LIFE’s very first cover featured this heroic Margaret Bourke-White photograph of Montana’s Fort Peck Dam.
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.
Here, 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.
(see more — The 75 Best LIFE Covers)
