Winston Churchill

The Roaring Lion. Churchill had just addressed Canada's Parliament on December 30, 1941, when he walked into the Speaker's Chamber and found Karsh's lights waiting. He allowed one exposure but kept chewing his cigar, so Karsh stepped forward and plucked it from his mouth. The glare that followed became the defining image of wartime Britain, a LIFE cover in 1945 and later the portrait on the Bank of England five-pound note.