Pictures from the past
From definitive moments in history to milestones in photography: outstanding images selected by the picture editors of the Guardian and Observer
Sun, sea and barbed wire - a picture from the past
A woman sunbathes on Bournemouth beach on her August bank holiday in 1944, surrounded by tangles of barbed wire. Why she chose this spot we'll never know ...
Keith Moon - a picture from the past
A photographic highlight selected by the picture desk
Mr Bra: the inventor of the strapless brassiere – a picture from the past
Charles L Langs invented the first wireless, strapless and backless bras in 1948. His new brassieres, called Poses, were glued together and could even be worn on the beach
Wet wet wet: summertime storms in 1948 - a picture from the past
At a busy shrine in France on a very rainy day, Time Life photographer Yale Joel captured people peeking at him through a sea of sopping umbrellas
A summer night in Singapore, 1962 - a picture from the past
It's got cool colours and an even cooler geometric pattern, but the heat just cannot be beat in Winfield Parks's classic shot of people trying to feel the wind on their faces on a sticky, sultry night in the 60s
French socialist hero Jean Jaurès – a picture from the past
On 31 July 1914, the French socialist leader and committed pacifist Jean Jaurès was assassinated in Cafe du Croissant in Paris, by a 29-year-old nationalist called Raoul Villian who believed Jaurès' opposition to the war played into the hands of imperial Germany
Little Nadia eats a banana - a picture from the past
It is difficult to fathom what the British magazine photographer John Chaloner Woods was trying to illustrate with his picture of a young girl with a pageboy hairstyle eating a banana. What is certain is that it is most amusing
Stanley Kubrick - a picture from the past
Stanley Kubrick was born on 26 July 1928 in the Bronx, USA
Diving into the Thames in a heatwave, 1934 - a picture from the past
HF Davis shows the extreme lengths some Londoners would go to stay cool in July 1934, as boys in shorts and behatted businessmen and a perambulating young mum stare on in awe
Picture from the past: the world's first atomic bomb test
The atomic age began when the world's first nuclear device, known as the Trinity test, was detonated on 16 July 1945. The Manhattan Project successfully detonated the bomb near Alamogordo, New Mexico
Salvador Dalí paints Laurence Olivier, 1955 - a picture from the past
Laurence Olivier, legendary star of stage and screen, died 25 years ago today. Here, Salvador Dalí paints Olivier dressed as Richard III.
Maradona v Belgium, 1982 - a picture from the past
Steve Powell's photograph of one of the most gifted footballers to ever play the beautiful game, Argentina's Diego Maradona, taking on the serried ranks of the Belgian defence in the 1982 World Cup
Anne Frank - a picture from the past
On this day in 1942, two days after her 13th birthday, Anne Frank made her first diary entry.
World Cup final, 1970 - a picture from the past
The captain of Brazil, Carlos Alberto, celebrates scoring his team's fourth goal in the 1970 World Cup final against Italy in Mexico City. Alberto's famous goal, one of the best in the history of the tournament, sealed Brazil's 4-1 victory and their third World Cup win
West London, 1956 by Roger Mayne - a picture from the past
The photojournalist Roger Mayne, who died on 7 June, documented the boisterous life of working-class children in 1950s west London. This image of a group of lads having a fag on a street corner is one of his best-known
Cameramen- a picture from the past
On 7 June 1916, cameramen gather to film an event. One man has to stand on a box in order to see through the viewfinder
The Black Country, 1961 - a picture from the past
John Bulmer is one of the most important photojournalists to emerge from Britain in the 1960s. This image was taken while on assignment for Town magazine and was published in a feature titled Britain's Hard Centre in March 1961
Bus queues in London - a picture from the past
On this day in 1955, hundreds queue at a bus stop in Farringdon as a result of train strikes in London
Passing out parade - a picture from the past
A soldier faints from the heat at a crucial moment during the trooping of the colour to mark Queen Elizabeth's birthday in 1970
Bob Dylan, 1965 - a picture from the past
On this day in 1941 Robert Allen Zimmerman 'got born' in Duluth, Minnesota.
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