During your next summer cool down with ice cream, ponder the surprising history and science behind the frozen treat.

Or maybe not, because it's kind of gross.

Journalists Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley have pieced together a fascinating, science-infused origin story of ice cream in their latest episode of Gastropod, a podcast about food science and history.

As Gastropod explains, in 1558 Italian scholar Giambattista della Porta published the critical trick behind making smooth, rich ice cream: lowering the freezing point of water. He achieved this by mixing saltpeter into snow, using the slush to rapidly freeze a bucket of water. (Today we use table salt and ice.)

But Della Porta didn't invent ice cream. That happened when word of his method found its way into the kitchen of English noblewoman Lady Anne Fanshawe.

According to Gastropod, Fanshawe scribbled down what's arguably the earliest-known recipe for ice cream. Social historian and blogger Ivan Day personally discovered the recipe after sifting through some old books he won in an auction.

Here's Fanshawe's complete recipe for "icy cream," circa the 1660s (which is noticeably missing the salt part):

Take three pints of the best cream, boyle it with Mace, or else flavor it with orange flower water or ambergreece, sweeten the cream, with sugar[.] let it stand until it is quite cold, then put it into Boxes, either silken or firm then take, Ice chopped into small peeces and putt it into a tub and set the Boxes in the Ice covering them all over, and let them stand in the ice two hours, and the cream will come to be ice in the Boxes, then turne them out into a charger with some of the same Seasoned cream, so serve it up to the Table.

I bolded the part with "ambergreece"— spelled "ambergris" today — because it's very strange and repulsive stuff.

Ambergris might sound familiar if you've ever read Herman Melville's "Moby Dick." Here's how the character Ishmael describes it in the novel:

[A]mbergris is soft, waxy, and so highly fragrant and spicy, that it is largely used in perfumery, in pastiles, precious candles, hair-powders, and pomatum. The Turks use it in cooking, and also carry it to Mecca, for the same purpose that frankincense is carried to St. Peter's in Rome. Some wine merchants drop a few grains into claret, to flavor it.

Ambergris is in Moby Dick, of course, because it sperm whales make it.

Adult sperm whales hunt and eat hundreds of pounds of squid in the darkest depths of the ocean every day. Squid have tough beaks and other indigestible parts, though, so whales vomit up the extra gunk every couple of days.

But in about 1% of sperm whales, author Christopher Kemp details in his book "Floating Gold," a digestive defect allows the hard squid parts make their way into the whale's bowels — where they get stuck and block the intestinal tract.

Here's how Kemp describes what happens next to the blockage:

Feces build up behind it. The whale's gastrointestinal system responds by increasing water absorption from the lower intestines, and gradually the feces saturating the compacted mass of squid beaks become like cement, binding the slurry together permanently. ... Temporarily, feces make their way past it again, passing between the boulder and the wall of the intestines. And, slowly, the process repeats, adding additional strata to the boulder, which grows larger with each new layer in the same way that a tree grows, adding a new growth ring with each passing year.

No one really knows if the lump of ambergris eventually kills the sperm whales, or if they manage to eventually pass it.

Whatever the case, when the ambergris breaks free of its whale prison, it floats to the top of the ocean, cures in the salt and the sun, and gets discovered by adventurous humans. Today ambergris finds its way into museums and onto auction blocks: Pieces that weigh about 1 lb can fetch tens of thousands of dollars, mainly for their use in expensive perfumes (mostly the French variety, for ambergris' "sweet, woody odor").

So how does ambergris ice cream taste?

Graber and Twilley tracked down historical gastronomist Sarah Lohman, who made some of Fanshawe's signature custard for the show.

"It was really, really, really good," Twilley said. "To me, it felt kind of like vanilla, in that it was sort of a background thing. But then it was so much more complex tasting than vanilla. It was like vanilla on drugs."

Listen to their full reaction in Gastropod's complete episode, below — along with some surprising and scientific twists and turns in the history of ice cream.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This $1.7 Million Submarine Was Inspired By Whales

Mathematics is all around us, and it has shaped our understanding of the world in countless ways.

In 2013, mathematician and science author Ian Stewart published a book on 17 Equations That Changed The World. We recently came across this convenient table on Dr. Paul Coxon's twitter account by mathematics tutor and blogger Larry Phillips that summarizes the equations. (Our explanation of each is below):

Here is a little bit more about these wonderful equations that have shaped mathematics and human history:

1) The Pythagorean Theorem: This theorem is foundational to our understanding of geometry. It describes the relationship between the sides of a right triangle on a flat plane: square the lengths of the short sides, a and b, add those together, and you get the square of the length of the long side, c.

This relationship, in some ways, actually distinguishes our normal, flat, Euclidean geometry from curved, non-Euclidean geometry. For example, a right triangle drawn on the surface of a sphere need not follow the Pythagorean theorem.

2) Logarithms: Logarithms are the inverses, or opposites, of exponential functions. A logarithm for a particular base tells you what power you need to raise that base to to get a number. For example, the base 10 logarithm of 1 is log(1) = 0, since 1 = 10⁰; log(10) = 1, since 10 = 10¹; and log(100) = 2, since 100 = 10².

The equation in the graphic, log(ab) = log(a) + log(b), shows one of the most useful applications of logarithms: they turn multiplication into addition.

Until the development of the digital computer, this was the most common way to quickly multiply together large numbers, greatly speeding up calculations in physics, astronomy, and engineering. 

3) Calculus: The formula given here is the definition of the derivative in calculus. The derivative measures the rate at which a quantity is changing. For example, we can think of velocity, or speed, as being the derivative of position — if you are walking at 3 miles per hour, then every hour, you have changed your position by 3 miles.

Naturally, much of science is interested in understanding how things change, and the derivative and the integral — the other foundation of calculus — sit at the heart of how mathematicians and scientists understand change.

4) Law of Gravity: Newton's law of gravitation describes the force of gravity between two objects, F, in terms of a universal constant, G, the masses of the two objects, m₁ and m₂, and the distance between the objects, r. Newton's law is a remarkable piece of scientific history — it explains, almost perfectly, why the planets move in the way they do. Also remarkable is its universal nature — this is not just how gravity works on Earth, or in our solar system, but anywhere in the universe.

