Pictures can give us a glimpse into the past, showing us people and events that we’ll never be able to see for ourselves. In this way, they can be even more compelling than written accounts of history – in photos, you can see things for yourself.

There are plenty of incredible historical photos that don’t need a caption. The image itself is enough to convey a feeling or an idea. Other photos, however, might look nice on their own but become so much more meaningful when you learn the story behind them.

We sure have come a long way since the 1970s! Today, if a college student wants to talk to their friends and family back home, all they have to do is pull out their cell phone. When this picture was taken, however, it wasn’t so easy.

These young women were photographed while they were taking advantage of the phones in their dormitory. Late at night, students would line up by the communal phones, waiting their turn to place a call. Of course, they had to know the phone number by heart, or bring along an address book. They couldn’t hog the line for too long, and there also wasn’t much privacy available.

Technology sure has changed since this picture was taken in 1961. At the time, the United States was involved in the Race for Space against the Soviet Union. Both countries wanted to send a man to space before the other, and their space programs worked frantically to calculate complex trajectories and formulas.

Since computers were not yet in existence, the calculations were often done on huge chalkboards, like the one pictured here. These scientists were posing for a photo for Life magazine, so the formulas on the board are probably not the top secret ones they were really working on.

Often thought of as one of the most influential jazz musicians, Louis Armstrong was a famous composer, singer, and trumpeter who delighted audiences from the 1920s through the 1960s. When this photograph was taken in 1961, Armstrong had already had an impressive career behind him.

He was playing his popular music all over the world, serving almost as a sort of ambassador for United States culture. Armstrong knew nothing about the politics in the region at the time, and refused to discriminate, happy to play for anyone who wanted to listen. In this picture, he is playing for his fourth and final wife Lucille Wilson, who was with him until his death in 1971.

During World War I, soldiers engaged in trench warfare, shooting at each other from deep ditches that faced each other. Between the trenches was an expanse called no-man’s land, where nobody wanted to be caught because it was exposed to fire.

On first glance, this photo simply looks like a group of soldiers on the same side playing a game of soccer. However, the truth behind the picture is incredible. During Christmas 1914, an unofficial ceasefire was called that known as the Christmas Truce. British, French, and German soldiers from both sides of the conflict ventured into no-man’s land, singing carols, chatting, swapping gifts, and even taking part in a friendly game of soccer.

Televisions are a completely normal thing to find in nearly every home, but that wasn’t always the case. Before TVs were commonplace, the idea of a box that displayed moving pictures seemed nearly impossible. Even though the first electronic TV set was invented in 1927, it took several years for the television to develop into a usable commodity, and even more time for them to become available commercially.

The devices were bulky and expensive, and most families couldn’t afford one. After World War II, however, more and more American families began to experience the joy of TV. This little boy spotted a television in a shop window in 1948, and the photographer captured the awe that he experienced.

Usually when you hear that a tornado is heading your way, you want to get out of there as fast as possible. This woman had a different reaction, deciding instead to pose in front of the huge, impressive twister.

This photograph was taken in 1989, and no, she’s not actually standing in front of a green screen – that’s a real tornado behind her! The tornado looks pretty far away, but those winds are moving fast and we hope she got out of there in time.

Photographer Steve McCurry captured this famous shot while photographing refugees in Afghanistan in 1984. He was observing and taking pictures of a girl’s school in a refugee camp when he spotted Sharbat Gula, a young girl with piercing eyes whose name he learned years later.

She was shy, so McCurry photographed some of the other children, hoping that she wouldn’t want to be left out. Finally, he got the photograph he wanted, and it was even more powerful than he had expected, due to the girl’s haunting expression.

There are all sorts of challenges going around on social media these days, but the idea of taking part in silly challenges is nothing new. In the 1950s, it was popular to see how many people you could stuff into one upright phone booth.

People all over the world participated, and in 1959, a record 25 people managed to squeeze inside a phone booth, setting the record. The guys pictured here really went for it – there must be at least 15 people in there!

