Did you know that in the 1980s, there was a chimp at the Belgrade Zoo that escaped not once but twice? His name was Sami, and he became famous in 1988 when a photographer snapped a picture of him and the zoo director, Vukosav Bojovic, “conversing” on the roof. Bojovic attempted to coax the animal to come back, resulting in a pretty sweet moment.
This story is still circulating online thanks to the online community r/Historycord. In fact, the members of the subreddit share fascinating historical photographs all the time, making it a real treasure trove for seasoned history buffs. Bored Panda would like to take you on a journey through time with the help of r/Historycord. So, Pandas, scroll down and see what other interesting things you might learn today!
More info: Reddit
#1 Life In Little Italy, New York, Early 1900s
Image source: EducationAny7740
#2 A Man Begs His Wife’s Forgiveness Inside A Divorce Court. Chicago, 1948
Image source: EveRosamund
#3 Family Portrait Taken 118 Years Ago. February 13, 1905
Image source: UrbanAchievers6371
So, what happened to Sami the chimpanzee? During his first escape, Mr. Bojovic took Sami by the hand, put him in his car, and drove him back to the zoo. The chimp had made it to Students’ Square. His second attempt at an escape didn’t end that peacefully – the zookeepers had to use tranquilizer darts.
Sadly, Sami passed away in 1992, and he lived in Belgrade Zoo for a total of four years from 1988. In 1996, the Zoo erected a sculpture in honor of Sami, which still stands there to this day. Newspapers referred to Sami as a “dissident,” as many Yugoslavians found his captures and detention at the Zoo poetically similar to their own lives under communism.
#4 Ho Chi Minh, Then Known As Nguyen AI Quoc, In France In 1919 To Advocate For The Independence Of Vietnam
Image source: TheCitizenXane
#5 1955.”the One I Marry” Teenagers Are Asked Their Preferences About A Future Spouse
Image source: CryptographerKey2847
#6 Informal Photo Queen Elizabeth IL Shortly After Giving Birth To Prince Edward, 1964
Image source: CryptographerKey2847
The 1948 photo of a man begging his wife not to divorce him is a real piece of history. It started making the rounds on Reddit in 2024, but the historian who uncovered this photo, Jeff Nichols, talked to Business Insider about it. The couple in the photograph is Steve and Anna Strack. Anna was the one who filed for divorce, citing “habitual drunkenness” as the reason.
In those times, spouses had to give the court a considerable reason for going through with the divorce. Yet, in Chicago, divorces were pretty common. According to Nichols’s research, the apparently lax divorce laws were a regional joke, prompting people to make jokes such as: “Oh, people in Chicago just get divorced as a problem to have.”
Anna Strack also talked with the Chicago Tribune about her divorce at the time, since the photo was printed in the publication. She told them that she would think over her decision. However, the 1950 census showed them as a divorced couple, and Anna lived with her parents and their 4-year-old son and worked as a packer at a gum factory.
#7 When Dad Tried Doing Mom’s Work For A Weekend: A 1956 Life Photo Essay
Image source: CryptographerKey2847
#8 Frederick Douglass And Wife Helen Pitts At Niagara Falls, 1884
Image source: Electrical-Aspect-13
#9 Circus Worker, Ethel Hart, Showing Off Her Back, Circa 1940s
Image source: Electrical-Aspect-13
Some say that the photograph of Frederick Douglass with his wife, Helen Pitts, at Niagara Falls was taken during their honeymoon. We can’t tell exactly, but we know that their marriage was quite controversial back in the day. Helen was the second wife of Frederick Douglass, the first one being Anna Murray Douglass for 40 years.
After her passing, Douglass fell into a deep depression. Helen is said to have helped him regain his good spirits. However, Douglass’s kids opposed the marriage, and Helen’s family didn’t like her marrying a Black man. The public didn’t react favorably, either: some accused Douglass of “forgetting his cause” by marrying a white woman; others denounced the 21-year age gap between the spouses.
#10 Chinese American With A Note That Says He Is Chinese, Not Japanese, To Avoid Harrasment At Work, 1940s
Image source: Electrical-Aspect-13
#11 Photo Of A German Mother Crying After Finding Out Her Captured Son Didn’t Survive In Soviet Union Pow Camps. (1955)
Image source: FayannG
#12 Arabs And Jews Picking Oranges Together In Jaffa, C. 1910
Image source: TheCitizenXane
A piece of history that people deserve to know is about the Black women who served in the U.S. military during WWII. We might think that most of them were nurses, but there was an all-Black female unit stationed overseas. The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion was created to deal with the postal worker shortage. They sorted millions of letters and packages that families sent to their loved ones on the war front. In 2022, the former members of the battalion received Congressional Gold Medals.
