Aug. 12, 1934: From the Mid-Week Pictorial, a squadron of bombers took part in a simulated air raid on London, “proving that the metropolitan area could not be defended from an attack by aircraft.” Photo: The New York Times
Feb. 14, 1940: Workers at La Guardia Airport fought the elements to hold down a plane as a large storm brought seven inches of snow and winds gusting at 60 miles per hour to New York, hammering the eastern part of the country. Bus services were suspended and a swath of the West Side Highway closed, but the city seemed to prevail in “what appeared to be a winning effort to keep essential services functioning.” Photo: The New York Times
June 9, 1932: The Zeppelin railway coach, or “Lightning Express,” could carry 40 passengers at 100 miles per hour in tests near Hanover, Germany. The caption notes, however, “its ability to take curves remains to be tested.” Photo: The New York Times
Nov. 26, 1939: Oil transported by tank cars. Though oil had been shipped in the United States since the 1860s, dozens of commodities made their way around using tank cars in the 1930s. During World War II, tank cars almost exclusively shipped oil as part of the war effort. Photo: Wood Aerial Surveys
Jan. 28, 1960: The National Defense Reserve Fleet, anchored in the Hudson River at Tompkins Cove and remnants of the massive 5,000-ship fleet that moved troops and equipment during World War II. As reported in a Jan. 31 article, some awaited deployment in the next crisis, some awaited the wrecking crew, and some were used to store the nation’s surplus of grain, saving the government more than $14 million from July 1953 to June 1959. Photo: Eddie Hausner/The New York Times
Aug. 30, 1930: From the Mid-Week Pictorial, the Westward, a vessel competing in the Royal Southampton Regatta off the Isle of Wight, battles stormy seas to defeat King George V’s racing yacht. When the king died in 1936, he asked that his beloved boat follow him to the grave, and it was sunk. Photo: The New York Times
Taken in 1964, this photo of a baby great white shark accompanied a Times Magazine article profiling practitioners of “monster fishing.” It was published in 1973 just before the frenzy stirred by the “Jaws” novel and films, quoting a shark fisherman: “They have more lives than a bag full of cats. They can wake up hours after you think they’ve been dried-out-dead in the sun, and grab your leg for lunch and still be mad enough to want an arm, too.” Photo: The New York Times
Nov. 5, 1922: Lulu McGrath is greeted by a diver in “Wonders of the Sea,” filmed off the Bahamas during the early days of underwater motion pictures. A report the following spring on a project by J.E. Williamson, the film’s director, related the perils of camera work at the time: “Not so very long ago, an intrepid photographer, when attempting to get a picture from an airplane of the crater of Vesuvius, just saved himself from falling into the seething, angry lava. This same cameraman, who is employed by Fox News, had another narrow escape from death in an airplane a few weeks ago. But he is inoculated with the spirit of adventure and keeps going.” Photo: The New York Times
Jan. 20, 1955: With stopwatch in hand, Coach Bob Kiphuth of Yale University was about to time breaststroke swimmers. He was a four-time Olympic leader and Yale’s swimming coach from 1918 to 1959, “considered by many the greatest swimming coach in the history of the sport.” He died in 1967, having been “taken to a hospital after watching Yale beat Army in a swimming meet that afternoon. Death was attributed to a heart attack.” Photo: Neal Boenzi/The New York Times
Aug. 6, 1951: In Flushing Meadows, Queens, Elliot Murphy’s “Aqua-Show” featured, among its many attractions, a water ballet of 26 women in fluorescent bathing suits. Photo: Sam Falk/The New York Times
