The power of photography goes beyond capturing a specific moment: it can help tell the story of entire countries and peoples. The art form was developed in the 19th century, and ever since then American history has been marked by iconic moments recorded for posterity, some uplifting and inspiring and some despairing and tragic. All these pictures have in some way left their mark on the national psyche.

Click through this gallery to explore some of the most powerful images that have helped define the United States...

For six years two railroad companies raced to build track across the United States – the Central Pacific from the west and the Union Pacific from the east. Their aim, as well as laying as much track as possible since they were paid by the mile, was to meet in the middle and complete the first ever transcontinental railroad. This took place on 10 May 1869 at Promontory, Utah, joining around 1,800 miles (2,900km) of track with the ceremonial hammering of a golden rail spike. The railroad revolutionised settlement of the west, making travel easier, safer and cheaper.

Once, between 30 and 60 million bison roamed the Great Plains. During the 19th century, however, they were driven nearly to extinction by drought and relentless hunting, partly for meat and furs but also for sport or to collect government bounty. Settler governments deliberately targeted bison in an effort to pressure the food sources of Indigenous peoples in times of conflict. This photo of a mountain of bison skulls was taken outside Michigan Carbon Works, where they would be ground down and turned into fertiliser and glue. Thankfully, conservation efforts have since seen the population grow so that today around half a million bison roam once more across the US.

American brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright assured their places in history by successfully performing the first ever powered flight of a heavier-than-air craft. On 17 December 1903, they flew their 12-horsepower plane, the Wright Flyer, a total of four times over a barren plain near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Orville was at the controls for the first attempt (seen here), which covered 120 feet (36m) in 12 seconds. Wilbur did best, however, reaching 852 feet (260m) in 59 seconds before strong winds tossed the Flyer and damaged it beyond repair.

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Just after 5am on 18 April 1906, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 struck San Francisco. Built on the San Andreas Fault, the Californian city had experienced tremors before, but nothing of this scale. Fires actually caused most of the damage as they raged out of control for several days. When it was over, more than 3,000 people were dead and hundreds of thousands were homeless. German-born photographer Arnold Genthe captured the devastation with his camera, including this famous shot down Sacramento Street filled with rubble and smoke.

In this photo John A Leach, New York’s Deputy Police Commissioner, supervises the pouring of liquor seized in a raid into the sewers. Two years earlier, following a long campaign by the temperance movement, the Eighteenth Amendment outlawed the production, transport and sale of alcohol. This was supposedly to solve society’s ills, but Prohibition instead led to illegal speakeasies, bootlegging and a rise in organised crime. Think Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly. The ban was eventually lifted in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression.

This iconic image, an enduring poster favourite, is not for the faint-hearted, showing 11 workers casually eating and chatting while precariously perched on a steel beam hundreds of metres above Manhattan. Taken in 1932 from the 69th floor of the under-construction RCA Building, it was a publicity stunt to promote New York’s real estate development. Far more than that, though, the photo captures the ambition of this age of skyscrapers – the Empire State Building was completed the previous year – and the era's lax attitude to health and safety.

The Great Depression left millions of Americans desperate, and the government’s New Deal hoped to ease these hardships. Legendary documentary photographer Dorothea Lange was working for the Federal Resettlement Administration to highlight the suffering of migrants and labourers when she took this portrait of 32-year-old Florence Thompson with three of her eight children in a pea-picking camp in Nipomo, California. The striking expression of 'Migrant Mother', with quiet dignity behind the worry lines, caught a nerve when published, and food packages were rushed to the camp.

This dramatic photograph, along with shocking video footage and the words of radio announcer Herb Morrison at the scene – "Oh, the humanity!" – meant that the Hindenburg disaster was instantly and firmly lodged in the American national consciousness. On 6 May 1937, the German airship LZ 129 Hindenburg had just sailed across the Atlantic when something went catastrophically wrong as it tried to moor at Lakehurst, New Jersey. The hydrogen ignited and the craft came crashing down in flames, killing 36 people and bringing an abrupt end to the age of the airship.

When the Ohio River burst its banks in early 1937, terrible floods across five states killed nearly 400 people and forced a million more from their homes. One of the worst-hit towns was Louisville in Kentucky, more than 70% of which ended up underwater. Famed photographer Margaret Bourke-White immediately headed to the city and saw this sight: African-American flood victims waiting in line outside a relief agency below a billboard bearing smiling white faces and the words 'the world's highest standard of living...there's no way like the American way'.

