It’s said that a picture paints a thousand words. While a photograph might be able to convey a great deal, sometimes it doesn’t tell the whole story. Sometimes, the context or backstory can turn a mundane picture into a fascinating one.
Cannonball!
For the sailors stuck on submarines for months at a time, the chance to surface, enjoy some sunshine and go for a swim is well-deserved. This pic shows a Redditor’s dad diving off the fin of a sub, into the Pacific, back in 1983.
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The weight of the world.
It takes tremendous courage to be an astronaut. But to be the first astronaut ever…well, that’s a whole new level of pressure. This shows Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, shortly before he became the first person to fly to space in 1961.
Highly logical.
Leonard Nimoy’s Spock was almost emotionless, but the photographer caught a rare grin after Nimoy’s son Adam, complete with Spock ears, surprised his dad during filming of the original Star Trek TV series.
Trippy.
Lithuania’s always been a basketball powerhouse, but they were hurting for funds after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Improbably, the Grateful Dead stepped in to supply them with gear just in time for the 1992 Summer Olympics.
He could use a hat.
This kid is clearly rocking out, but who is he? He might not be as recognizable without the trademark hat, but this is Slash, playing with his high school band as a teenager in 1982.
So the power’s out?
Every winter there’s talk of polar vortexes, but when was the last time you saw snowfall like this? This photo shows the Blizzard of 1966 , where snow drifts reached as high as 30 to 40 feet.
First selfie ever?
This fresh-faced kid is 17-year-old Frank Sinatra, using a mirror to take a selfie. This would have been about three years before he got his big break with a local Hoboken band.
A different kind of fishing.
There’s no rod and no reel, but this Hawaiian night fisherman, pictured doing his thing in 1948, knew exactly what he was doing. With a spear and a torch , fishermen would hunt fish in the shallow water.
That doesn’t look like a zebra.
It looks weird, hilarious even, but there was a good reason this woman painted her cows. During World War II, when blackouts were mandatory, wayward cows were at risk of getting hit by cars. Painting stripes helped somewhat.
Dorothy?
This positively surreal-looking photo shows Nebraskan Audra Thomas about two miles from a nasty-looking twister that struck Furnas County, Nebraska in 1989 . Two miles away or not, I’d want an escape plan.
CHOCOLATE!
For anyone with a sweet tooth, the idea of sweets being rationed is unthinkable. But sweets were indeed rationed in wartime Britain. By the time rationing was lifted in 1953, it looks like people were ready.
What happened?
A Redditor posted this pic of his dad, who was hit on the head with a croquet mallet and subsequently missed the whole moon landing. Is there any possibility this kid grew up to be Lloyd Christmas ?
A job well done.
This pic shows Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein watching President Richard Nixon’s resignation on television. It must have been gratifying for the men, as their reporting set the wheels in motion for the president’s downfall.
Dolla dolla bills.
Muhammad Ali was a big earner through his boxing career. This pic shows just how much he won from just one fight — 1974’s epic Rumble in the Jungle, where Ali knocked out George Foreman in the eighth round.
Gotcha!
There’s a blurry Jack Nicholson in the foreground…what gives? This actually shows Stanley Kubrick and his daughter, taking a selfie on the set of The Shining . Clearly Nicholson thought they were taking a pic of him.
Thank goodness.
![Image credit: Reddit | [deleted]](https://static.diply.com/ghoymQqf3UyXjqEwyrqm.jpg)
During the Space Race of the 1960s, public enthusiasm for all things NASA was at an all-time high. This is the palpable relief of astronauts’ wives when they realized their husbands had survived the Apollo 8 mission.
It’s finally over.
It’s hard to comprehend what the end of World War II meant for the people affected by the conflict. Here, Dutch resistance members celebrate after hearing about Hitler’s death over the radio.
