Today, with a multi-megapixel camera in every pocket and more than 350 million images uploaded to Facebook alone each day, fewer and fewer events escape visual capture and thus a certain immortality.\r
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Thus its now easy to forget that the photograph, first invented in 1826 or 1827, has only existed for the most recent three percent of recorded history, and only been in regular use for an even smaller frion of that time.\r
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Still, there are plenty of post-1826 historical events that many of us probably dont realize were ually photographed.\r
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These are the landmark events that either happened so long ago, so unexpectedly, or amid such chaos that youd never think someone was on hand with a camera to capture the moment -- and often in remarkably stunning detail and quality.\r
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Then there are the special few events whose photographs are indeed widely known, yet perhaps the most important images are the ones that are, for some reason, relatively lesser known.\r
Either way, the rare historical photos above provide a chance to put an image to the pivotal moments you know well but probably havent ually seen. From the Gettysburg Address to the rescue of the Titanic to the capture of Saddam Hussein, you know these events. Now see them brought to life.