16+ Historical Photos That Make Way More Sense When You Know What Happened

Despite what the spooky masks may suggest, this uniformed folks are civil defense workers who were photographed so they could be featured in a Swiss cultural expo in 1964.

That's because they were child soldiers who were here to attend the rise to power of Yoweri Museveni, who overthrew Milton Obote and became president of Uganda.

He remains president to this day.

It came with the Australian soldier kneeling in front of it, who was stationed in Egypt during the First World War.

Not only is that because he was between missions when this photo was taken, but he was between missions during the Battle of Britain in 1940.

Everyone the Royal Air Force could bring together was needed to repel the German Luftwaffe.

You'll likely know him better as Bob Dylan and this yearbook proved that a family friend of the uploader was in his graduating class back in 1958.

That's because it was long rumored that the car accident that killed her also decapitated her.

That didn't turn out to be true, but some rumors have a way attaching themselves to people's legacies.

That man is James Montgomery Flagg and although he created this poster during World War I, the iconography remained a symbol of military recruitment throughout the 20th century.

The U.S. Army drafted Elvis back in 1958 as a means of retooling their public image and encouraging a new generation of young men to join up while Cold War fears and a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union loomed large.

He was likely capturing the massive construction that was going on around Wall Street at the time and apparently considered this 74-story Manhattan Bank a perfect (albeit perilous) vantage point.

Still, it was apparently possible because that's when then-100-year-old William Hutchings here was photographed.

It must have been horrific to watch a country he fought to build engage in civil war.

According to Boston University, he was affected by what would be called Minamata disease that was discovered in 1956 after the Japanese company Chisso released lethal levels of mercury into the Minamata Bay.

In extreme cases like this, the disease would paralyze people before they fell into comas and died. By 2004, 2,265 victims were officially recognized and Chisso had paid the equivalent of $86 million in compensation. Further lawsuits continue to this day.

However, when the camp was liberated in 1945, the occasion called for a toast.

According to the BBC, this conflict erupted after Soviet officials replaced the infamous leader Mátyás Rákosi with the just as hated Ernő Gerő.

It's unclear, however, whether the person in this photo supported Gerő or the revolutionaries.

According to the Library of Congress, great demand for wheat products led to the clearing of prairie grasslands for more wheat farms.

When drought hit in 1930, this loss of grassland made it easy for once viable farmlands in 19 states to become useless dust bowls.

This drop-off happened during the Vietnam War and the uploader believes the helicopter was delivering a giant shipment of ammunition.

He was one of many who left southern Italy during the '50s and '60s to seek new opportunities in the more industrialized northern cities, Milan being one of them.

As some of you might recognize thanks to Boomtown Rats song released that year, her stated reason for the mass shooting attempt was that she didn't like Mondays.

This tower of barrels was built in New England and when the time was right, it served as the fuel for a massive bonfire.

For instance, this man was so intent on getting on the last chopper from the U.S. embassy that he was willing to punch out this South Vietnamese man to keep his spot.

After all, if the uploader hadn't indicated where Abraham Lincoln was during this visit to Gettysburg, it's pretty unlikely that we would've been able to pick him out.

That's because this photo captures the first time an astronaut attempted one in 1965. And the man who has the honor of pioneering this practice is Edward White.

As Professor Lillian Guerra of Yale University told The Smithsonian, this call for raised hands became such a key feature of his subsequent rallies that he would make it his official "substitute for electoral voting."

As the treaty demanded that Germany to cede its territories, accept responsibility for the war and pay reparations thereof, the crowd had much to be angry about.

This wasn't the extent of the fury, however, as several politicians who were blamed for accepting it would later be assassinated.

However, as Atlas Obscura reported, that's exactly what happened after an underground test in Mississippi back in 1964.

The test was conducted underground as a sneaky way of getting around international calls for nuclear test bans and the location was chosen because it was full of salt deposits. This meant the test wouldn't disrupt oil and water supplies.

As KRCA reported, Harvey's Hotel in Stateline, Nevada was bombed by two men who posed as computer technicians and left a note demanding a $3 million ransom back in 1980.

Both the hotel and casino were evacuated and there was an attempt to pay the ransom. However, the messengers involved couldn't contact the bombers and the bomb proved too sophisticated to be disarmed. Nobody was injured in the inevitable explosion, but the hotel would stay closed for eight months due to the damage.

In April of 1865, President Abraham Lincoln spent his last moments in this bed in Washington D.C.'s Petersen House after he was fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth across the street at Ford's Theater.

Corbett was a hatter who later ended up on a special task force of Union soldiers with a mission to capture Booth, preferably alive.

According to the New England Historical Society, Corbett had every intention of doing this, but said his shot struck Booth in the neck after he bent down to pick up something while fleeing.

Exposure to mercury during his work as a hatter then deteriorated his mental state and he was sent to an institution in Topeka, Kansas. However, he escaped and disappeared completely.

That's right, the great Muhammad Ali happened to walk in to train for his fight against British boxer Henry Cooper.

Not only did Ali give the kid some pointers, but he even let him win a little "fight" between them.

These spruces were apparently hung by Finnish forces to ensure that enemies couldn't see their troop movements from the air.

That may not sound like it would be very effective, but it's important toi remember that planes were much more fragile during World War I.