33 Photographs of Pink Floyd Concert in Venice on a Massive Floating Stage in 1989

A concert combined with Redentore, it was 15 July 1989 – the night was unforgettable, who can imagine a stage for a rock band in waters in front of San Marco and the festival of the Redentore together. The Venetians protest was largely unheard as the promotor Francesco (Fran) Tomasi, the Vice President of the Venetian Council, Gianni De Michelis and Nero Laroni (commissioner) railroaded and bribed their way to securing the venue. It was supported by RAI and was broadcast live on TV to over 20 countries with an estimated audience of almost 100 million.

The floating stage was towed an moored in front of San Marco Square. The concert was free to all who wanted to attend- what an invitation to the Floyd fans around Europe. You needed only a train or bus ticket to attend. There were no public toilets, insufficient housing (many of the fans did not have money for hotels even should they have been available) so the crowds slept in the open square of San Marco. The Venetian police protested as they had not the personnel to maintain the peace. Stores were barricaded to protect their goods from looting.

From all accounts it was a fantastic evening, even though the band agreed to lower the sound to avoid damaging ancient buildings. Certainly the setting could not have been more picturesque. Per the agreement with RAI, the concert lasted only 90 minutes and at the end of the last note, the acclaimed fireworks of the Redentore began.

Unfortunately the fans defaced the irreplaceable buildings of Venice, defacing what has been described as Europe’s drawing room. Ancient monuments were damaged and used as toilets.

And when it was over the fans left behind 300 tons of litter. After two days, the Army was brought to clean the mountains of trash. Lamp-posts were broken as fans climbed to get a better view and some building suffered damage.

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Vintage Pictures Show a Step-by-Step Tutorial on How to Make the Marcel Waves Hair That Were Popular During the 1920s

You probably think of the 1920s when you hear about Marcel waves, and rightly so; they reached their height of popularity during the '20s, about 15 years after the first electric curling iron was invented. François Marcel introduced his spring-clamp electric model in 1918, making heat styling safer and easier than ever.

At the time, waving was the primary way that women grew out their bobs. Hair irons were sold touting that they "feminised" the short cuts that young girls would come to regret. Bobs were a lot more edgy 100 years ago.

The rad thing about this waving technique, is once you've gotten it down, it can take just a few minutes to add texture to a low, messy bun, or you can curl your whole head for a festival vibe. Here's some of vintage pictures show a step-by-step tutorial on how to make the Marcel waves in the hair that were popular during the '20s:

(Images via Okinawa Soba)

The First Photographs of U.S Presidents

Photography is the result of combining several different technical discoveries. Long before the first photographs were made, Greek mathematicians Aristotle and Euclid described a pinhole camera in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE.

The coining of the word "photography" is usually attributed to Sir John Herschel in 1839. It is based on the Greek φῶς (phōs), meaning "light", and γραφή (graphê), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light".

Here, below we collected some of the first photographs of U.S Presidents in history:

John Quincy Adams: The First Photograph of a President

The first photograph of a sitting United States president was taken of William Henry Harrison on March 4, 1841. The new executive had just delivered his inaugural speech—the outdoor address now most remembered (wrongly) for giving him the pneumonia that would kill him—and he paused, afterward, to pose for a portrait using the new technology of the daguerrotype.

That photograph, much like its subject, had an unexpectedly short tenure. Harrison's inaugural portrait has since been lost to history -- meaning that the oldest surviving photograph we have of an American president depicts a chief executive after his presidency. There are a couple candidates for "oldest." But they are, regardless, depictions of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president, in office from 1825-1829.

One is this, a sixth-plate daguerrotype made of the ex-president at the age of 76:

Another is this one, of the same man, taken around the same time:

The second image seems to have been captured at Adams's home in Quincy (formerly Braintree), Massachusetts. Beyond that, and the fact that it was taken by Philip Haas, not much is known of its provenance.

In a diary entry dated Aug. 1, 1843, Adams described posing for the photograph during a visit to New York. He was 76 at the time the photograph was taken.

After he delivered a short speech at Utica Female Academy, the former President commenced: "The shaking of some hundred hands then followed and on my way returning to Mr. Johnson's, I stopped and four daguerreotype likenesses of my head were taken, two of them jointly with the head of Mr. Bacon -- all hideous."

For us, the story here is the photographs. The first among so many! The trailblazers, the pathfinders! For Adams, however, the story was emphatically not the photos. It was the trip itself—the memories it evoked, the pain it caused, the joy. We might care about the images of him that emerged from New York, some of the first fully life-like renderings of an American president. We might care that a copy of one of the images turned up in an antique store, where it was bought for 50 cents. We might care that the same copy is now housed in the National Portrait Gallery under the care of the Smithsonian. Adams had different concerns, though—less historical, more human. He wasn't thinking about new technologies. He was just living them.

A 1970 news report announcing the finding of the Adams daguerrotype, accompanied by an ad for a water-weight reducer. (AP / Google News)

James K. Polk: The First Photograph Taken of a President While in Office.

On the other hand, if we’re considering photographs taken in office, that distinction goes to James Polk, the 11th President. This photograph was captured in 1849:

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37 Vintage Portrait Photos of the Dolly Sisters, Scandalous Vaudeville Performers From the Jazz Age

Rose "Rosie" Dolly (1892–1970) and Jenny Dolly (1892–1941), known professionally as The Dolly Sisters, were Hungarian-American identical twin dancers and actresses.

