Twenty momentous photographs from the last 100 years that define our history

Their Majesties The King and Queen

The roar of the crowd is almost audible in this picture, taken from inside Buckingham Palace in London as The King and Queen waved from the balcony after the coronation on May 6, 2023 — Charles III was the 40th monarch and his wife the 29th consort to be crowned at Westminster Abbey. More than 200,000 people lined the areas immediately around the palace, representing a miniscule fraction of the hundreds of millions who watched the televised event worldwide.

Marilyn Monroe

On September 15, 1954, Marilyn Monroe made history when, clad in a white cocktail dress, she stepped over a New York ventilation grate in The Seven Year Itch and the air current from a passing train blew up her skirt, exposing her legs. The scene was positively risqué and Monroe’s then husband, Joe DiMaggio, was incensed (the couple divorced shortly afterwards).

Twiggy

Only 12 years later, no windy excuse was necessary to reveal Twiggy’s legs to the camera. Mary Quant had changed the course of fashion with her miniskirts. The British model Twiggy (now Dame Lesley Lawson), who would go on to become the face of the Swinging Sixties, had been scouted mere months before she was photographed wearing Quant’s mini dress, aged only 16.

The then Duchess of Cornwall, Country Life's 2022 guest editor

Another one-of-a-kind picture appeared on the cover of Country Life on July 13, 2022, an issue guest edited by the then Duchess of Cornwall. Her portrait was taken by amateur photographer and fellow Royal Family member Catherine, then the Duchess of Cambridge.

Man on the moon

It was a small step for a man, but a giant one for humanity when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to take a walk on the Moon on July, 20, 1969. In what would become a legendary picture, Armstrong, who commanded the Apollo 11 mission, photographed fellow astronaut Aldrin standing by the American flag the pair had just planted into the lunar soil.

Elizabeth Hurley and Hugh Grant

It was also a small step and a giant leap for Elizabeth Hurley when she set out in a Gianni Versace black dress with Hugh Grant at the 1994 premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral. The actress carved a name for herself overnight, becoming a symbol of the nascent Cool Britannia.

The Channel Tunnel

On December 1, 1990, as the final hole was dug into the Channel Tunnel, the British and French crews met and workers Philippe Cozette and Graham Fagg shook hands, each man holding their respective country’s flags. Excavation had begun three years earlier, in December 1987, on the British side and the first test train would run in December 1993, ahead of the official opening in May 1994.

Mo Farah

A British triumph of a joyously different kind came in 2012. At the spectacular London Olympics, Mo Farah secured a double victory, taking gold in the 10,000-metre race (it was the very first time Britain had won that particular medal), then in the 5,000. He would repeat the feat four years later in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Sir Mo was only the seventh man ever to win over both distances at the same Olympics.

Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery

On May 4, 1945, British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery accepted the surrender of the German forces stationed in north-western Germany, The Netherlands and Denmark. Four days later, representatives of the German Army, Navy and Air Force would sign the same in Berlin, although the Second World War only came to an end on September 2, 1945.

The big wide world

The squabbles of nations must have seemed absurd to Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders, who photographed this ‘Earthrise’ when orbiting the Moon in 1968. Looking back on the day decades later, he wrote: ‘The Earth we saw rising over the battered grey lunar surface was small and delicate, a magnificent spot of color in the vast blackness of space. Once-distant places appeared inseparably close. Borders that once rendered division vanished. All of humanity appeared joined together on this glorious, but fragile sphere.’

A tiny seahorse

In 2016, photographer Justin Hofman was snorkelling off the coast of Sumbawa, Indonesia, camera in hand, when he saw a seahorse riding the current. Suddenly, a tide of plastic refuse rushed in and the little critter grabbed a cotton swab. Hofman’s perfectly timed picture has become a tragic testament to the pollution that’s killing the oceans

The war-time postman

The poster child for ‘Keep calm and carry on’ must be the postman out for his round in Watling Street, London, in the aftermath of a night-time air raid in May 1941. Not all superheroes wear capes, but some definitely wore Royal Mail uniforms.

New York, New York

On September 20, 1932, 11 iron-workers ate their lunch sitting on a steel beam 850ft above the ground, off the 69th floor of what would become 30, Rockefeller Plaza in New York and their picture became a worldwide sensation. It was, however, an artfully staged shot: the construction company had commissioned it to create a buzz and promote its new skyscraper.

Losers to lovers

Hopefully, a happy ending awaited the seemingly oblivious couple who kissed in Vancouver, Canada, even as police went in to control the riots that had broken out after the local hockey team lost a game in the Stanley Cup finals in 2011.

Sir Winston Churchill

As 1944 drew to a close, on December 30, Winston Churchill kept up the nation’s morale with his famous V-sign, a mere fortnight after the Germans had launched the Ardennes Offensive, their last major attack of the Second World War.

Man's best friend

Riley, a golden retriever, was one of the 300 service dogs working amid the wreckage of the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center in New York, USA, although he became depressed because he could find no survivors. His picture as he was transported out of the debris made world headlines. He lived a happy retirement and died aged 13 on February 26, 2010.

Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange

Female strength wears many faces, but perhaps the most famous was captured by Dorothea Lange in 1936. Migrant Mother, depicting a worn woman looking into the distance as her children cluster around her, became the emblem of the Great Depression. She had travelled to California in the USA with her children to find work as a vegetable picker and had stopped almost by accident at the camp in Nipomo, where Lange found her. The picture caused a stir when it was published in the San Francisco News and the camp received generous food aid in the days following. By then, however, it was too late for the family in the picture, who had moved on. Labelled ‘the Mona Lisa of the 1930s’, the mother remained un-named until 1978, when a reporter identified her as widow Florence Owens Thompson.

Muhammad Ali

The mood was tense ahead of the fight between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston held in Lewiston, Maine, on May 25, 1965. In February 1964, Ali, then Cassius Clay, had unexpectedly beaten Liston, then the heavyweight world champion, sparking rumours of a fix. The rematch began — and in less than two minutes, it was pandemonium: Liston was felled by a punch that most spectators couldn’t see. Ali stood over his rival, shouting at him to stand up. When Liston eventually rose, it was too late — Ali was awarded victory. Allegations that the former champion had thrown the fight swirled, prompting calls to ban boxing — but the shot that ringside photographer Neil Leifer had taken of Ali hovering over his opponent became one of the most celebrated sports images of all time.

Freddie Mercury

As people starved to death in an Ethiopia ravaged by famine, singers Bob Geldof and Midge Ure staged a fundraising concert, Live Aid, held simultaneously in London and Philadelphia, in July 1985. Almost anyone who was anyone in rock took part, including Queen, with lead vocalist Freddie Mercury, who played for 20 minutes — with more than 70,000 people clapping to Radio Ga Ga. It was later hailed as ‘the world’s greatest rock gig’.

Speed of sound

The moment an F/A-18 Hornet jet broke the sound barrier when flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1999.

Elizabeth II

Elizabeth II moved the nation when she appeared, masked and alone, strictly adhering to covid restrictions, at the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, Berkshire, on April 17, 2021. Even in her moment of greatest sorrow, the late Queen upheld the rules of the country she loved.

This feature originally appeared in the January 7, 2026, issue of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.