Historical photos often show us things that we don’t want to see, but that we can’t look away from. This collection of photographs show us extraordinary moments from our past that send chills down our spine. Some of these shots show moments that are hard to look at, but others will give you goosebumps in the best way possible.
We are warning you, some of these photographs are downright hard to look at, and some will astonish…they all deserve a closer look as they explain some of the most chilling moments in history. Click ahead for more, but remember viewer discretion is advised.
Chilling Photos From History Explained
By Jacob Shelton | August 24, 2019
Historical photos often show us things that we don’t want to see, but that we can’t look away from. This collection of photographs show us extraordinary moments from our past that send chills down our spine. Some of these shots show moments that are hard to look at, but others will give you goosebumps in the best way possible.
We are warning you, some of these photographs are downright hard to look at, and some will astonish…they all deserve a closer look as they explain some of the most chilling moments in history. Click ahead for more, but remember viewer discretion is advised.
Judy met Jerry Griffin at Woodstock in 1969
Hundreds of thousands of people went to the Woodstock music festival in 1969, but how many people can say they met their significant other while they were there? Judy and Jerry Griffin met when Jerry’s friends stopped to pick up Judy while she was hitchhiking after her car broke down. Judy was unsure about riding with Jerry’s friends, but after she hopped in the VW Beetle she and Jerry made fast friends. Judy told People:
I was just thinking, ‘Damn, now we can’t go,’ and we were dying to. Then Jerry and his friends pulled up. I stuck my head in and I saw that there was a woman in the car. I’d never hitchhiked before, but I figured, ‘Well, since there was a woman, it was fairly safe, and I probably should just get in the car.’
That ride culminated in a 50 year marriage, two sons, and five grandchildren. However it wasn’t until 2019 when the two found this photo that was taken of them at the festival. They’d known each other for less than 48 hours when the photo was taken.
An underage 16 year old Demi Moore illegally bares it all for “Oui” magazine in 1981
Before she was setting hearts on fire and stunning audiences in films like Ghost and A Few Good Men, Demi Moore worked for the Elite Modeling Agency in Europe. Most of her work consisted of pin-up shoots, but one spread for Oui magazine may have been a little too risqué. She claims that the photo shoot where she bares all was taken after she lied about her age, and that she was 16 at the time of the shoot.
At the time, Moore was desperate to get into the business and did whatever she had to in order to get her face out there. The photos were mostly forgotten until they showed up in Celebrity Sleuth in the late ‘80s. Moore didn’t let the creepy members of the press stop her momentum.
He’s the “Man with the Golden Arm,” James Harrison has donated blood 1,173 times from the age of 18 to 81
A true hero, was inspired to start giving blood after undergoing a major chest operation when he was just a boy. He lost a lot of blood while under the knife and had to stay in the hospital for the months. When he was 18 he vowed to give blood as much as possible in order to make sure that no children ever went without.
Shortly after his 18th birthday doctors discovered that Harrison’s blood contained antibodies that helped fight Rhesus Disease which made him one of the most important donors in Australia. After giving his last donation Harrison told CNN:
“It becomes quite humbling when they say, ‘oh you’ve done this or you’ve done that or you’re a hero. It’s something I can do. It’s one of my talents, probably my only talent, is that I can be a blood donor.”
An exotic dancer arrested by undercover cops testifies in court, Florida 1983
This stunning photo may look like it shows a woman disrespecting a judge, but in reality it’s an exotic dancer pleading her case. After a group of exotic dancers were arrested for exposing their bits at a Florida club, this woman testified that it would have been impossible for anyone to see what was under her dance bottoms because of their size. Photographer Jim Damaske explained how he caught the image to the Tampa Bay Times:
“I was shooting freelance for the Clearwater Sun and UPI when the Sun got a tip what was going to happen. I got the call. Exotic dancers said that their shorts were too big to show what the undercover officers said they saw. The judge agreed with the dancers after they bent over. The photo went out on the UPI wire, which is how it got picked up everywhere.”
The photo was later run in Playboy and it was selected as one of the “Magazine Pictures of the Year” by the National Press Photographers Association.
black police officer helps demonstrator at KKK rally
Regardless of race, gender, or creed, the police are tasked with defending the free speech of someone whether they like what they’re saying or not. In this instance the officer was tasked with keeping klan members safe during a rally in Austin, Texas after things got out of hand. According to UPI, in 1983 2,000 protestors surrounded 70 klansmen during their march near the Capitol and started throwing bricks and rocks.
