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The Kiss: Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1945

Perhaps the most famous photo ever to appear in LIFE is Alfred
Eisenstaedt's portrait of the spontaneous jubilation that broke out with
the announcement that World War II was over. Eisenstaedt recalled
that the sailor was kissing every gal in sight and managed to get four
snaps of him in a clinch with this nurse. He never got their names, and
while many credible contenders stepped forward over the years, LIFE
never conclusively confirmed any of the claimants. Their identities
remain a mystery; what they were feeling at that moment does not.

Charlie Chaplin: Photo by W. Eugene Smith, 1952

On the set of Limelight, Charlie Chaplin re-created the turn-of-thecentury London music halls where he had learned his craft as a mime
and a comic actor even before the dawn of the silent film industry. In
this intimate portrait, photographer W. Eugene Smith saw the great
actor and director, in his sixth decade, returning to the clowning of his
youth. Crazy, scary talent? Yep, he's still got it.

Ingrid Bergman in Italy: Photo by Gordon Parks, 1949

In 1949, Ingrid Bergman, the luminous (and married) Swedish star
of Casablanca and Notorious, traveled to Italy to work with a director
she very much admired: Roberto Rossellini. During the production of
their movie Stromboli, Bergman's admiration blossomed into love, and
her affair with Rossellini led to a scandalous pregnancy. LIFE's Gordon
Parks, a trusted friend of Bergman's, was on the Stromboli set during
what must have been a fraught time for the actress, and he captured in
his portraits the mystery and sadness that were central to the
Bergman's onscreen appeal. In the most famous photo from the shoot,
three local women stop to stare at the actress, their censorious air
foreshadowing the extreme Stateside reaction to the affair. Parks' photo
-- perfectly composed to highlight the old women in black against the
young actress in white -- is infused not just with melancholy but
defiance.

The Puppet Show: Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1963

Yes, LIFE's photographers took many classic images of the powerful,
the rich, and the famous -- but Alfred Eisenstaedt's gift was making
stars out of everyday people, by patiently observing and capturing them
in magical moments of joy and wonder. Here, he trains his eye on a
young audience at a puppet show in a Paris park: Each delightful child
reacts in an extreme and distinct way to the moment when St. George
slays the dragon, displaying a range of emotions -- amusement, horror,
triumph, fear -- that hints at the many facets of the human experience.

Lindy Hop: Photo by Gjon Mili, 1943

In this artful, exuberant picture Gjon Mili photographs professional
dancers Willa Mae Ricker & Leon James showing off the Lindy Hop.
The dance evolved in 1927 after Lindbergh's flight when
improvisational dancers in Harlem's Savoy Ballroom caused an
observer to exclaim, "It looks like their doin' the Lindy Hop."

Goin' Home: Photo by Ed Clark, 1945

Navy Chief Petty Officer Graham Jackson had played the accordion
often for Franklin D. Roosevelt during the polio-stricken president's
frequent visits to the spa at Warm Springs, Ga. He was scheduled to
play for him again on April 12, 1945, the day Roosevelt died at the LIttle
White House in Warm Springs. Instead, the officer found himself
leading the funeral procession the next day, tears streaming down his
face while he played such mournful dirges as "Goin' Home" and
"Nearer My God to Thee." Ed Clark's photo captures the honest pain
felt by those who'd just lost the man who led them through the
Depression and to the doorstep of victory of a war against global
tyranny.

Marlene Dietrich: Photo by Milton Greene, 1952

"Mystery is a woman's greatest charm," screen star Marlene Dietrich
once reportedly said. If that's the case, then Milton Greene's portrait of
her -- taken when Dietrich was 46 -- is the most charming ever to run in
LIFE. In it, the alluring "Blonde Venus" is all silky hair and long legs; the
rest of her, like so many of the characters she played through the
years, is shrouded in darkness.

The American Way: Photo by Margaret Bourke-White, 1937

In Margaret Bourke-White's indelible, sadly ironic Depression-era
photo, African-American victims of the Louisville Flood wearily
assemble to receive food and clothing from a Red Cross relief station.
The juxtaposition with the billboard is, clearly, nothing short of surreal -but it took a keen eye to see the picture whole. Bourke-White, one of
the LIFE's first staff photographers, later said that when the magazine's
founder Henry Luce saw the difference between her flood photos and
those from the news services, he realized that his photographers
deserved credit lines.

