CIVIL COMPLIANCE NETWORK: History through Photography

History must be studied, absorbed in context and respected for it's effect. The most heinous must never be allowed to repeat. Recent history, since the turn of the 20th century has been anything but dull and boring. It has been tragic, wonderful, blissful and terrifying. Here are some historical photos I found:

The Beatles prepare for the famous Abbey Road album cover photograph in 1969. That photo is the most recreated photo ever.

A Felice Beato photograph of a Japanese Samurai, taken in 1870. The Samurai, also known as bushi were the top class of Japanese warriors, usually assigned to guard nobility. While the samurai numbered less than 10% of then Japan's population, their teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in modern Japanese martial arts.

Fidel Castro and Eduardo "Che" Guevara sport fishing in 1960. Castro was consolidating power in Cuba, using Che to root out dissenters. It is not known how many were rounded up and exterminated. Guevara was eventually discarded by Castro as it became politically expedient.

Grand Central Station in 1929. Sunbeams break through the smoky air, although construction of adjacent towers blocked that sunlight in later years.

Adolph Hitler in this 1941 speech declares war on the United States.

Cassius Clay and Malcolm X have fun for the cameras in a Miami soda shop in 1969. Clay, who had just defeated Sonny Liston to win the heavyweight belt, would soon convert to Islam and change his name to Muhammad Ali.

One of many nuclear tests in the South Pacific island chain, the Marshall Islands in the 1940's and 50's. These islands are still today uninhabitable. Residents at the time were relocated to nearby islands and have never returned.

The bombed out Belgium forest of Ypres in 1917. The most destructive war ever, many lives were lost and affected as was the environment.

Shown here in a post-WWII photo, the Jewish mercenary group known as the Avengers hunted down fleeing Nazis and brought them to trial. Many were found in South America and Europe, some are still being discovered today.

The first photo taken from the surface of the moon taken by Apollo Commander Neil Armstrong shortly after his famous message, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

A native American looks down at the new transcontinental railroad in 1868. It would be completed one year later. Many native Americans were by then defeated, rounded up and being imprisoned. The population of the North American tribes was decimated by war with the European settlers and their grim surroundings wouldn't improve for many generations. The Native tribes would never regain their full identity.

A family portrait of a murdered royal family. Russian Tsar Nicolas Romanov II and his family were assasinated by the Bolsheviks in 1917. Spurred into murder by Vladimir Lenin, the Bolsheviks became the communist party and later the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic. The USSR crumbled and fell apart in 1991 under then president Mikhail Gorbachev largely due to pressure applied by US President Ronald Reagan and his military expansion.