Pearl Harbor - Flag on Iwo Jima - Hiroshima
Famous Photographs of the 1940s that Changed the World

Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941 The surprise was complete. The planes came in two waves; the first hit its target at 7:53 am the second at 8:55. By 9:55 it was all over. By 1:00 pm carriers launched planes 274 heading for Japan. Behind them they left 2,403 dead, 188 destroyed planes and a crippled Pacific Fleet that included 8 destroyed battleships. In one stroke the Japanese action silenced the debate that had divided Americans on the Nazi war in Europe.

 "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 a date which will live in infamy. The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan..." was Roosevelt's address to the Congress

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, 156,000 American, British and Canadian troops landed on Normandy beaches to begin the liberation of Europe from its Nazi occupiers. It was said to be the largest build-up and movement of soldiers in the history of mankind

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima historic photograph taken on February 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal. It shows five US Marines and a US Navy corpsman raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi. This photograph was reprinted in thousands of publications. Later, it became the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year it was published. The photo was regarded as one of the most significant and recognizable images of the war & the most reproduced photograph of all times

This picture of the “mushroom cloud" is a very accurate approximation of the enormous quantity of energy spread below. The first atomic bomb, released on August 6 in Hiroshima (Japan) killed about 80,000 people. It didn’t render the Japanese to surrender. Therefore, on August 9 another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The effects of the second bomb were even more devastating with 150,000 people were killed or injured. Extremely temperature & radiation caused more long term damage

Famous Photographs that Changed the World | 1910s | 1920s | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000

At the end of World War II, in all USA cities everybody went to the streets to salute the end of combat. Photographer: Alfred Eisenstaedt's shot "The Kiss" in down town New York.  Friendship was everywhere.

This picture shows a sailor kissing a young nurse in Times Square. In fact is he was kissing every girl he encountered. However, this particular nurse slapped him