Bobby on the Beach: Photo by Bill Eppridge, 1968

Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, looking almost like a college
athlete in his sweater and rolled-up pants, bounds down an Oregon
beach, his faithful dog Freckles close behind. Just days after Eppridge
took this photo, he followed Kennedy on to California, where he
witnessed the senator's assassination. The photographer's shocking
black-and-white image of RFK sprawled and dying on the floor of the
Ambassador Hotel stands as the most famous photo from June 6, 1968 -but this shot fulfilled another purpose: When LIFE's editors had to select
an image for the cover of the memorial issue, a tasteful and meaningful
tribute to another good man gone too soon, this one was the clear choice.

Liberation of Buchenwald: Photo by Margaret Bourke-White, 1945

Margaret Bourke-White -- one of LIFE's four founding photographers -always made it her business to be in the right place at the right time. In
this case, she was with the Allied troops when they liberated
Buchenwald, one of the Holocaust's most notorious concentration
camps. Among the many terrifying pictures she made that day-- piles of
bodies, skulls -- none is more haunting than this portrait of dazed,
skeletal prisoners. Just by looking in their eyes, we sense the horrors
they've known. This picture brought home to LIFE readers the insanity
of the regime they had just defeated, and reminded them what they
were fighting for.

Eyes of Hate: Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1933

At a League of Nations conference in 1933, Nazi Propaganda Minister
Joseph Goebbels remains seated while speaking to his interpreter.
German-born Alfred Eisenstaedt, later one of the founding
photographers of LIFE, recalled that Goebbels smiled at him until he
learned that Eisenstaedt was Jewish -- a moment Eisenstaedt captured
in this photo. Suddenly, "he looked at me with hateful eyes and waited
for me to wither," the photographer recalled. "But I didnt wither." Not
only didn't he wither, he managed to take perhaps the most chilling
portrait of pure evil to run in LIFE's pages.

Peek-A-Boo: Photo by Ed Clark, 1958

So much is unseen in this photo -- Kennedy's face, baby Caroline's
mouth -- and yet we not only know exactly what's happening but can
feel the father-daughter bond as if we were in the room. The charisma
that was Kennedy's defining attribute fairly emanates from this photo,
just as this classic image of what was in essence just another happy
family man would later remind readers of the true tragedy of Nov. 22,
1963.

"The Marlboro Man": Leonard McCombe, 1949

Leonard McCombe's portrait of Clarence Hailey Long, the 39-year-old
foreman of the JA ranch in the Texas Panhandle, so completely
embodied the rugged, romantic spirit of the West, that advertising giant
Leo Burnett used it as the model for a long-running and highly
successful ad campaign: the Marlboro Man.

The Longest Day: Photo by Robert Capa, 1944

No other photograph taken on D-Day matched the great Robert Capa's
intense, jittery, "you are there" picture of American forces landing on
Omaha Beach, June 6, 1944. Under withering German machine-gun
fire, loaded down with weapons and other gear, the Allies took massive
casualties -- and still they pushed up the beach. With its heady mix of
clarity and chaos, taken in the very thick of the battle, Capa's is simply
one of the most iconic war photographs ever made -- and a mere
glimpse into the savagery and courage that came to define World War
II's "longest day.

Picasso and Centaur: Photo by Gjon Mili, 1949

For this 1949 portrait of Pablo Picasso in his studio in the south of
France, the artist was inspired by Gjon Mili's previous photos of ice
skaters spinning through the air with small lights attached to their
skates. Mili left the shutters of his cameras open as Picasso made
ephemeral drawings in the air of a darkened room. This one was of one
of a centaur. Mili caught the artist himself by using a 1/10,000th-second
strobe light. This photo ranks among LIFE's best partly because it
actually captures the moment of creation by a genius.

Freedom Riders: Photo by Paul Schutzer, 1961

Julia Aaron and David Dennis were among the Freedom Riders trying
to integrate interstate buses and terminals in 1961. After the Riders had
been greeted by beatings and firebombings during much of their
journey, they finally received National Guard protection on this ride,
from Montgomery, Ala., to Jackson, Miss. Once they stepped off the
bus in Jackson, however, the riders were arrested when they tried to
desegregate the station.
Shutzer's photo perfectly distills the uneasy relationship between the
Riders and the men a not-always-benevolent government sent to
protect them.

