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Original Caption: "Game of coon-can near Reserve, Louisiana". September 1938.

The game these two are playing, actually called Conquian, is a rummy-style card game.

Photo taken by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration, and accessed through the @nypl (New York Public Library).

Below is a video that encapsulates the colourisation process.

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Two kittens pose for a photo on a net covered box in front of a canvas backdrop, sometime in the early 1900s.

I couldn't find any details about the photo, it was just too cute not to colourise...

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Jacqueline Cochran with her modified Northrop Gamma 2G racing plane in 1939.

Cochran grew up in poverty and never really had any formal education. Born in Florida, she moved to Georgia at age 8 and married Robert Cochran at just age 14. In 1921, at age 15 she had a son, Robert Jr, who died in 1925. The two would divorce in 1927.

Initially training as a beautician, she took her first flying lessons in 1932 and gained a license in just 3 weeks. She would study as a navy pilot while simultaneously organising a cosmetics firm, which would grow until she eventually sold it in 1963.

In 1935 she was the first woman to ever enter the Bendix Transcontinental Air Race, coming third in 1937 and first in 1938.

In 1941 she would pilot a bomber across the Atlantic to the UK and become a flight captain in the British Air Transport Auxiliary. In July 1943 she would transfer to the US equivalent and become the director of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs).

In 1945 she would be the first female civilian to be awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and in 1948 was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the USAF Reserves. By 1953, she would be the first woman to break the sound barrier, and in the same year would set world speed records for 15, 100, and 500 km courses.

Between 1959 and 1963 she was also the first female preseident of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, and conducted into the International Aerospace Hall of Fame in 1965.

She continued to break her own records, reaching a maximum height of 16,841 metres (55,253 feet) in altitude and hitting a speed of 2,300 km/h (1,429 mp/h). Promoted to full colonel in 1969, she would retire in 1970. She would remain as a NASA consultant after her retirement.

By the time she died in 1980, she held more speed, altitude, and distance records than anyone in the world.

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Thelonious Monk playing the Piano in Minton's Playhouse, September 1947. Photo taken by William Gottlieb.

Thelonious was a Jazz pianist, and was well known for his improvisational style. The second-most-recorded Jazz composer ever, after Duke Ellington, he was well known for stopping mid performance to get up and dance while others around him played on.

He started playing Piano at the age of 6, taught by a neighbour. Monk's mother would also play with him from time to time, and he would accompany her singing in their church too.

He learnt to play many of the pieces of classical pianists, but was soon drawn to Jazz instead. At just 17 he toured the country with an evangelist, playing on a church organ. But Monk's style came into its own at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem.

He signed up to fight in 1943 but was rejected by the army, so turned back to Jazz once again, and in 1944 he would record his first ever commercial track.

Despite being barred from many premises in 1947 by the police (he refused to testify against a friend, so they took away his cabaret card, which meant he couldn't perform in any venue that also served alcohol), he continued to perform in non advertised small bars around the outskirts of New York. His fame would continue to grow there as more and more discovered him.

By 1955 he would be recording albums and quite famous around the nation. He would visit Paris and play there, then sign more deals with recording labels throughout the 1960s. By the 1970s he had somewhat disappeared from the stage due to health issues and only made a few outings. He would die in 1982, aged 64, of a stroke.

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Three Westland Lysander Mark IIIAs of No. 309 Polish Fighter-Reconnaissance Squadron RAF on a photo-recon training sortie over snow-covered Scottish hills.

On 15th September 1940, the Luftwaffe launched the largest attack they ever had on London. The aim was to draw out the RAF into a battle of annihilation.

Up until this point, the RAF had been locked in a battle of 'non-attrition,' where the RAF sought to only inflict moderate losses against the Luftwaffe and to take few of their own. This way, by always putting up some resistance but refusing to engage in larger battles, the Luftwaffe felt they were getting nowhere.

And so 1,120 Luftwaffe aircraft (620 fighters, 500 bombers) met 630 RAF fighter aircraft in the skies above London. But there, 57-61 Luftwaffe aircraft fell, as opposed to only 29 British planes.

While these losses again seem only moderate they represented a large chunk of Axis air power. This is not to mention that all the German pilots were lost, as if they survived the crash or bailed out, they were still captured and interned for the rest of the war. British pilots could return straight to the front.

Both groups tried to overclaim the amount of aircraft they shot down. The Luftwaffe claimed 79 kills for under 40 losses, and the RAF claimed a staggering 185 German planes shot down.

As far as Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park was concerned, it was ridiculous to claim 200 aircraft downed. It was also not a cause for celebration as, despite the 2:1 ratio in favour of the RAF, this was proof that the RAF needed 'tightening up.' It was a good performance, but not the RAF's best.

Hitler was not overly concerned with the outcome - he believed from the end of August the Luftwaffe would not achieve aerial supremacy, and so postponed Operation Sealion indefinitely on 17th September. His plan now was to knock the USSR out of the war before they could even start it, neutralising the UK's last potential ally.

But for the British public, it was a cause for great celebration. The Luftwaffe had failed in its last attempt to gain full aerial superiority. For this reason, every 15th of September is celebrated as Battle of Britain day in the UK.

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Ndugu M'Hali in a portrait studio in London, 1872.

He was renamed Kalulu by Stanley as he did not like his original name.

Given to the infamous explorer Henry Morton Stanley as a man servant, he travelled the world with him until his untimely demise at just age 12 in 1877.

He was put into an English school for 18 months before visiting the US and France. He was then taken to the Congo to be Stanley's translator, but he and 4 others would fall to their deaths off the Livingstone Falls.

This photo was only discovered 7 years ago in the Hulton archives, a archive of 80 million photos.

It is unique because because he is alone in the frame in the set uncovered, whereas before he had only been in photos as an accessory to Stanley, dressed in tribal clothing and sometimes armed with a spear.

It is part of the project known as the "Missing Chapter" - am attempt to uncover the first images of black people in Britain. It aims to raise awareness because it states that if one is not recorded in history, they 'do not exist.' They also bring into question the past and current priorities of historians.

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Queen Elizabeth in Buckingham palace, December 1st 1958.

Today marks the end of an era, an era that lasted for 70 years. The Queen truly was a piece of living history. While neither she nor the establishment she represents are perfect, she represented a constant in a world of frequent change and unrest.

At the end of the day - whatever your opinions on her, the royal family, or British politics - she was a genuine leader, as proven by decades of service.