28 Newspaper Headlines From the Past That Document History’s Most Important Moments

Here are 28 newspaper headlines that document history’s most important moments—headlines so momentous that anyone reading them knew that the world as they knew it had been changed irrevocably.

They're the ones that generated the largest headlines, the greatest change, the most vivid memories, the most immediate impact.

The front page of the April 16, 1912 evening edition of the Boston Globe, detailing the Titanic disaster.

Goebbels suicide as Berlin falls. On May 3rd 1945, the Daily Mail ran with the story of Joseph Goebbels' suicide and the shocking news that he had killed his six children.

Dr. Einstein Is Dead. The Washington Daily News, Monday, April 18th, 1955

JAPS BOMB HAWAII. Daily News. December 8, 1941. This is one of the best Pearl Harbor newspapers ever published using 3″ bold headlines.

The front page New York Times in 1975. Operation Frequent Wind begins removing the last Americans from Saigon.

The Daily Telegram. November 11, 1918: “World War is Over"

Harbor Attack. Honolulu Star newspaper headlines. December 7, 1941.

May 8, 1915: The New York Herald reports the sinking of the Lusitania.

Sir WINSTON CHURCHILL DEAD. January 16, 1965: The Daily Telegraph starts with this front page. Journalists had received the bulletin of his stroke at 3pm, and a warning at 9:40 that he was 'slipping into deeper sleep'.

Iconic front page detailing coverage of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima dated August 8, 1945.

Speculation about shark-infested waters was the top headline in the July 3, 1937, edition of The Baltimore News-Post.

The front page of a Stars and Stripes newspaper on Victory in Europe Day, May 8, 1945.

Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, TN by James Earl Ray. In real “Breaking News,” Daily News prints the huge front page headline: “MARTIN KING SHOT TO DEATH. Gunned Down in Memphis.”

July 22, 1934: Notorious bank robber and J. Edgar Hoover's "Public Enemy No. 1" John Dillinger is killed by FBI agents at a theater in Chicago.

May 8, 1945. On the home front during World War II, New Yorkers received a regular diet of good and bad news through screaming headlines on the front pages of the city’s tabloids.

Black Tuesday. October 29, 1929 - The Stock Market Crash and beginning of the Great Depression.

Nov. 11, 1918: Fighting in World War I ended with the signing of an armistice between the Allies and Germany.

Daily News front page August 9, 1974, Headline: NIXON RESIGNS.

Daily News cover. 16.May 1945.

Prohibition Ends at Last. Daily Mirror December 5, 1933.

Man Walks on the Moon. Daily Mirror 21st July, 1969.

The headline of The National News reports on the shooting of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in Washington on April 14, 1865.

The Evening News announces the birth of Louise Brown in 1978. Louise was the first baby to be born after being conceived by in vitro fertilisation (IVF). The media response described the process as making 'test tube babies', and the Pope aired concerns that women would be forced to become baby factories.

Elvis Presley dies at 42 on August 16, 1977. Front page of the Daily Mail the day after Elvis' death.

Huge crowds at Trafalgar Square celebrate VE- Day in London. The Daly Mirror front page reporting VE Day.

The zeppelin disaster.

Nelson Mandela freed from prison after 27 years in captivity. February 11th 1990. London Herald front page.

Daily News front page the day after the assassination.