Today, cameras are mainly used for selfies and capturing our daily lives, but cameras have also captured history-changing moments. Without these images, historic moments would only be tales passed around by word-of-mouth. While paintings and drawings give a look into life before cameras, they don’t have the same effect.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Cameras have allowed us to see astronauts in space and people’s lives decades before we were alive. From the end of prohibition to the first woman to earn a doctorate in computer science, these extraordinary moments that changed the course of history have been captured for future generations.
An Out-of-This-World Selfie
Buzz Aldrin not only made history for being one of the first men on the moon, but he also took the first space selfie in 1966. During the Gemini 12 mission, Aldrin used extra-vehicular activity (EVA) equipment to capture himself with the pilot’s hatch of the spacecraft open and the Earth in the background.
Source: NASA/Buzz Aldrin/Public domain/Wikimedia Commons
Astronauts use the EVA equipment during spacewalks. It contains a specially designed camera for photography in outer space. The purpose of the EVA camera is to take pictures of things related to the mission. However, space selfies have become popular with astronauts since Aldrin started the trend.