Newton's gravity held up very well for two hundred years, and it was not until Einstein's theory of general relativity that it would be replaced.

5) The square root of -1: Mathematicians have always been expanding the idea of what numbers actually are, going from natural numbers, to negative numbers, to fractions, to the real numbers. The square root of -1, usually written i, completes this process, giving rise to the complex numbers.

Mathematically, the complex numbers are supremely elegant. Algebra works perfectly the way we want it to — any equation has a complex number solution, a situation that is not true for the real numbers : x² + 4 = 0 has no real number solution, but it does have a complex solution: the square root of -4, or 2i. Calculus can be extended to the complex numbers, and by doing so, we find some amazing symmetries and properties of these numbers. Those properties make the complex numbers essential in electronics and signal processing.

6) Euler's Polyhedra Formula: Polyhedra are the three-dimensional versions of polygons, like the cube to the right. The corners of a polyhedron are called its vertices, the lines connecting the vertices are its edges, and the polygons covering it are its faces.

A cube has 8 vertices, 12 edges, and 6 faces. If I add the vertices and faces together, and subtract the edges, I get 8 + 6 - 12 = 2.

Euler's formula states that, as long as your polyhedron is somewhat well behaved, if you add the vertices and faces together, and subtract the edges, you will always get 2. This will be true whether your polyhedron has 4, 8, 12, 20, or any number of faces.

Euler's observation was one of the first examples of what is now called a topological invariant — some number or property shared by a class of shapes that are similar to each other. The entire class of "well-behaved" polyhedra will have V + F - E = 2. This observation, along with with Euler's solution to the Bridges of Konigsburg problem, paved the way to the development of topology, a branch of math essential to modern physics.

7) Normal distribution: The normal probability distribution, which has the familiar bell curve graph to the left, is ubiquitous in statistics.

The normal curve is used in physics, biology, and the social sciences to model various properties. One of the reasons the normal curve shows up so often is that it describes the behavior of large groups of independent processes.

8) Wave Equation: This is a differential equation, or an equation that describes how a property is changing through time in terms of that property's derivative, as above. The wave equation describes the behavior of waves — a vibrating guitar string, ripples in a pond after a stone is thrown, or light coming out of an incandescent bulb. The wave equation was an early differential equation, and the techniques developed to solve the equation opened the door to understanding other differential equations as well.

9) Fourier Transform: The Fourier transform is essential to understanding more complex wave structures, like human speech. Given a complicated, messy wave function like a recording of a person talking, the Fourier transform allows us to break the messy function into a combination of a number of simple waves, greatly simplifying analysis.

 The Fourier transform is at the heart of modern signal processing and analysis, and data compression. 

10) Navier-Stokes Equations: Like the wave equation, this is a differential equation. The Navier-Stokes equations describes the behavior of flowing fluids — water moving through a pipe, air flow over an airplane wing, or smoke rising from a cigarette. While we have approximate solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations that allow computers to simulate fluid motion fairly well, it is still an open question (with a million dollar prize) whether it is possible to construct mathematically exact solutions to the equations.

11) Maxwell's Equations: This set of four differential equations describes the behavior of and relationship between electricity (E) and magnetism (H).

Maxwell's equations are to classical electromagnetism as Newton's laws of motion and law of universal gravitation are to classical mechanics — they are the foundation of our explanation of how electromagnetism works on a day to day scale. As we will see, however, modern physics relies on a quantum mechanical explanation of electromagnetism, and it is now clear that these elegant equations are just an approximation that works well on human scales.

12) Second Law of Thermodynamics: This states that, in a closed system, entropy (S) is always steady or increasing. Thermodynamic entropy is, roughly speaking, a measure of how disordered a system is. A system that starts out in an ordered, uneven state — say, a hot region next to a cold region — will always tend to even out, with heat flowing from the hot area to the cold area until evenly distributed.

The second law of thermodynamics is one of the few cases in physics where time matters in this way. Most physical processes are reversible — we can run the equations backwards without messing things up. The second law, however, only runs in this direction. If we put an ice cube in a cup of hot coffee, we always see the ice cube melt, and never see the coffee freeze.

13) Relativity: Einstein radically altered the course of physics with his theories of special and general relativity. The classic equation E = mc² states that matter and energy are equivalent to each other. Special relativity brought in ideas like the speed of light being a universal speed limit and the passage of time being different for people moving at different speeds.

General relativity describes gravity as a curving and folding of space and time themselves, and was the first major change to our understanding of gravity since Newton's law. General relativity is essential to our understanding of the origins, structure, and ultimate fate of the universe.

14) Schrodinger's Equation: This is the main equation in quantum mechanics. As general relativity explains our universe at its largest scales, this equation governs the behavior of atoms and subatomic particles.

Modern quantum mechanics and general relativity are the two most successful scientific theories in history — all of the experimental observations we have made to date are entirely consistent with their predictions. Quantum mechanics is also necessary for most modern technology — nuclear power, semiconductor-based computers, and lasers are all built around quantum phenomena.

15) Information Theory: The equation given here is for Shannon information entropy. As with the thermodynamic entropy given above, this is a measure of disorder. In this case, it measures the information content of a message — a book, a JPEG picture sent on the internet, or anything that can be represented symbolically. The Shannon entropy of a message represents a lower bound on how much that message can be compressed without losing some of its content.

Shannon's entropy measure launched the mathematical study of information, and his results are central to how we communicate over networks today.

16) Chaos Theory: This equation is May's logistic map. It describes a process evolving through time — x_t+1, the level of some quantity x in the next time period — is given by the formula on the right, and it depends on x_t, the level of x right now. k is a chosen constant. For certain values of k, the map shows chaotic behavior: if we start at some particular initial value of x, the process will evolve one way, but if we start at another initial value, even one very very close to the first value, the process will evolve a completely different way.

We see chaotic behavior — behavior sensitive to initial conditions — like this in many areas. Weather is a classic example — a small change in atmospheric conditions on one day can lead to completely different weather systems a few days later, most commonly captured in the idea of a butterfly flapping its wings on one continent causing a hurricane on another continent. 

17) Black-Scholes Equation: Another differential equation, Black-Scholes describes how finance experts and traders find prices for derivatives. Derivatives — financial products based on some underlying asset, like a stock — are a major part of the modern financial system.

