World Photography Day: nine images that shaped history

World Photography Day, observed annually on August 19, marks another year of reflection on photographs that left a lasting mark on public memory. Among them, Nick Ut's 1972 image of Phan Thi Kim Phuc fleeing a napalm strike during the Vietnam War became one of the most recognized symbols of the global antiwar movement, while Jeff Widener's 1989 frame of an unidentified man standing before a tank convoy during the Tiananmen protests in Beijing turned into an emblem of peaceful resistance. The 1968 "Earthrise" photograph taken by William Anders during the Apollo 8 mission offered a view of the planet's fragility from lunar orbit and helped strengthen environmental awareness. Kevin Carter's 1993 picture of a vulture behind a Sudanese child weakened by famine drew international attention to the African food crisis and fueled debate over journalism ethics. Joe Rosenthal's 1945 photograph of U.S. Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima became one of the most widely recognized symbols of Allied victory in World War II, and the 1989 images documenting the fall of the Berlin Wall came to represent the end of the Cold War. The 2015 image of Syrian child Alan Kurdi lying dead on a shoreline stirred a global humanitarian response to the refugee crisis. In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope project released the first image of a black hole, confirming decades of theoretical work. In 2024, a photograph of U.S. President Donald Trump raising his fist with blood on his face after an assassination attempt became among the most widely shared images across news outlets and digital platforms.