A sword that is pointed backwards, as it seems.

Tastes like sweet vengeance.

The conveyor belt of anti-Semitism.

In the 1970s Argentina was under a brutal dictatorship, its secret police used Ford Falcons to apprehend suspected communists by the loosest definitions of the word. As a result the Ford Falcons became a symbol of that period in history.

Something doesn't add up...

The Great Famine of 1315-1322 affected most of Europe—bad weather of 1315 caused crop failures and cattle diseases, which lead to extreme levels of crime and cannibalism; almost 12% of Norther European population perished.

Great leap forward.

Press F for our Celtiberian friends.

Pa jebote, Dragane, can you stop warcrimin' for 5 seconds?

Imagine how people seriously considered Adolf's "peace formula" in 1938.

It all started with a short memo, dated July 26, 1908, and signed by Charles J. Bonaparte, Attorney General, describing a “regular force of special agents” available to investigate certain cases of the Department of Justice. This memo is celebrated as the official birth of the Federal Bureau of Investigation—known throughout the world today as the FBI.

Welcome to the Viking Age.

In 1770, the Russian army brought the bubonic plague into the Russian Empire, which then spread throughout Russia. Quite modern quarantine measures ensured that the affected areas were supposedly sealed off so that the plague "did not penetrate the country".

A supposed outbreak of typhus in Moscow was initially ignored, as it faded away again and it was only poor workers from a textile factory who were secretly buried. In the fall, Catherine II mocked all those who were "stirring up panic". It came as it must and the plague spread in Moscow until July.

The superstitious city population saw this as a sign of too little fear of God and saw the solution in the worship of the icon of the Mother of God at the Barbara Gate. The crowd in front of the gate increased the spread of the plague. The archbishop then ordered the icon to be removed to prevent further "masses". This led to the interpretation that the bishop had abandoned the faith. A lynch mob therefore marched to the archbishop's monastery. However, a mass was in progress here. This was awaited. When the mass ended, the mob stormed in, dragged the bishop out of the church and lynched him.

Catherine the Great described this incident to Voltaire, without mentioning that the plague was raging in Moscow. In response, he wrote, among other things, "I thank nature that the epidemic in Moscow is not the plague".

Not strictly speaking a meme, but a cool Mexican WW2 propaganda poster. Fun fact: Mexico was one of the few countries that openly condemned 1938 Anschluss of Austria.

Whereas British resorted to the night bombing at the start of the war, Americans usually went for the day bombing with heavy fighter escort. This allowed for non-stop bombing once the US entered the war and got to Europe.

Near the end of the war Germans were unable to field fighters, so round the clock bombing was stepped up. However, there was still flak cannons and every once in a while they got lucky and actually hit a bomber. The bombing was so often they sometimes didn't get fighter escorts (although they rarely needed them).

Efficient writing system be like.

When the Arab armies attacked, Persia was struggling with unprecedented levels of political, social, economic, and military weakness; the Sasanian army had greatly exhausted fighting against the Byzantine/Eastern Roman armies in the 602-628 war (that is basically a part of a larger conflict that lasted 200 years with a few breaks.) They also changed 12 kings in 14 years, further weakening the Sassanid empire. Their trade routes and industry had also suffered during their previous war, the farmers had been overtaxed to pay for war expenses and a plague was brought home in 627 by the Persian armies. In short, they weren't in great shape to fight off the Arabs.

'Cause that's the real menace to society.

Your savior is here.

Barbarossa: L for Logistics.