After they were greeted by thousands of screaming fans in New York City and 73 million viewers tuned in to watch The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, the band landed their first Life magazine cover on Aug. 28, 1964. The issue featured a picture of The Beatles with the caption, “The Beatles: They’re here again and what a ruckus!”
Life magazine through the years: See the most iconic covers
Life magazine has chronicled the news in pictures for more than 80 years. To mark the milestone anniversary, the Daily News takes a look back at its iconic covers spanning back to its debut on Nov. 23, 1936.
After they were greeted by thousands of screaming fans in New York City and 73 million viewers tuned in to watch The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, the band landed their first Life magazine cover on Aug. 28, 1964. The issue featured a picture of The Beatles with the caption, “The Beatles: They’re here again and what a ruckus!”
Princess Diana graced the cover of Life magazine in Nov. 1997 after she was tragically killed in a car accident three months earlier. The issue featured her favorite photographers, photos and images during “the week the world wept.”
The cover of Life from July 29, 1999, featured a photograph of John. F. Kennedy Jr. as a child. The issue celebrated his life after his untimely death in a plane crash.
On Nov. 1, 1954, actress Dorothy Dandridge became the first African-American woman to be featured on Life’s magazine cover. The same year, she made history as the first African-American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the musical Carmen Jones.
This famous portrait of Winston Churchill appeared on the cover of Life magazine on April 19, 1940.
Life magazine’s 1965 cover story revealed the never-before-seen “Drama of Life Before Birth,” featuring an 18-week fetus inside the amniotic sac. Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson was first met with a degree of skepticism as a color photo, capturing the stages of the human reproduction from fertilization to just before birth, had never been done before. Nilsson went onto help revolutionize utero photography and the cover sold an incredible 8 million copies.
Michael Jackson appeared with his son Prince on the Nov. 24, 1994 issue of Life.
When the now infamous Marilyn Monroe was a just rising star, photographer Philippe Halsman captured her debut Life cover titled “Marilyn Monroe: The Talk of Hollywood.” Hallsman’s image made the 1952 issue one of Life magazine’s most collectible.
Joseph Stalin was featured on the cover of Life’s special USSR issue on March 29, 1943.
Associated Press combat photographer Henri Huet captured this infamous 1966 Life magazine cover while working on assignment in An Thi, Vietnam. The photo features a wounded Army medic, Thomas Cole, in the trenches, helping his fellow soldiers despite his own wounds. The image became one of the most iconic wartime photos published in history.
Photographer Margaret Bourke-White captured this iconic image of a female steel worker on the cover of Life magazine during the war on Aug. 9, 1943.
In 1963, director Alfred Hitchcock was featured on the cover of Life magazine with ravens perched on his arms and head to promote his then-upcoming thriller “The Birds.”
The Fort Peck Dam is the star of this Nov. 23, 1936 cover.
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor beamed on the June 9, 1941, cover of Life despite being embroiled in war with Germany.
Winston Churchill showed off his paintings on the cover of Life on Jan. 7, 1946, not long after losing the general election to Clement Atlee.
Col. Jimmy Stewart, also a famous actor, sits on a building in his hometown after returning from WWII on the Sept. 24, 1945, cover.
Cowboy C. H. Long smokes a cigarette on the Aug. 22, 1949, cover of Life.
Elizabeth Taylor held her newborn daughter Elizabeth Todd on the cover of Life from Nov. 4, 1957, proving celebrity babies are always popular.
This iconic cover shows U.S. Marines fighting in Iwo Jima on April 9, 1945.