Buzz Aldrin was the lunar module pilot on Apollo 11, and the second man on the moon. He stepped onto the lunar surface just minutes after Neil Armstrong took his famous first steps on the moon on July 20, 1969.

However, since Armstrong was the guy with the camera, the most iconic images feature Aldrin. This memorable photograph shows Aldrin standing still in the distant landscape, with the reflection of Armstrong and the lunar module visible in his visor.

During World War II, many items were rationed both in the United States and in Europe, in order to support the war effort. In England, sugar was rationed until 1953. Understandably, children couldn’t wait to get their hands on some sweets.

The first day that candy was freely available, people rushed into candy stores in order to satisfy their sweet tooth. This picture captures that moment in 1953 when children all over England lined up to finally get some candy.

This photograph was taken in 1984, early on in Michael Jordan’s career. Photographer Jacobus “Co” Rentmeester snapped the shot of the great basketball player in mid air for LIFE magazine. What really made the image famous, however, was Nike using the silhouetted image as inspiration for a new symbol – “Jumpman”.

This began a new era in which athletes became commercial property that could be used for marketing and advertising. Nike’s Air Jordan brand became extremely profitable and Michael Jordan went on to become known as the best basketball player ever.

Today, selfies are everywhere. You can’t scroll through Instagram or Facebook without coming across these pictures that your friends take of themselves everywhere they go.

However, before cell phone cameras and even before digital cameras, taking a selfie required a bit more preparation. This picture, taken in 1938, is believed to be one of the first selfies in existence. Singer Frank Sinatra took a photo of himself in a mirror when he was just 17 years old, creating this iconic shot.

Queen Elizabeth is the longest ruling monarch in British history, but when she was young, she didn’t expect to become Queen. Her grandfather was King, with her uncle Edward next in the line of succession.

Everyone expected that he would marry and produce an heir. However, King Edward VIII abdicated the throne due to his desire to marry a divorced woman, putting Elizabeth’s father King George VI on the throne. In 1952 King George passed away, and Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth.

We have all seen the famous picture of actress Marilyn Monroe posing in a white dress over a subway grate, but this picture has a more interesting story behind it. In 1951, Monroe was criticized after wearing a scandalous red dress.

A columnist said that she looked “cheap and vulgar,” and that she would have looked better in a potato sack. So, she decided to get back at him by wearing a potato sack – and still managing to look stunning while doing it.

On his 72nd birthday, Nobel prize winner Albert Einstein apparently got sick of smiling for photographs. Instead, the scientist did what many of us have done sometime in our lives and stuck out his tongue.

The picture, captured by photographer Arthur Sasse, became one of the most iconic photographs of the century. Einstein himself reportedly loved the picture too, and ordered nine copies of it for himself. After his death, Einstein’s estate licensed the photo for publication, but it was nearly left out because editors weren’t sure it was appropriate.

Neil Leifer is one of the best known sports photographers out there. He photographed Muhammad Ali over 50 times throughout his career, and captured several iconic photos of the boxer. This photo was taken in 1965, when 23-year-old Ali fought Sonny Liston.

Just one minute and 44 seconds into the match, Ali delivered a punch to Liston’s chin. Liston fell to the ground, and Ali yelled at him to “get up and fight.” That’s when Leifer snapped the shot, immortalizing the moment forever.

The New York City skyline is full of skyscrapers today, but back when it was first built, there was just the Empire State Building. Tourists visited the city just to see the massive tower.

The 102 story, 1,250 ft. skyscraper was completed in 1931, and was the tallest building in the world for almost 40 years. In this picture, which was taken in 1941, the Empire State Building towers above everything around it, giving it an almost eerie, science fiction feeling.

Jacquelyn ‘Jacklyn’ Smith was born in 1945 in Houston, Texas. She first started acting, after she earned her Bachelor’s Degree, in 1968. However, her breakout role came when she was cast as Kelly Garrett, in the (now) highly critically acclaimed television show, ‘Charlie’s Angels.’