Jumping Royals: Photo by Philippe Halsman, 1959

Among the celebrities and notables that Philippe Halsman asked to
jump for his famous photo series were the Duke and Duchess of
Windsor -- that is, the former King of England and the controversial
American for whom he gave up the throne. In theory, Halsman's photo
was remarkable -- royals can be this playful? -- but in execution, it was
even more so: Other than the position of their feet and the mildly
surprised expression on the duke's face, the Windsors manage to
maintain their cultivated bearing. Her hair and jewelry are static, his
lapels crisp, their postures ramrod-straight -- as if they're out to meet
the plebes on any other day.

Winston Churchill: Photo by Yousuf Karsh, 1941

Photographer Yousuf Karsh, a master of lighting, captures Winston
Churchill's indomitable spirit like no other portrait did before or after.
Here is the man who stared down Hitler. Here is the man who would
not break.

Meeting Peace With Firehoses: Photo by Charles Moore, 1963

During a nonviolent march demanding desegregation in public facilities
in Birmingham, Ala., the city's infamously racist public-safety chief, Bull
Connor, ordered firefighters to turn high-pressure firehoses on the
peaceful demonstrators. Photos of the unwarranted tactics, including
this one by Charles Moore -- with it's almost Christ-like scene of a man
being pinned down -- helped turned national sentiment against
segregation and for the civil-rights movement.

Unconquered: Photo by W. Eugene Smith, 1944

A grizzled, weary American peers over his shoulder during the final days
of fighting during the July, 1944 Battle of Saipan. The pivotal Allied
victory there, 1,500 miles south of Tokyo, was earned at the cost of
3,000 American lives. This picture -- easily among the most striking and
immediately recognizable of LIFE's countless war photos -- was the
1940s equivalent of saying to the American public: We didn't start this
fight. But we're going to finish it.

Jack and Bobby: Photo by Hank Walker, 1960

Then-U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy confers with his brother Robert F.
Kennedy in a hotel suite during the Democratic National Convention in
Los Angeles. Looking at Hank Walker's image today, through the filter
of all we know now -- that Jack would indeed win the nation's highest
office, with Bobby by his side as his most trusted adviser; that the
brothers would navigate the United States through almost three years
of magic and turbulence; that each man would be cut down by an
assassin's bullet by decade's end -- the poignancy is astonishing. And
yet, even without the context of that history, the photo, with all its
fascinating details and near-perfect composition, stands alone as
powerfully intimate: The sunlight filters through the drapes. The
bedclothes are rumpled, the cuffs and collars sharp. And the
silhouetted brothers, backs bent under some unknowable weight, lean
into each other.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn Breathes Free: Photo by Harry Benson

Harry Benson's 1981 portrait of the dissident Russian writer in exile in
Vermont captures a notoriously prickly and even unpleasant legend in
an unguarded, vulnerable moment. Benson's brilliance -- as a
photographer capable of getting close to his subjects -- made the
picture possible: when Solzhenitsyn said that he liked to breathe the air
in America because it felt free, Benson asked the Nobel Prize-winner to
show him what he meant. Solzhenitsyn obliged. Benson got the shot.

A Child Is Born: Photo by Lennart Nilsson, 1965

"This is the first portrait ever made of a living embryo inside its mother's
womb." So began the text that accompanied Lennart Nilsson's 16
groundbreaking photographs in the April 30, 1965, issue of LIFE. The
story -- called "The Drama of Life Before Birth" -- was an
unprecedented photographic feat that showed the stages in the growth
of the human embryo. Simply put, it changed the way we look at how
humans develop. The photos were detailed, dramatic, haunting, and
humbling -- and among the most amazing science photos ever taken.
Every one of the 8 million copies of LIFE printed sold out with four
days. The praise came swiftly -- and so did the controversy, which has
never quite died down. Pro-life and pro-choice groups argued bitterly
over the conclusions to be drawn from Nilsson's unmistakeable
photographic achievements.
This photo shows a 17-week-old fetus whose nails are clearly visible on
developing fingertips.

Mark Spitz: Photo by Co Rentmeester, 1972

Mark Spitz is shown in training in August 1972, training that would pay
off a month later at the Munich Olympics: Spitz won a record seven
gold medals, setting a record in each event. The photographer, LIFE's
Co Rentmeester, was himself a former Olympian, having rowed for
the Netherlands at the 1960 games. This photo, infused with Spitz's
effort, strength, and determination, delivered on one of LIFE's core
promises: to bring its readers as close to the action as they could
possibly get.

