Dead on the Beach 1943
When LIFE ran this stark, haunting photograph of a beach in Papua New Guinea on September 20, 1943, the magazine felt compelled to ask in an adjacent full-page editorial, "Why print this picture, anyway, of three American boys dead upon an alien shore?" Among the reasons: "words are never enough . . .
Buchenwald 1945
LIFE photographer Margaret Bourke-White was with Gen. George Patton's troops when they liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp. Forty-three thousand people had been murdered there. Patton was so outraged he ordered his men to march German civilians through the camp so they could see with their own eyes what their nation had wrought.
Hiroshima, Three Weeks After the Bomb, 1945
Americans ? and everyone ? had heard of the bomb that "leveled" Hiroshima, but what did that mean? When the aerial photography was published, that question was answered.
Mexico City Olympics 1968
Sociologist Harry Edwards had been urging black athletes to boycott the Olympics to protest civil rights inequities in the U.S. The boycott didn't happen, but Edwards struck a chord with many, including San Jose State teammates Tommie Smith and John Carlos. As the national anthem played, they held up their gloved fists. The runners were booted from the Games, but their gesture resonated.