When we think of history, we usually think of periods of time before we ourselves were alive. But seeing as many "modern" historical events were actually a pretty long time ago now, they're perfect specimens for photographic history.
For any NASCAR fan, Dale Earnhardt's death feels like yesterday, but 1991 was 33 years ago. Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s career has come and gone, and NASCAR has undergone safety overhauls to make sure nobody else suffers the same fate as "The Intimidator." Crashing was nothing out of the ordinary for Dale Sr. or any other NASCAR driver, and by the '90s the cars were miles safer than their predecessors. Despite the introduction of the HANS device, (head and neck safety), many drivers felt that things were safe enough, and wearing one wasn't worth the discomfort. Dale was one of them, and like many race car drivers, felt like he was immune to the risks of the sport. He was Dale Earnhardt after all.
His crash, a relatively minor one from the outside for NASCAR standards, was just the wrong impact in the wrong way. And despite evidence of a faulty seat belt after investigation, it is highly likely a HANS device would have made all the difference.
See a photo of that crash and much more in this gallery of 21 historical photographs of people, places, and tech.
1
Dale Earnheat’s fateful crash at the 2001 Daytona 500.
2
British Indian Army soldiers stand next to a supply convoy en route through the Persian corridor to the Soviet Union, 1944.
3
Yeltsin in a tie and sweatpants flies to Chelyabinsk to agitate for himself, 1991.
4
Bill Dickey, New York Yankees catcher, with all his gear, appears ready for a pitch in this portrait taken at the Yankee Stadium, 1930.
6
Aftermath of the 1981 Louisville Sewer Explosions, an industrial accident that destroyed several blocks of city streets and 13 miles of sewer pipelines.
7
U.S. Navy warships in the Hudson River with the New York City skyline in the background for the Navy Day celebrations on 27 Oct 1945.
8
The LZ 129 Hindenburg flies over Lower Manhattan a few hours before its destruction in Lakehurst, NJ May 6, 1937.
9
1939: General Motors and chemical company Rohm & Haas, (which had developed Plexiglas 1933), built a $25,000 "Ghost Car" to highlight the widespread use of shatterproof acrylic glass.
10
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, dances with a Samba dancer at a party at the Town Hall in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 1978.
11
The Elettra, circa 1919. A steam yacht launched in 1904, later owned and converted into a seaborne laboratory by Nobel Prize Winner Guglielmo Marconi.
12
John Howard Griffin posing as a black man in the Deep South as part of an experiment to see life and segregation from the other side of the color line. He later published a book about it titled Black Like Me, 1959.
13
Missionaries in the Belgian Congo are being baptized. August 2, 1925.
14
Turkish Army Captain Süleyman Pulat and his adopted daughter who he named Seul, Korea, 1951.
15
"The Dens of Death," part of the infamous crime-ridden slum in New York City known as the Five Points. 1872.
16
A floating crane places the wreckage of the Pan American Airways Boeing 314 "Yankee Clipper" on a quai at Lisbon, Portugal after it crashed in the River Tagus killing 24 of 39 on board, including actress Tamara Drasin. February 1943.
17
Polish refugees evacuated from the Soviet Union to Iran, 1942.
18
First wave of U.S. forces of the 3rd Battalion, 132nd Infantry on Talisay Beach, Cebu, March 26, 1945.
19
Fire on two old river steamers "Casca" and "Whitehorse." Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, June 20th 1974.
20
US Navy TBF-1 Avenger on the elevator of the carrier USS Long Island, in 1942.
21
Ernest Hemingway on safari in Kenya with his 4th wife Mary in 1953. Soon after this the two would survive a pair of plane crashes in the span of just two days.
