In this photo from the March 1966 issue, workers wave red flags as part of a demonstration in Moscow's Red Square on May Day. Long celebrated as a festival of spring, May 1 also became International Workers' Day in 1889.
PHOTOGRAPH BY DEAN CONGER, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
A school of bluefin tuna swims in a laboratory pen of Kindai University in Japan. A story in the August 1982 issue chronicled the journey of bluefin tuna from ocean to plate. The pressure the fish are under has only grown since then—bluefin tuna populations are now down 90 percent since the 1970s.
PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID DOUBILET, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
This picture from the December 1960 issue shows the September 1960 issue being printed at a facility in Chicago. That year, the National Geographic Society transferred the printing process from Washington, D.C., to Chicago, bringing new depth and vividness to the photography readers knew and loved.
PHOTOGRAPH BY B. ANTHONY STEWART, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
The July 2008 issue told the stories of wildfires ravaging the western U.S. "Good" fires, like this one in Custer State Park, South Dakota, clear dead brush and return nutrients to the soil. But climate change and pests have intensified wildfires in recent years, causing them to spread wider and do more damage.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK THIESSEN, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
The island of St. Thomas celebrates Carnival for a month in late spring. In this photo from the February 1956 issue, a group of people dressed in saris await their review at a parade competition.
PHOTOGRAPH BY CHARLES ALLMON, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
A story in the November 1986 issue documented the worldwide humanitarian efforts of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Here, workers unload bags of grain to distribute to families in Ethiopia.
PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVE RAYMER, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
In the Chinese village of Dimen, tradition dictates that newborns are assigned "coffin trees" at birth—which will one day be cut down and carved into their coffins. In this photo, a mother laughs with her daughter in front of her coffin tree.
PHOTOGRAPH BY LYNN JOHNSON, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
In this picture from the May 1921 issue, vendors in Seoul play instruments called geomungos to entice shoppers to their music store. The issue featured a supplemental "New Map of Asia," that reflected the geopolitical changes brought by World War I.
PHOTOGRAPH BY INTERCHURCH WORLD MOVEMENT, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
In Stillwell, Oklahoma, a grandfather teaches a Cherokee dance to his grandson. A story in the May 1995 issue covered the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina, and the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. They were once one tribe, indigenous to the Southeast, before the U.S. government tore them apart by way of the Trail of Tears.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MAGGIE STEBER, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
On the island of Tonga, women ink intricate designs onto a tapa cloth in honor of Queen Salote, who died in 1965. This picture originally appeared in a September 1971 story retracing the voyages of British explorer James Cook.
PHOTOGRAPH BY GORDON GAHAN, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
Dancers prepare to perform Yotsudake, an elegant indigenous dance, in Ginowan, Okinawa, Japan. A June 1997 story documented efforts on Okinawa to celebrate its unique heritage, separate from Japan's influence and America's military presence.
PHOTOGRAPH BY KAREN KASMAUSKI, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
Hikers stand in a sea of waist-high bracken ferns near Sandwick, England. The fern, an invasive native species that takes over deforested plots, produces toxins that are deadly to livestock.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANNIE GRIFFITHS, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
In this picture from the February 1967 issue, residents of the town of Black Point in the Bahamas wear their finest clothes to celebrate the opening of a new clinic.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MELVILLE GROSVENOR, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION