Photo Of The Year 1955 - 2012

[ravana]

Each year, the World Press Association gathers to select a photo of the year. Countless photographers send in their work to compete for the award. Their work can range from sad to terrifying to joyful and to loving… a true embodiment of the human spirit. This list is comprised of every winner since the year 1955 and you won’t believe half of the things you are seeing. Who knew things like this were going on in the world every day…

 

1955: A competitor tumbles off his motorcycle during the Motorcross World Championship at the Volk Mølle race course. (By Mogens von Haven)

[ravana]

1956: A German World War II prisoner, released by the Soviet Union, is reunited with his daughter. The child had not seen her father since she was one-year-old. (By Helmuth Pirath)

[ravana]

1957: Dorothy Counts, one of the first black students to enter the newly desegregated Harry Harding High School is mocked by whites on her first day of school. (By Douglas Martin)

[ravana]

1958: National Football Championships between Prague and Bratislava. (By Stanislav Tereba)

[ravana]

1960: A right-wing student in Japan assassinates Inejiro Asanuma, Socialist Party Chairman, during his speech at the Hibiya Hall. (By Yasushi Nagao)

[ravana]

1962: Priest Luis Padillo offers last rites to a loyalist soldier who is mortally wounded by a sniper during military rebellion against President Bétancourt at Puerto Cabello naval base in Venezuela. (By Héctor Rondón Lovera)

[ravana]

1963: Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc sets himself ablaze in protest against the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government. (By Malcolm W. Browne)

[ravana]

1964: A Turkish woman mourns her dead husband, a victim of the Greek-Turkish civil war. (By Don McCullin)

 

[ravana]

1965: A mother and her children wade across a river to escape US bombing. The US Air Force had evacuated their village because it was suspected of being used as a base camp by the Vietcong. (By Kyoichi Sawada)

[ravana]

1966: The body of a Vietcong soldier is dragged behind an American armored vehicle en route to a burial site after fierce fighting. (By Kyoichi Sawada)

[ravana]

Blindfold (11)1967: The commander of an M48 tankgunner of the US 7th regiment in Vietnam’s ‘Iron Triangle’. (By Co Rentmeester)

[ravana]

1968: South Vietnam national police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan executes a suspected Viet Cong member. (By Eddie Adams)

[ravana]

1969: A young Catholic wears a gasmask during clashes with British troops. People had been fleeing from teargas after a night of street fighting. (By Hanns-Jörg Anders)

[ravana]

1971: During negotiations on the safe-conduct of a group of criminals on the run, police superintendent Gross suddenly shoots down gang leader Kurt Vicenik. The gang, who had disappeared after a bank-robbery in Cologne, re-emerged near Saarbrücken, carrying a hostage with them. A chase followed and the police and the robbers met at Baltersweiler. The two other men were captured in a wild fight. The men running away from the bullets are policemen. (By Wolfgang Peter Geller)

[ravana]

1972: Phan Thi Kim Phuc (center) flees with other children after South Vietnamese planes mistakenly dropped napalm on South Vietnamese troops and civilians. (By Nick Ut)