Photograph Credits

1940s

VA poster highlighting educational benefits for veterans/National Archives; Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Josef Stalin at the Yalta Conference in February 1945/National Archives; Smoke column rising above Nagasaki after the dropping of the atomic bomb on August 8, 1945/National Archives; Soldier celebrating the surrender of Japan, August 14, 1945/National Archives; Eleanor Roosevelt and United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Spanish, November, 1949/National Archives; President Truman addressing Congress, March 12, 1947/Harry S. Truman Presidential Library; Reconstruction work in West Berlin with funding from the Marshall plan/National Archives.

1950s

Korean girl carrying her brother near a tank in Haengju, Korea/National Archives; Senator Joseph McCarthy on the CBS television show, "Face the Nation" on November 7, 1954/Getty Images; Julius and Ethel Rosenberg after their conviction on treason charges, 1951/National Archives; Eisenhower campaign button/Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library; Bureau of Public Roads exhibit showcasing the federally-funded interstate system, 1957/Federal Highway Administration;  Police escorts for students during desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1954/George Silk, Time & Life Pictures, Getty Images/Workers installing a billboard in Atlanta as part of a polio prevention campaign/Centers for Disease Control/ A model of Sputnik 1, launched on October 4, 1957, was the first human-made object in space/NASA History Office.

1960s

John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon debate during the 1960 presidential campaign/Time & Life Pictures, Getty Images/Nikita S. Khrushchev, Soviet premier and first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, addresses the United Nations, October 3, 1960/AP; Launch site near San Cristobal, Cuba, October 25, 1962/National Archives/Lyndon Johnson being sworn in as president aboard Air Force One, November 22, 1963; President Lyndon B. Johnson and Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. meeting on March 18, 1966/Yoichi R. Okamoto, Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library; President Johnson signing the Medicare bill into law, July 30, 1965/Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library; Operation Georgia: Marines blow up bunkers and tunnels used by the Viet Cong, May 1966/National Archives; Thurgood Marshall stands outside of the Supreme Court building after being sworn in as the first African American justice, September 1, 1967/AP; Protester facing riot police during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, 1968/Getty Images;  Astronaut Buzz Aldrin is photographed on July 20, 1969, walking near the Lunar Module (LM) during the Apollo 11/Neil Armstrong, NASA Kennedy Space Center.

1970s

President and Mrs. Nixon visit the Great Wall of China and the Ming tombs in February 1972/National Archives; President Nixon greeted by school children during a stop on his presidential campaign, August, 1972/National Archives;  Bald eagle in flight/Dave Menke, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Woman reading headline of President Nixon's resignation/Owen Franken, Corbis; Anwar Sadat, Jimmy Carter and Menahem Begin at the Camp David Accords signing Ceremony, September 17, 1978; Anti-American protesters outside of the American embassy in Tehran, November 1979/Getty Images; Gas station attendants looking over his "Out of Gas" sign before a requested Saturday closing of gas stations in November, 1973/National Archives; View of the reactors at Three Mile Island/National Archives.

1980s

Button from Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign/CQ Press photo; Sandra Day O'Connor being sworn in as the first female Supreme Court justice, 1981/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library; Hostages disembarking after being released from Iranian captivity/Corbis; President Reagan on the campaign trail in 1983/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library; President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev meeting in Geneva, November 1985/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library; A button protesting Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, otherwise known as "Star Wars"/Corbis; Lieutenant-Colonel Oliver North is sworn in before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing on December 9, 1986, regarding the Iran-Contra affair/Chris Wilkins, Getty Images; Analysts digest news of the 1987 stock market crash, October 20, 1987/Jerry Soloway, Corbis; Celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall, November 10, 1989/Tom Stoddart Collection, Getty Images; Cleaning up after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in the Prince William Sound, 1989/Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council.

1990s

President George H.W. Bush talking with American Troops in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War in November, 1990/George Bush Presidential Library; Boris Yeltsin addressing the Supreme Soviet after being invested as Russian President, July 10, 1991/Alain-Pierre Hovasse, Getty Images; Yitzhak Rabin, President Clinton, and Yasser Arafat meet during the signing of the Oslo Accords in September, 1993/William J. Clinton Presidential Library; Hillary Clinton giving graduation address. A supporter has hung a banner promoting her healthcare policies in the background/William J. Clinton Presidential Library; House Speaker Newt Gingrich addresses a crowd in Washington after the completion of the "Contract with America," April 1995/Denis Paquin, AP; AIDS activists rally in Times Square, 1992/Porter Gifford, Getty Images; Buttons for and against President Clinton's impeachment/Scott J. Ferrell, CQ.

2000s

An election observer in Florida analyzes an ambiguous ballot during the contested presidential election of 2000/Alan Diaz, AP; Beams of light shine into the sky above the Manhattan skyline to pay tribute to those who lost their lives on 9/11 in the World Trade Center/Don Emmert, Getty Images; Entrance to the Department of Education Building with "No Child Left Behind" facade/Andrew Boney, CQ Press; Surveying crops/Scott Bauer, USDA; Former Chairman and CEO of Enron, Ken Lay, testifies before Congress, April 2006/Scott J. Ferrell, CQ; Surveying crops/Scott Bauer/USDA; The devastation of Hurricane Katrina is shown through the Coast Guard's damage assessment overflights in August, 2005/Getty Images;  House Majority Leader Tom DeLay walks near the Capitol, April 2006/Scott J. Ferrell, CQ; President George W. Bush is joined by House and Senate representatives as he signs H.R. 3199, USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005, March 9, 2006/White House; Newly appointed Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, discusses the goals of the 110th Congress/Scott J. Ferrell, CQ; Children in front of the White House protesting President Bush's veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program/REUTERS/Jim Young; Cars on the highway/Photo by Warren Gretz, courtesy of DOE/NRE; Barack Obama campaigns on the night of the New Hampshire presidential primary in January 2008/AP Photo/Stephan Savoia; Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama applaud Sonia Sotomayor during her Supreme Court nomination ceremony on May 26, 2009/Official White House photo by Chuck Kennedy

2010s

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi celebrate after the signing of the President's landmark health reform legislation on March 23, 2010/Official White House Photo by Pete Souza; Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Chief Justice John Roberts, and President Obama talk before Kagan's investiture ceremony on October 1, 2010/Official White House Photo by Pete Souza. President Obama and his national security team watch the events unfold as U.S. forces enter the suspected compound of Osama bin Laden on May 1, 2011/Official White House Photo by Pete Souza. U.S. Treasury Building photo by Carol M. Highsmith, Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division/U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Cynthia Oldham. Coast Guard Cutter Gallatin provides assistance in the vicinity of New York City following Hurricane Sandy/Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Tara Molle. Destruction in Sea Brite, N.J., caused by Hurricane Sandy. Pill bottle/CDC/Amanda Mills; Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen presents the Monetary Policy Report on February 24, 2015/Federal Reserve photograph; Corn field/Eric Vance, Environmental Protection Agency; Trans-Alaska pipeline/U.S. Geological Survey; Cuban Capitol building in Havana/Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress; Guard tower at Joint Task Force Guantanamo detention facility/U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Gino Reyes; Citrus fruits in ARS breeding program/photo by Scott Baurer; U.S. Treasury Department Building, Washington, D.C./Carol M. Highsmith, Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division; U.S. Supreme Court chamber/Carol M. Highsmith, Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.