WWII French General Charles De Gaulle

A WWII photo portrait of General Charles de Gaulle of the Free French Forces and first president of the Fifth Republic serving from 1958 to 1969.

Photograp from: Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division.

Source: wikipedia.org

This photograph was taken by Yousuf Karsh, a Canadian photographer, when Winston Churchill came to Ottawa. The portrait of Churchill brought Karsh international fame. It is claimed to be the most reproduced photographic portrait in history. It also appeared on the cover of Life magazine.

Photograp from: Yousuf Karsh

Source: -

Adolf Hitler visits Paris with architect Albert Speer (left) June 23, 1940

Photograp from: National Archives and Records Administration
Source: Heinrich Hoffman Collection.

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is a historic photograph taken on February 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal. It depicts five United States Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman raising the flag of the United States atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.

The photograph was extremely popular, being reprinted in thousands of publications. Later, it became the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication, and ultimately came to be regarded as one of the most significant and recognizable images of the war, and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all times.

Photograp from: Joe Rosenthal
Source: wikipedia.org

Actually this is the earliest surviving photograph, c. 1826. It required an eight-hour exposure, which resulted in sunlight on both sides of the buildings.

Photographer: Nicéphore Niépce’s
Source: wikipedia.org

In 1901 Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen was the first recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics, and he truly deserves his place in history because his discovery revolutionized the medical world. A series of experiments helped him notice that barium platinocyanide emits a fluorescent glow. Combining his observation with a photographic plate and his wife’s hand, he made the first X-ray photo, and thus, made it possible to look inside the human body without surgical intervention.

Photographer: Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen
Source: life.com

December 17, 1903 was the day humanity spread its wings and rose above the ground - for 12 seconds at first and by the end of the day for almost a minute – but it was a major breakthrough. Orville and Wilbur Wright, two bicycle mechanics from Ohio, are the pioneers of aviations, and although this first flight occurred so late in history, the ulterior development was exponential.

Photographer: Library of Congress
Source: first-to-fly.com

The news that Richard Nixon was sending troops to Cambodia caused a chain of protests in the U.S. colleges. At Kent State the protest seemed more violent, some students even throwing rocks. In consequence, The Ohio National Guard was called to calm things down, but the events got out of hand and they started shooting. Some of the victims were simply walking to school, and, more dramatically, one wasn’t even a student, but a 14 year old runaway. Mary Ann Vecchio was sent to her family in Florida and her death was commemorated in a TV movie and a Neil Young song.

Photographer: John Paul Filo
Source: sinomania.com

Michael Dukakis was the Democrat’s proposal for Presidency and so, George Bush’s opponent in the 1988 elections. The picture below was taken at a General Dynamics plant in Michigan, hoping that it would consolidate the Democrat’s public image, but he was no match for the World War II pilot George Bush, so his plan didn’t quite work.

Photographer: AP
Source: life.com

Albert Einstein is probably one of the most popular figures of all times. He is considered a genius because he created the Theory of Relativity, and so, challenged Newton’s laws, that were the basis of everything known in physics until the beginning of the 20^th century. But, as a person, he was considered a beatnik, and this picture, taken on March 14, 1951 proves that.

Photographer: Arthur Sasse, © Bettmann/CORBIS
Source: nital.it