“Over several decades spanning the heart of the 20th century, one American magazine ― called, plainly and boldly, LIFE ― published an astonishing number of the most memorable photographs ever made. Driven by the certainty that the art of photojournalism could tell stories and move people in ways that traditional reporting simply could not.”
CULTURE
1936 – 1972
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- 1971 | Challenger Muhammad Ali taunts heavyweight champ Joe Frazier at Frazier’s training camp in Pennsylvania ahead of their March 1971 “Fight of the Century” title bout at Madison Square Garden. Frazier retained the championship belt in a unanimous 15-round decision. Originally published in the March 5, 1971, issue of LIFE.
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- 1969 | Concert-goers huddle under a sheet of cardboard in the rain at the three-day, era-defining Woodstock Music and Art Fair in Bethel, New York. Originally published in the August 29, 1969, issue of LIFE.
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- 1968 | Senator Robert Kennedy lies in a pool of his own blood on the floor of the kitchen at Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel, June 5, 1968, after being shot by Jordanian-born assassin Sirhan Sirhan. A dazed, frightened hotel busboy, Juan Romero, tries to comfort the mortally wounded presidential candidate, who died hours later. Robert Kennedy was 42 years old. Originally published in the June 14, 1968, issue of LIFE.
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- 1967 | A leopard, seconds away from killing a terrified baboon, in a hair-raising picture that was, photographer John Dominis admits, entirely staged. Originally published in the January 6, 1967, issue of LIFE.
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- 1963 | New York Commuters read of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, November 1963. This Carl Mydans photo did not appear in LIFE when the magazine published as a weekly, but has been printed in later books.
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- 1962 | Shot for LIFE by photographer Bill Ray in May 1962, this now-iconic image of Marilyn Monroe singing “Happy Birthday” to John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden never appeared in the weekly magazine.
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- 1960 | In a Los Angeles hotel suite, John F. Kennedy confers with his brother and campaign manager Bobby during the Democratic National Convention, at which JFK was picked as the 1960 party nominee. Originally published in the July 25, 1960, issue of LIFE.
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- 1959 | The Duke and Duchess of Windsor jump for photographer Philippe Halsman. Originally published in the November 9, 1959, issue of LIFE
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- 1958 | On the screen of a drive-in theater in Utah, Charlton Heston, as Moses in the The Ten Commandments, throws his arms wide before what appears to be a congregation of cars at prayer. Originally published in the December 22, 1958, issue of LIFE.
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- 1956 | “Eyes right” is executed with near-military precision by men aboard a New York-bound 20th Century Limited train as movie star Kim Novak eases into her seat in the dining car. Originally published in the March 5, 1956, issue of LIFE.
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- 1955 | Hunkering against the cold and rain, a haunted-looking James Dean strolls through Times Square, mere blocks from the famous Actors Studio where he and other legends-to-be studied “the Method.” Originally published in the March 7, 1955, issue of LIFE.
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- 1954 | Light beams create a contour map of a human head during an Air Force study of jet-pilot helmets. Originally published, as the cover image, on the December 6, 1954, issue of LIFE.
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- 1953 | Senator John Kennedy and his bride, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, smile during their wedding reception, September 12, 1953, in Newport, Rhode Island. Originally published in the September 26, 1953, issue of LIFE.
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- 1952 | Riveted audience members enjoy opening night of the first full-length American 3-D feature film: the Arch Oboler-directed drama, Bwana Devil. Originally published in the December 15, 1952, issue of LIFE.
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- 1951 | In the single most famous image from W. Eugene Smith’s magisterial photo essay, “Spanish Village,” the faces of three members of dictator Francisco Franco’s feared Guardia Civil evince the arrogance often assumed by small men granted great power over others. Originally published in the April 9, 1951, issue of LIFE.
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- 1950 | Early in the Korean War, American Marines march through bitter cold down a canyon road they dubbed “Nightmare Alley” during a grim retreat from the Chosin Reservoir. Originally published in the December 25, 1950, issue of LIFE.
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- 1948 | Dr. Ernest Ceriani, a general practitioner in tiny Kremmling, Colorado, stands in the town’s hospital kitchen after a surgery that lasted until 2 AM. This was the final image in W. Eugene Smith’s groundbreaking photo essay, “Country Doctor,” originally published in the September 20, 1948, issue of LIFE.