Born Ready: Photo by Ralph Morse, 1959

This straightforward yet riveting portrait of astronaut John Glenn by
LIFE's Ralph Morse -- a man who spent so much time chronicling the
lives of the original Mercury 7 astronauts that Glenn himself dubbed
Morse "the eighth Mercury astronaut" -- neatly captures the almost
preternatural confidence and clear-eyed sense of purpose that Glenn and
his colleagues not only shared, but embodied. It's easy to forget now, but
during the race into space of the late 1950s and early 1960s, America
seemed to forever be playing catch-up with the USSR. The Soviets beat
the U.S. into space with Sputnik in 1957; in 1961, a cosmonaut named
Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel in outer space. But less
than a year after Gagarin's flight, when 39-year-old Glenn orbited Earth,
NASA-- and the nation -- suddenly found itself with a genuine hero
straight out of central casting: a blue-eyed, no-nonsense Marine Corps
fighter pilot and Korean War vet (married to his high school sweetheart,
no less) who quickly became the face of America's emerging
preeminence in the era-defining Space Race. Morse's photograph,
meanwhile, became the one image that an entire generation of
Americans forever associated with John Glenn: a man who was born
ready.

Country Doctor: Photo by W. Eugene Smith, 1948

The subject of W. Eugene Smith's celebrated 1948 photo essay
"Country Doctor," Dr. Ernest Ceriani, the overworked physician of
Kremmling, Co., was the only doctor within a 1,200-square-mile region.
In this image, he is in a dazed state of exhaustion, having a cup of
coffee in the hospital kitchen at 2 a.m. after performing a caesarean
section where the baby and the mother both died because of
complications. The classic photo reveals him as simultaneously heroic
and tragic -- and absolutely unforgettable.

Jet Age Man: Photo by Ralph Morse, 1954

An Air Force pilot with patterns of light covering his face and shoulders
is measured, like a contour map, for a perfectly fitted flight helmet in
this 1954 Ralph Morse photo. Morse, whose technical brilliance so
often meshed with his eye for the startling, striking image, managed in
this portrait to perfectly illustrate the cover story of the December 6,
1954, issue of LIFE: a report titled, simply, "Jet Age Man."

3-D Movie Audience: Photo by J.R. Eyerman, 1952

J.R. Eyerman's peek inside the opening-night screening of Bwana
Devil, the first full-length color 3-D feature, certainly is peculiar: Men
and women, young and old all angle in the same direction, formally
dressed but for those silly specs over their eyes. Funny as it is, with the
audience members coming off like clones of an alien species, there's
also prescience in the photo -- not just about the emergence of special
effects in cinema but also, on a deeper level, about the hypnotizing
nature of our entertainment.

The Beatles in Miami: Photo by John Loengard, 1964

In John Loengard's popular photo of John, Paul, George, and Ringo,
taken during their first trip to America, the lads' famous mop tops bob
undisturbed above the water's surface. The pool was quite chilly that
day, thanks to a cold snap -- check out Ringo's grimace -- and
Loengard has said the Beatles even began to turn blue; still, in the
short minutes he had to get this shot, the photographer cleverly asked
the boys to sing, and thus managed to draw out the playfulness and
passion that made them so beloved.

Before the Wedding: Photo by Michael Rougier, 1962

Perhaps the charm of this Michael Rougier photo, capturing a North
Dakota bride before she walks down the aisle, lies in its relatability:
Anyone who has been in this moment, mere minutes away from making
the commitment of a lifetime, can see this woman peering out her
window and instantly understand the fluttery mix of anticipation,
anxiety, and perhaps even apprehension she appears to feel.

Gunhild Larking: Photo by George Silk, 1956

Photographer George Silk worked for LIFE for 30 years, memorably
covering the Battle of the Bulge from the front lines and the demolished
city of Nagasaki days after the bomb was dropped. But at the 1956
Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia, Silk turned his lens on Gunhild
Larking, a Swedish high jumper. Larking, 20, is all focus, waiting
pensively for her turn to compete, as the crowd behind her fades out.
The sultry beauty would finish 6th that day but Silk's unexpected
portrait of athleticism and beauty won her legions of fans.

