Random Last Known Photos Taken Of Legendary Historical Figures (17 items)

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  (#2) Amelia Earhart

  Photo details: 1937

  Amelia Earhart was a revolutionary pilot at a time when aviation was a male-dominated field. She was the first woman to cross the Atlantic, the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California across the Pacific, and was the first woman to reach 18,415 feet. Her ultimate goal was to fly around the world, and with her navigator, Fred Noonan, she began the 29,000-mile flight in Miami on June 1, 1937. 

  On July 2, Earhart and Noonan, with 7,000 miles left in their excursion around the world, took off toward Howland Island, a small island in the Pacific, and Earhart's next stop. Do to unpredictable cloudy weather, inaccurate maps, and shoddy radio communications, Earhart was unable to locate the island and disappeared over the Pacific. Rescue efforts began immediately, but no evidence of her fate was ever found. 

  Earhart was an accomplished pilot and revolutionary for feminism at a time when men dominated the social, political, domestic, and business worlds. She worked as a nurses aid during WWI, a social worker, and an aviation pioneer.
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  (#7) John F. Kennedy

  • Dec. at 46 (1917-1963)

  Photo details: Dallas, TX, November 22, 1963

  John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the US and was slain while driving through a cheering crowd in Dallas, Texas, on November 21, 1963, near the end of his first term. During his short time in office, JFK created the Peace Corps., asked for funding for the mission that eventually put a man on the moon, proposed a civil rights bill and publicly asked Americans to end racism, inspired the American people though his elegance and articulate speeches, and deterred the Cuban Missile Crisis without a war. 

  JFK studied at Harvard University and served as Lieutenant of a patrol torpedo boat stopping Japanese ships from delivering supplies to their soldiers in the South Pacific during WWII. After a traumatic incident where his boat was destroyed and part of his crew was lost, Lt. Kennedy led his men to safety and was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal upon his return. JFK began his political career in 1946 when he ran for Congress in Massachusetts' eleventh congressional district. He went on to serve in the House of Representatives and the Senate before becoming president in 1961. 
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  (#8) Martin Luther King, Jr.

  • Dec. at 39 (1929-1968)

  Photo details: 1968

  In the 1950s and '60s, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a peaceful movement against racial prejudice, advocating for legal equality for African-American people in the US. He is remembered as a prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement in America and he believed that everyone is equal regardless or gender, race, or creed at a time when such identifying factors were a point of contention in the culture. 

  Some of Dr. King's most celebrated movements toward change include his "I Have a Dream Speech" during the 1963 March on Washington, his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech where he highlighted that peace did not yet exist for African American people, and his 1963 "Letter From Birmingham Jail" in which he was confined for challenging the injustices of the state. He led a campaign against bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, and won when the US Supreme Court ruled such segregated transportation was unconstitutional. He served as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and was the driving force behind several important peaceful marches for equality across the nation. In 1965, his actions resulted in Congress passing the Voting Rights Act which allowed African American men to vote. 

  On April 4, 1968, Dr. King perished as a result of foul play, but his campaign for equality is remembered throughout history. Today, his nearly 13 years of peaceful protesting is taught to be one of the most important aspects of the Civil Rights Movement. 
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  (#4) Ulysses S. Grant

  • Dec. at 63 (1822-1885)

  Photo details: June 27, 1885

  Ulysses S. Grant is best know as the 18th president of the US and commander of the Union army during the Civil War. He spearheaded reconstruction in the late 1860s and was a strong advocate for civil rights. Grant wanted to bring reconciliation to the separated states as well as protect the Black Americans who had been freed. 

  Grant was born Jesse Grant, but while attending the US Military Academy at West Point, a congressman mistook his name as Ulysses and he never corrected it. He served in the Mexican-American War before resigning his post and taking on life as a civilian. Several years later, he volunteered as a colonel at the start of civil unrest in America and was was appointed as general later that summer.   

  Grant was a national hero after the success of the Union army and was later voted as the republican candidate for president against Schuyler Colfax. Grant received more than 52% of the popular vote and by 46 he became the youngest US president to serve at the time.
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  (#3) Albert Einstein

  • Dec. at 76 (1879-1955)

  Photo details: Princeton, NJ, March 1955

  Albert Einstein spent the years leading up to and throughout WWII earning his education and building his reputation as a notable professor at several prestigious universities across continental lines. After the war, he became a leading figure in the World Government Movement, declined Presidency over the State of Israel, and he worked with Dr. Chaim Weizmann to establish the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

  Einstein is well known for his 1905 paper on the photon theory of light in which he used what he discovered about the inadequacies of Newtonian mechanics to determine that E=mc². A few years later, in 1916, he wrote about another revelation which hypothesized his theory of gravitation. 

  Einstein is a Nobel Prize winner who spent his life studying quantum theory as a professor, ambassador, and clerk. He made discoveries which have since influenced the modern understanding of physics and relativity. 
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  (#16) Adolf Hitler

  • Dec. at 56 (1889-1945)

  Photo details: Germany, April 28, 1945

  Hitler is responsible for leading the Nazi party during WWII and evoking the demise of over 6 million Jewish victims and the suffering of countless others. Hitler managed to come inoto power in part because there was already an undercurrent of anti-Semitism in Europe. His memoir warned of his dangerous ideals regarding "purity" and "superiority," yet he manipulated his way to chancellor of Germany in 1933. 

  Hitler spent the subsequent years during WWII imprisoning his victims in concentration camps ruled the the Nazi party. Those who suffered at the hands of the nationalist party in Germany became refugees after WWII and were displaced across Europe. Eventually, they began to seek restitution and healing by telling their stories and acquiring wealth from the now struggling Nazi party. 

  Survivors and modern psychologists use their experiences to understand how to prevent the events of the Holocaust from ever taking place again, as well as how to heal through literature such as, Understanding Genocide, Man's Search for Meaning, Night, The Drowned and the Saved, and many more.  

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