Photos are designed to capture a moment in time, but not all moments are created equal. Some moments are just a blip in a lifetime. Others define entire generations.
Here are 20 historical photos that transport you to an exact and significant moment in time.
1
Self-Portrait of Brian Shul
Flying the SR-71 Blackbird in the 1990s.
2
Tearing Down the Statue of Stalin
The 1956 revolution in Budapest.
3
Mission Control
Watching a broadcast from Apollo 13, 1972.
4
Saddam Hussein Visits Fidel Castro in Cuba, 1978.
At the time Hussein was nominally the Vice President of Iraq, but the de facto leader of the country.
5
Rick Rescorla
Using a megaphone to organise the evacuation workers from the World Trade Centre. He saved thousands, and died later that day.
6
Titanic Survivors
In their lifeboat, 1912.
7
Jewish Prisoners of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp
On a transport to Theresienstadt north of Prague, moments after they were liberated by US forces in April, 1945.
8
The Omagh Bombing
The car with the bomb in Northern Ireland, moments before it goes off in 1998.
9
CIA Agent Felix Rodriguez and Bolivian Soldiers
Posing with Che Guevara moments before his execution. Bolivia, 1967.
10
Franklin Roosevelt With His 1940 Running Mate, Henry Wallace
In 1944, party centrists convinced FDR to replace the progressive Wallace with Harry Truman.
11
Mahatma Gandhi's Possessions At his time of death, 1948.
At his time of death, 1948.
12
John F Kennedy Robert F Kennedy Jr
With a salamander in a bowl, Washington DC, 1961.
13
Stalin
Walking along the banks of the Moscow-Volga Canal, 1937.
14
The Tbilisi Tragedy
Soviet troops crack down on independence protests and kill 20 civilians in 1989.
15
Marcus Sarjeant
Firing six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II in 1981.
16
A Kamikaze
Diving on the USS Lexington, 1944.
17
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
Biking on Fire Island, NY, September 1967.
18
Zoulikha Oudai Arrested By the French Army
The Algerian resistance fighter would be found dead 10 days later after significant mistreatment in captivity, 1957.
19
The Statue of Liberty
In Paris before coming to the US in 1886.
20
A Japanese Dive Bomber
Final moments in 1945.
