Photos That Captured the Most Chilling Moments in History

The best way for history to live on is through photographs—even the most unsettling moments. The images featured here paint a picture of the world that was at times shocking and disturbing...

Chernobyl, 1986

This is the first and only existing photo of Chernobyl on the morning of the nuclear accident. The heavy grain is due to the huge amount of radiation in the air that began to destroy the camera film the moment that it was exposed for this photograph.

Radium Girls, 1922

Employees of the U.S. Radium Corp., also known as the Radium Girls, paint numbers on the faces of wristwatches using dangerous radioactive paint. The Radium Girls were told that the paint was harmless, but the women in each factory ingested lethal amounts of radium after being told to "point" the brushes on their lips in order to give them a fine tip.

The Gadget, 1945

The Gadget was the first atomic bomb, similar to the Fat Man used to bomb Nagasaki only a few weeks after this photo was taken. This image shows Norris Bradbury, group leader for the bomb assembly, standing next to the assembled Gadget atop the test tower.

February 18, 2001

This is the last known photo of Dale Earnhardt Sr. before his death in 2001 at the Daytona 500. The above image depicts Ken Schrader's #36 and Dale Sr.'s #3. They would both be involved in a crash less than two laps later, resulting in Dale Sr.'s death.

Russia, 1942

Exhausted civilians try to collect water during the German siege of Stalingrad. The Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted from August 1942 to February 1943, was one of the bloodiest battles in all of history, with an estimated two million casualties.

Belgium, 1940

Adolf Hitler can be seen here standing with a unit of the Luftwaffe Fallschirmjäger known as "The Green Devils" that captured Belgian Fort Eben-Emael. Over 4,000 Fallschirmjäger were killed during the Battle of Crete less than a year later.

Venezuela, 1962

"The Priest and the Dying Soldier" is a famous photograph in which Navy chaplain Luis Padilla is seen giving last rites to a soldier who was wounded by sniper fire during the revolt. The image won the World Press Photo of the Year and the 1963 Pulitzer Prize for Photography. In the background, there is a "carnicería," which can be translated as a "butcher's shop," "slaughter," or "carnage."

June 8, 1968

The man who assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr., James Earl Ray, is arrested in London, England. Ray was an American fugitive and felon convicted of murdering King at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. He was convicted a year later and sentenced to 99 years in prison.

Vietnam, 1966

Members of the 1st Marine Division carry their wounded during the Vietnam War. The war lasted 19 years and cost America nearly 60,000 soldiers. Over 150,000 were wounded and 1,600 were deemed missing.

Titanic, 1985

A collection of dishes were found on the wreckage of the Titanic. The ship sank on April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. Of the ship's 2,200 crew members and passengers, about 1,500 perished.

January 28, 1986

The last known photo of Challenger crew boarding the space shuttle. The crew consisted of five NASA astronauts and two payload specialists. The exact timing of the crew's death is unknown; several members of the crew are known to have survived the spacecraft's breakup, but there was no escape system, and the impact of the crew compartment at terminal velocity with the ocean surface was too violent for anyone to have survived.

Nuremberg Trials, 1945

German war criminals laugh at a translation error during the Nuremberg Trials. The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals held after WWII which uncovered the German leadership that supported the Nazi regime. Of the 177 defendants, 24 were sentenced to death, 20 to lifelong imprisonment, and 98 other prison sentences. 25 defendants were found not guilty.

Friederick Fleet, 1911

Frederick Fleet, 24, was the lookout on the Titanic who first spotted the iceberg that sank the ship in 1912, shouting, "Iceberg, right ahead!" In 1965, aged 77, after the death of his wife and being evicted from his house, Fleet hanged himself.

Panama, 1989

The United States Invasion of Panama, codenamed Operation Just Cause, lasted over a month between December 1989 and January 1990. Its primary purpose was to depose the de facto Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, who was wanted by the U.S. for racketeering and drug trafficking. 20,000 civilians were displaced from their homes and the chaos went on for nearly two weeks afterward.

Germany, 1945

An American soldier, PFC Douglas Page, offers a mocking Nazi salute inside the crumbling ruins of the Berlin Sportpalast, or Sports Palace. The venue, destroyed during an Allied bombing raid in January 1944, was where the Third Reich often held political rallies.

June 6, 1944

On D-Day, apprehensive GIs load onto a British landing craft for the invasion of Normandy. The Normandy landings, also known as Operation Neptune, was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of France and helped to secure an Allied victory on the Western Front.

May 6, 1945

This photo depicts the liberation of the Mauthausen concentration camp. Mauthausen was one of the first massive concentration camp complexes in Nazi Germany and was the last to be liberated by the Allies. Along with Gusen I, Mauthausen was classified as "Grade III" concentration camps, meaning that they were the toughest camps for the "incorrigible political enemies of the Reich."

