5 Iconic Photos From History (That Are Totally Fake)

Grigoriy Nelyubov did. After getting dismissed from the Soviet space program for "drunk and disorderly conduct" and being deemed an unfit role model for youths in the '60s, all records of his involvement in the program were purged, including his presence in the above photo of the legendary group of astronauts. It's possible that there was a deeper conspiracy afoot and the "drunk and disorderly" charge was fabricated to get rid of a thorn in the government's side -- it certainly wouldn't be the first time Soviet Russia "disappeared" someone -- and his suicide just a few years later seems to hint at larger troubles. But come on. Look at this guy.

We prefer to think he Stifler'd his way out of history.

The series of photos Appert released in the weeks following the incidents, titled "The Crimes of the Commune," were completely staged. He had a bunch of actors come in to stand like they were being executed or doing the executing, then pasted the appropriate heads and backgrounds in.

The Commune did indeed execute some hostages. There was no need for fabrication. It just wasn't quite as bad as some people wanted it to be, and if you want to properly smear your enemies, you gotta get the lighting right, you know?

Then it was picked up across the pond, and there was instant pandemonium. Most of America's top newsrooms -- including The New York Times and Chicago Herald & Examiner -- took the article for a true story, telling their audiences that they could soon fly on their own power as long as they didn't mind looking like tools.

There are a few reasons they didn't get the joke, and not (just) because Americans are dumb. This was pre-internet, when you couldn't click on a link, look at the date, and realize you've been April Fooled. When the photo was disseminated by the International News Photo agency, it wasn't identified as a joke, and Americans didn't realize it was published on April Fool's Day. INP also confused details of the story which made clear it was a joke, like the pilot's name being a German pun and the fact that the device was reported to rely on the combustion of carbon dioxide, which isn't very combustible. Although those details wouldn't have been very helpful if you didn't speak German or know chemistry anyway. Sorry, we're not nerds, Germany.

And it never happened. Likely assembled by L.C. Hardy, who made good business for himself in the early 20th century producing photos of historic veterans looking a tad more heroic than they really were, it's a composite of three different images taken of three different scenes at three different times during the war. The only part of that image that really is Grant is his head, which explains why, after such a stirring victory, he just looks vaguely constipated.

The irony is that if its purpose was to make Grant look powerful, it doesn't do its job very well. William B. Becker, creator of the online American Museum of Photography, points out that the general's men aren't paying him much attention and respect, just kind of milling around in the background and ignoring him, almost as if he wasn't there. On the Library of Congress website, it is noted that Major General Alexander McDowell McCook, the man on the horse upon whose body Grant's head is pasted, was rather more "stout around the middle" than Grant was. Moral of the story: Don't become a figure whom future people will want to deify, because they might end up making you look fat and disrespected instead.

For more, check out The Fake Military Operation That Won WW2:

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