Thanks to the proliferation of the internet we can see countless images in an instant with the click of a mouse.  Most of the pictures available online, however, are of cats with misspelled captions or people confusing Joseph Kony with Carl Weathers.

But with a little insight into history and a healthy curiosity we care track down some moving images that were lost due to poor cultural memory or buried “to protect the public.”

Have a look at some of these photos taken over the last century or so. All of them are noteworthy either for the people they depict or as a sign of the times they were taken in.  Be warned though that some of these photos may be disturbing.

1.The world’s first McDonald’s

2.A young Che Guevara and Fidel Castro

3. Pope Pius the 12th meeting with Adolf Hitler

4 .An enlisted Elvis Presley

5. Early incarnations of the Beatles

6. Osama bin Laden (circled) and family

7. Tearing down of the Berlin Wall

8. Vintage Coca-Cola bottles

9.  John Lennon signing Mark David Chapman’s album hours before his murder

10. A team of black ER doctors and nurses treating a wounded KKK member

11. Charlie Chaplin with Mahatma Gandhi

12. The world’s first computer

13. John F Kennedy’s corpse (WARNING: graphic image, click to view)

14. The funeral of Martin Luther King Jr.

15. Albert Einstein’s report card

16. Google’s original staff

17. RMS Titanic above and below water

18. Princess Diana’s accident scene (WARNING: graphic image, click to view)

19. Pope John Paul II and the man who shot him two years before, Mehmet Ali Ağca

20. President George W. Bush first hearing of the September 11 attacks while reading to children

Source: Fishki.Net(Russian) via Karapaia (Japanese)