Australia, 1997

A truck unloads prohibited firearms at a scrap-metal yard after the Port Arthur massacre a year earlier. The Port Arthur massacre was a mass shooting that occurred on the 28 and 29 of April 1996. 35 people were murdered and 23 were wounded. The killer, Martin Bryant, pleaded guilty and was given 35 life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Otto von Bismarck

May 25, 1953

Upshot-Knothole Grable was a nuclear weapons test conducted by the U.S. This picture depicts the mushroom cloud from its detonation, with the cannon from which it was fired in the foreground. The test remains the only nuclear artillery shell ever actually fired in the U.S. nuclear weapons test program.

June 20, 1940

This photo shows captured Senegalese soldiers in service with the French army shortly before they were massacred by the Germans at Chasselay near Lyon. German troops that invaded France that year committed a number of widespread atrocities, especially against Black African colonial troops.

September, 1987

This is the wedding photo of Roop Kanwar and her husband Maal Singh Shekhawat. Kanwar was the last woman to be burnt alive on her husband's pyre in a Sati ritual. Kanwar was 18 years old and had been married for 8 months to Shekhawat, who had died one day prior at the age of 24 and had no children. 45 people were charged with her murder but later acquitted.

July 4, 1989

This photo depicts the aftermath of an incident in which a rogue MiG-23 Flogger crashed into a house in Kortrijk, West Flanders, Belgium. The pilotless jet fighter killed an 18-year-old occupant, and the accident sparked fury in the West.

April 13, 1945

The inside of a warehouse where concentration camp prisoners were massacred in Gardelegen, Germany. The Gardelegen massacre was perpetrated by the local German population with minor direction from the S.S. Over 1,000 slave laborers who had been evacuated from Mittelbau-Dora and Hannover-Stöcken concentration camps were put in a large barn, which was then set on fire.

Amsterdam, 1939

Pictures of Anne Frank taken in a department store booth. The posthumous publication of The Diary of a Young Girl in 1947 documented Frank's life in hiding from 1942 to 1944, at which point Frank's family was arrested by the Gestapo. Frank and her sister died within a few months.

October 30, 1985

Schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe watches a successful launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger after being selected to join a later mission in January 1986, which would ultimately end in disaster. McAuliffe and all 6 other members of the Challenger crew were killed when the rocket disintegrated 73 seconds after liftoff. McAuliffe would have been the first teacher in space.

1918 Pandemic

Women of the Red Cross make masks during the pandemic of 1918. The Spanish Flu was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic that lasted from 1918 to 1920 and infected about a third of the world's population at the time in four successive waves. The death toll is estimated to be anywhere from 17 million to 100 million, making it one of the deadliest in human history.

June 11, 1963

In an attempt to stop integration at the University of Alabama, Governor of Alabama George Wallace blocks the door of Foster Auditorium while being confronted by U.S. Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach. Until the 1960s, the university only admitted white students.

December 7, 1941

Battleship Row and Ford Island during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike issued by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the U.S. on the morning of December 7, 1941. Battleship Row was the grouping of eight U.S. battleships in port at Pearl Harbor which bore the brunt of Japanese assault.

December 23, 1927

Mexican Jesuit Catholic priest Miguel Agustín Pro moments before he was executed during the Cristero War. Pro was charged with bombing and the attempted assassination of former Mexican president Álvaro Obregón. His arrest, lack of trial, and evidential support gained prominence during the Cristero War. Pro was later beatified in Rome by Pope John Paul II as a Catholic martyr killed in odium fidei (in hatred of the faith).

May 31, 1921

The Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, also known as Black Wall Street, burns during the 1921 race massacre. Prior to the massacre, the district was thriving. On the evening of May 31, 1921, over 35 city blocks were burned to the ground and hundreds of Black citizens were killed.

December 18, 1942

Chile, 1973

Armed guards watch for attackers as Chilean president Salvador Allende leaves a building during the military coup in which he was overthrown. Allende was the first Marxist to be elected president in a liberal democracy in Latin America.

April 7, 1926

The mugshot of the Honourable Violet Gibson, an Irish woman who shot Benito Mussolini in an assassination attempt. Gibson shot the Fascist Italian leader as he walked among the crowd in the Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome. Gibson was almost lynched on the spot by an angry mob. She told interrogators that she shot Mussolini "to glorify God."

Chernobyl, 1986

A Chernobyl liquidator in 1986. Liquidators were civil and military personnel who were called upon to deal with the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. These individuals are largely credited with curbing both the immediate and long-term effects of the disaster.