The Black-Scholes equation allows financial professionals to calculate the value of these financial products, based on the properties of the derivative and the underlying asset.

NOW WATCH: We Can Guess Your Name Based On What State You Live In

SEE ALSO: Computer Genius Builds Language That Lets Anyone Calculate Anything

Join the conversation about this story »

In Northwestern Spain, the small village of Catoria along the Ulla river is home to 3,500 people, but on the first Sunday of every August, it is invaded by Vikings.

The tradition has been alive in the region since 1961, when a group of intellectuals from around Catoria responded to decades of oppression from the Francoist government of the time by creating a festival that celebrate the rich history of region. 

They decided on a reenactment of the defeat of King Ulfo's viking invaders by Archbishop Gelmírez’ troops near the Ulla river where two ancient towers still stand.

Today the tradition lives on with a week of musical and theatrical performances, which culminates in feasting, a mass at the Chapel of St. James, and finally pipers walk the streets leading festival goers to the river banks where the real Viking festivities take place.

Here are some pictures of the revelers in action:

SEE ALSO: The US The Coast Guard turns 225 today — here are 33 jaw-dropping photos of the branch in action in some of the most intense places in America

The invasion starts on the first Sunday in August, after a night of feasting, fireworks, and speeches the Saturday night before.

If you're low on battle gear, a medieval market surrounds the scene and helps provide context for the mock battle.

Source

Though horned helmets may not be historically accurate, Viking attire is required to participate in the festival.

NOW WATCH: How to fold a fitted sheet — the most frustrating piece of laundry

Shortly after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, the Enola Gay's tail gunner Bob Caron wrote his wife that the crew had just received a medal and she'd be reading about what they had done in the newspapers.

"It seems our crew and airplanes made history or something," wrote then-Tech Sgt. George Robert "Bob" Caron, of Wendover, Utah. 

"When they let us write about it from here, I'll be able to tell you all about it. Our picture will probably be all over the states before we can say anything."

Caron and others in the 11-member crew of the B-29 Superfortress still weren't quite sure what it was that had dropped from the bomb bay on that bright morning 70 years ago, but Caron was the first to see the effects from his position in the tail. They had given him a K-20 camera to take the first photos.

The pilot, Col. Paul Tibbets, who named the B-29 the "Enola Gay" after his mother, told Caron to describe what he saw to the crew over the intercom.

"It was an awesome sight. I described the mushroom cloud as it grows. Well, it was white on the outside and it was sort of a purplish black towards the interior, and it had a fiery red core, and it just kept boiling up. I think that's how I described it on the intercom," Caron said years later in an interview.

"As we got further away, I could see the city then, not just the mushroom, coming up. I could see the city, and it was being covered with this low, bubbling mass. It looked like bubbling molasses, let's say, spreading out and running up into the foothills, just covering the whole city."

"And fires, I could see fires spring up through this undercast, or whatever you would call it, that was covering the city. Flames in different spots would be springing up. It was about that time that Tibbets turned the airplane around, so that everybody could get a look at it."

Then the co-pilot, Capt. Robert A. Lewis, of Brooklyn, NY, saw it. He was keeping a log of the flight, scribbling on the backs of old War Department forms. He wrote:

''If I live a hundred years, I'll never quite get these few minutes out of my mind. Everyone on the ship is actually dumbstruck even though we had expected something fierce."

"I honestly have the feeling of groping for words to explain this or I might say, my God, what have we done?"

Lewis, Caron and the others, however, would later say they had no regrets about dropping the bomb. It had hastened the end of the war and saved the lives of US troops who were then preparing for the invasion of Japan.

Capt. Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk, of Northumberland, Pa., later said that "I honestly believe the use of the atomic bomb saved lives in the long run, but I pray no man will have to witness that sight again. Such a terrible waste, such a loss of life."

The crew also hoped that the bomb would never be used again but it was, three days later on Aug. 9, when a B-29 called "Bockscar" dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Jacob Beser would be the only one to see the aftermath of both explosions. He was a radarman on the Enola Gay and performed the same duties on Bockscar.

Beser would later write that "No, I feel no sorrow or remorse for whatever small role I played. That I should is crazy. I remember Pearl Harbor and all of the Japanese atrocities."

"I remember the shock to our nation that all of this brought. I don't want to hear any discussion of morality. War, by its very nature, is immoral."

SEE ALSO: Here's what the 'Little Boy' atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima would do to major American cities

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: An Abandoned Red Army Base In Hungary May Have Once Stockpiled Nukes

Click for the story >

Join the conversation about this story »

On August 6th and 9th of 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, causing significant death and destruction in both places. To this day, the bombings remain history's only acts of nuclear warfare.

A lot has been established about the immediate preparations for the dropping of the bombs, known as "Little Boy" and "Fat Man," which were loaded onto airplanes on the North Field airbase on Tinian Island, part of the Northern Mariana Islands to the south of Japan.

Until recently few photographs were available of the final hours before the bombings. But newly declassified pictures shed additional light on the procedures leading up to the nuclear attacks, giving a chilling glimpse into how and where the most destructive bombs ever used in warfare were loaded.

(First seen on AlternativeWars.com)

Soldiers check the casings on the "Fat Man" atomic bomb. Multiple test bombs were created on Tinian Island. All were roughly identical to an operational bomb, even though they lacked the necessary equipment to detonate.

On the left, geophysicist and Manhattan Project participant Francis Birch marks the bomb unit that would become "Little Boy" while Norman Ramsey, who would later win the Nobel Prize in Physics, looks on.

A technician applies sealant and putty to the crevices of "Fat Man," a final preparation to make sure the environment inside the bomb would be stable enough to sustain a full impact once the bomb was detonated.

Donald Trump has been called “un-presidential” by some pundits, even compared to former US presidents whom, at various moments in history, have used unseemly language or have engaged in inappropriate behavior.

Yet Mr. Trump has maintained a stranglehold on the polls over his Republican presidential rivals this summer despite his tendency to blurt out controversial comments about women, Mexicans, and just about anything else that crosses his political path.

After Thursday's Republican debate, Trump made a comment some viewed as misogynistic when he referred to FOX News debate moderator Megyn Kelly by saying, "You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her – wherever."

