On this day: British Troops in France

British soldiers head off to fight in Operation Goodwood in Normandy, France, on the 18th of July, 1944. Second World War.

The offensive took place between the 18th and 20th, and resulted in 3474 British casualties and the loss of 314 British tanks.

From the collection of the Imperial War Museum.

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On this day: Renovations in Cambridge

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King’s College Chapel, Cambridge in England is seen here covered in scaffolding on the 18th of July, 1987.

The chapel, built during the Wars of the Roses, is home to the world’s biggest fan vault, and famous for its stained glass windows.

On this day: the Queen Mother in 1979

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother is seen here at the opening of the new library of the London School of Economics on the 10th of July, 1979.

The library – located in the Lionel Robbins Building – is in the former headquarters of major bookseller WH Smith.

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On this day: Nuclear tests during the Cold War

7th August 1957: The tail of an airship sticks up in the air after it was brought down by a nuclear test in Nevada, USA.

The downing of the (unmanned) ship came at the height of tensions during the Cold War, at a time Russian/Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, infamous for carrying out Stalinist purges in Ukraine, was repeatedly threatening the West with nuclear annihilation.

928 nuclear tests were held at the site in Nevada. The frequent mushroom clouds, seen for miles, became Las Vegas tourist attractions.

On this day: the “Protein Man” in London

Englishman Stanley Green, a self-styled “dietary reform activist” whose mission was to decrease people’s libidos by changing their diets, photographed on Oxford Street in London on the 21st of June, 1974.

On this day: the WTC under construction

New York’s World Trade Center under construction, photographed on the 1st of May, 1971.

On this day: Before the Nuclear Disaster

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The closed nuclear city of Pripyat (При́п’ять), Ukraine is pictured here on the 23rd of April, 1983, three years and three days before the Chernobyl (Chornobyl in Ukrainian) disaster.

At the time of the disaster Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, and the fallout from the event caused great harm to areas of Ukraine and much of Belarus.

Pripyat was evacuated on the 27th of April, 1986, and today stands as a ghost town.