A Leopard's Kill: Photo by John Dominis, 1966

For eight months in 1966, LIFE photographer John Dominis tracked big
cats on game preserves in Africa, capturing their unique physical
attributes, hunting rituals, and social habits. The results were published
in a fascinating three-part photo essay in January '67, starting with a
study of the sly, solitary, savage leopard. This wonderfully composed
picture (note the curl of the leopard's tail and the antelope's
outstretched hoof) depicts a leopard that has dragged its kill in a tree's
branches, away from vultures and wild dogs looking for carrion. And
yet, with the African sun setting in the distance, Dominis makes the
scene look almost romantic.

Sea of Hats: Photo by Margaret Bourke-White, 1930

The legendary and legendarily intrepid -- Margaret Bourke-White shot
the magazines first cover. (She was also the first Western
photographer allowed into the U.S.S.R, the first accredited woman
photographer in WWII, and the first to fly on a combat mission.) BourkeWhite loved the overhead vantage point and, indeed, some of her most
famous pictures were taken from airplanes. Here, she looks down on
the frantic yet seemingly choreographed buzz of men milling about on
36th St. between 8th and 9th Avenues in the heart of New York City's
Garment District.

Pied Piper of Ann Arbor: Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1950

A uniformed drum major for the University of Michigan marching band
practices his high kicks, garnering an unintended following of seven
admiring children who want to imitate his flamboyant technique. Eisie's
joyously cheerful 1950 photo is like a Norman Rockwell painting come
to life.

Both Sides Now: Photo by John Shearer, 1971

Muhammad Ali was notorious for his pre-fight teasing of opponents -- but
in the run-up to his epic, era-defining "Fight of the Century" against Joe
Frazier in March 1971, Ali's taunting veered from friendly ribbing to
vicious, ad hominem assaults. He questioned Frazier's manhood, his
"blackness," his courage, his intelligence. For his part, Frazier largely
kept his mouth shut, and trained. And trained. And trained. When their
title bout at New York's Madison Square Garden ended, Frazier had
handily defended his championship crown -- knocking Ali to the canvas
at one point with a thunderous left hook that, among many boxing fans,
is still simply known as "The Punch." Here, in a perfectly symbolic image
by LIFE's John Shearer, Ali clowns around during an unannounced visit
to Frazier's training camp. For his part, Frazier barely deigns to even
look at Ali, and instead offers one simple gesture: a clenched fist.

Littlest Survivor: Photo by W. Eugene Smith, 1943

At Saipan in 1943, hundreds of Japanese civilians committed suicide
rather than surrender to the Americans. As the Marines were clearing
hiding Japanese from local caves, they found this infant, wedged facedown in the dirt, under a rock, nearly dead. One of the famous images
of World War II, W. Eugene Smith's photo caught a rare moment of
both brutality and gentleness that was unique in war photography.

Lion in Winter: Photo by John Bryson, 1959

Photographer John Bryson was on assignment for a magazine other
than LIFE -- taking pictures of Ernest Hemingway's wife, Mary, at their
Ketchum, Idaho, home -- when he took this photo of Papa kicking a
can down the road. "This was the best picture I ever had taken,"
Hemingway reportedly later told LIFE's editors. What's so notable,
especially in retrospect, about the image is the strange combination of
playfulness and -- with the lowering clouds; the stark, frozen landscape
-- an almost palpable sense of something like doom. A year-and-a-half
after Bryson took this photo, Hemingway committed suicide with a
shotgun blast to the head. He was 61.

Liz and Monty: Photo by Peter Stackpole, 1950

During a break in filming the romantic drama A Place in the Sun,
Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift chat on the Paramount lot. Peter
Stackpole's photo not only captures the intimacy between the actors -they would become incredibly close friends, and six years later she
would even save his life after he smashed his car into a telephone pole
near her house -- but also shows how, even in "candid" moments,
movie stars have an awareness of the camera and how to play to it:
Notice that as Liz leans, she pushes out her chest and hips and kicks
up her heel; meanwhile Monty, with that slight slouch and hand in
pocket, keeps his unflappable cool.

'Dali Atomicus': Photo by Philippe Halsman, 1948

At the end of his shoot with artist Salvador Dali -- a session that took
six hours and 28 throws (of water, a chair, and three cats), "my
assistants and I were wet, dirty and near complete exhaustion,"
photographer Philippe Halsman reported. The resulting image, with a
leaping Dali in midair amid the madness, is a portrait as kinetic and
surreal as artist's own work.