During the Republican debate, Ms. Kelly asked Trump about terms he has used to describe women including "fat pigs,""dogs,""slobs," and "disgusting animals."

"Only Rosie O'Donnell," Trump interrupted.

After the debate, commentator Glenn Beck said, “In the adult table, the big loser was Donald Trump. And while he continued to say things in a way that Americans will connect with, I think he showed himself as a bully. As very un-presidential.”

Some on Twitter agreed with Beck.

However, historically, being rude, off-color, and even vastly unpopular have failed to be roadblocks to the presidency.

Some historical examples of US presidents behaving in an un-presidential or undignified manner while in office include, but are not limited to, war hero Andrew Jackson teaching his parrot to swear and James Monroe chasing his secretary of state out of the Oval office with fireplace tongs.

The race between President John Quincy Adams and Mr. Jackson in 1828 was one of the ugliest ever, with partisan newspaper headlines making accusations against the candidates, ranging from murder and adultery to pimping.

In more recent history, former President Lyndon B. Johnson, stands out, according to a contemporary who explained "the Johnson treatment."

"It was an incredible blend of badgering, cajolery, reminders of past favors, promises of future favors, predictions of gloom if something doesn't happen. When that man started to work on you, all of a sudden, you just felt that you were standing under a waterfall and the stuff was pouring on you."

But others in government had differing views on the 36th president.

"He hasn't got the depth of mind nor the breadth of vision to carry great responsibility ... Johnson is superficial and opportunistic," said former President Dwight Eisenhower.

Former US Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy once said of Johnson, "He tells so many lies that he convinces himself after a while he's telling the truth. He just doesn't recognize truth or falsehood."

Johnson is also attributed with stunningly off-color quotes and, on those grounds, some may consider Trump to be a bit more presidential in a very traditional sense than his opponents.

While Trump’s bold and bellicose style is not new to the presidency,William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., says that for example, President John Adams was incredibly unpopular in his day, he had the political substance to overcome his rudeness.

“There’s a difference between unpopularity and arrogant ignorance,” Mr. Glaston says in an interview. “John Adams was a statesman and a scholar, and whatever Donald Trump is, he’s neither.”

But many Americans fed up with current Washington politics are responding to both Trump's message and his delivery. He routinely polls at or near the top of the GOP field. And as Trump said himself at Thursday's debate, “I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct. I’ve been challenged by so many people, and I don’t really have time for total political correctness, and to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time, either."

Jackson and William Henry Harrison were both war heroes, while Thomas Jefferson, Adams, and James Monroe were all scholars and proven statesmen with a wealth of education and political acumen, according to Glaston.

“Donald Trump is not electable,” says Galston. “Donald Trump represents the intersection of anger and celebrity."

Galston explains that “There are a lot of people who are angry and feel repressed by changes on government and society and Trump is saying what a lot of angry older people, mainly of the white and male persuasion, are quietly thinking, but don’t dare say. So he’s saying it out loud and getting away with it – sort of - and it makes them feel good.”

“Andrew Jackson wasn’t a warm and fuzzy guy. He overthrew the establishment and was arguably our first populist president, but he had a lot more in the bank [politically, than Trump],” Galston says. “But Donald Trump is so far over the line, I don’t even know where to begin.”

Galston concludes that in the final analysis, voters may not choose a president by his or her education, military service record, or the ability to deplane gracefully.

“The American people, above all, want a president who cares about them,” Galston concludes. “And if there’s anything manifest about Donald Trump it’s that he only cares about himself.”

SEE ALSO: Every job in America, mapped

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Hillary Clinton's student debt plan has two huge problems

Every day, the world tweets 500 milion times. 350,000 of these jokes, thoughts, updates, and news are going up every minute. 

Over time, this adds up to a lot of history, and now Twitter wants to make it easier for businesses to access that history.

The company announced on its official blog that developers will soon have "instant and complete access" to every historical public tweet in a Full-Archive Search tool. 

Gnip, a social media data company bought by Twitter in 2010, is in charge of creating this feature, which will let other software developers create tools to flip through the archives back to Jack Dorsey's very first tweet: "just setting up my twttr" in 2006. 

According to Gnip, companies like PayPal and Simply Measured have already used the service, which is mainly intended for businesses to gather insight for use in marketing campaigns.

Services like Snap Bird and Topsy are also sites that let users explore Twitter history, but this is the first Twitter product that indexes the data intelligently for business customers. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: People doing backflips on a two-inch wide strap is a real sport called slacklining

On August 14, 1945, US President Harry Truman announced the unconditional surrender of Japanese Emperor Hirohito, thereby ending World War II.

The surrender came after months of bombing raids across the Japanese countryside, two atomic bombs, and the Soviet Union's declaration of war on the island nation.

The iron resolve of the Japanese was a major factor the US anticipated while planning the invasion of mainland Japan. The culture known for literally putting death before dishonor with practices such as hara-kiri would not, by any stretch of the imagination, go softly into surrender.

By the time the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, 500,000 Japanese had already died during bombing raids, not just in Tokyo, but in smaller towns too.

This badly hurt Japanese morale as Yutaka Akabane, a senior-level civil servant, observed: "It was the raids on the medium and smaller cities which had the worst effect and really brought home to the people the experience of bombing and a demoralization of faith in the outcome of the war."

But despite several bombing raids a week in the beginning of 1945, and the resulting displacement of 5 million people, the Japanese remained resolute.

And as US forces prepared a ground invasion, they were acutely aware of the challenges they faced against an iron-willed Japanese population.

The planning committee for the US invasion expected that "operations in this area will be opposed not only by the available organized military forces of the Empire, but also by a fanatically hostile population."

Nevertheless, the Allied forces prepared to send 42 aircraft carriers, 24 battleships, and 400 destroyer ships and escorts to Japan's coast. The Allies expected 456,000 deaths in the invasion of Japan's military stronghold at the island of Kyushu alone.

In preparation for what everyone expected to be a bloody, prolonged clash, the US government manufactured 500,000 Purple Hearts to be awarded to troops wounded in the invasion.

At the same time, 32 million Japanese braced for war. That figure includes all men ages 15 to 60, and all women ages 17 to 45. The US anticipated them to bear whatever weapons they could muster, from bamboo spears, to antique cannons, to machine guns.

