Terry Sawchuk – The Face of a Hockey Goalie Before Masks Became Standard Game Equipment, 1966

Vintage Wonders Aug 19, 2025

Terry Sawchuk is a 36-year-old goalkeeper for the Toronto Maple Leafs. A professional make-up artist and a doctor have recreated some of the more than 400 stitches he got while playing in the National Hockey League for 16 years. Terry Sawchuk’s face was hit many times, although not all at once. His cuts and bruises recovered. The scars were hard…

A Japanese boy standing at attention after having brought his dead younger brother to a cremation pyre, 1945

Vintage Wonders Aug 19, 2025

The U.S. military sent Joe O’Donnell to Nagasaki to take this picture of the damage done to Japan by air raids with firebombs and atomic bombs. He journeyed across Western Japan for the next seven months, starting in September 1945, to document the destruction and show the suffering of the bomb victims, including the dead, the wounded, the homeless, and…

Smart, Beautiful, and Deadly: 19-Year-Old Soviet Sniper Roza Shanina with 59 Confirmed Kills, 1945

Vintage Wonders Aug 19, 2025

During World War II, Roza Shanina was a Soviet sniper who killed fifty-nine people, including twelve soldiers during the Battle of Vilnius. Shanina joined the army after her brother died in 1941 and opted to be a marksman on the front line. Praised for her shooting accuracy, Shanina was capable of precisely hitting enemy personnel and making doublets (two target…

Terry Fox: The Relentless Runner Who Turned His Cancer Battle Into a Movement

Vintage Wonders Aug 18, 2025

Terry Fox was a Canadian athlete, philanthropist, and cancer research champion whose incredible willpower turned a personal tragedy into a national cause. Fox lost his right leg to cancer in 1980 and then set out on a long marathon across the country to raise money and awareness for cancer research. Even though his voyage was cut short, his legacy lives…

Michael Rockefeller’s Strange Disappearance: A Mystery That Still Haunts

Vintage Wonders Aug 18, 2025

Michael Rockefeller, a promising young ethnographer, went missing in the southern coast of New Guinea in November 1961. People were very interested in his disappearance, not just because he was the great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller, one of the richest men in history, but also because of the alarming rumors that came after. He was officially reported dead by drowning,…

This Was What Every Popular Fast-Food Restaurant Looked Like the Day They Opened

Vintage Wonders Aug 13, 2025

There are so many fast-food signage that you can’t ignore them as you drive through any big American metropolis. But these drive-thrus weren’t always a frequent sight at every highway stop. They began off like your neighborhood pizza business, with small beginnings. The early fast-food places were very different from what you see now. A lot of the time, the…

Ann-Margret: Vintage Photos of a 1960s Timeless Beauty Icon

Vintage Wonders Aug 08, 2025

Ann-Margret Olsson, better known as Ann-Margret, became a huge movie star with a unique mix of ability, charm, and beauty. She was born in Sweden and grew up in the US, and her magnetic presence in the entertainment world drew many in. But it wasn’t just her acting skills that made her a legend; it was her many talents as…

The Story of Juliane Koepcke: How a Teenager Survived 11 Days in the Amazon Jungle After a Plane Crash in 1971

Vintage Wonders Aug 05, 2025

Juliane Koepcke, who was only 17 years old at the time, was the only person to survive LANSA Flight 508 on Christmas Eve 1971. The flight was going from Lima, Peru’s capital, to Panguana. After a lightning strike forced the plane to break apart in the air, Juliane fell 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) into the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest while still…

Remembering Belinda Emmett: A Light That Shined Too Briefly, Yet So Brightly

Vintage Wonders Jul 18, 2025

She was more than simply a star on television; she was a strong person off screen.Belinda Emmett stood out in a world of short-lived fame and loud headlines for something much deeper: her quiet strength, her kind heart, and her unbreakable grace in the face of life’s hardest difficulties. She got Australia’s notice as an actress and singer. But as…

Woman Reunites With Nurse Who Cared for Her as Burned Infant

Heartwarming Jul 15, 2025

In 1977, Amanda Scarpinati was a baby with terrible burns. She was dressed in bandages from head to toe and being held by a caring young nurse. She and that nurse were together again on Tuesday. 38-year-old pictures of the two together after the then-infant Scarpinati, who was only 3 months old at the time, rolled off a couch onto…