Suiting Up: Photo by Yale Joel, 1954

There's nothing like putting on a new baseball uniform -- unless, like
these Manchester, NH, Little Leaguers dressing for a game in 1954,
you discover that not everyone has a complete set of clothes. The pintsized leader Dick Williams' defiant stance in this at-once amusing and
stirring Yale Joel photo imparts a timeless message: No matter how old
you are, sometimes baseball is far more than just a game.

It's a Girl! Photo by Wallace Kirkland, 1954

Jane Dill, four months pregnant, reacts at a lab in Northbrook, Illinois,
after being told the chemical wafer on her tongue indicates she's
carrying a baby girl. But the noteworthy thing about this photo -besides, of course, the delightful emotion it conveys -- is that it is, in
itself, a reaction shot: In the split second that Mrs. Dill goes agog,
Kirkland presses his button, and an incredible image is born.

Twilight of the Idol: Photo by John Dominis, 1965

In perhaps the greatest-ever photograph of a legendary athlete in
decline, John Dominis captured New York center fielder Mickey Mantle
at Yankee Stadium in June 1965, at a point in his career when alcohol,
injuries, and plain old advancing age were dulling the incandescent
talents of the future Hall of Famer. Here, in Dominis' photo, Mantle
flings his batting helmet away in frustration after a terrible at-bat -- a
gesture that, even in the twilight of his career, Mantle managed with
physical grace and, somehow, a kind of flair.

In a Spanish Village: Photo by Eugene Smith, 1951

In 1951, about halfway between Madrid and Portugal, legendary LIFE
photographer Eugene Smith wandered off the main road and into an
old village called Deleitosa. Smith's famous photo essay, called
"Spanish Village," documented daily life -- and death -- among the
2,300 peasants of Deleitosa, including Francisco Franco's much-feared
civil guards ominously standing watch on every street corner, ready to
enforce national law.

Georgia O'Keeffe: Photo by John Loengard, 1966

LIFE's John Loengard famously photographed painter O'Keeffe -- "the
grand, solitary woman," as the magazine called her -- in 1966, at her
desert home the year she turned 80. While there, Loengard captured
the bones, stones, and flowers that inspired her groundbreaking work.
But it was this hauntingly contemplative portrait of the artist that truly
seemed to illustrate O'Keeffe's relationship to her beloved New Mexico:
So still and beautifully craggy, she almost seems part of the landscape
itself.

Clouds Over Seligman, Arizona: Photo by Andreas Feininger, 1947

Like a scene from "High Noon," it's so quiet in Andreas Feininger's
photo of Seligman, Arizona, you can almost hear the clock ticking. The
clouds gather dramatically overhead, but not much happens here: a
bus leaves town, a guy loiters in front of the Texaco. Feininger was
known for his nearly scientific renderings of architecture, but in this
1947 portrait of Route 66, he captures the wide open American West
as few have before or since.

Parting the Sea in Salt Lake City: Photo by J.R. Eyerman, 1958
A multitude of sedans appears to kneel before larger-than-life Charlton
Heston as Moses, his arms flung wide, as he parts the Red Sea in
Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood epic, The Ten Commandments, at a Utah
drive-in. As in his classic photo of people watching a 3-D movie at
Hollywood's Paramount Theater in 1952, J.R. Eyerman's wry take on
popular culture manages to distill in a single photograph the
sometimes unsettling power of the moving image.

Airplane Over Manhattan: Photo by Margaret Bourke-White, 1939

Bourke-White loved the aerial view and loved to document the
architecture of power. Here, from the vantage point of a second plane,
she locks in on two modern marvels: the sleek, muscular Douglas 4
flying over Manhattan, a city humming with opportunity.

Before Camelot, a Visit to West Virginia: Photo by Hank Walker,

1960
At 43, John F. Kennedy was the youngest person ever elected
president, and during his campaign for the office it was largely this
quality -- the man's engaging, youthful dynamism -- that so captured the
imagination of millions. As Kennedy and his team ran a heady,
propulsive campaign unlike any America had seen, LIFE photographers
were there, chronicling the grind of countless public appearances. Some
of the images they captured, however, carry a resonance today that
echoes in ways those photographers could never have imagined. Take
the Hank Walker picture above: While security was part of every
candidate's retinue, it was simply not the pressing, public concern in
1960 that it would suddenly and necessarily become within a few very
short years. Here, seemingly without any security presence at all during
a stop in Logan County, West Virginia, JFK speechifies from a kitchen
chair as, mere feet away, a young boy absently plays with a jarringly
realistic-looking toy gun.