Children had even been trained to act as suicide bombers, strapping explosives to themselves and rolling under Allied tank treads.

But on July 16, 1945, the US secretly and successfully carried out the world's first atomic-bomb detonation, giving the US another option in the war against Japan.

After the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, where 140,000 lost their lives, on August 8, the USSR then declared war on Japan as well, and on the next day they attacked Japanese-occupied Manchuria, China. On that same day, an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing another 40,000 instantly.

Japan had previously been presented the Potsdam Declaration, or terms for an unconditional surrender, but the country had refused it.

Even after the two atomic bombs, Japan would not surrender for fear of how Emperor Hirohito would be treated after the war.

Emperor Hirohito was not merely a constitutional monarch, but a living god in the eyes of the Japanese. They would not see him treated as a war criminal by Allied forces — and after Pearl Harbor and 20 million or so Asian lives lost to Japanese imperialism, the Allies would accept nothing less than an unconditional surrender.

Japan and the Allies spent mid-August arguing over the exact language of the surrender, but on August 15, Emperor Hirohito addressed his nation via radio for the first time ever to announce the country's surrender. Because of a difference in time zones, this anniversary is remembered on August 14 in the US.

Just last month, Japan officially released the master audio recording of Hirohito's surrender. A version of this recording can be heard below:

SEE ALSO: Declassified photos show the US's final preparations for the only nuclear weapons attacks in history

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: See 240 years of US Army uniforms in 2 minutes

For 67 years, the identity of the two kissers in one of America's most celebrated photos — the "V-J Day in Times Square" or simply "The Kiss"— remained a complete mystery.

The photo was taken by Life Magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt in Times Square in New York City on August 14, 1945 — a day that Americans will forever remember as the "Victory over Japan Day" when Japan surrendered, putting an end to World War II.

In 2012 the book "The Kissing Sailor: The Mystery Behind the Photo that Ended World War II" identified that sailor as George Mendonsa and the nurse as Greta Friedman.

Mendonsa and Friedman's story of how the iconic kiss happened was announced to the world, and the decades-long controversy was finally put to rest.

At least, until now.

The controversy has been blown wide-open once again because Mendonsa and Friedman's story couldn't have happened at the time they said it did, according to Texas State physicist Donald Olsen and his two colleagues, Russell Doescher, an astrophysicist at Texas State, and Steven D. Kawaler, an astrophysicist at Iowa State University.

The three scientists pointed out a flaw in the story when they sought to answer another question about this iconic photo that few people think to ask: What time of day Eisenstaedt took the photo.

Olsen scrutinized the length and angle of the various shadows of people and buildings in the photo to help him get an idea of the time of day. He also built scale models of some of the buildings in Time Square back in 1945 based from measurements he found in old maps and blueprints of the square, as well as aerial photos to determine the time, once and for all.

But what ultimately clinched it was the length of the shadow on a clock in the photo. The shadow, Olsen realized, was generated by a sign above the clock. By calculating the distance between the clock and sign, he determined the location of the sun in the sky, which then gave him the time of day.

After four years working on this project, Olsen and the team announced beyond any doubt that the famous kiss happened at 5:51 p.m. According to Wired, you can read a report of their findings in the upcoming August issue of Sky and Telescope Magazine.

The problem is that Mendonsa and Friedman’s story place their kiss at around 2:00 p.m. Mendonsa said that the kiss happened shortly after he left a movie at 1:05 p.m. and Friedman said that she was on a late lunch break.

While the two purported kissers might just be misremembering the time of day — after all it happened nearly 70 years ago — Olsen's study brings their story and subsequent claims of being the famous sailor and nurse into question.

Although he’s solved the time of day, Olsen told Wired that he still hasn’t a clue as to the identity of the people in the photo. That mystery is one that will have to remain unsolved, for now.

CHECK OUT: Scientists discovered that more sex will not make you happier, but that's not the most surprising part

SEE ALSO: An African python dies prematurely after eating a 30-pound porcupine, but that's not what killed it

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How scientists uncovered a completely new world inside the tunnels of the most powerful physics machine on Earth

This week, America is recognizing the 50-year anniversary of the Watts riots, which took place in a small suburb of Los Angeles on August 11, 1965.

On that date, a white police officer pulled over a black motorist on suspicion of DUI in the predominately black neighborhood.

A violent confrontation ensued, which became the tipping point for a community long-burdened by the scourge of systemic racism from within the Los Angeles Police Department, and the city at large.

The riots lasted six days and resulted in the deaths of 34 people. One thousand more were injured. Four thousand people were arrested. Property damage estimates climbed to $40 million, according to the University of Southern California archives. The anniversary of the riots takes on special significance this year in light of more recent racial tension in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland, after police there were accused of killing unarmed black men.

The Twitter account @WattsRiots50 is memorializing the Watts riots in a very unique way by tweeting the events of the riots as they unfolded in real time 50 years ago. Three days into the riot, the account has generated 135 tweets and gathered 1,788 followers.

Here are some of the tweets:

SEE ALSO: A biopic on rap group N.W.A. is a sobering realization that nothing has changed in the 27 years since 'F--- tha Police' was written

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What happens when a superstar disrupts one of the top 'League of Legends' teams

Now's your chance to own a piece of certifiable rock history.

Kurt Cobain's childhood home in Aberdeen, Washington, is for sale, and it just got a price chop.

Originally listed in 2013 by Cobain's mother, Wendy O'Connor, for $500,000, the home's price was reduced to $400,000 in March. Today it's down to $329,000.

Beyond just being the place where Cobain grew up, the home retains the marks and scars of its famous inhabitant, including drawings of band logos. 

Aberdeen Realty has the listing.

SEE ALSO: This empty, 46-bedroom mansion in Texas would make one heck of a haunted house

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's lifestyle page on Facebook!

Kurt Cobain's childhood home is an unassuming house on a lackluster block.

Built in 1923, it looks as if it was updated in the mid 20th century. The entire home is rather rundown.

The one-and-a-half floor bungalow has four bedrooms across only 1,522 square feet.

NOW WATCH: This drummer created a whole song using only the sound of coins

On August 19th, 1940, the North American B-25 "Mitchell" performed its first flight. It would become the most versatile, widely used, and overall best medium-range bomber of World War II.

