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There are many things that changed the history : the wheel, the machine gun, Internet, cell phone, and many, many others. They say that a pictures worths a 1000 words. I say it’s true. A picture can change someone’s mind, can make you reflect and establish your priorities better next time.

Here are some of the greatest pictures, some awarded with the famous Pulitzer Prize.

In 1967, during the Vietnam War a photographer had the courage to face the terrible war and take some pictures. The photographer’s name is Toshio Sakai and he worked for United Press International. He was the first photographer to receive the Pulitzer prize. His photo shows a wounded soldier on a bunch of sacks, soaking wet. The picture is dramatic and describes the terrible war. Toshio won the Pulitzer award in 1968.

In 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. The family of the leader of the American civil rights movement was photographed by Moneta Sleet Jr. from Ebony magazine. The wounded family was captured on film during Martin Luther King’s funeral. The image speaks for itself.

Another photo about the war in Vietnam was shot by Dave Kennerly. In 1971 the United Press International photographer photographed a soldier in the middle of burned trees, a destroyed nature. This photo was awarded in 1972 also with the Pulitzer prize. BTW, is it just my stupid opinion or the UPI.com site has too many similarities with the CNN.com site?!?

Brian Lanker took a sequence of child birth which brought him the Pulitzer award in 1973. The joy on the mother’s face when she first saw her baby daughter was extraordinary. Brian worked for the Topeka Capital-Journal back then.

In 1968, on the first of February the Associated Press photographer took a picture of Nguyen Ngoc Loan, the chief of local police executing a prisoner named Nguyen Van Lem. The photographer’s name was Eddie Adams and in 1969 received the Pulitzer award for the picture. The thing is that the image affected Eddie and the whole world. Eddie wrote in Time : “The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them; but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths. What the photograph didn’t say was, ‘What would you do if you were the general at that time and place on that hot day, and you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew away one, two or three American people?’ “

Sam Nzima took a tragic photo of Hector Pieterson, age 12 who died in Mbuyisa Makhubo’s arms after getting shot by a police officer. On that fatal day the boy was the collateral victim of protesting students and police forces. In the image you can see Mbuyisa Makhubo caring the little boy and along aside running is Antoinette Pieterson, Hector’s sister, age 17 at that time. Antoinette is know as working as a tour guide at the Hector Pieterson Museum. The young boy became the iconic image of the 1976 Soweto uprising in apartheid South Africa. Unfortunately that day 20 children lost their lives.

In 1994 Kevin Carter, a free-lance photographer took a picture of a starved Sudanese little girl about to be the meal of a hungry vulture. The image is dramatic and some say that after receiving the Pulitzer award Kevin committed suicide. At that time journalist were not allowed to touch famished victims because they were supposed to carry diseases. The thought of not being able to help the young girl slowly killed Kevin.

In 1996 Stephanie Welsh won the Pulitzer Award for a sequence of photos that showed a female circumcision rite in Kenya. The photos were published in Newhouse News Service. For a woman the images are just cruel. Here you have a photo that is not that dramatic but shows the later physically effect.

After the World War Two came to an end all the sailors docked and celebrated with other people the victory over Japan Day. One of the most memorable pictures form 1945 is surely “The Kiss” by Alfred Eisenstaedt. The sailor didn’t know the nurse, he didn’t care that the lady he was about to kiss is skinny, fat, old or married. The kiss between them is now an icon of that period.

One of the greatest physicists known to mankind, Albert Einstein had a goofy figure. Arthr Sasse photographed Albert in one of his goofiest moods. Well, if Einstein would only knew that his face is now used in making people laugh and his theory of relativity is remembered only in physics class, he’d surely stumble in his tomb. Still the 1951 picture is one of the funniest pictures in the history.

The last one, but the the least is the picture of Marilyn Monroe called “The Seven Year Itch”. This picture dates from 1954, when Marilyn married baseball player Joe DiMaggio.