A Boy's Escape: Photo by Ralph Crane, 1947

LIFE was known for its war photography, celebrity shoots, and
glimpses of Americana. But what's often overlooked is the tradition of
groundbreaking technical photography that no other magazine could
bring and that, in some instances, the human could not even see.
This picture -- a reinactment of a disturbed boy's escape from a
children's home -- is a flawless example of technical excellence, a
masterful combination of high speed strobes, exquisite timing, and
dramatic composition. Readers weren't there to witness the boy's
escape, but thanks to Ralph Crane's technical wizardry, they knew
what it felt like.

Marilyn Monroe Sings for JFK: Photo by Bill Ray, 1962

For the 15,000 spectators at Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962
-- including LIFE photographer Bill Ray -- Marilyn's breathy, intimate
rendition of "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy amplified
the buzz about an affair between the two. But beyond the titillation, the
moment Ray captured in this, his most iconic shot, went on to play a
major role in both Marilyn's and JFK's biographies, coming as it did
near the end of their short lives. You don't even need to see her face to
know who she is: There she stands in the spotlight, unbelievably sexy,
in a fleeting moment that would forever link sex and politics in the
American consciousness.

Richard M. Nixon, Attorney at Law: Photo by George Lacks, 1946

The year he first entered politics, running a successful campaign for
Congress at the Republican party's behest, WWII vet Richard M. Nixon
stands in the door of his California law office. At the time it was taken,
perhaps George Lacks' portrait was nothing extraordinary. But today,
knowing all we do about the disgraced future president, it is fascinating:
Nixon's hangdog, almost defeated expression seems unlikely for a man
who aspires to become the leader of the free world -- and yet it also
hints at the paranoia and insecurities that would be his undoing.

Dennis Stock: Photo by Andreas Feininger, 1951

LIFE's Andreas Feininger always had an eye for the beauty and energy
of the inanimate -- his best work showed the majesty in skylines, in
machines, in bridges and tunnels. Here, Feininger uses an object -- a
camera -- to build a creative, almost loving portrait of fellow
photographer Dennis Stock (who also shot for LIFE, and has an image,
of James Dean, included in this gallery). Positioning the lens and
viewfinder as Stock's eyes, Feininger pays homage to his own
profession: The photographer's camera, he's saying, is a piece of
himself.

James Dean: Photo by Dennis Stock, 1955

In 1955, the same year he'd die in a horrible collision on a California
highway, James Dean walks through Times Square on a rainy day.
Dennis Stock's photo is illustrative of the actor's persona -- a true rebel
don't need no umbrella -- but also quietly speaks to Dean's professional
roots (in New York, where he studied at the Actors Studio) and his
legacy (see the long shadow stretched across the slick street).

Sugar Ray Robinson in Training: Photo by Ralph Morse, 1950

Sugar Ray Robinson, considered the greatest boxer of his generation
and perhaps of all time, was known for living large -- in fact, he's
credited with originating the sports entourage. Which is one reason that
this photograph is so special. Here, LIFE's Ralph Morse captures the
champ in a private moment: Robinson, reflected in the mirror, is caught
mid-skip and a good eight inches off the ground, a look of a
determination on his face, while his trainer whistles, tapping out time
with his foot. Morse' shot is so perfect you can almost hear that
whistling and the brush of the rope upon the floor.

New York's Heart: Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1943

Manhattan's's Pennsylvania Station -- the grand, McKim, Mead &
White-designed beauty demolished in the early 1960s, not the sterile
abomination that bears the name today -- was for decades the very
heart of New York City, and Alfred Eisentaedt's masterfully composed
photograph of its glorious, vaulted waiting room is among the most
iconic photographs ever made of New York. The graceful interplay of
the building's arches; the bustle of the crowd; the beautiful, prominent
clock; the halo of natural light through glass -- every element of the
picture combines to celebrate a great city's boundless energy and,
even in the midst of war, its confidence.

