- 5 months ago
History captured in its final peaceful moments... Join us as we examine seemingly ordinary photographs taken just before they became part of tragic historical events. These innocent snapshots, frozen in time, reveal nothing of the catastrophes that would follow mere minutes or hours later. Which image do you find most haunting?
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NewsTranscript
00:00There has been an attempt, as perhaps you know now, on the life of President Kennedy.
00:04He was wounded in an automobile driving from Dallas Airport into downtown Dallas.
00:08Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the images captured just before a major moment in history.
00:15Few understood what was happening back then as they watched the lethal torrent of water roar in.
00:23Boarding the Challenger
00:24On January 28, 1986, the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded just over a minute after launching.
00:31Cold, but sparkling clear morning at Cape Canaveral. Here at the last seconds of the countdown.
00:36Three, two, one, and lift off.
00:40The horrific event was broadcast live on every major news network around the country, and many kids were watching in school.
00:46The disaster was caused by an O-ring seal failure brought on by the unusually cold temperatures,
00:52which engineers had tried to warn NASA about.
00:56We have a report from the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded.
01:00Flight director confirms that. We are looking at checking with the recovery forces to see what can be done at this point.
01:07This photo shows the happy crew on their way to the launch pad.
01:10Commander Dick Scobie, Judith Resnick, Ronald McNair, Michael J. Smith, Krista McAuliffe, Ellison Onizuka, and Gregory Jarvis.
01:19It was the last time they would be seen alive.
01:21The space program experienced a national tragedy with the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger
01:29approximately a minute and a half after launch from here at the Kennedy Space Center.
01:34Uruguayan rugby team on Flight 571.
01:37These young men were on their way from their home country of Uruguay to play a rugby match in Chile
01:42when this photo was taken in 1972.
01:45We're going to fly over the Andes, play this exhibition.
01:48It was going to be fun, low pressure, just a vacation for all the boys.
01:52They were really excited about it.
01:54Just a short time later, their plane would crash high up in the remote Andes Mountains of Argentina,
01:59killing 12 of the 45 passengers and crew on board.
02:02Five more died from their injuries during the first night after the crash.
02:07In fact, only 16 people who were on the plane would make it off the mountain alive,
02:11including seven rugby players.
02:13The survivors spent 72 unimaginable days in the snow and freezing temperatures at 12,000 feet above sea level,
02:20and all of them eventually resorted to cannibalism.
02:23But my body, when I started doing it, it refused. It was very difficult.
02:29On the runway at Los Rodeos Airport.
02:32From under the wing of a Boeing 747, passengers can be seen boarding a similar plane in the distance.
02:38These are KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736, and neither of them was supposed to be at this airport.
02:45Los Rodeos Airport on the Spanish island of Tenerife is busier than it's ever been.
02:50But earlier in the day, members of the Spanish Canary Islands Separatist Movement had set off a bomb at Gran Canaria Airport,
02:57forcing multiple flights to be diverted to the much smaller Los Rodeos Airport.
03:02Due to a combination of poor communication and dense fog,
03:05the Pan Am Flight was still on the runway when the KLM flight attempted to take off.
03:09As they taxi, they listen to the tower controller tell the KLM crew ahead of them what to do after departure.
03:16And the two massive airliners collided.
03:19A shocking 583 people were killed, making it the worst aviation disaster in history.
03:24He had lifted off the runway. I could see his rotating beacon underneath.
03:29A father and son on Market Street.
03:32This family appears to be enjoying a day out on the town,
03:35but they have no idea that there's a bomb in the car parked next to them.
03:39Most of the dissident groups have been operating in different parts of Northern Ireland,
03:42and we never expected a bomb in OMA.
03:45I just think I'm numbed, I'm saddened.
03:48Northern Ireland was plagued by violence throughout the second half of the 20th century.
03:52The OMA bombing, which took place on August 15th, 1998,
03:56was one of the deadliest incidents during the Troubles.
03:59The bomb was planted by members of an IRA splinter group
04:02who ignored the ceasefire that had been signed four months earlier.
04:05The dissident Republican group, calling itself the real IRA, planted the bomb.
04:10The group, which supports the 32-county sovereignty committee,
04:13is believed to have less than 100 members.
04:16The tragedy killed 29 people and injured more than 200 others,
04:20devastating the town of OMA and all of Northern Ireland.
04:24This photo was recovered from a camera found in the debris.
04:27My heart is just broken.
04:30At the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
04:33Most of the spectators in this photo are looking eagerly toward the approaching runners,
04:37probably hoping to spot their friend or loved one.
04:39But two men are looking in the opposite direction.
