24 Famous Photos' Eyebrow-Arching Backstories

With the help of master photo manipulator AuntieMeme, we did a little digging on some history's most iconic photos to give you the real story behind the image.
24 Famous Photos' Eyebrow-Arching Backstories

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but really those words only usually come about when liberal arts teachers have run out hundred-years old poetry to bore their students with. Thankfully, though, the real "thousand words" behind a photo are much more interesting than what any aspiring "next great haiku writer" could come up with.

With the help of master photo manipulator AuntieMeme, we did a little digging on some history's most iconic photos to give you the real story behind the image.

The newspaper it was taken for didn't use this photo of Che Guevara. It was taken at a 1960 memorial service by photographer Alberto Korda, but Revolu
The scene from your Windows XP desktop is a real place. Photographer Chuck O'Rear was driving through Napa when he pulled over and took a couple of ph
The fan getting John Lennon's autograph in this photo is his assassin. In this photo by Paul Goresh, Lennon autographs a copy of Double Fantasy for
ARNNE intone Bad Goes O11 Al Luck APOCALYPSE Brian was just being a goof. TAG GETS HYPOTHERMIA GETS HIT BY A CAR. JUSTIN BIEBER SEES A BRIGHT LIGHT DI
Only one person died in this train wreck. Despite the fact that the train carried more than a hundred passengers and plowed through a train station, o
Ever wonder why Nixon met with Elvis? ST The King of Rock and Roll showed up at the White House asking to be made a Federal Agent at Large, to help
The White guy in this photo was blacklisted from being in the Olympics. That's Australian Peter Norman at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. Despite the fact t
This was nearly a photo of exploding ducks. Dali: I know what the picture should be ... We take a duck and put some dynamite in its derriere. When th
Presenting: The Shark Juggler! Ok, so he's not juggling sharks. But he did paralyze that shark with his bare hands. This is marine photographer Michae
This soldier's helmet wasn't kidding. HELL IS WaR This is Larry Wayne Chaffin, photographed as he served in Vietnam in 1965. He'd scrawled WAR IS HELL
This car didn't crash into this tree. Car enthusiast Mark Madson used a crane to put it up there for his son to use as a treehouse. CRACKED COM http:/
Pictured: Bob Jackson's second chance to photograph Lee Harvey Oswald with a gun. The first was two days earlier, when he was following the presidenti
President Carter's official portrait was the first one that was a photograph, rather than a painting. It was taken by Ansel Adams, the photographer fa
Even when surrounded by Nazis, one man refused to salute. That's August Landmesser at the launch of a German army vessel in 1936, a ceremony that was
The starving family in this photo didn't receive a dime. Dorothea Lange took this photo of Florence Owens in 1936, and it became the defining image of
This photo is hiding an iconic first. STo This image appears to be the first instance of a person flipping a bird to the camera. Doing the honors: Ol
This was a scary moment for Hank Aaron. 15 22 EC CE C RF 11 Turns out 17-year-olds Britt Gaston and Cliff Courtenay wanted to pat Hank Aaron on the ba
Game over, man. FYnouw This photo of a happy crowd gathering to see JFK in Texas on the day he was assassinated contains a surprising cameo. The littl
This photo may have ended Marilyn's marriage. 8 Marilyn Monroe playfully posed for a series of photos while filming The Seven Year Itch in 1952. Then-
The photo of LBJ being sworn in almost didn't happen. Cecil Stoughton was the only photographer on the plane when Johnson was inaugurated, and his cam
Despite the grimace on his face, Ronald Reagan had not yet been shot in this picture. Or even here, when Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy (right) was
Ever wonder what Frank Sinatra was arrested for? 56 30 S'0 6 40: 3 3'0 2'6 COUNTY BERGEN OFFICE SHERIFF'S 11 27 38 42799 Young Blue Eyes was arrested
Albert Einstein loved this photo. Photographer Arthur Sasse asked Einstein to smile for his birthday in 1951, and this was his reaction. Einstein like
This is a photo of every human being alive in 1969 except for Michael Collins. Collins was the command module pilot for Apollo 11, and he took this ph

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