20 historical photographs that bring the past to life

Probably everyone, at least once, dreamed of going back in time and seeing what life was like then. There is no such thing as a time machine, and all we can do is enjoy photographs of the past. Some of them can tell us a lot of really interesting things.

20 PHOTOS

1. Women in "short shorts" in the 1950s.

2. Young girl saying goodbye to a soldier, Connecticut, 1945.

3. A Dutch boy with a pillow tied to his back to cushion his fall while skating.

4. Belgian miners, 1900

5. Excavation of the Sphinx, circa 1850

6. Ice table: low tide on the beach in Rokane, Netherlands, in the harsh winter of 1963.

7. Cyclomer amphibious bicycle, Paris, 1932

8. Boys play in a traffic accident with 2 pedal cars and a tricycle, the Netherlands, 1935.

9. An ostrich "reads" the caretaker's newspaper, 1951

10. Trader's car. Netherlands, the 1930s.

11. The first photograph was ever taken from space, 1946.

12. A giant pyramid of liquor barrels to be burned during the ban, 1924

13. Masked waiters, Germany, 1933.

14. The boy plays with a radio-controlled toy car. Almelo, Netherlands, 1957.

15. Children on a sled pulled by a car on a snowy road in Scheveningen, the Netherlands, year unknown.

16. Football on motorcycles at the Crystal Palace football field in London, England 1923.

17. Excavation of a statue of Antinous in Greece, 1894.

18. A woman milking a cow with an elephant's head - April joke in Het Leven magazine, 1932.

19. Sunbathing with folding reflector, Netherlands, 1961

20. Small trouser press exhibited at Westminster, England, 1936.