10 Normal Looking Photos Taken Moments Before Historic Events

10 Normal-Looking Photos Taken Moments Before Historic Events

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the images captured just before a major moment in history.

Boarding the Challenger

On January 28, 1986, the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded just over a minute after launching. The horrific event was broadcast live on every major news network around the country, and many kids were watching in school. The disaster was caused by an O-ring seal failure brought on by the unusually cold temperatures – which engineers had tried to warn NASA about. This photo shows the happy crew on their way to the launch pad – Commander Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Michael J. Smith, Christa McAuliffe, Ellison Onizuka, and Gregory Jarvis. It was the last time they would be seen alive.

Uruguayan Rugby Team on Flight 571

These young men were on their way from their home country of Uruguay to play a rugby match in Chile when this photo was taken in 1972. Just a short time later, their plane would crash high up in the remote Andes mountains of Argentina, killing 12 of the 45 passengers and crew on board. Five more died from their injuries during the first night after the crash. In fact, only 16 people who were on the plane would make it off the mountain alive, including 7 rugby players. The survivors spent 72 unimaginable days in the snow and freezing temperatures at 12,000 feet above sea level, and all of them eventually resorted to cannibalism.

On the Runway at Los Rodeos Airport

From under the wing of a Boeing 747, passengers can be seen boarding a similar plane in the distance. These are KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736, and neither of them was supposed to be at this airport. But earlier in the day, members of the Spanish Canary Islands separatist movement had set off a bomb at Gran Canaria Airport, forcing multiple flights to be diverted to the much smaller Los Rodeos Airport. Due to a combination of poor communication and dense fog, the Pan Am flight was still on the runway when the KLM flight attempted to take off, and the two massive airliners collided. A shocking 583 people were killed, making it the worst aviation disaster in history.

A Father & Son on Market Street

This family appears to be enjoying a day out on the town, but they have no idea that there’s a bomb in the car parked next to them. Northern Ireland was plagued by violence throughout the second half of the 20th century. The Omagh bombing, which took place on August 15, 1998, was one of the deadliest incidents during the Troubles. The bomb was planted by members of an IRA splinter group who ignored the ceasefire that had been signed four months earlier. The tragedy killed 29 people and injured more than 200 others, devastating the town of Omagh and all of Northern Ireland. This photo was recovered from a camera found in the debris.

At the Finish Line of the Boston Marathon

Most of the spectators in this photo are looking eagerly toward the approaching runners, probably hoping to spot their friend or loved one. But two men are looking in the opposite direction. That’s Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a pair of brothers from Kyrgyzstan who planted two homemade pressure cooker bombs not far from where they’re standing. Considering that over 23,000 people participated in the race, and thousands more were there to watch, it’s amazing that only three were killed. But hundreds more were injured, and 16 people lost at least one limb.

John Lennon Signs an Autograph

This isn’t just a photo of Lennon taken six hours before he was shot. The man in the background is actually his killer. Mark David Chapman had flown from his home state of Hawaii to New York two days prior. He met Lennon outside his apartment building at around 5 in the afternoon and asked for his autograph on a copy of Lennon’s latest album. Amateur photographer Paul Goresh snapped this photo, having no idea of the significance it would later hold. That evening, just before 11 p.m., Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono returned home. As they walked from their limo to the building’s entrance, Chapman shot Lennon five times in the back.

A Day on the Beach in Thailand

Canadians John and Jackie Knill traveled to Thailand often to enjoy its beautiful beaches and gorgeous scenery. They decided to spend Christmas there in 2004, and on December 26, they snapped this photo of some fellow vacationers swimming in Khao Lak. A large wave is visible far in the distance, but the Knills had no way of knowing that it was a tsunami. It formed after an underwater earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia, one of the largest ever recorded. By the time the wave hit the shore, it had reached 80 to 100 feet tall. The tsunami killed nearly 228,000 people, including the Knills. A month later, an American missionary found their camera on the beach and recovered these photos.

College Students Dance in Tiananmen Square

For a month and a half in the summer of 1989, students and other protestors occupied Tiananmen Square in Beijing, demanding government reform and protection of their rights. Thousands participated, and they quickly became a thorn in the side of Chinese authorities. They declared martial law on May 20, but that didn’t stop the demonstrators. Finally, on June 4, the military moved in and started a violent conflict with protestors. No one knows for sure how many people were killed, but estimates range from a few hundred to several thousand. This photo shows a pair of young students dancing joyfully on May 22, unbothered by the declaration of martial law and unaware of what’s coming in just a few days.

Enola Gay

If you don’t know the history behind this photo, it looks innocent enough. But when you realize this is Colonel Paul Tibbets waving from the plane that would drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, the image is much more chilling. It was taken just before Tibbets and 11 other men took off from the Northern Mariana Islands with their deadly payload on August 6, 1945. Reportedly, as Tibbets prepared to taxi down the runway, he waved for the camera at the request of a photographer. Still, he looks bizarrely cheerful for a man about to drop a bomb on hundreds of thousands of civilians.

A Parade in Dallas

If you went to school in the United States, you’ve almost certainly seen this image before. It was taken as President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade made its way through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, just minutes before he was killed. The news rocked the nation, and the details of the crime are still being dissected today. Shockingly, less than two years after JFK’s death, his younger brother Robert was also assassinated. RFK had just won the presidential primaries in California and South Dakota, and was addressing his supporters in the wee hours of the morning on June 5, 1968. This photo was snapped moments before he was shot.

Which of these photos did you find the most disturbing? Let us know in the comments below.