In 1949, LIFE magazine sent famed photographer Nina Leen to document the daily life of a sassy troupe of young women who had run off and joined the famous Barnum & Bailey Circus in Sarasota, Fla. What developed was a portrait of a sisterhood formed over acrobatics that mixed high-flying wire acts with fashionable high-waisted shorts. Sarasota was once considered “the home of the American circus”. Here: an aerialist smoking while rehearsing for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Sarasota, FL in 1949. (Photo By Nina Leen/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Space Shuttle Discovery is towed from the shuttle landing facility to the orbiter processing facility at Kennedy Space Center on April 20, 2010 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Discovery's landing attempts at KSC were scrubbed yesterday due to unacceptable weather conditions. Discovery is returning from a successful mission to the International Space Station. (Photo by Matt Stroshane/Getty Images). CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – APRIL 20 2010

A baby Black-crowned Night Heron squawks in its incubator while being cared for at City Wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center in Washington, DC on May 31, 2017. The heron is one of several that have been brought to CW by the staff at The National Zoo over the past few years. (Photo Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

Members of the Texas Dancin' Divas take part in the Juneteenth Parade in Galveston, Texas, U.S., June 19, 2021. The United States marked Juneteenth for the first time as a federal holiday commemorating the end of the legal enslavement of Black Americans. (Photo by Adrees Latif/Reuters)

Demonstrators made barricades during clashes with police following a protest condemning the arrest of rap artist Pablo Hasél in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, February 18, 2021. The imprisonment of a rap artist for his music praising terrorist violence and insulting the Spanish monarchy has set off a powder keg of pent-up rage this week in Spain. (Photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP Photo)

Aubrey Zimmermann, 9-months-old, poses for a photo with Santa at the Willow Grove Park Mall ahead of Christmas in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, U.S. December 3, 2021. (Photo by Hannah Beier/Reuters)