Incredible Stories Behind 7 Historical Photos

3. V-J Day celebration, 1945, New York City

Famed photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt snapped this image of a sailor planting a celebratory kiss on a white-clad woman in the middle of New York City’s Times Square on August 14, 1945, when it was announced Japan had surrendered to the Allies, effectively ending World War II and his photo was published in “Life” magazine on August 27. Navy lens man Victor Jorgensen also happened to get a shot of the impromptu kiss, from a different (and less famous) angle. Neither photographer got a chance to ask the smooching pair their names (as Eisenstaedt later said of that day: “There were thousands of people milling around…everybody was kissing each other”), and in the years that followed, a number of men and several women came forward to claim they were the ones in the photos, which became symbolic of the excitement felt at the end of the war. A 2012 book, “The Kissing Sailor,” identified the couple as sailor George Mendonsa and Greta Zimmer, a dental assistant who didn’t know Mendonsa at the time of his spontaneous smooch. However, other people have made credible claims that they were the lip-locked couple, and to date, the pair’s identity never has been definitively proven.

4. Albert Einstein, 1951, New Jersey

On March 14, 1951, lens man Arthur Sasse captured this image of Einstein leaving a 72nd birthday celebration held in his honor in Princeton, New Jersey. At the time the photo was taken, Sasse had been attempting to get the Nobel Prize-winning physicist to smile, but instead, he stuck out his tongue as he sat in the back seat of a car. As it turned out, Einstein liked the shot so much he had some prints made for himself.

The German-born Einstein, who became a U.S. citizen in 1940, died four years after Sasse snapped his famous photo. In 2009, an original print signed by the renowned scientist sold at auction for more than $74,000. In 1953, in the midst of Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist crusade, Einstein had given the print to outspoken journalist Howard K. Smith, with the inscription (translated from German): “This gesture you will like because it is aimed at all of the humanity. A civilian can afford to do what no diplomat would dare. Your loyal and grateful listener, A. Einstein.” Einstein spoke out against McCarthyism, and historians have said the gesture in the photo and its inscription represent his spirit of non-conformity.

Click Next to Read More