The B-25 took 8,500 design drawings and 195,000 man-hours to develop from its design to engineering phase. The effort paid off: around 10,000 of the planes would be produced and sent to allied powers all around the world. 

Eventually the B-25 would become the most heavily armed plane in the world. Its eight forward-facing 50-caliber machine guns took part in legendary strafing runs which would pave the way for modern close air support.

Here are some of the highlights of the impressive B-25 "Mitchell"'s  storied career.

The B-25 came into service as a lower altitude, shorter-range alternative to the B-17.

The B-25's "Mitchell" nickname came from US General Billy Mitchell, who was an outspoken advocate of military airpower since as early as 1906, just three years after the Wright Brother's historic first flight.

The smaller B-25 was adopted by all branches of the US armed forces. Its short takeoff distance made it ideal for taking off from aircraft carriers.

NOW WATCH: Check out the hoverbikes that one company is building for the Defense Department

Once upon a time, what is known as New York City's East Village today was the world's third-largest German-speaking city — behind only Vienna and Berlin.

While New York is home to an abundance of unique ethnic enclaves, Kleindeutschland, or Little Germany, was literally a German town in the middle of New York, which retained its language and customs.

At its peak, around the mid-1800s, Little Germany was home to 60,000 Germans and encompassed 400 blocks, from Division Street to 14th Street, and from Avenue D to Bowery. It was one of New York's most heavily populated neighborhoods, and some estimate that 30% of New York City was made of German immigrants and their American-born children. 

Tompkins Square Park was at the heart of the neighborhood, and Avenue B its main commercial strip, known as "German Broadway." The area, especially around Bowery, was full of massive beer halls, as well as lager beer shops, theaters and grocery stores aplenty. Most were advertised in German signage, and the neighborhoodeven had its own German newspaper, the New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung.

On June 15th, 1904, all of that changed when Little Germany — and nearly all of its inhabitants — were wiped out in the General Slocum Disaster.

What was supposed to be a day trip along the East River to Long Island, organized by the East Village branch of the St. Mark's Lutheran Church for their 17th annual picnic, turned into a disaster. The chartered boat (the General Slocum) that was supposed to take guests to Long Island caught fire, killing 1,000 Germans.

Being a Wednesday, most of those on the ship were women and children — and mostly from wealthy families. These families were Little Germany's social foundation, causing major repercussions for the parish. Almost every family lost a member and the suicide count rose dramatically after the disaster. 

Little Germany never recovered. The once tight-knit enclave slowly dissolved, and when WWI created anti-German sentiments, people distanced themselves from their language, customs, and from each other even more.

Today, all that reminds us of the tragedy is the Slocum Memorial Fountain in the middle of Tompkins Square Park. Donated by the Sympathy Society of German Ladies in 1906, it features a lion's head as well as two children looking out at the ocean.

However, remnants of the area once rife with Germans are still abundant in the East Village, if you know where to look.

There's the Ottendorfer Library on 135 Second Avenue, which bears the words "Freie Bibliothek und Lesehalle (free library and reading room) on its bright red brick facade. It opened in 1884 as New York's first public library, and was a gift from German immigrant Oswald Ottendorfer, editor of the German newspaper. Half of its books were in German, the other half in English.

The building next to it, on 137 Second Avenue, was the German dispensary — the words "Deutsches Dispensary" still gleam on the facade. It was a community hospital offering medical care to the poor.

Another remnant of the once-thriving neighborhoods is at 12 St. Marks Place, where the words "Einigkeit macht stark" (unity makes strength) and "Deutsch-Amerikanische Schützen Gesellschaft" (German-American Shooting Society) are engraved over a door that now leads to a yoga studio and gym.

The famous Germania Bank Building at 190 Bowery also has German roots. Built by a German architect, it was the third location of the German-American Bank, a chain founded by German businessmen.

Little Germany also spawned the Germania Life Insurance Company of America, which is now the Guardian Life Insurance Company.

SEE ALSO: 12 things everyone gets wrong about Germany

FOLLOW US: BI Travel is on Twitter!

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's what happened when psychologists took away people's phones

Sometimes, everyday speech just can't convey your meaning. You need words with a little more oomph — expletives.

In fact, Americans swear so often, the US made airing indecent or profane language during certain times a federal crime. Cue the FCC.

For the sake of knowledge though, we looked into the etymology of a few of these words. (Some of which violate our style guide!) Learn where they originated below.

The 'F' bomb

The oldest theories trace the expletive-to-end-all-expletives back to Norwegian fukka and Swedish focka, both meaning "to copulate."

Unfortunately, we don't have much evidence of use in English, partly because the original Oxford English Dictionary's creators reportedly considered it taboo. The OED's second edition, however, cites "fukkit" in 1503, but the earliest current spelling appears as "Bischops ... may f*** thair fill and be vnmaryit" from poet Sir David Lyndesay in 1535.

Another 16th-century poem, titled "Flen flyys," written in a combination of Latin and Middle English, also hints at the word. The relevant line reads, "Non sunt in celi quia fuccant uuiuys of heli." Translation: They [the monks] are not in heaven because they f---- the wives of [the town of] Ely.

The ideas that f--- is an acronym meaning "for unlawful carnal knowledge" or "fornication under consent of the king" are both false. The phrases do turn up in some court documents but not until the late 19th century, way too late for a true etymology.

The 'S' word

Here, we actually have two words and two separate origins to consider: the noun and the verb.

The noun nods to Old English scitte, meaning "purging, diarrhea." And just the basic form meaning excrement stems from Old English scytel. The action, however, has a much more widespread history — Dutchschijtenand Germanscheissen. The Proto-Indo-European base skie conveys the idea of separation, in this case, from the body.

From there, we've perfected s---faced, s---head, s---ing bricks, not giving a s---, when the s--- hits the fan, etc.

Just to set the record straight, "s---" isn't an acronym. There's a story floating around the internet saying that when crates of manure on freight ships got wet, they started to ferment, releasing methane. The gas then built up below deck. If someone descended with a lit lantern — BOOM.

As a precaution against potential explosions, transporters apparently started placing the letters S-H-I-T — "ship high in transit"— on top of the crates. Storing them above deck decreased their chances of dampness, and, if they did get wet, the methane wouldn't stay trapped below deck.

