Obscure Moments in History: Einstein at the Battle of Midway

Albert Einstein, the German-born American physicist who developed the theories of relativity and mass-energy equivalence (E = mc2), is invited by the U.S. Navy to visit the USS Yorktown as it sails the Pacific Ocean. Einstein rides his bicycle on the deck of the carrier as the Japanese attack. Smoke pours from the Yorktown's stacks after being hit in the boilers by Japanese dive bombers at the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942.
Einstein is quoted as saying: “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving." Especially when the Japanese are attacking.

Obscure Moments in History: Nuclear Tourism

The Bureau of Atomic Tourism was created in 1945 for the promotion of nuclear warfare development. In order to get support from the American public for what would become a devastating, destructive weapon, the bureau organized tours to bring spectators from the general population as close as possible to the testing site.

Trinity Site, located on the northern end of the 3,200-square-mile White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, was where the first atomic bomb was tested at 5:29:45 a.m. Mountain War Time on July 16, 1945. The 19-kiloton explosion not only led to a quick end to the war in the Pacific but also ushered the world into the atomic age.

Attending the first (and only) nuclear test open to the public was the Anderson family from the Midwest, shown in this photo.

“The effects could well be called unprecedented, magnificent, beautiful, stupendous, and terrifying. No man-made phenomenon of such tremendous power had ever occurred before. The lighting effects were beyond description. The whole countryside was lighted by a searing light with the intensity many times that of the midday sun.”
— Jim Anderson’s eyewitness account of the Trinity Test.

Obscure Moments in History: Fall of the Tower of Terror

Disney-MGM Studios, 1994. Opening day of Tower of Terror thrill ride. Faced with huge, opening day crowds, several desperate British tourists commandeered a helicopter from the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! ride and proceeded to enter the attraction through the side door, infuriating thousands waiting in line in the Florida summer heat.