The photograph of Winston Churchill with the Thompson submachine gun was taken during his visit to the coastal defense positions near Hartlepool on 31 July, 1940. The interesting thing about this picture is that both the British and the Germans used it for propaganda purposes. The British edited out two soldiers standing next to Churchill, making him look statesmanlike, determined and menacing. On the other hand, the Germans compared it to those of the gangsters of the American West. The Nazis used this photo in their propaganda leaflets airdropped onto Britain during the Battle of Britain.
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David Bowie, arrested after a performance in Rochester, New York along with three other people (including fellow musician Iggy Pop) for marijuana possession. March 25, 1976. The charges soon disappeared, but Bowie never performed in Rochester again.
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On July 20, 1969, the astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human being to walk on another world, famously marking the moment with the phrase: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” After months of preparation, preceded by years of development and testing, the crew of NASA’s Apollo 11 lifted off from Florida on July 16, arriving at the moon on July 19. While Command Module Pilot Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit, Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin descended to the surface and spent two and a half hours on the moon, setting up experiments, taking photos, and gathering samples. After their safe return home, the crew were celebrated by politicians and the public as they embarked on a 45-day goodwill tour, visiting a total of 27 cities in 24 countries. Below, 50 photos of the historic Apollo 11 mission.
A portrait of the Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, taken by his fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong, standing on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. Aldrin has his left arm raised and is likely reading the checklist sewn on the wrist cover of his glove.
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These pictures will definitely make you appreciate where you came from and also make you appreciate where you are now. Life was quite a bit different back in the 1910s. People had way more pressing things to worry about other than being able to connect to wifi!
Talk about perspective. We really do live an exceedingly comfortable life compared to those who lived 100 years ago. Check it out.
The average life expectancy for men was 47 years.
14% of the homes had a bathtub.
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If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Leonard McCombe’s image that inspired the Marlboro Man campaign is worth over $15 billion.
The photograph above shows Clarence Hailey Young, a foreman at the JA Ranch in Texas. McCombe had set out on assignment by Life magazine to document the real way of life of these cowboys, dispelling the glamorous image of most Hollywood movies at that time for the harsh and difficult work of ranching reality.
Something in that 1949 photo must have caught the eye of legendary advertising executive Leo Burnett who later used it as his template for the Marlboro Man. Young’s wrinkled and unshaven face framed by a large cowboy hat and bandana around his neck looked perfect to the ad executive. The fact that he had a lit cigarette on his lips probably convinced Mr. Burnett to choose the cowboy lifestyle for his advertising campaign.
The campaign for Marlboro was meant to include other macho professions, but the cowboy image emerged to be the clear winner. The choice obviously worked for Phillip Morris as the original filtered cigarettes which were first advertised for women as “Mild as May” became the winning ingredient when one tried to picture the place “Where the Flavor is.” Within two years, sales of the cigarette increased three-fold.
Darren Winfield was the first commercial Marlboro Man, with many other actors and real cowboys following in his footsteps. Similarly, many photographers, including Jim Krantz and Sam Abell were commissioned to make the iconic ads.
While most tobacco companies nowadays have shifted their advertising campaigns away from the cowboy image, the original idea has been considered to be one of the most successful ad campaigns of all time. And to think that McCombe’s Marlboro Man shot sparked the idea that would be worth millions of dollars from what was originally a ladies’ cigarette.
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A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectively against the paper with a type element. At the end of the nineteenth century, the term ‘typewriter’ was also applied to a person who used such a device.
The first commercial typewriters were introduced in 1874, but did not become common in offices until after the mid-1880s. The typewriter quickly became an indispensable tool for practically all writing other than personal handwritten correspondence. It was widely used by professional writers, in offices, business correspondence in private homes, and by students preparing written assignments.
Typewriters were a standard fixture in most offices up to the 1980s. Thereafter, they began to be largely supplanted by personal computers running word processing software. Nevertheless, typewriters remain common in some parts of the world. The QWERTY keyboard layout, developed for typewriters in the 1870s, remains the standard for computer keyboards.
