Photo Essays
Happy Birthday Willie Nelson: Rare Photos from the 70s and 80s
Willie Nelson, who turns 80 today (born April 30, 1933), is one of those musicians who manages to comfortably straddle very different worlds. To some, he’s a pot...
Say Goodbye to Hollywood: LIFE With Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier, 1956
Before William and Kate, before Charles and Di, before Liz and Dick (I and II), before any of the “storybook” weddings of the past several decades, there was the...
Love Supreme: An Interracial Romance Triumphs in 1960s Virginia
On March 18, 1966, LIFE magazine published a feature under the quietly chilling headline, “The Crime of Being Married.” The article, illustrated with photographs...
Divided: Same-Sex Marriage Demonstrations
As the Supreme Court of the United States hears two cases in the appeals to state and federal laws restricting same-sex marriage, supporters and opponents...
Raid on a Polygamist Town: Arizona, 1953
Just before dawn on July 26, 1953, Arizona law enforcement launched what has since become known as the Short Creek raid: the arrest of men and women in an...
LIFE With Zsa Zsa: Rare Photos of ‘Another Gabor,’ 1951
Anyone who has lived to be almost 100 likely has a few outlandish tales to tell. At least, one hopes they have tales to tell; it’s simply too awful to think of...
LIFE With the Boy Scouts: Photos From a Time of Change, 1971
The Boy Scouts of America is one of those enduring institutions woven so deeply into the fabric of so many lives that it sometimes feels like it’s been around as...
The Rise of Pope Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio
The election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio to supreme pontiff Wednesday marks a series of firsts for Catholicism: He’s the first South American pope, the first Jesuit...
Brooklyn Bridge: The Perfect Span
Most of us have a favorite bridge. That is to say, most everyone has, in his or her mind’s eye, a structure that surpasses all others in the requisite traits: it...
Scenes from the Marriage of Al and Tipper Gore
After 40 years of marriage, the famed Washington couple announces an impending separation
Love and Marriage in Prime Time
TIME looks back at some of TV's greatest real-life newlyweds. Because, as the ol' saying goes, first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes an 8 p.m. time...
New Yorkers Celebrate the Legalization of Gay Marriage
Despite a Republican-controlled legislature and the opposition of many religious groups, Albany lawmakers made same-sex marriage legal on June 24, 2011.
LIFE With Jackie Kennedy: Birth of a Legend
It was in those brief, heady years — or perhaps it was really just one year, during the campaign and election of 1960 — when John F. Kennedy and his young,...
Dustin Hoffman: Early Photos of an Actor on the Rise
If they stick around long enough, great actors — or great American actors, anyway — often seem to go through similar, predictable stages in their careers...
Grace Kelly: Portraits of a Star
Before she married Monaco’s Prince Rainier in 1956 and became real-life royalty, Grace Kelly was living a different kind of fairy tale: that of a talented young...
Photos: Gay Rights, from Stonewall to Prop 8 and Beyond
From Stonewall to Presidential Obama's endorsement of same-sex marriage
LIFE With an Up-and-Comer Named Marilyn Monroe, 1952
It’s a scene straight out of a movie — but in this case, it’s nothing less than a pivotal moment in a real-life Hollywood legend’s life: Clad in a show-stopping...
Here Comes the Bride, All Dressed in Turkey Feathers
If you thought most bridesmaids’ dresses were hideous, imagine having to wear one made of turkey feathers. For the 1948 wedding party of one Barbara Orr Ehrhart,...
Linda Christian: The Real ‘First Bond Girl’
As the latest Bond film, Skyfall, bows in the U.S. — after setting box-office records overseas — media everywhere are looking back at 007 movies and celebrating...
The World Watches the Royal Wedding
Two billion people around the world witnessed the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton
