Jackie Chan singing at the benefit concert in Hong Kong, in support of Tiananmen Square protesters, 1989Dale Schroeder was a simple, humble man from Iowa, who ended up changing the lives of 33 people forever. Schroeder worked as a carpenter at the same company for 67 years. He grew up poor and had no wife or children of his own. His friend Steve Nielsen described Schroeder as a “blue collar, lunch pail kind of guy.” “Went to work every day. Worked really hard. Was frugal. Like a lot of Iowans,” Nielsen told CBS Des Moines affiliate KCCI-TV. When he died in 2005, no one could have guessed how rich Schroeder really was. “He had church jeans and work jeans,” Nielsen said. Schroeder had saved up a fortune over the years. He had no living descendants, so before he died, he went to his lawyer with a plan for his money. “He said, ‘I never got the opportunity to go to college. So, I’d like to help kids go to college,'” Nielsen said. Not only did Schroeder have enough money to send a few kids to college, he had enough saved to send dozens. Dale sent 33 kids to college.In 1969, during a period when African Americans were often barred from sharing swimming pools with white people, Mr. Rogers chose to invite Officer Clemmons to cool his feet in a pool with him, challenging a widely recognized racial segregation norm.In 1973, Marlon Brando declined his Oscar award for ‘The Godfather’ to enable Sacheen Littlefeather to speak out against Hollywood’s depiction of Native Americans.A Serbian soldier is seen resting with his father, who visited him at the front line near Belgrade, around 1914/1915. The “Happiest Man in China,” photographed in 1901 by British anthropologists who aimed to document Chinese life. Unaware that photographs were considered a formal affair, the Chinese subjects chose to express themselves playfully, leading to the lively pose and smile captured in the image.A French child greets Indian soldiers upon their arrival in France to join forces with the French and British military during WWI. September 30th, 1914.Princess Diana shakes hands with an AIDS patient without gloves in a time this was very uncommon, 1991A French woman welcomes an American soldier two days after liberation. Strasbourg, France, 1944.112-year-old Teimruz Vanacha (on the left), a veteran of World War I and the Russian Civil War, pictured alongside his son Ivan, a World War II veteran, in 1980.A grandmother tenderly covers her grandson’s ears to keep them warm during his Oath of Enlistment ceremony for the Russian army in Volgograd, 1994. Nikolai Ignatiev captured the photo. Muhammad Ali stops a suicidal man from jumping, 1981.A small village in France, Chambon-sur-Lignon, unexpectedly received a gift of $2.4 million from the will of a 90-year-old Austrian, Eric Schwam, who passed away in 2020. The town’s officials were astounded to discover that Schwam was expressing his gratitude to the village for rescuing him and his family from Nazi persecution eight decades ago. His wish was for the funds to be utilized in supporting educational projects and scholarships for the youth of the village.The woman highlighted in red is Lucy Higgs Nichols. Originally a slave in Tennessee, she escaped during the Civil War and joined the 23rd Indiana Infantry Regiment, which was camped nearby. Nichols served as a nurse with the regiment for the duration of the war. Post-war, she relocated north with the regiment to Indiana, where she secured employment with several veterans from the 23rd. Nichols sought a pension following the enactment of the Army Nurses Pension Act of 1892, which permitted Civil War nurses to receive pensions for their service. However, the War Department did not have records of her service, leading to an initial denial of her pension. In response, fifty-five of the surviving members of the 23rd petitioned Congress, advocating for the pension they believed she deserved, and it was subsequently awarded. The image depicts Nichols alongside other veterans from the Indiana regiment at a gathering in 1898. Nichols passed away in 1915 and was laid to rest in a cemetery in New Albany, Indiana.Soviet soldiers feed polar bears from a tank, 1950In the early 1990s, Brazilian photojournalist Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado was assigned to document the genocide in Rwanda, an assignment that profoundly affected him. Returning to his native Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 1994, Sebastião hoped to reconnect with the verdant forests of his youth. However, he was met with a starkly different reality – his once flourishing home had become a desolate, barren expanse, devoid of wildlife. It was then that his wife, Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado, suggested the ambitious project of reforesting the entire area. Embracing this vision, Sebastião and Lélia spent the next two decades planting over 2.7 million trees. Their efforts led to the restoration of 1,500 acres of rainforest, transforming the land into a biodiverse haven for 293 plant species, 172 bird species, and 33 animal species, including some that were nearing extinction. In