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57 most powerful photos in US history

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by mpcincal, Jul 5, 2015.

  1. mpcincal

    mpcincal Well-Known Member

  2. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Two that were missing: the photo of Babe Ruth leaning on his bat, and the photo of the firefighter carrying the dead baby after the Oklahoma City bombing.
     
  3. Vombatus

    Vombatus Well-Known Member

    Without looking yet, I'm sure that photo of the VC being shot in the head will be there.

    And Iwo Jima.

    And I expect Kent State, and assassination scenes from JFK, MLK and RFK.

    Ok, now I'm going to go look at the photos and see if I matched my guesses.
     
  4. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    The Babe Ruth picture got bumped by Lou Gehrig. The OKC pic was bumped by 09/11. Some other gut reactions:

    • Too much sports;
    • Too many returning-soldier pictures;
    • Too many street-demonstration pictures;
    • Too many moonshot pics - should have just picked one.
     
  5. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Not really "United States" history. I think all of the photos are on U.S. soil or are American accomplishments. That's why you didn't see the "Napalm Girl" photo, Holocaust photos, Tiananmen Square or the one of the Soviet flag hanging over the Reichstag.

    The World Trade Center "Peace on Earth" photo is truly nonsense, however, coming from a nation that has been involved in dozens of military conflicts in its short 239-year history and can't resist swinging its big dick around the world at every opportunity.
     
    Last edited: Jul 5, 2015
  6. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    Wasn't "Lunch on a Skyscraper" staged? It's a nice photo, but staged shots shouldn't be considered "iconic," in my opinion.
     
  7. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    "Earthrise" is also a little tainted. While orbiting the moon they saw this . . .

    [​IMG]

    . . . and decided it was more dramatic if they just rotated it 135 degrees clockwise. Name is a misnomer, too. There is also no such thing as a true "Earthrise" on the moon, as the earth stays almost in the same place in the sky all the time.
     
    Last edited: Jul 5, 2015
  8. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    "YOU STOP RUINING OUR STORY!"
     
  9. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    You missed the point of that one big time.
    Juxtapose that 1995 image with what happened six years later -- and what that day has led to in the 14 years since -- and it's a very haunting photo.

    On a side note, hasn't the United States reached the point where we're no longer considered a "young" country? We're 239 years old (or 226, if you want to go from when the Constitution was adopted). Out of 195 currently recognized countries, there's only about a half dozen that have gone that long or longer without being conquered and occupied, undergoing a revolution, or otherwise radically changing their form of government.
    Hell, going back to the post-Roman Empire period I wonder how many countries made it that long?
     
    Last edited: Jul 5, 2015
  10. Bronco77

    Bronco77 Well-Known Member

    Two presidential photos that aren't on the on the list but are still memorable, at least to me: Dewey beats Truman from 1948 (if not one of the best photos, certainly one of the most memorable headlines of all time for the wrong reason), and Nixon giving double-V signs as he's leaving Washington after resigning in 1974.

    Quite a few memorable World War II photos are strictly international and not on the list. I'll always remember the crying Frenchman during World War II (although the origins of that one are hotly debated), St. Paul's Cathedral still standing during the London Blitz, and Winston Churchill walking through a demolished House of Commons.
     
  11. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Only if you believe the nonsense that we are and always have been the white hats in the world. What happened on Sept. 11, 2001 was immensely influenced by what we were doing in Afghanistan in the early 1980s. What happened in Iran in 1979 was immensely influenced by what we did in Iran in 1953. Cold War? Blame the Truman Doctrine and the Greek civil war. And so on. And so on.

    We can't keep our noses --- and our guns --- out of other people's business. And then we feign shock when it comes back to bite us.
     
    Last edited: Jul 5, 2015
  12. old_tony

    old_tony Well-Known Member

    Yeah, there were a couple of iconic Vietnam photos that were not in there.
     
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