MacArthur Coming Ashore: Photo by Carl Mydans, 1945

Gen. Douglas MacArthur (center) kept his famous promise, personally
storming the beach at Lingayen Gulf on his way to retaking the
Philippines in early 1945. (Accompanying him were, from left, Gen.
Richard Sutherland and Col. Lloyd Lehrbas.) Tracking MacArthur's
progress was LIFE photographer Carl Mydans, who had been captured
during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in 1941 and had spent
two years as a prisoner of war. Mydan's picture has become one of the
most famous -- and unabashedly triumphant -- images of the war.

Into the Light: Photo by Eugene Smith, 1946

Eugene Smith, who captured some of the rawest, most unsettling
images of the Second World War, was seriously wounded by mortar
fire while covering the Battle of Okinawa in the spring of 1945. A year
later, in the midst of a grueling recovery from his injury (he could barely
hold a camera) and as America struggled with its hard-won transition
from war to peace, Smith resolved that the first photograph he made in
the post-war era would be not of destruction or despair, but affirmation.
Here, in a picture of his own son and daughter, Patrick and Juanita, on
a walk near their home, Smith masterfully conveys not only a sense of
near-mythic mystery -- two children emerge from a shadowy wood into
the sunlight after who-knows-what adventures -- but, somehow, an
entire nation's mood. Danger is past, the photo suggests. The future
beckons.

Jukebox Sirens: Photo by Bill Ray, 1965

In early 1965 LIFE's Bill Ray spent several weeks with a gang of outlaw
rebels: the Hells Angels. In this beautiful chiaroscuro photo, two of the
gang members' "old ladies" hang out at a bar in the middle of the
afternoon, hammered on beer and benzedrine. While none of Ray's
images ever ran in LIFE (the story was killed by editors who felt that no
readers would be interested in these "smelly bastards") this picture
holds its own with the finest in the magazine's history: a portrait utterly
of its time and yet somehow timeless, with an atmosphere that is sad
and defiant at once.

Bill Cosby: Photo by John Loengard, 1969

This surprising, commanding portrait by LIFE's John Loengard led off a
sprawling profile of Cosby in the April 11, 1969 issue of the magazine.
Even without seeing his face, Cosby is instantly recognizable -- is there
a clearer signal of icon status? -- and the cigar completes the portrait of
power. How good was Loengard's eye? He eventually became the
magazine picture editor.

A Wolf's Lonely Leap: Photo by Jim Brandenburg, 1986

Jim Brandenburg's 1986 photograph of an arctic wolf jumping from one
ice floe to another in Canada's remote Northwest Territories perfectly
captures the beauty, drama, and unending struggle in the animal world.
It also echo's one of the greatest photos of all time, Henri CartierBresson's picture of man jumping toward a puddle behind the Gare St.
Lazare.

Jackie Robinson, Unstoppable Force: Photo by Ralph Morse, 1951

In the fall of 1955, when Ralph Morse took this extraordinary photo of
Jackie Robinson in action against the Yankees in the World Series -dancing off of third base, rattling the pitcher -- it had been more than
eight years since Brooklyn's No. 42 had integrated major league
baseball. Morse brilliantly captures Jackie Robinson, both the ballplayer
and civil rights legend. As Robinson rounds third base, we see the
fierce competitor whose risk-taking approach not only helped the
Brooklyn Dodgers win the 1955 World Series but changed the way the
game is played. We also see the all-important line, a visual reminder of
the color barrier he so bravely crossed -- enduring taunts, racial slurs,
even death threats -- to be come the first African American player in the
major leagues.

Audrey and Grace: Photo by Allan Grant, 1956

Backstage at the Academy Awards, two past Best Actress winners,
Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly, await their turns to present. That
Allan Grant could catch both supremely elegant, stylish icons together
in a moment may have been a stroke of luck (Hepburn and Kelly never
did work together, and very soon after this photo was taken the latter
left Hollywood to become Monaco's princess). But Grant's use of
composition and lighting -- with the two women parallel and glowing in
profile -- is nothing short of masterful.

Ingenue Audrey: Photo by Mark Shaw, 1954

Charming, sophisticated, chic: All these words have been used
innumerable times to describe the particular allure of Audrey
Hepburn. But early in her career, photographer Mark Shaw captured
the young actress, fresh off Roman Holiday, wearing only a white
button-down shirt and giving him a saucy look. His photo adds a new
adjective to the book on Audrey: sexy.

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