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Bettmann

Helen Richey shakes the hand of assistant postmaster general W.W. Howes before she takes off in 1934 on the flight that would make her the first woman to fly the U.S. Air Mail.

A sailor observes explosions and stands amid wreckage at Ford Island Naval Air Station during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.

Two little girls lie in iron lung machines while being treated for polio. Their family looks in from the window outside.

A man who was bitten by dog suspected of rabies receives a post-exposure vaccination at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, ca. 1905. Louis Pasteur developed the first rabies vaccine in 1885—and modern technology has made it more effective and easier to administer.

There weren't any laws against abortion in the U.S. until the 19th century—and as those laws grew more restrictive, many women sought abortions in secret. Surgeon George T. Strother, shown at right with a patient, defied Virginia's law against abortion and was arrested in 1954. The man with his back to the camera is a doctor who accompanied the police on a raid of Strother's medical facility.

In 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr., killed his father, mother, two brothers, and two sisters in this home in Amityville, Long Island, New York. The mass murder inspired the book and film versions the The Amityville Horror.

In this photo taken on Christmas Eve 1960, a 20-year-old Bruce Chatwin examines antiques in Sotheby’s upstairs warehouse.

In 1968, American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in the Black Power salute from the medal podium at the Olympic Games in Mexico City.

Members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade celebrate their arrival in New York in 1938 after fighting for the anti-fascist side in the Spanish Civil War.

In the 75 years since the first successful test of a plutonium bomb, nuclear weapons have changed the face of warfare. Here, troops in the 11th Airborne division watch an atomic explosion at close range in the Las Vegas desert on November 1, 1951.