During the rally 13 people were arrested and 11 people were injured, including four officers and one reporter. Hopefully someone bought this officer a cold one after a hard day.
A researcher stands on top of the Portal to Hell in Kamokuna, Hawaii
While not a literal portal to Hell, this spot in Kamokuna, Hawaii looks particularly creepy because of the masses of different lava flows that have led into what the USGS Astrogeology Science Center calls the “lava skylight.” The lava that’s cooled around the skylight has taken on the form of shared bodies, which makes the area look extremely creepy.
The skylight is made possible by pieces of the area that break off and expose the tubes running beneath the area that are filled with molten lava which gives off an eerie glow. The area is worth checking out, but keep in mind that it’s very dangerous.
At least 10 men being buried at sea from the USS Intrepid
People are so used to burying someone six feet underground that when any kind of other disposal comes along it sounds barbaric or strange. But burials at sea have a long standing tradition in many cultures. A burial at sea offers some cultures a chance to go back to their beginnings after they pass away, while in modern instances it’s a chance to say goodbye in a practical way.
A strict set of rules surrounds burial at sea today, so you can’t just go and toss anyone out into the water and wave goodbye. Often a family or organization will need a permit as well as a a coffin meeting regulatory requirements. Bodies are not allowed to be embalmed, and they have to be sewn into a weighted shroud or entombed in a metal casket.
Photographer Michio Hoshino was killed by a bear, was this his final photo [HOAX]
Photographer Michio Hoshino passed away while filming bears on the Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia. Acclaimed for his wildlife photography, Hoshino was working on a documentary crew that was shooting footage of brown bears in 1996 for a Japanese TV series. The New York Times reports that he was mauled at four in the morning and that his crew heard him screaming in the middle of the night. His body was found in the woods after the attack.
It’s been reported that this is his final photo, but it remains unclear if that’s true or not. However, if it is his final photo it’s definitely a good one.
[Fact Check]: The putative victim named in the text accompanying this image, Michio Hoshino, was in fact a real wildlife photographer who died after being mauled by a brown bear on the Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia in August 1996. However, this picture was neither taken by Hoshino nor recorded the circumstances of his death: it’s an entry from a Worth1000 Photoshop competition in which contestants were tasked with creating “a last-photo hoax: the final photograph of the victim, whoever he might be, had a camera on him right before ‘it’ happens.”
Irish guards remain at attention after a fellow guardsman faints in front of the Queen, 1966
Irish guards are trained to be at attention at all time when they’re on duty. They have to march at attention, stand at attention, and even fall at attention. Their outfits are a standard military suit but with a heavy bearskin hat on top that definitely doesn’t breathe. This photo was taken in June 1966 during the Queen’s birthday celebration, so it was definitely a very hot and stressful day, no wonder this guy fell over. Photographer James Blair explained how he snapped such an iconic photo to National Geographic:
“In June, the Queen has her birthday celebration, and she rides her horse around this square, and all of the soldiers are lined up, and I was there to get pictures of the Queen riding around, and anything else that would happen. This was a very long telephoto lens, an 800-millimeter. I was on the press stand and was able to photograph across the whole courtyard, when this guy fell over...”
“He was almost immediately scooped up. The medical people came out about 30 seconds after I took this picture and scooped him up and took him back to the infirmary and took care of him. But I was told afterwards that you’re literally trained to fall at attention. If you’re standing at attention, you fall at attention, and it was just like a toy soldier falling over. I don’t think I got the falling process. I think I saw it out of the corner of my eye and I was focused on the Queen, and I swiveled around, click, click, click, and made that photograph.”
Princess Diana on a yacht in Portofino, Italy, one week before she passed in 1997
One year after divorcing Prince Charles, Diana, Princess of Wales, spent her last weeks with the Fayed family. They moved from city to city aboard private planes, they lounged on private yacht’s, and they stayed in the best hotels. Often surrounded by staff, PR people, and security, this photo shows one of the few times that Diana was alone. She and Fayed began dating in July of ’97 while he was still with his fiancé Kelly Fisher.
