President Lyndon Johnson confronts Senator Richard Russell, the leader of the filibuster against the Civil Rights Act, in 1964.
By 1964, Lyndon Johnson understood the Senate the way a seasoned rancher understands difficult land—where it gives, where it resists, and where pressure must be applied until something finally yields. Richard Russell of Georgia was not merely an opponent; he was the embodiment of the Southern bloc, the custodian of its traditions, and Johnson’s former mentor. Years earlier, Johnson had sat at Russell’s side, learning the Senate’s rhythms and its rules. Now he stood as President, asking the chamber to dismantle the legal foundations of segregation that Russell had spent a lifetime defending.
The filibuster against the Civil Rights Act was not theatrical; it was methodical, sustained, and rooted in decades of power carefully accumulated by Southern senators. Russell believed in that power, believed in the order it preserved. Johnson, equally certain, believed the presidency could not remain neutral in the face of such injustice. He applied pressure the way he always had—through persuasion, intimidation, flattery, calculation—counting votes with relentless precision. He understood that invoking cloture would require Republican support, and that success would likely shatter the Democratic Party’s hold on the South. When cloture was achieved, it was not the product of rhetoric but of arithmetic and will. The Senate had changed, and with it, the country.
The graves of a Catholic woman and her Protestant husband, who were not allowed to be buried together because of their differing faiths. Netherlands, 1888.
In 1920 in England, Mary Ann Bevan entered the “ Ugliest Woman in the World ” contest after developing acromegaly and losing her husband, doing it simply to put food on the table for her kids
Mary Ann Bevan was born in England in 1874 and worked as a nurse before developing acromegaly, a hormonal disorder that causes abnormal growth of bones and facial features. After her husband died in 1914, she was left to raise their four children on her own. As her condition progressed, it became difficult for her to find stable employment.
In 1920, she entered and won a contest known as the “Ugliest Woman in the World.” The publicity led to work in sideshows, including appearances with Barnum and Bailey in the United States. The income from this work allowed her to financially support her children during a time when there were limited social services or employment opportunities available to her.
General MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito (1945)
A young Native-American mother and child, train station c. 1930.
Little girl stares towards the hands of a woman preparing the polio vaccine, 1955.
A US soldier rests in what used to be Saddam’s chair under a painting of Uday playing with a tiger, watched by his parents Saddam and Sajeda, April 2003.
Soviet soldiers liberate prisoners of the Auschwitz concentration camp, Poland, 1945
Firefighters struggle to extinguish the Reichstag fire, Berlin, February 27, 1933.
Sgt. Herbert Lehr delivering the plutonium core for the Gadget in its shock-mounted carrying case to the assembly room in the McDonald Ranch farmhouse, 1945.
Hiroshima before and after the nuclear bomb was dropped, Japan, 1945
Titanic survivors boarding the Carpathia, 1912
Pro-segregation protester at the University with a prop, the same day the first 2 African american students were admited, 20 of January 1961
Bruce Lee with his master Ip Man (1960s)
The photo that illustrates the class divide in pre-war Britain, 1937.
Tsar Nicholas II poses with his wife Alexandra Fedorovna and oldest daughter Olga to present her to Queen Victoria, Balmoral castle, Scotland, September 1896
Nurses show triplets to the father who pass out of emotion. Picture from 1946 in New York , when there was no ultrasound and everything was in the surprise
Joseph Goebbels awards 16-year-old Hitler Youth member Willi Hübner the Iron Cross for the defense of Lauban. March 9, 1945.
Adolf Hitler at age 35 after his release from Landsberg Prison. Weimar Republic, December 20, 1924. This photograph was taken shortly after Hitler finished dictating “Mein Kampf” to Rudolf Hess.
Soldiers of the 137th Infantry Brigade, part of Britains 46th division, after The Battle of St. Quentin Canal on September 29th, 1918.
The truck belonging to “town bully” Ken McElroy after he had been murdered in broad daylight, July the 10th 1981. Despite over 40 witness, nobody admitted to seeing the murder taking place and to this day nobody has been charged.
Yuri Knorozov, the linguist who deciphered the Maya script, 1953. He listed his cat Asya as a co-author on his work but the editors always removed her. He always used this photo with Asya as his author photo and got angry whenever editors cropped her out.
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