#13 Negotiations Between The Zoo Director And Escaped Chimpanzee. Belgrade, 1988
Image source: ChocoBeautiful
#14 Man Looking For A Job During The Great Depression. 1934
Image source: waffen123
#15 Maid Makes The Braids For The Daughter Of Her Employers, February Of 1956
Image source: Electrical-Aspect-13
We all should be so lucky to live until 100 years old. Jeanne Calment was even luckier: she lived until 122. She was born in 1875 in France and passed away in 1997. A Russian mathematician, Nikolay Zak, suggested that Calment actually met her maker earlier and that her age record is actually fake.
#16 The First Years After The War. Life In Italy In The Late 40s – Early 50s
Image source: EducationAny7740
#17 Selfie Of A Yugoslav Partisan Couple, Still In Uniform, On Their Wedding Day, April 1945
Image source: FayannG
#18 Korean War Marine With His Kitten. The Marine Died On January,2018
Image source: Ok-Inspector-1756
According to Zak, Calment passed away in 1934, and the woman everyone thought was Jeanne was actually her daughter, Yvonne. That’s why he posited that her grandson called her “maman” and lived with her supposed son-in-law. Zak argued that Yvonne chose to pretend to be her mother to avoid paying inheritance taxes and to have a roof over her head permanently.
#19 The Excess Of 1980s England – As Seen Through The Eyes Of Society Photographer Dafydd Jones
Image source: TheThrowYardsAway
#20 Black Women Serving In World War II
Image source: TheBlackRecord
#21 Us Soldiers Having Some Fun In The Dance Flor Of A Pub In London, England, 1940s
Image source: Electrical-Aspect-13
However, many experts shut down ideas about Calment’s falsified age. Although they admit that a person living until 122 is extremely unlikely from a biological standpoint, they note that perhaps too much had to be faked in Jeanne’s case. “Any deception on Madame Calment’s part would have required extraordinary prescience and the connivance of surviving relatives and we should banish such thoughts from our minds,” gerontologist Tom Kirkwood wrote in his 1991 book, “Could she be a fraud?”
#22 Jeanne Calment, The Longest-Living Confirmed Person In History, At Age 20, 1895
Image source: GustavoistSoldier
#23 Masks Showing Different Stages In The Work Done By Mrs. Anna Coleman Ladd Of The American Red Cross For Soldiers Whose Faces Have Been Mutilated In World War I. August 1918, Paris, France. [812×575]
Image source: UrbanAchievers6371
#24 In November 1990, Life Magazine Published A Photo Of David Kirby Being Comforted By His Father As He Was Dying. The Photo Is Considered To Have Changed The Face Of Aids
Image source: Brounseoir
Have you learned anything new about history today, Pandas? Let us know which stories and photographs captured your attention and interest the most. And if you’re in the mood for more photos from r/Historycord, check out our previous listicle right here or see these captivating photographs from “Undiscovered History”!
#25 60 Yr Old And His Family Of 3. 1946, Kentucky
Image source: GustavoistSoldier
#26 Princess Alexandrine Irene Of Prussia (1915 – 1980) The Oldest Daughter And Fifth Child Of Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, And Cecilie Of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. She Was Born With Down Syndrome But Adored And Never Hidden By Her Family As Was The Custom Of Her Time
Image source: CryptographerKey2847
#27 Ella Fitzgerald Sitting In A Houston Jail Cell After She Was Arrested For Singing To An Integrated Audience, 1955
Image source: icey_sawg0034
#28 Adolf Eichmann Walks Around The Yard Of His Cell, Ramla Prison, Isreal, 1961
Image source: NoyaHalabii
#29 Written In 1918 By An Anonymous Suffragette
Image source: CryptographerKey2847
#30 Photos Of Children Who Didn’t Pass The “One Drop” Rule And Were Slaves, Eventually Emancipated In New Orleans, From Harper’s Weekly, 30 Of January Of 1864
Image source: Electrical-Aspect-13
#31 A Meccan Merchant And His Circassian Slave. Picture Taken In Mecca Between 1887 And 1888
Image source: GustavoistSoldier
#32 The Peoples Of The Russian Empire In Photographs By Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky, One Of The Pioneers Of Color Photography
Image source: EducationAny7740
#33 Japanese-American Family, Saitama, Japan, 1947
Image source: Electrical-Aspect-13
