Albert Woolson, last surviving Civil War veteran ever, enlisting at 14 and dying at 106 in 1956

 As atrocious as war is, it’s amazing to think that someone who served in the Civil War could be alive into the middle of the 20th century. Doesn’t time just blow your mind? As a teen Woolson enlisted as a drummer boy in Company C, 1st Minnesota Heavy Artillery Regiment on October 10, 1864. He was discharged nearly a year later and spent the rest of his life in Minnesota.

Imagine his wonder at the way life changed from the 19th century to the 20th century. Woolson saw the advent of automobiles, electricity, motion pictures, and even television. When he passed away in 1956 President Dwight D. Eisenhower said:

The American people have lost the last personal link with the Union Army... His passing brings sorrow to the hearts of all of us who cherished the memory of the brave men on both sides of the War Between the States.

 

The raucous October Revolution led by Vladimir Lenin, 1917

 1917 was a year vast change for the Russian people. Revolution took hold of the country and brought an end to centuries of imperial rule, leading to what we now know as the Soviet Union. The country was primed for social upheaval, mass unrest was prepared to boil over and Vladimir Lenin was ready to light the fire.

October of that year saw the Bolshevik Party enact a bloodless coup against Russia’s provisional government. Rather than lead members of the working class into battle Lenin whipped them into a fury before taking over government buildings and occupying strategic places in Petrograd.

It wasn’t long before the world’s first communist government was formed with Lenin at its head.

John F. Kennedy , winner of the Democratic Nomination for Congress in the 11th Massachusetts District, relaxes with his dog on June 22, 1946

 The American people have long held a fascination with John F. Kennedy. Not only because of the sad way his life ended, but because the way that he so well embodied the beliefs of the United States. He was an iconoclast who believed in tradition while leaning into being an individual.

In a speech on July 4, 1946 he said that we shouldn’t forget that as Americans we’re lucky to be born with so many individual rights:

To us, who have been reared in the American tradition, these rights have become part of our very being. They have become so much a part of our being that most of us are prone to feel that they are rights universally recognized and universally exercised. But the sad fact is that this is not true. They were dearly won for us only a few short centuries ago and they were dearly preserved for us in the days just past. And there are large sections of the world today where these rights are denied as a matter of philosophy and as a matter of government.

 

16 year old German soldier crying after being captured by the Allies, 1945

 

This image of Hans-Georg Henke shows not only the pain of war, but the terror that comes with being a soldier. As hardened as battle renders someone, inside they’re frightened that the next mortar shell has their name on it.

16 is far too young to be drafted into battle, but it’s the only thing that Henke could do to take care of his mother. He joined the Luftwaffe when he was 15 and served in the anti-air squad.

Varying stories about Henke claim that he was either upset that he was captured by American forces, or that he was having a panic attack, but either way it’s clear that he was far too young to deal with the enormity of the situation.

Five year old Albert Einstein, 1884

 Born in Germany, Einstein was a math whiz from an early age, proving himself to be heads and tails above students his age and even adults. Less a smarty pants and more of a child savant, Einstein was teaching himself Algebra and Euclid geometry before he was a teenager.

Einstein wasn’t just interested in math. At the same time that he was diving headfirst into the waters of advanced calculus (around the age of 12) he was also becoming interested in philosophy, and he formed the belief that the universe was built on a mathematical foundation.

It’s amazing to think that this young child had so much going on his head, if only he knew what he would really do.

Harriet Tubman's Last Portrait, 1911

 Harriet Tubman was a special kind of person. Not only was she incredibly smart, but she was brave, and knew that she was put on this Earth to make sure every person of color had a chance to live a free life.

After running away from her plantation in 1844 Tubman resolved to return to the south as often as she could in order to help rescue anyone who was brave enough to ride with her, even when she had a $40,000 reward on her head. All in all she made 19 trips to slave country 1860, making her one of the most important figures of the civil war.

Following the war she settled down in Auburn, New York, where she spent the rest of her life. She passed away in 1913 at the age of 93.

Berlin 1961, Escape to the West

 When the Berlin Wall went up, splitting east and west Germany, it felt as if the country would never come back together. Border police like the man stationed here were tasked with taking out anyone who attempted to escape to the west, but that just made the border police themselves want to escape.

On August 15, 1961, 19 year old Conrad Schumann put a plan worthy of the cinema into action. After contacting the police in West Germany he arranged for a car to wait for him on the other side of the barbed wire fence he was guarding. At 4 p.m. he jumped the fence and barreled into the car, by the time the other guards turned around he was already gone.

Schumann spent the rest of 1961 in a refugee center before moving to Bavaria. His story inspired so many of those in East Berlin to seek their own freedom.