President Abraham Lincoln With Son Tad, 1865

 Tad Lincoln was a handful, a rambunctious youth who ran wild in the White House and was known to interrupt his father's meetings. His father spotted this restless quality at birth, giving him the nickname "Tad" because the baby was "as wiggly as a tadpole." Though Tad outlived his father, his life was not long, as he died suddenly in 1871 at the age of 18.

Bob Ross Was Once A Master Sergeant In The Air Force

 We all remember the late Bob Ross as host of the PBS show The Joy of Painting which aired from 1983 to 1994. Ross endeared himself to viewers with his soothing voice, perpetually happy outlook and perfectly spherical perm hairdo. Ross taught us to paint "happy little clouds," and it was impossible not to crack a smile at the sight of this joyful man creating his soothing landscape art. Ross had a whole life before he arrived on PBS -- in fact, he served in the U.S. Air Force for 20 years. He developed his interest in art during his time in the military, attending art classes put on by the USO. It was the '60s and '70s, though, and he disliked his instructors' emphasis on abstract painting -- Ross wanted to paint recognizable landscapes. He finally learned to paint landscapes in the Italian alla prima (also known as "wet on wet") style, and could finish a landscape painting in an hour. He left the Air Force in 1981 at the rank of master sergeant, because he found he could make more money selling his art than he did in Air Force salary. Two years later, his TV show debuted.

Civil War Veteran Jacob Miller Was Shot In The Forehead In The Battle Of Chickamauga, 1863

 Yes, that's a bullet hole in the forehead of Jacob C. Miller, who served as a soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War. A gunshot "between the eyes" is almost always fatal, but somehow Miller survived this wound, which he incurred on Brock Field at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, in the Battle of Chickamauga, 1863. Doctors examining him later were able to see his pulsating brain quite clearly.

When Miller was shot, he crumpled to the ground, and he would later say that he could hear the words of his captain: "It’s no use to remove poor Miller, for he is dead." Miller's own description of what happened next is chilling:

"At last, I became conscious and raised up in a sitting position. Then I began to feel my wound. I found my left eye out of its place and tried to place it back, but I had to move the crushed bone back as together as near together as I could first. Then I got the eye in its proper place. I then bandaged the eye the best I could with my bandana."

After Miller returned to his hometown of Logansport, Indiana, doctors were hesitant to remove the bullet, fearing the patient would die. Ultimately they did remove about a third of it, and more pieces simply fell out decades later.

Istvan Reiner Before He Was Sent To Auschwitz

 This colorized portrait shows a smiling Istvan Reiner, age 4, of Mikolsc, Hungary. The photo was taken in the Jewish ghetto before Istvan was shipped off to the Auschwitz concentration camp, as evidenced by the striped uniform that inmates, even children, were made to wear. The original photo is held by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where a caption explains Istvan's fate. He and his mother Livia

were deported to Auschwitz. Upon arrival other prisoners told Livia to give Istvan to his grandmother and to go through the selection alone. Livia told the SS men that she was four years younger than she really was and was selected for forced labor. She worked in a factory, was in the Allendorf labor camp and later sent on a forced march. She was liberated in either Bergen-Belsen or Mannheim. Istvan, then only four years old, was murdered together with his grandmother.

17-Year-Old Norma Jean Dougherty, 1943

 This is a pretty girl on a beach, but would you pick her out to become Marilyn Monroe? That's what happened to Norma Jeane Dougherty, who was born Norma Jeane Mortenson (but often went by Norma Jeane Baker) and changed her last name when she married James Dougherty. She was 16 when they wed. In this photo, she's standing on the beach at Avalon, Santa Catalina Island, California. Her husband was stationed at the island's boot camp. While her husband was off fighting in the Pacific Teater of World War II, Norma Jeane began modeling -- against his wishes. She signed with an agency that determined her figure was better for pinup and cheesecake modeling than fashion, and she was soon appearing in magazines geared toward a male audience. She straightened her hair and dyed it blonde to make herself more marketable, and she soon proved to be one of the agency's most in-demand models. A couple of screen tests and a name change later, and she was destined for the silver screen.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, the only time they met, while attending a Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1964

 It’s truly wild to think that two of the biggest names in the Civil Rights movement only met one time and that it was at a debate for the very thing they were working for. Both of these giants of Civil Rights would be cut down in their prime, but in 1964 they were still pleased about the progress they achieved in the face of an insurmountable enemy.

King and X were philosophically at odds with one another for many years of their lives, but they both held a deep respect for each other and recognized that they were both fighting for the same thing, just in different ways. Think of what they could have accomplished if they were allowed to truly flourish.

Ambrotype of A British veteran of the Peninsular War and his wife, 1860s

 This couple may look miserable, but think about the conditions that they were under to have a photo taken in the mid 19th century. The process of taking a photo could take forever - even if it only took minutes it was the only photo you’d be taking for a while if not your entire life.

Rather than smile and risk the chance of ruining the photo with the motion of your face or being frozen in time with some weird look forever, subjects tended to sit completely still.

Ambrotypes were black and white, but more often than not people hand tinted them, which just goes to show that we’ve been colorizing photos for quite some time.