On April 18, 1906, a devastating earthquake struck San Francisco and the coast of Northern California. Fires across the city broke out, ravaging the city for several days. As a result, about 3,000 people died and 80% of San Francisco was destroyed. The earthquake and resulting fire are remembered as one of the worst…
THE SHORTEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD MEET Photograph via Guinness World Records on Facebbok To help promote the 57th edition of the Guinness World Records, the publisher arranged for a meet and greet with the world’s shortest man, Chandra Bahadur Dangi (54.6 cm), and the world’s shortest woman, Jyoti Amge (62.8…
The Sedlec Ossuary is a small Roman Catholic chapel, located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints in Sedlec, a suburb of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic. The ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of about 40,000 people, whose bones were artistically arranged from 1870 onwards by a Czech woodcarver by the…
THE DEEPWATER HORIZON EXPLOSION Photograph by Unnamed Worker on Nearby Boat Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, semi-submersible offshore oil drilling rig owned by Transocean. Built in 2001 in South Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries, the rig was leased to BP from 2001 until September 2013. In September 2009, the…
THE POWER OF ONE SMALL STEP Photograph by NASA In the photograph above we see astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, Apollo 11 Commander, inside the Lunar Module as it rests on the lunar surface after completion of his historic moonwalk. The following is an excerpt from NASA’s obituary on Neil Armstrong: Neil…
In 1965 a local newspaper editorial was published discussing the destruction of the American Falls (one of three waterfalls that together make up the Niagara Falls). It was believed that the destruction was being caused by previous rock debris that had gone over the falls and that the continued erosion would eventually lead…
In 1989, following in the footsteps of Robert Frank’s The Americans, Michael Galinksy of Rumur.com drove across the country and documented malls across America. Armed with a cheap Nikon FG-20 and an even cheaper lens. Galinsky shot about 30 rolls of slide film in malls from Long Island to North Dakota to Seattle. The…
100 YEARS OF HISTORY SAILS THROUGH THE TOWER BRIDGE Photograph by Paul Starkey on Flickr On July 26, the three-masted French sailing ship Belem sailed through the famous Tower Bridge in London. This is the same bridge that the Olympic rings were suspended from, and if you look closely you can…
The winners of the Sixth Annual Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year Contest were recently announced and the final round gallery is a sight to behold. Since 2006, the contest has featured the best photographs available on Wikimedia Commons. To be eligible, a photograph must first have been featured on the site in 2011.…
VINTAGE ACROBATIC INSANITY Photograph via Mapes on Reddit In this heart-stopping photograph we see three brave acrobats performing on a ledge located on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building in New York City. Unfortunately I was unable to find much additional information on the date/year of this photograph or…