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President Franklin D Roosevelt described 7 December 1941 as "a date which will live in infamy" – the date Japan launched a surprise attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Across two waves, Japanese planes killed 2,403 people, military and civilian, while damaging hundreds of aircraft and all eight of the base's battleships. The USS Arizona (pictured) sank with more than 1,000 men on board, and images of its crippled, smoking bulk shocked the nation. The next day, the US declared war on Japan, officially ending its Second World War neutrality.

On 6 June 1944, nearly five years after the outbreak of war, the Allies launched their invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe with a meticulously planned set of amphibious landings and airborne missions in Normandy. D-Day saw British and Canadian forces focus on three beachheads (Gold, Juno and Sword), while the Americans stormed Utah and Omaha beaches. The latter was a bloodbath as the 1st Division hit entrenched German defences and suffered over 2,000 casualties. Robert F Sargent’s photo of troops leaving the landing craft at Omaha was called 'Into the Jaws of Death'. The day was eventually won, and the war shifted decisively in the Allies’ favour.

In the Second World War's Pacific theatre, the Allies faced long and brutal fights for each scrap of land across the ocean towards Japan. One of the bloodiest battles was for the island of Iwo Jima. On 23 February 1945, marines successfully secured Mount Suribachi and marked the victory by raising the Stars and Stripes at its summit. Actually, they did it twice, and it was the second raising that would be photographed by Joe Rosenthal. The photo won a Pulitzer Prize and later became the model for the Marine Corps War Memorial in Virginia.

In July 1945, the decision was taken to end the war with Japan by using a new weapon, secretly worked on for years and with unprecedented destructive power. The US dropped the first atomic bomb, Little Boy, on Hiroshima on 6 August, followed three days later by Fat Man on Nagasaki (pictured here). The first, and to date only, use of nuclear weapons in war resulted in a death toll of roughly 200,000, with many more to follow due to radiation. Japan surrendered, but the impact of these weapons was felt around the world, sparking a nuclear arms race that would quickly evolve into the Cold War.

The news of Japan’s surrender, and thus the Second World War's end, was met with jubilant celebrations across the US. Amid the carnival atmosphere of Victory over Japan (VJ) Day in New York's Times Square a sailor was photographed kissing a total stranger, and the woman's all-white attire (she was a dental assistant) and leant-back pose made the interaction seem almost like a dance. It became a cultural icon and a monument to the spontaneous emotion of that day, but has since become controversial thanks to questions around consent.

This photo of Hollywood’s hottest star was meant to advertise a movie, but instead it became one of the century’s most famous images. In 1954, Marilyn Monroe starred in a Billy Wilder comedy, The Seven Year Itch, as the glamorous neighbour of the male lead. In a memorable scene, she enjoys the cool updraft from a subway grate on a hot New York evening – a scene that was risque by 1950s standards. The scene was shot in Manhattan across three hours and 14 takes in front of 100 male photographers and up to 5,000 spectators.

Rosa Parks is proof that one person’s action can change the course of history. By refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in 1955, for which she was arrested and fined, the African-American activist inspired a boycott of the buses in Montgomery, Alabama. This launched its leader, a young Baptist minister named Dr Martin Luther King Jr, into the spotlight and kickstarted the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. This photo was actually taken the following year, the day after the bus boycott ended with the bus system successfully integrated.

Three years after the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in schools was unconstitutional, Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas still had no black students. In the face of vocal opposition to integration, nine African-American teenagers were registered for the 1957 school year. Elizabeth Eckford was one of the ‘Little Rock Nine’, who walked to school alone, harassed all the way by an angry mob. Behind her is 15-year-old Hazel Bryan, in the middle of yelling, “Go back to Africa!” National guardsmen posted by the governor stopped Eckford at the door, and it would be weeks before the Little Rock Nine completed a day of school, escorted by the 101st Airborne.

Some 250,000 people gathered in the nation’s capital on 28 August 1963 for a massive civil rights demonstration – the March on Washington. In front of the Lincoln Memorial, and stretching all the way to the Washington Monument, the crowd listened to nearly a dozen speakers, but only one would echo through history. Dr Martin Luther King Jr gave his seminal "I have a dream" speech, in which he eloquently spoke of his dream that his children would "not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character".

Inside a packed room aboard Air Force One, this photo shows Lyndon B Johnson being sworn in as president. Standing next to him is Jackie Kennedy, wife of President John F Kennedy, who was assassinated two hours earlier. The events of that day, 22 November 1963, are a touchstone in American history and a hotbed of conspiracy theories. Kennedy was gunned down as his motorcade made its way through downtown Dallas, Texas, and Jackie, who was sitting next to him, was still wearing her bloodstained dress as LBJ was sworn in.

