following the 10-minute ceremony, Lennon and Ono made their way to Amsterdam where they staged a “bed-in” at the Hilton Hotel. The couple faced many ups and downs in their relationship, but they stayed together until Lennon’s assassination in 1980.
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