04:42That's Tamerlan and Jokar Tsarnaev,
04:45a pair of brothers from Kyrgyzstan,
04:46who planted two homemade pressure cooker bombs not far from where they're standing.
04:51Make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this.
04:54Considering that over 23,000 people participated in the race,
04:57and thousands more were there to watch, it's amazing that only three were killed.
05:02But hundreds more were injured, and 16 people lost at least one limb.
05:07John Lennon signs an autograph.
05:09This isn't just a photo of Lennon taken six hours before he was shot.
05:14The man in the background is actually his killer.
05:16In a combat stance, he emptied the Charter Arms .38 caliber gun that he had with him and shot John Lennon.
05:27Mark David Chapman had flown from his home state of Hawaii to New York two days prior.
05:33He met Lennon outside his apartment building at around five in the afternoon
05:36and asked for his autograph on a copy of Lennon's latest album.
05:40Amateur photographer Paul Goresh snapped this photo, having no idea of the significance it would later hold.
05:46That evening, just before 11 p.m., Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono returned home.
05:51As they walked from their limo to the building's entrance, Chapman shot Lennon five times in the back.
05:57They stepped out of the limousine, and they went inside the gate,
06:00and then all of a sudden they heard five, six shots, and that was it.
06:03A day on the beach in Thailand
06:05Canadians John and Jackie Nill traveled to Thailand often to enjoy its beautiful beaches and gorgeous scenery.
06:12They decided to spend Christmas there in 2004,
06:15and on December 26th, they snapped this photo of some fellow vacationers swimming in Kowalak.
06:21A large wave is visible far in the distance, but the Nills had no way of knowing that it was a tsunami.
06:27It formed after an underwater earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia, one of the largest ever recorded.
06:32Few understood what was happening back then, as they watched the lethal torrent of water roar in.
06:39By the time the wave hit shore, it had reached 80 to 100 feet tall.
06:43The tsunami killed nearly 228,000 people, including the Nills.
06:47A month later, an American missionary found their camera on the beach and recovered these photos.
06:53It was like a bomb. It was just, everything was destroyed. There was cars, there was water, there was just...
06:58College students dance in Tiananmen Square.
07:00No one knows how many people have died in the crackdown. We may never know.
07:05For a month and a half in the summer of 1989, students and other protesters occupied Tiananmen Square in Beijing,
07:12demanding government reform and protection of their rights.
07:15Thousands participated, and they quickly became a thorn in the side of Chinese authorities.
07:20Mid-May, a month in, and things begin to get complicated.
07:23They declared martial law on May 20th, but that didn't stop the demonstrators.
07:27Finally, on June 4th, the military moved in and started a violent conflict with protesters.
07:33They shoot at students and residents along their way. Noise of gunfire is heard throughout the night.
07:40No one knows for sure how many people were killed, but estimates range from a few hundred to several thousand.
07:46This photo shows a pair of young students dancing joyfully on May 22nd, unbothered by the declaration of martial law and unaware of what's coming in just a few days.
07:56Enola Gaye. If you don't know the history behind this photo, it looks innocent enough.
08:02But when you realize this is Colonel Paul Tibbetts waving from the plane that would drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, the image is much more chilling.
08:10It took about 45 seconds from the time the bomb left the airplane until it exploded.
08:16And I think there wasn't a man in the airplane that wasn't either timing it with his watch or counting or doing something.
08:23It was taken just before Tibbetts and 11 other men took off from the northern Mariana Islands with their deadly payload on August 6th, 1945.
08:31Reportedly, as Tibbetts prepared to taxi down the runway, he waved for the camera at the request of a photographer.
08:38Still, he looks bizarrely cheerful for a man about to drop a bomb on hundreds of thousands of civilians.
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09:09A parade in Dallas.
09:11If you went to school in the United States, you've almost certainly seen this image before.
09:16It was taken as President John F. Kennedy's motorcade made its way through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, just minutes before he was killed.
09:23There has been an attempt, as perhaps you know now, on the life of President Kennedy.
09:27He was wounded in an automobile driving from Dallas Airport into downtown Dallas.
09:31The news rocked the nation, and the details of the crime are still being dissected today.
09:37Shockingly, less than two years after JFK's death, his younger brother Robert was also assassinated.
09:42RFK had just won the presidential primaries in Carolina and South Dakota,
09:46and was addressing his supporters in the wee hours of the morning on June 5th, 1968.
09:52This photo was snapped moments before he was shot.
09:55Thanks to all of you, and now it's on to Chicago, and let's win there.
10:00Which of these photos did you find the most disturbing?
10:03Let us know in the comments below.
10:05People are still seeking the truth,
10:07and the effort to hold those accountable for the bloody crackdown continues.
10:10We'll see you next time.
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