Jaclyn was known as a bit of diva on set, and she liked to wear extremely groovy outfits. This outfit, a pink two-piece, was one of the many pieces she insisted on wearing. Despite people trying to dissuade her from wearing, it became one her most famous outfits.

In 2007, Major Terri Gurrola deployed to Iraq, leaving her two-year-old daughter Gaby at home. Gurrola wrote that leaving her little girl was the hardest thing that she’s ever had to do, and her biggest fear was that Gaby would forget who she was.

When Gurrola came home for her two-week mid-tour break, Gaby was in the airport waiting for her. When Gurrola saw her daughter, she dropped to her knees crying and pulled Gaby close. Nearly everyone who witnessed the scene was brought to tears, too.

When World War II ended in August 1945, photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt decided to photograph the festivities and celebrations that were happening in the New York City streets. When a young sailor in front of Eisenstaedt started kissing every woman he saw, Eisenstaedt patiently waited for the right moment.

Then, when the sailor grabbed a nurse dressed in white and kissed her on the lips, Eisenstaedt quickly snapped the shot. It appeared the following day in newspapers around the country, and quickly became famous.

Having your picture taken used to be a whole ordeal. You couldn’t simply hand your camera phone to a friend and ask them to capture the moment. No, you had to hire a professional, sit still, and let them do their work. This 19th century couple did just that.

However, even though the photograph was supposed to be formal, the pair couldn’t stop themselves from breaking into laughter. It’s so reminiscent of modern photo booth pictures that we identify with these people from a completely different time and place.

This photograph doesn’t capture any remarkable people or events, and yet it is one of the most expensive photos ever sold. The picture, titled 99 Cent, is stitched together from several images that Andreas Gursky photographed in a 99 Cents Only store in Los Angeles, California in 1999.

The colors and lines in the image made the ordinary, everyday shop look like a work of art. When the picture went to auction in 2006, it was sold for a whopping $2.3 million.

Dorothea Lange gave a face to the struggles of the United States Great Depression with this photograph, called Migrant Mother. Lange was traveling in the west of the country in order to document the suffering caused by the Depression.

When she spotted Frances Owens Thompson, she knew she had found her subject. She photographed the woman with her children, capturing the worry in her eyes. To this day, Migrant Mother is one of the most recognized pictures of the Depression.

This crazy photograph is so iconic that it has made its way onto dorm room posters in colleges around the United States. The picture of 11 men enjoying their lunch 840 feet above the ground was taken in Manhattan in 1932.

The workers posed on the 69th floor of the RCA Building for a promotional campaign, looking completely relaxed and unafraid of the huge drop below their feet. Titled Lunch Atop a Skyscraper, the photograph became immensely popular and has been reproduced on all sorts of merchandise, too.

There is a lot that went on behind the scenes of this 2014 Oscars selfie. Ellen Degeneres, who was hosting the event, decided to take a selfie and tweet it out in the middle of the broadcast.

After trading in her iPhone for a Samsung device (since Samsung was a sponsor of the evening), Ellen went into the audience to take a selfie with Meryl Streep. Suddenly, lots of other stars joined in, and Bradley Cooper grabbed the camera. The resulting picture literally broke Twitter for a few minutes.

This picture may not look like much, but it had an immense impact on the world. This grainy photograph of a newborn baby is actually the first cell phone photograph ever taken.

Philippe Kahn had nothing to do while he was waiting for his wife to give birth in a maternity ward in 1997. So, he started playing around with a flip-phone and a digital camera. Using a few lines of code, he synched the devices so that he could instantly send a photograph of his newborn baby.

For six decades, this photograph was believed by many to be evidence of the infamous Loch Ness Monster. It was taken in 1934 by a doctor named Robert Kenneth Wilson, and published in the Daily Mail.

When it was analyzed later on, however, most people agreed that it was a fake. In 1994 a group of documentary filmmakers inspected the uncropped image and found evidence that it was actually being towed through the water, leading to a consensus that the photograph is a hoax.