As clever as the story sounds, the word "s---" has a much older and richer history than an anecdote from European sea trade. Not to mention sailors usually kept cargo below deck to keep it dry.

Piss

Again, English includes two forms of this word, a noun and verb. The verb appeared in the 1300s from French pissier, "to urinate," and vulgar Latin, "pissiare." The noun came later, in the 1400s, and eventually morphed into an intensifying adjective — piss-poor, piss-ugly, etc. — around World War II.

Goddamn

Obviously a compound word of "God" and "damn.""Damn" comes from Latin damnare, which means "to condemn." And God originated with Norse goth. But when and how did we put the two together as a blasphemy?

Let's thank the French for that. They started referring to the English as "les goddems" during the Hundred Years' War because of their frequent profanity, according to Geoffrey Hughes' book, "A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths, and Profanity in English."

Hell

Our word for the worst possible place (religious or not) comes from Proto-Germanic haljo, "the underworld." Some relationship also exists between "cell" and "hell" through the Proto-Indo-European word for "to cover" or "conceal"— kel.

Interestingly enough, the Biblical use of hell may stem from Old Norse Hel, the name of Loki's daughter in Norse mythology. She rules over the evil dead much like Hades does in Greek tales.

Bitch

Almost everyone knows a bitch is a female dog, probably from Old Norse bikkjuna. Its use as a term of contempt to women, though, began in the 1400s.

Thewordisfirst seen used this way intheChesterPlaysofthe1400s."Whocallestthouqueine,skabdebitch?"Basically, "Whoareyoucallingawhore,youmiserablebitch?”

"The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," published in 1811, calls bitch "the most offensive appellation that can be given to an English woman, even more provoking than that of whore."

The verb, meaning "to complain," evolved as late at the 1930s.

SEE ALSO: These Fascinating Maps Show The Origins Of Words We Use All The Time

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 11 words you're mispronouncing all the time

The titles we assign women — from Miss to Ms. to Mrs. — have long defined us, whether we like it or not. The box you tick on a form or even the way you sign your name often speaks volumes about your age and marital status. As for men?

They're "Misters" pretty much from the start, and are never expected to change that. Why is that, though? Well, in a new episode of the YouTube series Stuff Mom Never Told You, host Cristen Conger investigates the original meaning of Mrs. — and prepare to have your mind blown, because once upon a time, it had nothing to do with marriage at all.

It's common knowledge that cultures with native English speakers have been using the terms Miss and Mrs. to decipher which women are married or single for the last century or so. But you may not have thought of it like this: According to Conger, "The reason we have these two titles isn't so much to brand married women as taken, but brand single ladies as available." As you can imagine, that whole methodology is pretty sexist, considering men aren't required to have their marital status attached to their names (or basically, stapled to their foreheads) for the world to see.

But according to Conger, that very sexist double standard is what led to the creation of the neutral term "Ms.," which was advocated for by second-wave feminists, and caused a sizable movement to use this term for all women, regardless of their relationship status. (Just take a look at your junk mail if you want to see an example; I'm guessing almost all of the letters are addressed to you using the term Ms.) That said, I've personally found that if people know you're married, they will call you by Mrs., while if hypothetical person doesn't know your marital status or knows you aren't hitched, they'll call you Ms.

As it turns out, Miss, Mrs., and Mr. didn't actually have quite the same meanings attached to them until the mid-1700s. Back then, it was all about social status. "Originally, all of these designated Masters and Mistresses were wealthy enough to have servants," Conger explains.

And as for the distinction between Miss and Mrs.? In the Colonial era, it all came down to age. A Miss was defined as a woman under 18, who upon reaching this milestone, instantly turned into a Mrs. (Yep, married or not.) The only catch was if said woman was a sex worker. In that case, they remained a Miss for life, no matter how old they were

This actually makes total sense, when you learn that once-upon-a-time a similar distinction actually did exist for men, too. Get this: It turns out that the term Master was actually used for boys until they were about seven or eight, and then no title was given to them until they officially became adults at 18. Only at that point did they turned into Misters, just how women turned into Mrs.

Conger says it wasn't until the 1750's rolled around that the terms "Miss" and "Mrs." started to evolve and change. That's when unmarried upperclass women began to designate themselves "Miss," while "Mrs." began to refer to a business woman, rather than a wife. In the 1900s, this upperclass tradition began to work its way down into the other classes, and the terms took on the meanings we now know them to have.

Pretty fascinating, huh? You can watch the full video below to learn more about the story behind the terms, and how they came to be.

SEE ALSO: The historical origins of 6 swear words

Join the conversation about this story »

"I have a dream ... " We all know the words that start the famous speech.

But Martin Luther King Jr.'s crowning moment may never have happened without one of the largest protests ever — the March on Washington on August 28, 1963.

After growing backlash against blacks in the South, King and five others planned the event, a peaceful demonstration to end segregation and promote equal rights.

King crafted his famous speech specifically for the 250,000 people who would gather in the nation's capital that day.

In 1963, Birmingham, Alabama had become the epicenter of racist violence in America. A KKK member bombed a Baptist church, killing four young girls in September. Denise McNair, 11; Carole Robertson, 14; Addie Mae Collins, 14; and Cynthia Wesley, 14; from left, died in the fire.

Source: Associated Press

As a result, Martin Luther King, Jr. turned his focus to the area, organizing many anti-segregation demonstrations there. Police arrested King and his fellow civil rights proponent, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, on April 12, 1963 during a demonstration.

Source: Associated Press

The situation in the South continued to worsen. Below, firefighters in Birmingham turn a high-powered hose on peaceful demonstrators. Bayard Rustin, the march's head organizer, said that credit for mobilizing the march could go to "Bull Connor [Commissioner of Public Safety in Birmingham], his police dogs, and his fire hoses."

Source: Congress of Racial Equality

Today marks the 52-year anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have A Dream" speech in Washington D.C. It also marks the anniversary of a far less prominent but equally symbolic feat.

On August 27, 1963, 27-year old Ledger Smith, aka "Roller Man" made his way into Washington D.C.. His trip originated in Chicago on August 17 and ended 10 days and 685 miles later at the Lincoln Memorial.

His mode of transportation — rollerskates.

