History in Pictures

12/30/2025

In 1939, Joe Arridy was executed in Colorado's gas chamber for a murder he didn't commit. With an IQ of 46, he never understood what was happening — spending his final days playing with toy trains and giving one to another inmate the night before his death. He was pardoned 72 years later.

12/29/2025

After the Great North Dakota Blizzard of 1966, Department of Transportation employee Bill Koch stands next to the top of a power line. With winds reaching 100 miles per hour, snowdrifts piled up 30 to 40 feet high in some areas.

12/29/2025

Vernell Bass, a neighbor of Jeffrey Dahmer, stands outside the police-locked door of apartment 213 in the Oxford Apartments in Milwaukee in 1991.

12/29/2025

How were Roman Theaters built ?

12/28/2025

English actor Oliver Reed was famous for his heavy drinking — and it ultimately killed him. While on a break from filming "Gladiator" in May 1999, Reed visited a pub in Malta and reportedly challenged a group of Royal Navy sailors to a drinking contest. After racking up a $435 tab that included eight pints of beer, 12 shots of rum, and half a bottle of whiskey, the actor dropped dead from a heart attack right there on the floor of the bar.

12/26/2025

In medieval Germany, married couples could divorce by combat. The husband had to fight in a hole with one of his arms tied behind his back. The wife was given a sack filled with rocks as a weapon and was allowed to move freely, but had to wear cloth containing weights.

12/26/2025

Every year, it seems like there's one Christmas toy that every child just has to have. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, that toy was the Nintendo. Offering popular games like Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt, this console was on millions of kids' Christmas lists — and those lucky enough to receive it under their tree were often overwhelmed with excitement.

12/26/2025

In 1954, Ann Hodges was napping on her couch inside her Alabama home when a grapefruit-sized meteorite crashed through her roof, bounced off her radio, and struck her side. The impact left her bruised but alive. She is the only recorded person in history to have been struck by a meteorite.

12/25/2025

Ancient sunglasses made from whalebones and horns, with the oldest examples found in Canada, dating back to 1200 AD.

12/24/2025

Carl Röchling (1855-1920), The Soldiers' Christmas, Auktionshaus Wendl. (Painting)

12/24/2025

12/24/2025

The seldom-seen rear view of Hoover Dam before it was filled with water – 1936.