The TIME Magazine Vault

Overall of the huge crowd, looking towards the lar

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The Message of Woodstock

"What took place at Bethel, ostensibly, was the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, which was billed by its youthful Manhattan promoters as 'An Aquarian Exposition' of music and peace," TIME reported the week after the Aug. 1969 event. "It was that and more—much more. The festival turned out to be history's largest happening. As the moment when the special culture of U.S. youth of the '60s openly displayed its strength, appeal and power, it may well rank as one of the significant political and sociological events of the age."

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Aug. 20, 1928

Richard E. Byrd Explores Antarctica

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Voices of Hiroshima

60 years after the atomic bomb hit Hiroshima, survivors—and the men who dropped the bomb—shared their perspectives with TIME.

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Aug. 21, 1972

Writing About Teen-Age Sex in 1972

Love couple kissing passionately, closeup shot.

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TIME Explains the Atomic Bomb

When the U.S. dropped atomic weapons on Japan in August of 1945, TIME grappled with not just explaining the wartime, political and moral implications of the decision—but also the scientific side of the new atomic age. "When a piece of paper is lighted with a match, the paper particles first heated set others on fire; these in turn ignite others, and so on," the magazine noted. "The same sort of chain reaction must be started for a successful large-scale atomic explosion."

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