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Photography has been around long enough to provide evidence for plenty of historical stories that would otherwise sound suspiciously exaggerated. Buildings have been moved while hundreds of people continued working inside, airplanes have landed beside some of the world’s most recognizable landmarks, and astronauts have stumbled across machinery that had been waiting for them on the Moon for years. The strangest part is that many of these moments were not accidents or elaborate tricks. People genuinely planned them, attempted them, and occasionally stopped long enough to take a photograph proving that it all worked. History becomes considerably harder to dismiss as an exaggeration when there is a camera involved. Here are 15 photos sharing ‘hard to believe’ historical moments.
They Moved an Entire Building While Everyone Kept Working
In 1930, the massive Indiana Bell building in Indianapolis was rotated 90 degrees and moved while hundreds of employees continued working inside. Utilities reportedly remained connected throughout the process, allowing the company’s operations to carry on while the eight-story structure slowly changed addresses around them.
A Teenager Landed a Plane in Red Square
In 1987, 18-year-old West German pilot Mathias Rust flew a small Cessna through Soviet airspace and landed near Moscow’s Red Square. Photos of the little plane sitting in the heart of the Soviet capital made the already extraordinary breach of Cold War defenses look even more surreal.
NASA Put a Space Shuttle on Top of a 747
The Space Shuttle was not always transported under its own power. NASA modified Boeing 747s to carry orbiters on top of their fuselages, producing the unforgettable sight of one enormous aircraft casually giving another a ride through the sky.
Apollo 12 Found an Old Spacecraft Waiting on the Moon
When Apollo 12 astronauts landed on the Moon in 1969, they deliberately touched down near Surveyor 3, an unmanned probe that had arrived more than two years earlier. Photographs show astronaut Pete Conrad standing beside the abandoned spacecraft, with the Apollo lunar module visible in the distance.
A Zeppelin Flew Around the Entire World
In 1929, the enormous Graf Zeppelin completed a round-the-world journey that included stops in Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Lakehurst, New Jersey. Photographs of the airship floating above major cities look almost fictional today, but thousands of spectators really did turn out to watch it pass overhead.
An Airplane Once Landed Beside the Arc de Triomphe
Just weeks after Charles Lindbergh’s famous transatlantic flight in 1927, French aviator Charles Godefroy flew a small plane through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Film and photographs captured the stunt, which required him to squeeze through an opening that left very little room for error.
The World’s Deepest Ocean Dive Happened in 1960
Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh descended nearly seven miles into the Mariana Trench aboard the bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960. Photographs of the strange little vessel make it even harder to believe that two people willingly climbed inside it before traveling to one of the deepest places on Earth.
Los Angeles Once Had an Alligator Farm
For decades, visitors to the California Alligator Farm could get considerably closer to the animals than any modern attraction would probably allow. Historical photos show guests, including children, casually interacting with alligators at a place that operated in Southern California until 1953.
A Baboon Worked for the Railroad
In the late 19th century, a South African railway employee named James Wide trained a chacma baboon called Jack to help operate railway signals. Jack reportedly learned the system well enough to perform the job reliably for years, and photographs exist of the unusual railway employee at work.
The Hoover Dam Before There Was a Lake
Today, the back of Hoover Dam is hidden beneath the waters of Lake Mead, making photographs taken before the reservoir filled almost difficult to recognize. This 1936 view shows the enormous structure from an angle that most visitors will never get to see, shortly before water transformed the landscape behind it.
This Was NASA’s Version of a Presentation
A remarkable photograph from the early space-program era shows a NASA scientist standing in front of an enormous wall covered almost entirely with handwritten calculations. Long before slideshows and digital projectors, presenting complicated technical information sometimes meant filling every available inch of a chalkboard.
A Circus Performer Drove Around With Crocodiles
A photograph from Berlin in 1933 shows a circus performer inside an unusual vehicle containing a glass aquarium filled with crocodiles. It looks more like an elaborate movie prop than transportation anyone would voluntarily climb into, yet the bizarre promotional vehicle was very real.
A Clothing Store Hung 1,000 Coats Outside
A Danish clothing retailer came up with an impossible-to-ignore advertising stunt during the winter of 1936. More than 1,000 overcoats were hung from scaffolding covering the outside of the shop, making the entire building look as though it had grown a very unusual second exterior.
A Former President Went Shopping for Melons in Moscow
Richard Nixon looks surprisingly ordinary in photographs of him inspecting melons at a Moscow market in 1992. By then he had been out of the White House for nearly two decades, making the sight of a former U.S. president casually browsing produce in Russia an unusually mundane historical snapshot.
The Toaster Arrived Before Sliced Bread
It sounds backward, but electric toasters existed decades before commercially sliced bread became commonplace. Early models required users to place bread against exposed heating elements and often toast one side at a time, making photographs of the devices look surprisingly different from the appliance sitting in most kitchens today.
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