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- 1947 | Heavyweight champ Joe Louis lies on the canvas at (the old, original) Madison Square Garden in New York after being floored by contender Jersey Joe Walcott in a December 1947 title match. Louis came back to win by a controversial decision. Originally published in the December 15, 1947 issue of LIFE.
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- 1946 | LIFE photographer W. Eugene Smith’s children, Juanita and Patrick, walk hand-in-hand into a clearing in 1946. The photo was the closing image in Edward Steichen’s now-legendary 1955 MoMA exhibition, The Family of Man, and was one of the very first that Smith, wounded while working in the Pacific in World War II, made after the war.
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- 1943 | Professional dancers Willa Mae Ricker and Leon James demonstrate how the Lindy Hop is meant to be danced. Originally published in the August 23, 1943, issue of LIFE.
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- 1942 | Row upon row of WACs (Women’s Army Corps members) don gas masks for a training drill at Iowa’s Fort Des Moines. Originally published in the September 7, 1942, issue of LIFE.
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- 1941 | Kappa Sigma Epsilon fraternity members toss blankets out the window of their house in preparation for a spring “blanket party” under the stars at Kansas State Teacher’s College. Originally published in the May 26, 1941, issue of LIFE.
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- 1940 | A heavily bandaged British infant, Margaret Curtis, badly injured in a German blitzkrieg attack on London during the Battle of Britain. Originally published in the September 9, 1940, issue of LIFE.
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- 1939 | Aerial view of a DC-4 passenger plane flying over midtown Manhattan. An almost identical photograph from this shoot was published in the June 19, 1939, issue of LIFE.
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- 1938 | President Franklin Roosevelt listens to a speech during the annual Jackson Day fundraising dinner in Washington, DC. Originally published in the January 24, 1938, issue of LIFE.
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- 1937 | Astronomer Edwin Hubble peers though the eyepiece of the 100-inch Hooker telescope at California’s Mt. Wilson Observatory. Originally published in the November 8, 1937, issue of LIFE.
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- 1936 | On the Cordoba front during the Spanish Civil War, a Loyalist fighter is killed in action in September 1936. Originally published in the July 12, 1937, issue of LIFE.
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- 1970 | A crush of straphangers crowds a subway car in Manhattan. Originally published in the January 9, 1970, issue of LIFE.
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- 1966 | Wounded Marine Gunnery Sgt. Jeremiah Purdie (center) moves to try and comfort a stricken comrade after a fierce firefight during the Vietnam War. Photographed for an essay that ran in the October 28, 1966, issue of LIFE, this Larry Burrows picture — now regarded as one of the handful of utterly indispensable images from the war — did not appear in the magazine until February 1971.
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- 1965 | In one of the most eloquent photographs ever made of a great athlete in decline, Yankee star Mickey Mantle flings his batting helmet away in disgust after another terrible at-bat near the end of his storied, injury-plagued career. Originally published in the July 30, 1965, issue of LIFE.
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- 1964 | Four lads from Liverpool — Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John Lennon, and Ringo Starr — take a dip in an unheated Miami Beach swimming pool during a cold snap on their first trip to the States. “We could not find a heated pool that could be closed off from the rest of the press,” photographer John Loengard later said of this picture, “so we settled for one that was not … [and they] started turning blue.” Originally published in the February 28, 1964, issue of LIFE.
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- 1961 | Freedom Riders Julia Aaron and David Dennis sit aboard an interstate bus as they and 25 other civil rights activists are escorted by Mississippi National Guardsmen on a violence-marred trip between Montgomery, Alabama, and Jackson, Mississippi. Originally published in the June 2, 1961, issue of LIFE.
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- 1957 | Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. speaks at the landmark Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in Washington, DC, one of the earliest mass rallies of the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement. Paul Schutzer took this photograph in 1957, but it did not appear in LIFE until the April 12, 1968, issue — one week after Dr. King was assassinated.
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- 1949 | Pablo Picasso drafts a centaur in mid-air with a “light pen” in southeastern France. Originally published in the January 30, 1950, issue of LIFE.
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- 1945 | On August 14, 1945 — VJ Day — a jubilant sailor plants a kiss on a nurse in Times Square to celebrate the Allies’ long- awaited World War II victory over Japan. Originally published (not as a cover shot, as most people assume today, but as just one in a series of “VJ Day victory celebration” images featured in the middle of the magazine) in the August 27, 1945, issue of LIFE.
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- 1944 | In the face of devastating German fire, American troops land at Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Originally published in the June 19, 1944, issue of LIFE.
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