The album artwork for the Beatles’ album Abbey Road is one of the most famous images of all time. It has been recreated by many people and can be seen on all sorts of merchandise from posters to mugs to T-shirts.

The picture was based on a sketch by Paul McCartney and was taken in the morning on August 8, 1969. While a policeman stopped traffic, photographer Iain Macmillan stood on a stepladder and shot six frames. He had only ten minutes to get the photo.

In today’s world where Photoshop is available to anyone who wants to give photo editing a try, a picture like this would not be so difficult to create. However, back in 1948 when photographer Philippe Halsman captured this shot of famous painter Salvador Dalí, it wasn’t so easy.

Halsman suspended the easel in the air with thin wires and, with the help of his wife and daughter, threw the cats and water bucket into the frame. Dalí himself had to jump into the air at exactly the right moment.

In 1968, Apollo 8 became the first manned mission that successfully orbited the moon. On December 24, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders came around the far side of the moon in their spacecraft and saw a beautiful sight – their home planet, a blue and white sphere, was rising over the moon’s surface.

Anders quickly took a photograph in black and white while Lovell hurried to find color film to capture the full effect. Luckily for all of us, he succeeded, and this striking image is the result.

Anna Nicole Smith was only 29 in this picture, whereas her husband to be oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, was 89. This unusual couple met three years earlier at an adult dancing club, and after several proposal attempts Anna Nicole finally agreed to marry Howard.

The marriage would not be long as he passed away only fourteen months later. And after getting used to the lavish lifestyle that comes with being married to an oil tycoon, Anna Nicole had a rough wakeup call once she realized her husband had left her out of the will.

Some extremely rare pictures of an allegedly pregnant Marilyn Monroe are up for sale for a whopping $95,000, and it’s easy to understand why. The iconic actress was famous both for her breathtaking beauty and her dramatic love life. At the time when these photos were taken in 1960, she was married to Arthur Miller.

But according to Marilyns long-time friend Frieda Hull, who also took these pictures, Marlyn had told her the child she was carrying belonged to actor Yves Montand. The truth will probably never come out, but what is known is that as pregnant as Marilyn looks in these pictures – she never had any children before her tragic passing in 1962.

This picture of a pretty crowded and chaotic street is from Stockholm, Sweden on September 3rd 1967. That was the day the country switched over from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right. Knowing that, the picture is actually kind of hilarious.

People were clearly confused and it took a few days for the citizens to get used to no longer driving like the Brits. The reason for the change was that all the neighboring countries already drove on the right side, and there was much traffic between them.

Audrey Hepburn is one of the most iconic and beloved actresses from the good old Hollywood days, and she was usually caught by the cameras during fancy award shows and dinners. But in this sweet picture, the usually so glammed up actress is just chilling at home – with her pet deer Pippin.

Most people stick to cats and dogs, but Audrey loved her fawn. She got her while filming the 1959 movie Green Mansions, and the animal trainer suggested Audrey take her four-legged on-screen sidekick home with her so the two could bond.

The Duke of Cambridge visited Jerusalem in 2018, and this was in fact the first official visit by a British royal family member to the city since 1948. After visiting several holy places in the city, he also went to visit his own great-grandmothers grave.

Princess Alice of Battenberg is in fact buried on the Mount of Olives. Prince William spent several solemn minutes by the grave, and placed down a bouquet of flowers before he left.

In this stunning picture from 1960, a group of students from the University Of Pittsburgh is cheering on The Pirates from a far away roof top.

Everyone can relate to being a poor student, and the fact that these loyal fans decided to watch the game and cheer on their favorite team from so far away is heartwarming. Knowing the Pirates won the world series for the first time in 35 years as this picture was taken makes it even more iconic.

Most people don’t know this, but Winnie the Pooh existed in real life. Only the bear was brown and not yellow, and was in fact a female and not a male bear. This sweet bear was one of the most popular at the London zoo, and was saved as a cub by a veterinarian named Harry Colebourn.

