FLASHBACK Part I: The greatest news photos since 1956

The World Press Photo Awards are considered to be the most prestigious awards in the field of photojournalism. Since 1955, World Press Photo has honoured photographers who have chronicled the most moving as well as memorable moments of history, politics and conflict.

Rediff.com brings you a montage of the unforgettable photographs from the archives of World Press Photo, a collection of beautiful images that catch history in the making. In the first part of the series, we bring you breathtaking photographs that won the World Press Photo Contest from 1955 to 1986.

Also see:  Year's Best: Award winning PHOTOS from around the world

Warning: Some of the photographs are violent or graphic in nature.

Year: 1955

Photographer: Mogens von Haven

Image: A competitor tumbles off his motorcycle during the Motorcross World Championship at the Volk Molle race course in Randers, Denmark.

FLASHBACK Part II: The greatest news photos since 1986

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Year: 1956

Photographer: Helmuth Pira

Image: A German World War II prisoner, released by the Soviet Union, is reunited with his daughter. The child had not seen her father since she was one-year-old.

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Year: 1957

Photographer: Douglas Martin

Image: Dorothy Counts, one of the first black students to enter the newly desegregated Harry Harding High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, is mocked by whites on her first day of school.

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Year: 1958

Photographer: Stanislav Tereba

Image: National Football Championships between Prague and Bratislava (Slovakia).

Year: 1960

Photographer: Yasushi Nagao

Image: A right-wing student in Japan assassinates Inejiro Asanuma, Socialist Party Chairman, during his speech at the Hibiya Hall.

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Year: 1962

Photographer: Hector Rondon Lovera

Image: Priest Luis Padillo offers last rites to a loyalist soldier who is mortally wounded by a sniper during military rebellion against President Betancourt at Puerto Cabello naval base in Venezuela.

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Year: 1963

Photographer: Malcolm W Browne

Image: Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc sets himself ablaze in protest against the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government.

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Year: 1964

Photographer: Don McCullin

Image: A Turkish woman mourns her dead husband, a victim of the Greek-Turkish civil war.

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Year: 1965

Photographer: Kyoichi Sawada

Image: A mother and her children wade across a river to escape United States bombing. The US Air Force had evacuated their village because it was suspected of being used as a base camp by the Vietcong.

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Year: 1966

Photographer: Kyoichi Sawa

Image: The body of a Vietcong soldier is dragged behind an American armoured vehicle en route to a burial site after fierce fighting.  

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Year: 1967

Photographer: Co Rentmeester

Image: The commander of an M48 tankgunner of the US 7th regiment in Vietnam's 'Iron Triangle'.

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Year: 1968

Photographer: Eddie Adams

Image: South Vietnam national police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan executes a suspected Viet Cong member.

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Year: 1969

Photographer: Hanns-Jorg Anders

Image: A young Catholic wears a gasmask during clashes with British troops in Derry, northern Ireland. People had been fleeing from teargas after a night of street fighting.

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Year: 1971

Photographer: Wolfgang Peter Geller

Image: During negotiations on the safe conduct of a group of criminals on the run, police superintendent Gross suddenly shoots down gang leader Kurt Vicenik. The gang, who had disappeared after a bank-robbery in Cologne, Germany, re-emerged near Saarbracken, carrying a hostage with them.

A chase followed and the police and the robbers met at Baltersweiler. The two other men were captured in a wild fight. The men running away from the bullets are policemen.

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Year: 1972

Photograph: Nick Ut

Image: Phan Thi Kim Phuc (centre) flees with other children after South Vietnamese planes mistakenly dropped napalm on South Vietnamese troops and civilians.

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Year: 1973

Photographer: Orlando Lagos

Image: Democratically elected President Salvador Allende moments away from death during military coup at Moneda presidential palace in Chile.

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Year: 1974

Photographer: Ovie Carter

Image: The Faces of Hunger. A mother comforts her child, both victims of drought, in Niger.

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Year: 1975

Photographer: Stanley Forman

Image: A mother and her daughter are hurled off a collapsing fire-escape in an apartment house fire in Boston.

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Year: 1976

Photographer: Francoise Demulder

Image: Palestinian refugees in district La Quarantaine.

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Year: 1977

Photographer: Leslie Hammond

Image: Police throw tear-gas at a group of chanting residents of the Modderdam squatter camp protesting against the demolition of their homes outside Cape Town.

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Year: 1978

Photographer: Sadayuki Mikami

Image: A demonstrator is engulfed in flames of the molotov cocktail he was about to throw at the police during protests against the construction of the New Tokyo International Airport. The original Narita Airport plan was unveiled in 1966.

To acquire the initial land, the government had to evict protesting landowners. Violent clashes between the opponents and authorities resulted in 13 deaths, including five police officers. The new airport opened in May 1978.

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Year: 1979

Photographer: David Burnett

Image: A Cambodian woman cradles her child while waiting for food to be distributed at a refugee camp, in a refugee camp in Sa Keo near the Thai-Cambodian border.

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Year: 1980

Photographer: Mike Wells

Image: A starving boy and a missionary in Uganda.  

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Year: 1981

Photographer: Manuel Perez Barriopedro

Image: Lt Col Antonio Tejero Molina orders everyone to remain seated and be quiet after armed Guardia Civil soldiers stormed the Assembly Hall of the Spanish Parliament.

Three hundred deputies and cabinet members were in session to vote upon the succession of premier Suarez. They were released next morning after having been held hostage for almost 18 hours; the coup was a failure.

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Year: 1982

Photographer: Robin Moyer

Image: The war in Lebanon: The aftermath of the massacre of Palestinians by Christian Phalangists in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut, Lebanon.

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Year: 1983

Photographer: Mustafa Bozdemir

Image: Kezban Ozer, 37, finds her five children buried alive after a devastating earthquake near Erzurum and Kars, Turkey. 

At 5 am, she and her husband were milking the cows as their children slept. A few minutes later, 147 villages in the region were destroyed by an earthquake of magnitude 7.1 on the Richter Scale. 1,336 people died.

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Year: 1984

Photographer: Pablo Bartholomew

Image: A child killed by the poisonous gas leak in the Union Carbide chemical plant disaster in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.

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