These Hungarian-American identical twins with little talent who danced their way to fame in the 1920s. They really loved the high life, the gambling tables, and the lavish gifts showered upon them by Harry Gordon Selfridge, by they themselves ruined the besotted Harry Selfridge.

Here are 37 photos of the Dolly Sisters' portraits in the 1920s.

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Before and After: Adorable Family Photo Recreations That Are Totally Hilarious

Family is one of favorite themes for photography. Ever since the invention of the camera, people have been taking pictures of their family. And photographs are a great way for us to remember the past and always cherish the memories we once shared with our families.

These adorable photos that show people re-living their cherished family memories and the results are just too funny.

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Hipster or Your Dad in the ’70s?

Dads are the Original Hipsters is a hilarious blog dedicated to resurrecting vintage photos of our fathers, in order to prove the simple fact that they were hip before hipsters even existed. If you’re a 20- or 30 something-year-old right now, you’ll probably recognize the fashion in these photos as the same trends seen in your childhood snapshots.

The Date Report decided to take the allegation to the next level, sourcing photos of today’s hottest hipsters and the results confirm – hipsters and dads are literally the same people. The facial hair? Same. The grungy t-shirts? Same. The fedoras? Same. The overall general persona of both groups is literally the exact same. And we have to admit, both are kind of hot.

Take a look at some of the comparisons below and see if you can tell a difference, in a little game we like to play called “Hipster or Dad?”.

(Source 1, Source 2)

(Source 1, Source 2)

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That Self-Appendectomy: The Story of Dr. Leonid Rogozov Who Cut Out His Appendix and Shared the Chilling Tale in 1961

So here are the facts: it happened during 6th Soviet Antarctic Expedition at Novolazarevskaya Station. The patient was the only physician on station, so the assistant was a mechanic. It was on April 30, 1961. The operation took 2 hours. He positioned himself so that he could see his own body using a mirror when doing the surgery - he made a 12 cm cut through which he found the appendix. After 5 days the doctor felt good, and after 7 days he removed the wires which had been used to sew up the body. His name: Leonid Rogozov. He published a short note about this in the Soviet Antarctic Expedition Information Bulletin, no. 37, pp. 42-44, 1962.

Antarctica, 1961: Dr. Leonid Rogozov has to remove his own appendix.

Russian surgeon, Leonid Rogozov, did something that had never been done in history when he performed an operation on himself during an expedition to the Antarctic.

He and a team of 12 had just finished building a new base when Leonid fell gravely ill. He diagnosed himself with acute appendicitis but being the only surgeon on the team, he had no help.

Leonid said when describing the ordeal in his diary, “I did not sleep at all last night. It hurts like the devil! A snow storm whipping through my soul, wailing like 100 jackals.”

After weighing all options and realising that there was no help, he knew he had to do something because his appendix was about to burst. He decided to perform an auto-appendectomy rather than die not doing anything.

Rogozov had intended to use a mirror to help him operate but he found its inverted view too much of a hindrance so he ended up working by touch, without gloves.

“Still no obvious symptoms that perforation is imminent," he wrote, "but an oppressive feeling of foreboding hangs over me… This is it… I have to think through the only possible way out – to operate on myself… It’s almost impossible… but I can’t just fold my arms and give up.”

After working out a plan, he gave his colleagues specific tasks. He had two main assistants to hand him instruments and hold a mirror. He hoped to use his reflection to see what he was doing.

He also thought others how to inject him with adrenaline and perform artificial ventilation if he loses consciousness.

“My poor assistants! At the last minute I looked over at them. They stood there in their surgical whites, whiter than white themselves. I was scared too. But when I picked up the needle with the novocaine and gave myself the first injection, somehow I automatically switched into operating mode, and from that point on I didn’t notice anything else.”

He applied local anaesthetic to his abdominal wall but after cutting through, the rest had to be done without pain relief so he could keep his head as clear as possible. He could not work well with the mirror because the view from that angle was confusing. He did the rest through touch and without gloves. When he reached the final part, he got weaker and was afraid he would fail.

Leonid Rogozov lying down talking to his friend Yuri Vereschagin at Novolazarevskaya.

“I grow weaker and weaker, my head starts to spin. Every four to five minutes I rest for 20 – 25 seconds.”

“Finally here it is – the cursed appendage! With horror I notice the dark stain at its base. That means just a day longer and it would have burst… My heart seized up and noticeably slowed, my hands felt like rubber. Well, I thought, it’s going to end badly and all that was left was removing the appendix.”

Fortunately, he succeeded. The whole operation took nearly two hours. Afterwards, he instructed his team on how to clean the surgical instrument then took some antibiotics and sleeping tablets.

Two weeks later, Leonid was healed and ready to return to work.

Leonid Rogozov in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) a few years after his return to Russia.

Leonid Rogozov’s son, Vladislav Rogozov believes that his father’s legacy is one of inspiration. He says, “If you find yourself in a seemingly desperate situation when all the odds are against you. Even if you are in the middle of the most hostile environment, do not give up. Believe in yourself and fight, fight for life.”

Leonid was awarded for his bravery but shunned publicity and simply faced his job as a surgeon. Quite an impressive feat.