November 1967, former Marine John “Chickie” Donohue realized his friends serving in Vietnam could use a morale boost. He embarked on an 8,000-mile journey to the conflict-ridden nation, covertly entering to deliver ice-cold beers to them. During the peak of the Vietnam War in late 1967, U.S. Marine Kevin McLoone was driving a jeep in An Khe when he was stunned to recognize a familiar face. It was John Donohue, a buddy from his old New York neighborhood, standing roadside, trying to hitch a ride. The sight was even more bizarre given that Donohue was in civilian attire, with a duffel bag full of beer. Donohue explained to McLoone that he had traveled from New York to Vietnam with the sole purpose of finding his friends and boosting their spirits with cold beers. McLoone, amazed by the unexpected encounter, exclaimed, “That’s a hell of a beer run.”In 1920, the Australian Navy formally enlisted a six-year-old girl named Nancy Bentley after she suffered a snake bite to give her medical treatment onboard a navy ship. Regulations did not allow civilians to get medical treatment on navy ships. The girl’s official rating was ‘mascot,’ and she was ‘discharged’ after 8 days of ‘service.’ Conjoined twin Margaret Gibb gets a kiss from her boyfriend while her sister Mary looks on in the 1940s. In 1966, it was discovered that Margaret had cancer in her bladder, which spread to her lungs over the next year. However, the sisters adamantly refused separation. On August 29, 1967, Margaret died, and Mary died two minutes later. They were only 55 years old.Beautiful photo taken In 2017 at the wedding of Heather and David Mosher. Heather was battling advanced breast cancer but found the strength to marry the love of her life just 18 hours before passing away. The couple wed at a hospital chapel in Connecticut.In 2017, a Rohingya Muslim man carried his immobile parents close to 100 miles to escape death squads in Myanmar. It took him 7 days, but he eventually reached Bangladesh unscathed.In November 1943, Berlin Zoo faced heavy bombing from Allied forces. Within minutes, a devastating 30% of the zoo’s population had perished as zookeepers looked on in horror at the scenes of destruction and loss unfolding before them. The next day, the suffering continued as the beloved aquarium, housing an array of marine life and a popular tourist attraction, was razed to rubble. Despite the chaos, keepers risked life and limb to rescue panicked animals. Makeshift shelters were improvised with unwavering speed and care.Two boys show each other different skills, Kenya, 1962. 9-year-old Kevin from New York had come to Kenya to join his stepfather as guest of a Maasai tribe, where he and the chief’s son Dionni became close companions.
Kevin wrote in his diary:
“The Maasai taught me lots of things. They are very nice people and we had no problems understanding each other. They taught me to shoot the heaviest bow I have ever seen and I taught Dionni how to play baseball and write his name. He doesn’t speak any English and I learned 11 words in Swahili.” In 1996, an unidentified 8-year-old boy slipped away from his mother, climbed over a barrier, and fell into the Gorilla Enclosure. Due to the 20 ft fall, the boy broke his hand and suffered a deep laceration to his face. Seven gorillas inhabited the enclosure. Gorillas are known to be fiercely territorial animals. They will fight to the death to defend their families. However, one of the gorillas, called Binti Jua, meaning “daughter of sunshine” went over to the boy and cradled him in her arms, all while her own young child was on her back. She then went over to the edge of the enclosure and waited for the zookeepers to come and collect the child. Binti handed the child over peacefully before returning to the rest of the gorillas. Binti received worldwide praise and received regular treats for the next few weeks. The boy and the mother have never been identified, but the boy did stay in a hospital for 4 days. Animal behavioral experts claim Binti used her maternal instincts to look after the child. This may have been influenced by the fact that she had her own baby Gorilla with her at the time.In 1992, when Hurricane Andrew was coming to South Florida, the Miami Zoo had to prepare. Ron Magill, who was helping run the zoo then, had seen many hurricane warnings, but none had hit before. Despite this, he and his team worked really hard to keep all the zoo animals safe. They chose to move 30 flamingos into the zoo’s bathroom. The bathroom was a safe spot because it had no windows, it was easy to clean, there was enough room to put down hay for the flamingos to sleep on, and they could fill the toilets with water for the birds to drink. But moving the flamingos wasn’t easy. Magill remembers, “We were catching these birds while they were flapping around, and we were all getting wet and messy.” Despite that, they managed to get all the birds into the bathroom. When Magill was about to leave, he looked back and saw the flamingos posing close to a mirror and captured the perfect photo.
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