History in Pictures

Left: the Ford Motors automobile assembly line in 1913.

Right: Ford’s mile-long Willow Run (Michigan) aircraft factory during World War II. At its peak, the Willow Run plant built one B-24 bomber every 63 minutes.

New leather shoes for the first day of school, 1957.

Building the Golden Gate Bridge, February 1935.

As an overwhelming German force approached Brussels, Belgium, on August 20, 1914, international diplomats convinced the Brussels civilian guard to abandon their defenses and declare Brussels an open city in order to spare civilian life.

The Brussels mayor then met German commanders at the outskirts of the city in the late morning of August 20, and the main German force entered the city unopposed at 2:00 PM.

On August 20, 1920, representatives from four independent Ohio professional football teams met in an auto showroom in Canton to organize a professional football league where members would be bound by a uniform set of administrative rules.

More meetings followed, legendary athlete Jim Thorpe, who played for the Canton Bulldogs, was selected league president, and teams from other states joined the league.

In 1922, this organization was renamed the National Football League.

Woolworth menu, 1950.

White segregationists throw stones at the bus carrying Freedom Riders, who were traveling through the Deep South in 1961 to promote racial integration in facilities serving interstate commerce.

Mr. Potter, this rabble you're talking about...
they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community.
Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath?
Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him.
But to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle.
Well in my book, my father died a much richer man than you'll ever be!

When the first commercial radio station began operations in 1920, the sound engineers didn’t use special equipment.

They simply played an Edison record player in front of a microphone, as shown in this photo.

James M. Sommerville, Ocean Life, 1859.

August 20, 1940: British officials said German losses in the past week of heavy aerial bombardment of Britain total 700 aircraft and 1,000 airmen.

German officials warned that, if German paratroopers who may be captured in a British invasion are not treated in accordance with international law, British prisoners held in German POW camps would suffer retaliation.

The British minister for home security declared all of Britain a military area, noting that, while a curtailment of personal liberties is not presently contemplated, the designation would permit the quick implementation of emergency measures in the event of an enemy landing by air or sea.

Joseph White enlisted in a Pennsylvania volunteer infantry regiment in September 1861, at the start of the Civil War, and fought in battles across the Eastern Theater, including Fredericksburg and Gettysburg.

He saved his military uniform when the war ended.

These are his shoes.

Playmate by day, and sentinel by night,
The parents' guardian, and the [child's] delight.
In joy and sorrow, he's your trusty friend,
Honest and faithful, bribeless, to the end.
     -- Francis Butler, 1877