Chicago, 1890s

This is the World's Fair Hotel owned by H. H. Holmes, an American serial killer active from December 1891 to November 1894. Although he confessed to 27 murders (including of people who were still alive), Holmes was sentenced to death for only one murder. Victims were killed in a building Holmes owned in Chicago, informally known as the Murder Castle.

June 4, 1989

On June 4, 1989, the Soviet Union witnessed its worst railway accident ever. An explosion killed 575 people and injured 800 more in the Ufa train disaster. An annual commemoration is usually held at the Ulu-Telyak station near the disaster site.

Tehran, 1980

Two women who protested against the Islamic hijab are taken away by armed militia guards. The Islamic Revolution of 1979 brought many changes to Iran, especially for women. In the 1930s, the old Shah banned the veil and ordered police to forcibly remove headscarves, but in the early 1980s, the new Islamic authorities imposed a mandatory dress code that required all women to wear the hijab.

April 13, 1985

This photograph, known as "The Woman with the Handbag," was taken in Växjö, Sweden. It depicts a 38-year-old Jewish woman, Danuta Danielsson, hitting a marching Neo-Nazi with her handbag. Danielsson's mother had survived Auschwitz.

June 4, 1989

Chinese tanks gather before the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Known as the June Fourth Incident in China, troops armed with assault ripes and fired at protestors trying to block the military's advance into Tiananmen Square. The estimated death toll varies from several hundred to several thousand, with thousands more having been wounded in the incident.

Children in Gas Masks, 1941

Leading up to WWII, there were fears that Germans would attack the U.S. with poisonous gas. By 1938, the government had issued respirators to everyone in the nation—including children.

Hydrogen Bomb, 1946

This photo captured the aftermath of a hydrogen bomb detonated at the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Between 1946 and 1958, 23 other nuclear devices were tested by the United States at Bikini Atoll. The U.S. was engaged in a Cold War nuclear arms race with the U.S.S.R. to build more advanced bombs from 1947 to 1991.

March 16, 1945

This photo depicts the bombing of Kobe, Japan during WWII. The attack was part of a U.S. campaign against Japan. The bombing began on March 16, 1945, and ceased the following day.

Freed Slave, 1907

A British merchant removes restraints from a slave's ankle in 1907. Over 3.4 million Africans were brought to North America by British slave traders over the course of 245 years. Slavery was abolished in the early 1900s, which is when this image was captured.

January 10, 1946

A priest crouches beside the body of former Hungarian Prime Minister Laszlo Bardossy after his execution at Marko Place prison in Budapest. Bardossy was executed by firing squad after being found guilty of war crimes and collaborationism by the People's Court.

October 12, 1960

Politician Inejiro Asanuma is stabbed with a sword during a televised debate. The assassin, 17-year-old right-wing ultranationalist Otoya Yamaguchi, committed suicide weeks afterward while in a detention facility. He became a martyr for the Japanese far-right and commemorations in his honor have continued to this day.

Germany, 1934

The Reichserntedankfest rally, otherwise known as the Reich Harvest Thanksgiving Festival, was an enormous Nazi German celebration of the peasantry and German farmers. The celebration was used by Nazis as a propaganda tool to display the connection between Hitler and the German people. The festivals ran from 1933 to 1937 on the Bückeburg hill.

August 9, 1945

This image depicts the aftermath of the Nagasaki bombing. The United States detonated two nuclear weapons over Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively. Between 39,000 and 80,000 people died instantly, but many succumbed to the horrific effects of radiation poisoning over the years.

Nuclear Test Explosion, 1945

A mother and son watch a nuclear test explosion from their home. At the time, the dangers of radiation were still unknown, and over 500 atmospheric nuclear weapons tests were conducted around the world from 1945 to 1980. The radiation from nuclear fallout might have led to 11,000 deaths caused by thyroid cancer.

Buchenwald, 1945

During the liberation of Buchenwald, a Russian prisoner of the concentration camp points out a Nazi guard who exhibited particular cruelty and sadism. Prior to the arrival of the American army, Buchenwald was partially evacuated by Germans from April 6, 1945, until April 11, 1945. Thousands of prisoners were forced to join the evacuation marches.

November 30, 1954

This woman may be the only person to survive being struck by a fallen meteorite. The 8.5-pound space rock crashed through her roof, bounced off the radio, and nailed Anne Hodges right in the side.

August 14, 1936

The last-ever public execution in the United States took place on August 14, 1936, when Rainey Bethea was hanged in the town square in Owensboro, Kentucky. Bethea confessed to the rape and murder of a 70-year-old woman named LIschia Edwards. Mistakes in the hanging, as well as the surrounding media circus, led to the end of public executions in the U.S.

