First successful flight of the Wright Flyer, by the Wright brothers. The machine traveled 120 ft (36.6 m) in 12 seconds at 10:35 a.m. on 17 December 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Orville Wright was at the controls of the machine, lying prone on the lower wing with his hips in the cradle which operated the wing-warping mechanism. Wilbur Wright ran alongside to balance the machine, and just released his hold on the forward upright of the right wing in the photo. The starting rail, the wing-rest, a coil box, and other items needed for flight preparation are visible behind the machine. This was considered "the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air, powered flight" by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. Photograph: John T. Daniels.
Dressed in gold bikinis and stilettos, the Australian Gold Coast Meter Maids have been putting money into expired parking meters to stop tourists and shoppers getting fined since 1965. "I went out with two of the girls, Hannah, 15, and Jessica, 18, on a few of their shifts. This photo was taken on one of their breaks. Despite the six-hour shifts in high heels and the odd derogatory remark, the girls seem to love their job, seeing it as a stepping stone into modelling and promotional work".
"St. Mary's County, Maryland. Negro Farm Security Administration clients and their homes -- Mr. and Mrs. Dyson [John and Louise], aged rehabilitation borrowers. Mr. Dyson was born into slavery over eighty years ago". September 1940. Photograph: John Vachon (Shorpy)
A bleak photograph from 1982: Three bodies lie slumped over chairs in a nondescript room, a sex worker and two of her clients, all killed for using heroin that was not supplied by the mafia. “It was such a small room,” she says, “and when I arrived it was full of people: policemen, doctors, magistrates. I had to wait there until, one by one, they left and I was alone with the bodies. It took an eternity, but I had to be alone out of respect for the dead.” Photograph & Text, Letizia Battaglia
Yaksha Modi, daughter of Chagan Modi, in her father’s shop before its destruction under the Group Areas Act, 17th Street, Fietas, Johannesburg, 1976. Photograph: David Goldblatt/Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg and Cape Town,
The American exhibition shooter made her name in Ohio, aged 15, by winning a contest against Frank E Butler, whom she went on to marry. The pair took their talents on tour as part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show and she performed all over the world, including for Queen Victoria. She also campaigned for women to be allowed to join the armed forces. Her story was immortalised in the musical Annie Get Your Gun.
Frank Sinatra with his minders and stand-in, who is wearing an identical outfit to the singer and actor, in Miami Beach while filming 'The Lady in Cement' in 1968. Photograph: Terry O’Neill - Iconic Images
A young woman protester is arrested by a riot policeman at a demonstration in Prague’s Wenceslas Square commemorating the anniversary of the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact armies, which crushed the Prague Spring. Photograph: Bohumil Eichler, 21 August, 1989
Dana Schutz at her art studio in Brooklyn in December with “Treadmill,” left, and “Boatman,” right. The painter, coming off one of the biggest art world controversies, says she now imagines her audience when she is painting. Credit...Rebecca Smeyne for The New York Times.