As the August 31, 1963 edition of the Baltimore Afro-American reported: "Broad shouldered, lean hipped, 'Roller Man' skated into the nation's capital Tuesday, sore, aching, but hoping he was 700 miles closer to freedom."

Smith was one of thousands, of all races, who descended on Washington in August of 1963, but his arduous journey was particularly symbolic of the struggle of many African-American's of his day.

"To dramatize the march, I did it in the slowest way," Smith told the Afro-American.

Along the way, he received encouragement from many. "He wore a freedom sign across his chest and back. People along the highway, some of them white, said "God bless you,""I'll see you in Washington,""I wish you luck," according to the Afro-American. 

But Smith's journey was not without opposition. In a radio interview with WAMU upon his arrival, Smith explained how a man had tried to run him down with his car while he was skating through Fort Wayne, Indiana. Luckily, Smith explained that he was protected during his trip by an automobile convoy of NAACP officials.

In terms of preparation, Smith said he ran five miles everyday in the two weeks leading up to the trip. He skated for 10 hours a day and lost 10 pounds by the end of the trip, according to the Afro-American. 

Smith, a married man and father of three, worked as an entertainer doing tricks on rollerskates before his monumental journey to Washington. He eventually met up with his wife upon his arrival in D.C., and the couple were two of the 250,000 who got to witness King make his historic address.

As far as roller skating goes, Smith told WAMU, "I don't want to see those skates for a month now." 

SEE ALSO: Here's the real story behind Martin Luther King Jr.'s greatest moment

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How to tell if your Cuban cigars are real or fake

With 240 years of history, the US Army has been around the block a few times.

Artifacts from its history are put up in museums around the country, but a surprising number of awesome artifacts are kept in storage at a facility in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Here are five of the coolest things tucked away in the US Army Museum Support Center.

(The Army is attempting to build a museum to display many of the artifacts in its collection. To see how to support its construction, check out the museum website. You can also find information on the Army's Facebook.)

1. Badass weapons from history

2. Original artwork by Norman Rockwell

3. Paintings from active-duty soldiers

4. Uniform items from the Revolution to today

5. Captured enemy artwork and propaganda

To learn more about the collection, check out the video below.

SEE ALSO: Donald Trump's ex-wife once said Trump kept a book of Hitler's speeches by his bed

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Startling facts about World War II

Argunners is fortunate enough to feature some beautiful images from the United States Army Air Force, taken in England during WWII. Most of the photographs depict the 458th Bombardment Group which were stationed at RAF Horsham St. Faith (USAAF designated it as Station 123), Norfolk in England during World War II. The 458th Bombardment Group, arrived at the airfield late in January 1944 from the Tonopah Army Airfield in Nevada.

The group flew its first mission on February 24, 1944 with Consolidated B-24 Liberators and its last combat mission on April 25, 1945. The group lost 65 aircraft before returning to Sioux Falls AAF, South Dakota in July 1945. Other units who were stationed at Station 123, were the 56th Fighter Group and 319th Bombardment Group. These photographs were shared by Flickr user Jeffs4653, and reproduced with permission on Argunners. I also thank user Doug Shelley and Gerry Asher for their expertise and captioning of the images.

Ron Mackay's his excellent book Liberators over Norwich: The 458th Bomb Group (H), 8th USAAF at Horsham St. Faith 1944-1945 shares more on the unit's history, plenty of terrific photographs from families and veterans and give you a good account of various bomb missions the unit and personnel went through.

B-24H serial 42-52457 "Final Approach" (coded 7V-Q) of the 752nd Bombardment Squadron, 458th Bombardment Group at Horsham St. Faith (Station 123), UK. She was lost on April 9, 1944. All of her crew was taken POW except for one, who was killed in action.

Douglas A-26 Invader assigned to the 801st Bomb Group / 492d Bombardment Group. The 801st Bomb Group was established as part of the Eighth Air Force in late March 1944 to carry out "Carpetbagger" missions. These were night missions over France and other parts of occupied Europe to support resistance forces by dropping in agents, supplies and leaflets. The B-24 Liberators flown by the Group were painted black to help the crews evade detection by enemy anti-aircraft positions. On 13 August 1944, the Group was redesignated as the 492nd Bomb Group.

Douglas A-20G-35-DO Havoc light bomber.

Douglas A-26C-20-DT Invader medium bomber (Serial no. 43-22513), assigned to the 856th Bomb Squadron, 492nd Bomb Group, 8th Air Force based in Harrington, UK. The 492nd was a B-24 Liberator group that received such heavy casualties during its daylight bombing missions that it was disbanded in the fall of 1944, but the group lived on for the rest of the war flying as a cover for the 801st Composite Group, part of the OSS. (Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the CIA). The group flew nighttime missions dropping agents and supplies behind enemy lines.

Ford-built B-24J (serial 42-51939) assigned to the 755th Bomb Sq, 458th BG at Horsham St. Faith (AAF Station 123), probably taken in the early fall of 1944. In October it was transferred to the 753rd Bomb Sq; on 2 May 1945 the crew bailed out when bad weather prevented a descent to land. The ship crashed about 10 miles from Oxford.

B-24 Liberator from the 754th Bombardment Squadron, 458th Bomb Group of the Eight Air Force.

Another B-24 Liberator from the 755th Bombardment Squadron, 458th Bombardment Group of the Eight Air Force.

B-24J Liberator from the 755th Bombardment Squadron, 458th Bombardment Group of the Eight Air Force.

B-24 "Oh Mona!" from the 755th Bombardment Squadron, 458th Bombardment Group of the Eight Air Force.

Nose-Art from the B-24J "Our Burma", 755th Bombardment Squadron, 458th Bombardment Group of the Eight Air Force.

B-24J Liberator "Ten Gun Dottie", 753rd Bombardment Squadron, 458th Bombardment Group of the Eight Air Force. 

USAAF Airmen, probably from the B-24 Liberator Bomb Groups, posing for the camera on the Airfield.

USAAF personnel enjoying a day in London, they are sitting on the Westminster Bridge, London, United Kingdom with the Thames behind them.

Winters Gardens in Victoria Street, Blackpool.

SEE ALSO: Suspected Nazi ghost train confirmed to be of a 'military nature'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Startling facts about World War II