Munich, 1919

A German communist stands with his arms crossed as he is about to be executed by a firing squad. According to some sources, this photo was staged, but others dispute that claim. The firing squad is the German Freikorps, a paramilitary group that was established in the wake of Germany's defeat in WWI.

April 30, 1945

This is the last known photograph of Adolf Hitler. Later that day, Hitler committed suicide by gunshot in his Führerbunker in Berlin. Eva Braun, his wife of approximately one day, killed herself with him by ingesting cyanide.

Checkpoint Charlie, 1947

Tanks face off at Checkpoint Charlie, the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between the East and the West during the Cold War. Checkpoint Charlie became a symbol of the Cold War, representing the East and the West.

Hungarian Revolution, 1956

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a populist uprising against the Soviet forces. The revolution was overpowered and Soviet forces were reinstated in an even more brutal manner. Khrushchev's refusal to negotiate with the rebels was the cause of controversy. His use of violence considered a gross miscarriage of authority by previously sympathetic observers.

Germany, 1916

Two German soldiers and their mule don gas masks during WWI. This mule was given a gas mask to prevent it from inhaling a chemical called phosgene, which was used in weapons during the war. Of the one million British horses sent overseas to help with the war effort, only 62,000 returned home.

Germany, 1945

Soldiers mock the Third Reich leader after his suicide. Many citizens and soldiers who opposed his reign celebrated in the streets for days afterward. However, the Soviet Union presented a number of conspiracy theories regarding Hitler's death, maintaining that Hitler was still alive years after the war had drawn to a close.

Soviet Soldier, 1939

Finnish soldiers take a dead, frozen Soviet soldier and pose him like a scarecrow as a way to ward off Soviet invasion. Although this happened rarely, there have been a few documented cases of this macabre psychological warfare tactic. Usually, both Russian and Finish soldiers had great resepct for the dead and allowed both parties to retrieve and bury them in peace.

Human Ashes

Soviet soldiers stand over a heap of human remains found at Majdanek concentration camp. The Majdanek camp is known for being one of the best-preserved Nazi camps from the Holocaust.

July 2, 1951

Mary Reeser, a 67-year-old woman, was found burned to death in her home when the landlady realized that her doorknob was strangely warm. Police found Reeser's remains completely burned to ash, with only one leg remaining. Reeser's death is believed to be a case of spontaneous human combustion.

August 13, 1951

This is one of six survivors of the Hiroshima bomb, Kiyoshi Yoshikawa, which killed over 80,000 people on impact. Yoshikawa is displaying heavy scarring on his back soon after leaving the hospital.

Loana the Bloodthirster, 1909

Although it may look as though she is sleeping, this Romanian woman, Ioana Constantinescu, died in 1909 from drinking her own blood. Constantinescu was better known as Leona the Bloodthirster, a suspected witch who was beaten to near-death by an angry mob. She committed ritual suicide by consuming several goblets of her own blood.

Photos with the Dead

Back in the day, it was very common to pose for a photo with the recently deceased. Although death photography may seem morbid to some, in Victorian England, this was a way to commemorate the dead and blunt their grief. This woman was the victim of a fire and her family wished to preserve her memory by taking a picture with her charred body.

Korean War

The Korean War lasted from 1950 to 1953, during which nearly five million people perished. More than half, equating to roughly 10% of Korea's population, were civilians. Almost 40,000 Americans died during the Korean War and more than 100,000 were injured.

Young Girl, 1940

This young girl's home was bombed in 1940. She can be seen sitting on the remaining debris, clutching a baby doll to her chest.

Armenian Genocide

A cruel Turkish official teases starving Armenian children with bread in the midst of the genocide. The Armenian genocide was the systematic and mass ethnic cleansing of one million Armenians during WWI. Until WWII, this event was considered the greatest atrocity in history, but Turkey still denies that the deportation of Armenians was genocide or wrongful.

The Beast of Buchenwald

Ilse Koch was known as the Beast of Buchenwald, the sadistic wife of a Buchenwald camp officer who committed heinous and grotesque crimes, such as taking the skin of dead prisoners with interesting tattoos and keeping them as souvenirs. She committed suicide in 1960.

Ancient Cannibals

These remains were prepped for eating. Even though the bones date back to 7,000 years ago, forensic scientists were able to discern that the flesh was stripped off intentionally.

Germany, 1945

Hitler rehearses a speech in front of a mirror. This image was taken by his personal photographer Heinrich Hoffmann. Hoffmann was a Nazi politician and publisher, who was a member of Hitler's intimate circle. His photos were significant to Hitler's propaganda campaign to present himself and the Nazi party as a larger-than-life phenomenon.