The first round of their hotly anticipated bout on 25 May 1965 had not even finished when Muhammad Ali knocked Sonny Liston down. Rumours have swirled ever since of a 'phantom punch' and alleged match fixing, but the scene has nevertheless joined the annals of sporting greatness: Ali towering over his vanquished opponent, snarling and showboating. A year earlier, Liston was feared as the all-powerful heavyweight champ. Now, as he struggled to get off the mat in Lewiston, Maine, he had been beaten twice by the cocky, fast-talking Ali.

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The Vietnam War was a disaster for the US: nearly 60,000 deaths, intense division back home and a painful legacy akin to a gaping wound in the national psyche. And within that conflict – a Cold War proxy in which the Americans allied with South Vietnam against the communist North – 1968 was surely the worst year. More troops died that year than any other and diminishing domestic support saw mass protests. Here, freelance photographer Art Greenspon was on the scene as exhausted, wounded and broken men waited desperately for a helicopter.

Christmas Eve, 1968: astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders became the first humans ever to orbit the Moon and witness the remarkable sight of the Earth rising over the lunar horizon. Anders photographed the so-called Earthrise, which, once Apollo 8 returned, was an instant icon. Seeing Earth as a small blue marble perfectly encapsulated the enormity of the Space Race, but also had the unlikely consequence of inspiring the global environmental movement. Less than two years later, the first Earth Day was celebrated.

"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." These words are imprinted not only on American history, but on the story of humanity itself. On 20 July 1969 Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, and astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to set foot on the lunar surface. Here, Aldrin poses for one of the defining images of the 20th century, with Armstrong visible in his visor. The footage of the Moon landing, along with those immortal words, was watched by a global audience of an estimated 650 million people.

If there's one event that epitomises the counterculture of the 1960s, it's Woodstock. Up to half a million people – far more than expected, forcing the organisers to offer free entry – descended on a farm in Bethel in New York for 'three days of peace and music'. And what a lineup: Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, the Who, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix and more. Inexperienced organisers, poor planning, traffic congestion, thunderstorms and waves of mud could not stop the intense revelry.

For more than five years, Robert L Stirm had been a prisoner of the North Vietnamese. But as part of the peace talks to end the Vietnam War, he was among hundreds of Americans to be finally released. Arriving at Travis Air Force Base in California in 1973, he was greeted by his ecstatic family, his teenage daughter Lorrie in the lead. While the resulting Pulitzer Prize-winning photo by Sal Veder was titled ‘Burst of Joy’, this wasn’t an entirely happy occasion for Stirm. Just days earlier, his wife sent him a letter revealing that she was going to leave him.

Everyone expected the Soviet Union to skate away with ice hockey gold at the 1980 Winter Olympics, a title they had not lost since 1960. The US team, made up of talented but untested college players, had been crushed 10-3 by the Russian juggernaut just a week before the games. Yet, in front of a home crowd at Lake Placid, the Americans pulled off one of sport’s greatest upsets by winning the semi-final 4-3. As announcer Al Michaels memorably put it at the final buzzer: "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!" After the 'miracle on ice' – a different kind of Cold War victory – the young US team went on to claim gold.

Just 73 seconds after take-off on 28 January 1986, the Challenger space shuttle exploded live on television. All seven astronauts perished, including Christa McAuliffe, a schoolteacher selected from thousands of applicants to represent the NASA Teacher in Space Project. The launch had been plagued by a cold snap, and it turned out that the low temperatures had weakened O-ring seals in the right booster, which caused the tragedy. Investigations found NASA management at fault, since engineers had warned of the risks.

The final of the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup, between host nation the United States and China, ended goalless after extra time and went to a penalty shootout. With 90,000 spectators packing out the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Brandi Chastain stepped up to score the winning kick. Chastain had missed a penalty against the same keeper earlier in the year, but coolly slotted the winner for the 99ers, as the team became known, before whipping off her shirt and sinking to her knees. Women’s sport had a new icon: a symbol of joy and freedom in a sports bra.

The date alone evokes one of the darkest days in US history: 11 September, when a series of coordinated terror attacks killed 3,000. After hijacking four planes, terrorists linked to the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda flew two of them into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, both of which collapsed, and one into the Pentagon. The fourth crashed into a field after passengers fought back against the hijackers. As the events played out on television, the world stood still. The US had never felt more vulnerable, and the pain of the day lingers.

A decade after 9/11, President Barack Obama – along with Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – sits in the White House Situation Room. It's a tense wait for updates on Operation Neptune Spear: a top-secret mission that sent SEAL Team Six into a compound in Pakistan to kill Osama Bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader and mastermind of the 2001 attacks. The operation took just 40 minutes and was a success. Bin Laden’s body was buried at sea, and crowds celebrated the news outside the White House and at Ground Zero.

Now marvel at the earliest photos of the United States