A villager offers prayer to a dead body of an elephant, which is killed by lightning at atop of Bamuni hill in Assam's Nagaon district, on May 14, 2021. 18 wild elephants were found dead atop Bamuni Hills in Assam's Nagaon district today after lightning struck them during the showers in the area on May 12, 2021. At least 18 elephants are suspected to have been killed by lightning in northeastern India, officials said on May 13 as they launched a probe into the incident. (Photo by Biju Boro/AFP Photo)

Ali al-Naami, convicted of murdering his three daughters, is placed on a carpet to be executed at a public square in Sana'a, Yemen, 16 June 2021. Defendant Ali al-Naami, 40, convicted of killing his daughters Rahaf, 7, Raghad, 12, and Malak, 14, in June 2019, was executed by an executioner in front of hundreds of spectators in a public square in Sana'a. He had admitted to strangling them and drowning them in a water tank after the mother left the house due to domestic disputes with him. (Photo by Yahya Arhab/EPA/EFE)

Emily Whiteford, 18, of Maryland, stretches before her audition for the Radio City Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, Wednesday, April 3, 2024 in New York. (Photo by Brittainy Newman/AP Photo)

“Tom Thumb is a character of English folklore. The History of Tom Thumb was published in 1621, and has the distinction of being the first fairy tale printed in English. Tom is no bigger than his father's thumb, and his adventures include being swallowed by a cow, tangling with giants, and becoming a favourite of King Arthur. The earliest allusions to Tom occur in various 16th century works such as Reginald Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft (1584) where Tom is cited as one of the supernatural folk employed by servant maids to frighten children”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Portrait of the dwarf, Tom Thumb standing on the hand of a Guardsman. Charles Sherwood Stratton (1838 – 1883) was nicknamed General Tom Thumb by P T Barnum, the circus owner. (Photo by London Stereoscopic Company/Getty Images). Circa 1875

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.

Breath at sunset, captures a sea turtle at a dive site called Black Rock. Kāʻanapali, Hawaiʻi, August 2013. (Photo by Christopher Doherty/Smithsonian.com)

A Capybara bathes in the hot spring water at the Saitama Children's zoo in Higashi Matsuyama city, Saitama prefecture on December 21, 2014. Seven capybaras in the zoo, originally from South America, enjoyed the hot spring water on the chilly winter day in Japan. (Photo by Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP Photo)