Winnie was so kind and even-tempered the zookeepers would even let children into her enclosure. One of these kids was named Christopher Robin, and his father A.A. Milne got inspired to start writing stories about his son and Winnie.

When thinking of the White House, it can be easy to picture those perfectly manicured lawns and rooms that are brimming with history. So what about a White House filled with construction workers and machinery? It turns out that things weren’t always so perfect for this famous building.

In 1948, former President Harry Truman decided to move across the street, so a $5.7 million renovation could take place. It took years as historical elements were stripped away to help rebuild the White House after years of damage through the war.

This photo became one of the most defining pictures of the 20th century. Margaret Bourke-White was Life magazine’s first-ever female photographer and traveled to India before it became an independent nation. Secretaries working for Gandhi told Margaret…

That the only way she would be allowed to photograph the icon was if she learned how to use a spinning wheel first. Margaret did just that, but there were more rules. She couldn’t use bright lights, and she wasn’t allowed to talk to him as it was his day of silence.

Most doctors work themselves to the edge to make sure that their patients pull through. The first successful heart transplant took place back in the 1980s, and the operation has saved thousands ever since. One photo soon took the world by storm…

As a doctor and his assistant finally completed the surgery. The pair had been working for 23 hours. In fact, the assistant was so tired that she can be seen sleeping in the corner of the room. Amazingly, the patient survived and went on to outlive the doctor.

The Columbia Space Shuttle was carrying seven astronauts who had been on a 16-day mission when it broke apart on re-entry. Tragically, all seven onboard lost their lives. This is the final photo taken of the crew before they boarded the shuttle.

However, it seems that NASA knew the team were in danger but never told them. The Daily Mail reported that they didn’t want to panic the crew when they learned there was nothing they could do to save them.

There are things that some of us take for granted. Having a pair of shoes can be one of them. Thankfully, a photographer was there to capture the moment that an orphan received the first pair of new shoes.

Werfel was six years old and living in Austria back in 1946. The American Red Cross was working hard in the area to try and help those in need, and it seems as though Werfel couldn’t help but pull the gift into his chest and smile to the skies with joy.

There are many historical places all around the world, and Machu Picchu is one that’s on many people’s bucket list. However, it was rediscovered by accident. Explorers were looking for the last Incan stronghold when a local told them about ruins on the hill.

They climbed for six days before the team found a local guide who took them to Machu Picchu. The temples were overgrown, but archeologist Hiram Binghman knew it was something great and captured the first photo of the ruins.

This is one of the most expensive photos ever sold, even though it’s simple. The snap earned $4.3 million in 2011 and was taken back in 1999 by Andreas Gursky. It’s a shot of the River Rhine.

The water is usually surrounded by buildings and dog walkers, but Andreas digitally removed them all to leave a clean shot instead. This was just one photo of six taken and manipulated by Andreas to show his view of a modern river.

Some photos capture a moment in history that goes on to live forever. This photo was taken back in 1963 when the first American team of explorers climbed all the way to the summit of Mount Everest.

The equipment and clothing back in ‘63 weren’t near the standard of items used today. This made it even tougher, thanks to the 23 tons of supplies they took to base camp and the 900 porters they needed to get it there. In the end, only six made it to the top.

Many historical photos have incredible stories behind them. The images of horses galloping down the racetrack all started when Eadweard Muybridge bet Leland Stanford that racehorses have all four feet off the floor when they gallop.

Muybridge set up a tripod and captured the photos to prove his point. The pictures were so iconic that they went on to be used as a part of the first motion picture. The best bit? Muybridge got to prove his point.

The passing of former President John F. Kennedy shook the world. Vice President Lyndon Johnson was riding just a few cars behind Kennedy’s car when the incident took place. Two hours later, he was sworn in as the president.

Cecil Stoughton, an army photographer, was the only photographer on the plane at the time. At first, it looked as though a fault in his camera meant that none of the film caught the moment, but thankfully, he later managed to develop the roll.