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Life Covers When LIFE magazine's premiere issue hit newsstands on November 23, 1936, a star was born. With a simple red-and-white logo and distinctive, bold band anchoring its bottom edge, LIFE's cover was soon as recognizable an American icon as the spire of the Empire State Building. Across seven decades, LIFE's 2,000-plus covers not only captured pivotal people and momentous events, but again and again defined and even, in some cases, helped shape the times. On the 75th anniversary of the magazine's debut, LIFE.com presents, in chronological order, the 75 most moving, most striking, most beautiful LIFE covers of all time, as chosen by the site's editors. Here are some of their favorites. More from Life.com: The 75 Best LIFE Covers of All Time Life’s 20 Worst Covers All Life Covers![life mag]()
November 23, 1936: LIFE Is Born LIFE's very first cover featured this heroic Margaret Bourke-White photograph of Montana's Fort Peck Dam. (Margaret Bourke-White/TIME & LIFE Pictures) More from Life.com: The 75 Best LIFE Covers of All Time Life’s 20 Worst Covers All Life Covers![cowboy life]()
August 22, 1949: Cowboy This cover so completely embodied the rugged spirit of the West, that advertising giant Leo Burnett used it as the model for a long-running and highly successful ad campaign: the Marlboro Man. Photograph by Leonard McCombe (Leonard McCombe/LIFE Magazine) More from Life.com: The 75 Best LIFE Covers of All Time Life’s 20 Worst Covers All Life Covers![dean martin and lewis life]()
August 13, 1951: Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis Can you believe this cost 20 cents? (Philippe Halsman/LIFE Magazine) More from Life.com: The 75 Best LIFE Covers of All Time Life’s 20 Worst Covers All Life Covers![kennedys life]()
July 20, 1953: Senator John F. Kennedy and Jaqueline Bouvier This cover -- playfully captioned "Senator Kennedy Goes A-Courting" -- would begin a love affair between JFK, Jackie, and LIFE. While this was the couple's appearance on LIFE's cover, other memorable moments included a 1958 family portrait with John holding baby Caroline, and a gorgeous 1959 cover with the line "Jackie Kennedy: A Front Runner's Appealing Wife." The last time John and Jackie appeared together on a LIFE cover was in 1964: In still frames from the Zapruder film, the President and First Lady are seen riding in the open car, seconds before the assassin's shots rang out in Dallas. (Hy Peskin/LIFE Magazine) More from Life.com: The 75 Best LIFE Covers of All Time Life’s 20 Worst Covers All Life Covers![marilyn life]()
April 7, 1952: Marilyn Monroe LIFE was an early champion of Marilyn Monroe’s, and this photograph by Philippe Halsman graced the first of many cover stories on Monroe for the magazine. Readers, however, were probably paying less attention to Monroe’s mind than to her off-the-shoulders gown, apparently held up by little more than optimism. (Philippe Halsman/LIFE Magazine) More from Life.com: The 75 Best LIFE Covers of All Time Life’s 20 Worst Covers All Life Covers![ali life]()
March 6, 1964: Cassius Clay Brash, absurdly talented, and -- in his own words -- beautiful, 22-year-old heavyweight champ Cassius Marcellus Clay exudes confidence and charisma in Bob Gomel's riveting portrait. Within a few short years, Clay -- soon to be known the world over by his adopted Muslim name, Muhammad Ali -- would defend his title nine times, before being stripped of his championship belt and banned from the ring for refusing to be drafted to fight in Vietnam. (Bob Gomel/LIFE Magazine) More from Life.com: The 75 Best LIFE Covers of All Time Life’s 20 Worst Covers All Life Covers![legs life]()
March 13, 1970: Hemlines They should do another issue with what hemlines look like these days. (Milton H. Greene/LIFE Magazine) More from Life.com: The 75 Best LIFE Covers of All Time Life’s 20 Worst Covers All Life Covers![bill murray life g]()
December 24, 2004: Bill Murray Conventional wisdom has it that a good magazine cover requires eye contact. And the more, the better. But here, against a stark black background, Murray and LIFE's editors go the other way: Hair unkempt and sweater looking threadbare, Murray shuts his eyes and creates something worth staring at. (Karina Taira/LIFE Magazine) More from Life.com: The 75 Best LIFE Covers of All Time Life’s 20 Worst Covers All Life Covers![kennedy life]()
June 14, 1968: Robert F. Kennedy Intimate and beautifully composed, it almost doesn't matter that the man jogging down an Oregon beach and away from the camera is presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. But it is. Just days after LIFE's Bill Eppridge took this picture, he followed the senator on to California, where he photographed Kennedy collapse to the floor of the Ambassador Hotel, the victim of an assassin's bullet. That picture -- a grainy black-and-white image of RFK bleeding to death in the arms of a busboy -- is legendary. (Bill Eppridge/TIME & LIFE Pictures) More from Life.com: The 75 Best LIFE Covers of All Time Life’s 20 Worst Covers All Life CoversLIFE Magazine's Top Covers
The iconic magazine shares some of its top 75 covers
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- LIFE Magazine's Top Covers
