Google's vice president Alan Eustace looks out of his spacesuit into the stratosphere prior to a record-breaking skydive over New Mexico, in this still image taken from video October 24, 2014, a handout courtesy of the Paragon Space Development Corporation. Eustace was lifted up 135,890 ft (41,420 metres) by an enormous balloon while wearing a specially designed pressurized space suit, the Paragon Space Development Corporation said. Eustace remained in a free fall for approximately 4.5 minutes before landing safely nearly 70 miles (43.4 kms) from his launch point, setting a world record for the highest skydive and breaking the sound barrier in the process. Eustace landed safely on the ground just 15 minutes after he was lifted into the air. (Photo by Reuters/Paragon Space Development Corporation)

Two copper sharks ride the waves in Red Bluff Beach, Australia on July, 2020. Professional photographer Sean Scott, 43, from Burleigh Heads, Australia, caught the stunning snap. (Photo by Sean Scott/MediaDrumImages/@seanscottphotography)

A little girl seen waiting in a queue to participate in the Kumari Puja ritual in Kolkata, India on March 30, 2023. Kumari Puja is an Indian Hindu Tradition mainly celebrated during the Durga Puja / Basanti Puja / Navratri according to Hindu calendar. Kumari actually describes a young virgin girl from the age 1 to 16 who is getting worshipped during the transition of Ashtami / Navami tithi of Durga Puja / Navaratri according to Hindu mythology. (Photo by Avishek Das/SOPA Images/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Honorable Mention: “The Storm”. During I was taking photo with my nephew, the storm came and I caught this beautiful moment. Photo location: Kocaeli, Turkey. (Photo and caption by Aytül Akbaş/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Bat seller Sukarwati shows a skinned bat on July 30, 2009 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Sukarwati and her family have hunted bats in the Imogiri region for generations, capturing more than 800 bats per month. The Sukarwati family believe that the meat from the bat heals asthma and respiratory problems and it is a great honour for them knowing that the meat that they provide will help ease people's health ailments. (Photo by Ulet Ifansasti)

“Natacha Pisarenko was born in Buenos Aires and studied photography at that city’s School of Photographic Arts. Pisarenko currently works out of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She started her career in 1988 as a photographer for La Nación, one of Argentina’s largest newspapers, then joined the AP in Buenos Aires in 2002”. – Associated Press. Photo: A fan wearing leggings marked with the stripes of Great Britain's flag rests on the grass at the rowing venue in Eton Dorney, near Windsor, England, at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 30, 2012. (Photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo)

The 100-metre (300-foot), sword-wielding statue of “The Motherland” is seen in the National Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War in Kiev March 17, 2014. On a blustery day on the banks of the Dnieper, the statue of “The Motherland”, a Soviet hammer and sickle on her shield, towered overhead, a reminder of the common cause Ukrainians and Russians died for side by side in their millions in World War Two and which Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks Ukraine has betrayed by turning to “fascism” and the West. (Photo by Konstantin Grishin/Reuters)

While the lido was described as bringing “modernism to the masses” on the British coast it was just the latest example of a trend that had been developing since Victorian times – transforming seaside towns into resorts for leisure and entertainment. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the fashion was for local authorities to build great piers stretching from the promenade out into the sea. The Eastbourne Pier, pictured here in May 1931, was erected between 1866 and 1870 to an ingenious design by Eugenius Birch, which saw the structure sitting on special cups allowing the supporting struts to “move” in bad weather. Arranged on the pier's 1,000-foot length were kiosks, a theatre, a ballroom and a camera obscura. 1931. (Photo by Aerofilms Collection via “A History of Britain From Above”)