10 Normal Looking Pictures With Shocking History Behind Them

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Some photos look completely ordinary at first glance—until you realize they were taken just moments before history was made. 📸⚡  In this video, we’re uncovering 10 Normal Looking Photos Taken Moments Before Historic Events. From pictures snapped before disasters, tragedies, and iconic moments, these images remind us how quickly life can change.  Each photo has a story—sometimes chilling, sometimes tragic, but always unforgettable.  👉 Don’t forget to LIKE 👍, COMMENT 💬, and SUBSCRIBE 🔔 for more powerful history countdowns, shocking photos, and stories you won’t believe!

Transcript

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

00:13before a major moment in history. Few understood what was happening back then

00:18as they watched the lethal torrent of water roar in.

00:23Boarding the Challenger. On January 28th, 1986, the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded

00:29just over a minute after launching. Cold, but sparkling clear morning at Cape Canaveral.

00:34Here at the last seconds of the countdown. Three, two, one, and liftoff.

00:40The horrific event was broadcast live on every major news network around the country,

00:44and many kids were watching in school. The disaster was caused by an O-ring seal failure

00:50brought on by the unusually cold temperatures, which engineers had tried to warn NASA about.

00:55We 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

01:04to 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,

01:15Krista McAuliffe, Ellison Onizuka, and Gregory Jarvis.

01:18It was the last time they would be seen alive.

01:21Space 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. These young men were on their way from their home country of

01:40Uruguay to play a rugby match in Chile when this photo was taken in 1972.

01:44We're going to fly over the Andes, play this exhibition. It was going to be fun,

01:50low pressure, just a vacation for all the boys. They 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. The survivors spent 72 unimaginable days in the snow and freezing

02:17temperatures at 12,000 feet above sea level, and 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. From under the wing of a Boeing 747, passengers can be seen

02:35boarding a similar plane in the distance. These are KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736,

02:42and 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 Island Separatist Movement had set off a bomb

02:55at Gran Canaria Airport, forcing multiple flights to be diverted to the much smaller Los Rodeos Airport.

03:01Due to a combination of poor communication and dense fog, the Pan Am Flight was still on the runway

03:07when the KLM Flight attempted to take off. As they taxi, they listen to the tower controller tell

03:13the KLM crew ahead of them what to do after departure. And the two massive airliners collided.

03:19A shocking 583 people were killed, making it the worst aviation disaster in history.

03:24A father and son on Market Street. This 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.

04:06The 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.

04:32Most 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 Jokhar Tsarnaev,

04:44a pair of brothers from Kyrgyzstan who planted two homemade pressure cooker bombs

04:49not 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,

04:59it'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.

05:08This 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

05:23and shot John Lennon.

05:28Mark David Chapman had flown from his home state of Hawaii to New York two days prior.

05:32He 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,

05:43having no idea of the significance it would later hold.

05:46That evening, just before 11pm, Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono returned home.

05:51As they walked from their limo to the building's entrance,

05:54Chapman 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

06:09to 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 Khao Lak.

06:21A large wave is visible far in the distance,

06:24but 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,

06:31one of the largest ever recorded.

06:32Few understood what was happening back then,

06:35as 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.

06:54It was just, everything was destroyed.

06:56There was cars, there was water, there was just...

06:58College students dance in Tiananmen Square.

07:01No one knows how many people have died in the crackdown.

07:04We may never know.

07:05For a month and a half in the summer of 1989,

07:08students 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.

07:28Finally, on June 4th, the military moved in and started a violent conflict with protesters.

07:33They shoot at students and residents along their way.

07:37Noise of gunfire is heard throughout the night.

07:40No one knows for sure how many people were killed,

07:43but estimates range from a few hundred to several thousand.

07:46This photo shows a pair of young students dancing joyfully on May 22nd,

07:51unbothered by the declaration of martial law and unaware of what's coming in just a few days.

07:57Enola Gay.

07:58If you don't know the history behind this photo, it looks innocent enough.

08:02But when you realize this is Colonel Paul Tibbetts,

08:04waving from the plane that would drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan,

08:08the 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

08:20or counting or doing something.

08:23It was taken just before Tibbetts and 11 other men

08:26took off from the northern Mariana Islands with their deadly payload on August 6th, 1945.

08:32Reportedly, as Tibbetts prepared to taxi down the runway,

08:35he 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.

08:53Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel

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09:03If you're on your phone, make sure you go into settings and switch on your notifications.

09:08A 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,

09:21just 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,

09:47and 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.

09:55My thanks 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.

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