This year marks the 50th Anniversary of Operation Homecoming and the return of nearly 600 American prisoners of war from Vietnam. In 1973, Sheppard Air Force Base had the honor of serving as a reception point for Operation Homecoming, helping to welcome home Vietnam POWs after years of captivity.
In April 1968, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. traveled to Memphis, Tennessee to support sanitation workers that were on strike. It was in Memphis on April 3rd that King would give his final speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop." The next day, on the evening of April 4th while at the Lorraine Motel, King was … Continue reading April 1968 Washington, D.C. Riots
With my last blog, I may have inadvertently started a quest to bring Unwritten Record readers the most random finds from the Still Picture holdings. Today, I present to you, Holes. When I began brainstorming for this blog post, it was the first word that popped into my head (most likely due to me hitting … Continue reading Hole World
Happy Valentine’s Day from the Still Picture Branch! This Valentine’s Day, we would like to share a handful of photographs that SERIES-ly warm our hearts.
Political Prisoners in the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, Germany. Local ID: 242-HLB-3609-25 International Holocaust Remembrance Day is commemorated each year on January 27. The United Nations General Assembly designated this day as it is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by Soviet forces. The purpose of International Holocaust Remembrance Day is to serve as … Continue reading International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Mountain Troopers carrying a Ski Cargo Sled (Local ID: 337-TNG-199-1) Found in the heart of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, the peaks and valleys that surrounded Camp Hale forged the elite soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division—the Army’s first and only mountain infantry division. During World War II, the soldiers at Camp Hale trained in mountain … Continue reading Camp Hale, Colorado: Training the 10th Mountain Division During World War II
Photograph of the Chapel at Versailles. Local ID: 286-MP-FRA-02033. National Archives Identifier Number: 19978495. On December 16, 1944, only months after American troops liberated the area surrounding the Palace of Versailles, a wedding ceremony was held in the Chapel of the Palace of Versailles. This year marks the 78th Anniversary of the wedding of M/Sgt. … Continue reading A Wartime Wedding at Versailles
Local Identifier: 342-B-ND-018A-167731USAF; Original Caption: MRBM Field Launch Site, San Cristobal #1, October 14 1962. (This photo provided the first photographic evidence of Soviet offensive missile deployment in Cuba.) The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union in October 1962. The international crisis escalated when American missiles were … Continue reading 60th Anniversary: The Cuban Missile Crisis
On October 14, 1947, USAF Captain Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound. Yeager flew a Bell XS-1, nicknamed "Glamorous Glennis" (a tribute to his wife), over Rogers Dry Lake located at Edward's Air Force Base (formerly named Muroc Air Force Base). The X-1 reached a speed … Continue reading Captain Chuck Yeager: Breaking the Sound Barrier
Queen Elizabeth II (April 21, 1926 – September 8, 2022) served as Queen of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth realms for 70 years up until her death at age 96, making her reign the longest of any British monarch. Here in the Still Picture Branch at the National Archives, we have a handful of photographs within our holdings of the late Queen Elizabeth II and her official travels to the United States.