Before computer, here is a set of vintage photos that shows people from the past with their typewriters.
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Casparus Bernardus Oorthuys (1 November 1908 – 22 July 1975), known as Cas Oorthuys, was a Dutch photographer and designer. Oorthuys first took up photography after he joined the free-thinking Dutch Association of Abstinent Students in the architecture department of the Haarlem MTS.
In 1936, Oorthuys became permanent photographer at De Arbeiderspers. He produced photography and graphics for communist and anti-fascist organizations; and in the tradition of “workers’ photography” he documented poverty, police violence, the unemployed, homeless people and evictions for magazines, book illustrations and book covers and exhibitions.
During the German Occupation, Oorthuys became involved in the Personal Identification Centre established in 1942 and made passport photos for fake ID cards. In May 1944, Oorthuys was arrested by the Germans and imprisoned in camp Amersfoort. Unexpectedly, he was released again in August. On release Oorthuys connected with De Ondergedoken Camera and documented the activities of the German occupiers, and also the awful Hongerwinter, the Dutch famine of 1944–45. During the postwar recovery he recorded the Nuremberg war crimes trials and the rebuilding of his homeland.
Take a look at London in the 1950s through these 23 stunning black and white photographs taken by Oorthuys:
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Cynthia Ann Crawford (born February 20, 1966) is an American model, actress and television personality. During the 1980s and 1990s, she was among the most popular supermodels and a ubiquitous presence on magazine covers and runways, as well as fashion campaigns. She subsequently expanded into acting and business ventures.
Crawford is an icon who’s had a lasting impact on the fashion world. Her All-American look highlighted by a beauty mark on her upper lip became an instant sensation when she hit the scene in 1986. The mother of two has since graced countless magazine covers for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar Elle and stared in major designer campaigns for brands like Chanel, Versace and Calvin Klein.
Crawford helped pioneer ’90s All-American style with simple silhouettes, neutral palettes and comfortable, easy fabrics. Her inimitable and innate sense of style has had a lasting impact on both street style and high fashion. In honor of her milestone birthday, below are 50 of Crawford’s most iconic style moments.
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World War II dominated the first half of the 1940s as well as fashions in the Western world. Materials such as silk, nylon, wool, leather, rubber, and zippers were needed in wartime production. Clothing was rationed in the United States and parts of Europe. 1940s fashion designers had to be efficient and innovative in how they made suits, dresses, and shoes.
The typical 1940s female dress silhouette was like a uniform: simple and fitted, with boxy shoulders, a slim-belted waistline, and a hemline below the knee. In cold weather, you might see women in long-sleeved dress suits of a similar shape.
Women in the 1940s typically wore their hair shoulder-length or longer, without bangs, styled with waves and rolls. The “victory roll” helped women manage long hairstyles during a hard day’s work; they could unroll it later into shapely waves.
During the 1940s, men not in uniform often wore suits in public. Many made do with older suits from the 1930s. Suit vests fell out of favor as an excess use of fabric. New suits were made with a wool-rayon blend instead of wool and often with patterned (especially striped) fabric.
Here is a vintage photo collection that shows what young couples looked like during the 1940s.
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Amsterdam is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands. It is colloquially referred to as the “Venice of the North”, attributed by the large number of canals which form a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Amsterdam is well known for its nightlife and festival activity; with several of its nightclubs (Melkweg, Paradiso) among the world’s most famous. Primarily known for its artistic heritage, elaborate canal system and narrow houses with gabled façades; well-preserved legacies of the city’s 17th-century Golden Age. Cycling is also key to the city’s character, and there are numerous bike paths.
The Port of Amsterdam is the fifth largest in Europe. The KLM hub and Amsterdam’s main airport, Schiphol, is the Netherlands’ busiest airport as well as the third busiest in Europe and 11th busiest airport in the world. The Dutch capital is considered one of the most multicultural cities in the world, with at least 177 nationalities represented.
These rare vintage photos show what street scenes of Amsterdam looked like in the 1930s.
Rapenburg, Amsterdam, 1930
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