#34 Case Report Of Brooklyn Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Children 1903-04
Image source: CryptographerKey2847
#35 Amanda America Dickson, Born To A 13-Year-Old Enslaved Girl And Her 40-Year-Old Slave Master. She Would Become One Of The Wealthiest Women In Georgia After Her Father Left Her His Entire Estate At His Death
Image source: Brounseoir
#36 The Platt Family Case :white Family Labeled As Black By White Sheriff In 1955
Image source: CryptographerKey2847
#37 A German Student Taking Part In A Racial Education Class, Nazi Germany, 1943
Image source: FayannG
#38 Teens Protest The Arrival Of The Horace Baker Family, The First African American Family In All White Delmar Village Folcroft, Pennsylvania, 30 Of August 1963
Image source: Electrical-Aspect-13
#39 Mexican Federal Soldier Says Goodbye To His Daughter At The Train Station Before Going To War, During The Mexican Revolution, 1915
Image source: Electrical-Aspect-13
#40 U.S. Army Nurses Sunbathing Next To A Twin Bofors 40 Mm Gun On A Coast Guard Troop Ship Returning Back To The United States From Europe, 1945
Image source: Lushh_Plushys_
#41 A British Blacksmith On Hms Sphinx Removing The Leg Irons Off A Slave, 1907
Image source: CryptographerKey2847
#42 Tintype Of A Gentlemen Posing With His Daughter, Circa 1870s
Image source: Electrical-Aspect-13
#43 A Polish Woman Holding A Photo Of Her Killed Husband At The Opening Of A Katyn Massacre Memorial In London, 1976
Image source: FayannG
#44 Victims Of Stalin’s Famine. Holodomor, Kharkiv 1933
Image source: reddit.com
#45 The Most Decorated Unit Of World War II…the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Made Up Of Japanese Americans Fought In The Naples-Foggia Campaign, Rome-Arno Campaign, Rhineland – 21 Medals Of Honor – 52 Distinguished Service Cross – 560 Silver Stars – Over 4000 Bronze Stars – Over 4000 Purple Hearts
Image source: waffen123
#46 Young Iranian Woman Handing Out Anti-Shah Regime Manifesto In Tehran, 1979
Image source: GustavoistSoldier
#47 Us Paratroopers Train Outside Of Panama City During The Us Invasion Of Panama, 1990
Image source: GustavoistSoldier
#48 Young Couple At The Beach. 1931
Image source: blindwatchmaker88
#49 Life On The Greek Islands In The 1960s
Image source: EducationAny7740
#50 Marie Azelie Haydel, The Last Owner Of Whitney Plantation, And One Of Her Enslaved House Girls
Image source: Brounseoir
#51 Flight Deck And Controls Of A B-29 Superfortress. Note The Security Blanket Over The Bomb Sight
Image source: UrbanAchievers6371
#52 Eyes Of Hate Of Joseph Goebbels
Image source: FarPlay5055
#53 Couple During War Time Taking A Photo, Circa 1940s
Image source: Electrical-Aspect-13
#54 Joseph Smith, The Founder Of Mormonism, Preaches To Native Americans On 12 August 1841
Image source: GustavoistSoldier
#55 Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi And His Wife Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi With Their Four Children, 1973
Image source: GustavoistSoldier
#56 Japanese Woman In Her Traditional Clothes, And In Western Fashion, 1930s
Image source: Electrical-Aspect-13
#57 Brigitte Bardot During A Trip To Brazil, 1964
Image source: GustavoistSoldier
#58 Agfachrome Shot Of A Blonde Lady In Norway, 1943
Image source: Electrical-Aspect-13
#59 Nationalist Chinese Leader Chiang Kai-Shek With His Secret Police Chief Dai Li, 1940s
Image source: GustavoistSoldier
#60 He Washington Naval Treaty Signed In February 6, 1922, Forced Countries To Limit Their Battleships But Ended Up Creating Super Aircraft Carriers Instead Such As The Uss Lexington
Image source: AMegaSoreAss
#61 Soviet Officials Nestor Lakoba, Nikita Khrushchev, Lavrentiy Beria And Aghasi Khanjian During The Opening Of The Moscow Metro In 1936. That Same Year, Beria Killed Lakoba And Khanjian
Image source: GustavoistSoldier
#62 Iranian Reza Shah Pahlavi At His Coronation, 1925
Image source: GustavoistSoldier
#63 Members Of The Austro-Hungarian Upper Class, Including Emperor Franz Joseph I, At A Ball In Vienna In 1900 To Celebrate The Beginning Of A New Century
Image source: GameCraze3
#64 Promotional Photo Of Marilyn Monroe For The Film The Prince And The Showgirl, 1957
Image source: GustavoistSoldier
#65 Princess Anastasia Taking A Selfie(1910)
Image source: Whentheangelsings
