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The World Press Photo Awards are considered to be the most prestigious awards in the field of photojournalism. Since 1955, World Press Photo has honoured photographers who have chronicled the most moving as well as memorable moments of history, politics and conflict.

Year: 1955
Photographer: Mogens von Haven
Image: A competitor tumbles off his motorcycle during the Motorcross World Championship at the Volk Molle race course in Randers, Denmark

Year: 1956
Photographer: Helmuth Pira
Image: A German World War II prisoner, released by the Soviet Union, is reunited with his daughter. The child had not seen her father since she was one-year-old.

Year: 1957
Photographer: Douglas Martin
Image: Dorothy Counts, one of the first black students to enter the newly desegregated Harry Harding High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, is mocked by whites on her first day of school.

Year: 1958
Photographer: Stanislav Tereba
Image: National Football Championships between Prague and Bratislava (Slovakia).

Year: 1960
Photographer: Yasushi Nagao
Image: A right-wing student in Japan assassinates Inejiro Asanuma, Socialist Party Chairman, during his speech at the Hibiya Hall.

Year: 1962
Photographer: Hector Rondon Lovera
Image: Priest Luis Padillo offers last rites to a loyalist soldier who is mortally wounded by a sniper during military rebellion against President Betancourt at Puerto Cabello naval base in Venezuela.

Year: 1963
Photographer: Malcolm W Browne
Image: Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc sets himself ablaze in protest against the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government.

Year: 1964
Photographer: Don McCullin
Image: A Turkish woman mourns her dead husband, a victim of the Greek-Turkish civil war.

Year: 1965
Photographer: Kyoichi Sawada
Image: A mother and her children wade across a river to escape United States bombing. The US Air Force had evacuated their village because it was suspected of being used as a base camp by the Vietcong.

Year: 1966
Photographer: Kyoichi Sawa
Image: The body of a Vietcong soldier is dragged behind an American armoured vehicle en route to a burial site after fierce fighting.

Year: 1967
Photographer: Co Rentmeester
Image: The commander of an M48 tankgunner of the US 7th regiment in Vietnam's 'Iron Triangle'.

Year: 1968
Photographer: Eddie Adams
Image: South Vietnam national police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan executes a suspected Viet Cong member.

Year: 1969
Photographer: Hanns-Jorg Anders
Image: A young Catholic wears a gasmask during clashes with British troops in Derry, northern Ireland. People had been fleeing from teargas after a night of street fighting.

Year: 1971
Photographer: Wolfgang Peter Geller
Image: During negotiations on the safe conduct of a group of criminals on the run, police superintendent Gross suddenly shoots down gang leader Kurt Vicenik. The gang, who had disappeared after a bank-robbery in Cologne, Germany, re-emerged near Saarbracken, carrying a hostage with them.
A chase followed and the police and the robbers met at Baltersweiler. The two other men were captured in a wild fight. The men running away from the bullets are policemen.

Year: 1972
Photograph: Nick Ut
Image: Phan Thi Kim Phuc (centre) flees with other children after South Vietnamese planes mistakenly dropped napalm on South Vietnamese troops and civilians.

Year: 1973
Photographer: Orlando Lagos
Image: Democratically elected President Salvador Allende moments away from death during military coup at Moneda presidential palace in Chile.

Year: 1974
Photographer: Ovie Carter
Image: The Faces of Hunger. A mother comforts her child, both victims of drought, in Niger.

Year: 1975
Photographer: Stanley Forman
Image: A mother and her daughter are hurled off a collapsing fire-escape in an apartment house fire in Boston.

Year: 1976
Photographer: Francoise Demulder
Image: Palestinian refugees in district La Quarantaine.

Year: 1977
Photographer: Leslie Hammond
Image: Police throw tear-gas at a group of chanting residents of the Modderdam squatter camp protesting against the demolition of their homes outside Cape Town.

Year: 1978
Photographer: Sadayuki Mikami
Image: A demonstrator is engulfed in flames of the molotov cocktail he was about to throw at the police during protests against the construction of the New Tokyo International Airport. The original Narita Airport plan was unveiled in 1966.
To acquire the initial land, the government had to evict protesting landowners. Violent clashes between the opponents and authorities resulted in 13 deaths, including five police officers. The new airport opened in May 1978

Year: 1979
Photographer: David Burnett
Image: A Cambodian woman cradles her child while waiting for food to be distributed at a refugee camp, in a refugee camp in Sa Keo near the Thai-Cambodian border.

Year: 1980
Photographer: Mike Wells
Image: A starving boy and a missionary in Uganda.

Year: 1981
Photographer: Manuel Perez Barriopedro
Image: Lt Col Antonio Tejero Molina orders everyone to remain seated and be quiet after armed Guardia Civil soldiers stormed the Assembly Hall of the Spanish Parliament.
Three hundred deputies and cabinet members were in session to vote upon the succession of premier Suarez. They were released next morning after having been held hostage for almost 18 hours; the coup was a failure.

Year: 1982
Photographer: Robin Moyer
Image: The war in Lebanon: The aftermath of the massacre of Palestinians by Christian Phalangists in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut, Lebanon.

Year: 1983
Photographer: Mustafa Bozdemir
Image: Kezban Ozer, 37, finds her five children buried alive after a devastating earthquake near Erzurum and Kars, Turkey.
At 5 am, she and her husband were milking the cows as their children slept. A few minutes later, 147 villages in the region were destroyed by an earthquake of magnitude 7.1 on the Richter Scale. 1,336 people died.

Year: 1984
Photographer: Pablo Bartholomew
Image: A child killed by the poisonous gas leak in the Union Carbide chemical plant disaster in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.

Year: 1985
Photograph: Frank Fournier
Image: Omaira Sanchez, 12, is trapped in the debris caused by the eruption of Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia. After 60 hours, she eventually lost consciousness and died of a heart attack.

Year: 1986
Photograph: Alon Reininger
Image: Ken Meeks', 42, skin is marked with lesions caused by AIDS-related Kaposi's Sarcoma.

Year: 1987
Photograph: Anthony Suau
Image: A mother clings to a riot policeman's shield at a polling station in South Korea. Her son was one of thousands of demonstrators arrested because they tried to prove that the presidential election on December 15, which was won by the government candidate, had been rigged.