According to the Telegraph there were many days when Fayed had Fisher on one yacht while Diana was on another, the Jonikal, a 150ft luxury yacht bought specifically for the princess. Days after this photo was taken Diana passed away while trying to escape the paparazzi in Paris.
In 1996, Binti Jua, an 8-year-old female Western lowland gorilla, tended to a 3-year-old boy
Most stories about children who fall into an animal pin in the zoo end horribly, but when a toddler fell into a gorilla’s enclosure at the Brookfield Zoo in Illinois she was kept safe safe and sound by Binti Jua, an 8-year-old female. The child suffered a gash on their face and they broke their hand after a 24 foot fall.
Binta Jua seemed to understand the drill, and while cradling the boy she walked it to her enclosure’s service door and handed it off to the zoo officials. Binta Jua is still alive today and she’s a fan favorite among the crowds at the zoo.
Extreme tree pruning in the late 1800s.
If you loved climbing trees as a child then tree pollarding is the job for you. Well, assuming that you have a time machine that takes you back to the 19th century. Pollarding was hard work and it took team work and practice in order to trim trees and keep them in line while making sure they live a longer life.
To trim these incredibly high trees men had to use ridiculously tall and unstable ladders which were more dangerous the higher a pollard rose. From there the trimmers had to maintain their balance as they move across the limbs.
American soldiers recusing children in a Vietnamese war zone
Soldiers in Vietnam were tasked with one of the worst jobs on the planet. While fighting a war against an enemy who knew the terrain better than they did, and were more prepared for jungle warfare. While the Americans had boots on the ground they not only had to constantly fight, they also had to protect the villagers who lived in heavy trafficked areas.
Many of the families who lived in villages within the jungle were caught in the crossfire and had nowhere to go when fighting broke out. Troops had to do everything in their power to keep the Vietnamese people safe. They were truly in a rough spot.
Robert Irwin, son of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, feeds the same croc, in the same place as his father 15 years later
Robert Irwin was nearly three years old when his father passed away after being pierced in the heart by a stingray barb. Since his father’s death, Irwin has worked in the conservation world and he appeared alongside his family in the TV series Steve Irwin’s Wildlife Warriors. In recent years he’s started to fill his father’s shoes by taking animals onto the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. He recently explained his draw towards working with animals as a way to get in touch with his father. He said, “I feel closest to Dad when I’m working with the animals that he really loved.”
Stella Grassman and her husband Deafy were both tattoo artists, and she worked as a sideshow exhibition
It’s not wild to see a young woman covered in tattoos today. Most people under the age of 30 have a couple. It’s cool, it’s normal, there’s nothing untoward about it; but that wasn’t the case in the 1920s. Back then, Stella Grassman was such an oddity for her tattoos that she worked as a attraction with the Ringling Brotheres, Barnum & Bailey Circus.
When she wasn’t traveling with the carnival, Stella and her husband worked as tattoo artists in Newark, New Jersey before moving to Charleston, South Carolina. The couple split up in the mid-‘50s but they share a grave plot in South Carolina.
This East German soldier was removed from service for helping a little boy sneak across the Berlin Wall
Leading up to the construction of the Berlin Wall Germany was in chaos. People were trying to make sure their families were kept together. People lost their jobs and people lost their families when the wall officially went up on August 13, 1961. During the anarchic energy of the day this boy was separated rom his family, but the East German government said that people weren’t allowed to cross the line no matter what.
This soldier helped get this child across the wall into East Berlin and he was caught shortly afterwards. There’s no word about what actually happened to the soldier, although there are rumors that he was imprisoned or shot. Although it’s likely that he was just removed from his position.
Yikes, this giant octopus engulfing a scuba diver can be seen at the Oregon Undersea Gardens
Okay, so, it’s time to come clean. This isn’t a real octopus feasting on an unlucky diver. It’s actually a statue at the Oregon Undersea Gardens that’s meant to entertain viewers while warning about the possibility of a cephalopod attack. While these attacks are rare they do happen whenever a diver finds themselves at the wrong place and the wrong time. In 2014 a Giant Pacific octopus attacked a diver off the coast of Carmel when the diver attempted to take a photo of the animal. It must have been camera shy. Everyone was okay, but the divers won’t be trying to get a selfie with wildlife any time soon.
