People walk in the rainstorm as typhoon Lekima approaches in Shanghai, China on August 10, 2019. The death toll from Typhoon Lekima rose to 49 on August 13 and 21 were still missing after the monster storm wreaked havoc on China's eastern coast, causing huge damage with strong gales and torrential rain. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

“Daredevil Nik Wallenda became the first person to walk on a tightrope across the Niagara Falls, taking steady, measured steps June 15, 2012 for 1,800 feet across the mist-fogged brink of the roaring falls separating the U.S. and Canada”. (Photo by John Moore/David Duprey/AP Photo)

With temperatures soaring and summer well underway, countless Americans will be spending their Independence Day weekend at the beach. Here we revisit some classic images from the turn-of-the-century to the 1930's of vacations by the sea, from Coney Island to Santa Monica.

A dragster supercharger hits cameraman Joe Rooks of Bowling Green, Ohio, in the back at the U.S. Nationals N.H.R.A. drag races in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Saturday, September 1, 1979. Rooks was knocked flat by the heavy blower from a dragster that turned over and disintegrated near Rooks. Rooks died en route to the hospital. (Photo by Chuck Robinson/AP Photo)

Lucinda Grange perches on the eagle's head on the corner of New York's iconic Chrysler Building in Manhattan, New York City. (Photo by Lucinda Grange/Barcroft Media USA)

“The Reward”. “A spot that a friend and I found that takes a bit of effort to get to. Needs the right swell and wind direction to come together for the backwash to really happen. We had been many times with OK results, but this morning everything lined up perfectly and I was rewarded with this split-second moment in time under some amazing morning light”. (Photo by Scott Harrison/2019 UK Surf Photo of the Year)

“The finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides) is one of six porpoise species. In the waters around Japan, at the northern end of its range, it is known as the sunameri. A freshwater population found in the Yangtze River in China is known locally as the jiangzhu or «river pig»”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A newly born Yangtze finless porpoise (top) swims with his mother at the Hydrobiology Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on June 3, 2007 in Wuhan of Hubei Province, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

A woman walks past as South Korean soldiers participate in an anti-chemical and anti-terror exercise as part of the 2023 Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) at subway station on August 22, 2023 in Seoul, South Korea. The 11-day exercise, which features drills including the handling of chemical and biological attacks, is a regular joint exercise between U.S. and South Korean troops. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)