See photographs and read stories about global icons - the actors, athletes, politicians, and community members that make our world come to life.

The following is from the introduction to LIFE’s special tribute issue, Jimmy Carter: A Noble Life, which is available online and at newsstands.

Visit some of the world's most desirable and desolate locations on Planet Earth through LIFE's extensive natural photography collection.

Subscribe to the LIFE Newsletter. Travel back in time with treasured photos and stories, sent right to your inbox. Join Today

Subscribe to the LIFE Newsletter. Travel back in time with treasured photos and stories, sent right to your inbox. Join Today

Subscribe to the LIFE Newsletter. Travel back in time with treasured photos and stories, sent right to your inbox. Join Today

Here are a few selections from LIFE’s new special issue 100 Photographs: The Most Important Pictures Ever and the Stories Behind Them

As a weekly magazine LIFE covered it all, with a breadth and open-mindedness that looks especially astounding today, when publications and websites tailor their coverage to ever-narrowing audiences. LIFE chronicled the lives of presidents, and also followed a …

When Betty Grable was profiled in the June 7, 1943, issue of LIFE, she shared headline status with another entity: her own legs, which the magazine dubbed a “major Hollywood landmark.”

The following is from the introduction to the special issue, LIFE: A Story of America in 100 Photographs, which is available here. A great photograph tells not one story but many, through what it plainly reveals and what it suggests.