The Best TIME Covers

On TIME's 85th anniversary, check out the most lasting images ever to appear inside the red border and vote for the best cover in TIME history.

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1986

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Space Shuttle Challenger
January 28, 1986
February 10, 1986

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Cover Story Excerpt:
The eye accepted what the mind could not: a sudden burst of white and yellow fire, then white trails streaming up and out from the fireball to form a twisted Y against a pure heaven, and the metal turning to rags, dragging white ribbons into the ocean. A terrible beauty exploded like a primal event of physics — the birth of a universe; the death of a star; a fierce, enigmatic violence out of the blue. The mind recoiled in sheer surprise. Then it filled with horror...Read the full story

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  1. The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting
  2. The '00s: Goodbye (at Last) to the Decade From Hell
  3. The World of China Inc.
  4. Pie
  5. Zhu Zhu Mania: Hamster Toys Are Ruling Christmas
  6. Is Time Running Out to Dig Up South Korea's Mass Graves?
  7. Seoul: 10 Things to Do in 24 Hours
  8. An African Miracle
  9. Fat Fees and Smoker Surcharges: Tough-Love Health Incentives
  10. In Italy, A Sex Scandal to Rival Berlusconi's
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