A father comforts his son on his deathbed. The photo that changed the face of AIDS. 1989

A father comforts his son, David Kirby, on his deathbed in Ohio, 1989. Widely considered the photo that changed the face of AIDS.…

First Cell-Phone Picture, 1997

Boredom can be a powerful incentive. In 1997, Philippe Kahn was stuck in a Northern California maternity ward with nothing to do. The…

Behind Closed Doors: Photographer Captured a Physically Abusive Husband Beating His Wife in 1982, That Moment Also Turned Her Into an Activist

There was nothing particularly special about Garth and Lisa or the violence that happened in the bathroom of their suburban New Jersey home…

Muhammad Ali, Sonny Liston and the ‘Phantom Punch’ Title Bout, 1965

Written By: Ben Cosgrove When Muhammad Ali floored Sonny Liston in their title-bout rematch in Lewiston, Maine, on May 25, 1965, a legend…

Black Power Salute, 1968

The Olympics are intended to be a celebration of global unity. But when the American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos ascended the…

Soweto Uprising, 1976

Few outside South Africa paid much attention to apartheid before June 16, 1976, when several thousand Soweto students set out to protest the…

The Horse In Motion, 1878

When a horse trots or gallops, does it ever become fully airborne? This was the question photographer Eadweard Muybridge set out to answer…

Abraham Lincoln, 1860

Abraham Lincoln was a little-known one-term Illinois Congressman with national aspirations when he arrived in New York City in February 1860 to speak…

Iraqi Girl At Checkpoint, 2005

Moments before American photojournalist Chris Hondros took this picture of Samar Hassan, the little girl was in the backseat of her family’s car…

Gorilla In The Congo, 2007

Senkwekwe the silverback mountain gorilla weighed at least 500 pounds when his carcass was strapped to a makeshift stretcher, and it took more…

Bandit’s Roost, Mulberry Street, circa 1888

Late 19th-century New York City was a magnet for the world’s immigrants, and the vast majority of them found not streets paved with…

Milk Drop Coronet, 1957

Before Harold Edgerton rigged a milk dropper next to a timer and a camera of his own invention, it was virtually impossible to…