AP PHOTOS: Searing images of past crises

FILE - In this May 3, 1963 file photo, a 17-year-old civil rights demonstrator, defying an anti-parade ordinance of Birmingham, Ala., is attacked by a police dog. On the afternoon of May 4, 1963, during a meeting at the White House with members of a political group, President Kennedy discussed this photo, which had appeared on the front page of that day's New York Times. (AP Photo/Bill Hudson, File) FILE - In this May 3, 1963 file photo, a 17-year-old civil rights demonstrator, defying an anti-parade ordinance of Birmingham, Ala., is attacked by a police dog. On the afternoon of May 4, 1963, during a meeting at the White House with members of a political group, President Kennedy discussed this photo, which had appeared on the front page of that day's New York Times. (AP Photo/Bill Hudson, File)

By Associated Press September 3, 2015 1 min read

The photo of a dead 3-year-old Syrian boy on a Turkish beach captures everything we don’t want to see when we tap our phones or open our newspapers: a vicious civil war, a surge of refugees, the death of an innocent. The disturbing image taken this week brings to mind other, similarly haunting photos of crises. Often they involve children. Will the photo of the Syrian child be like other seared-in-our-memory photographs? Over the years, AP photojournalists have captured powerful images. A 9-year-old girl fleeing a napalm attack in 1972 during the Vietnam War. A Rwandan child too weak from malnutrition to hold his head up in Zaire. A 5-year-old girl holding the hand of an 89-year-old woman as they are evacuated from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Aid experts hope the image of Aylan Kurdi will be the tipping point for the Syrian war, and will inspire people to prod governments to help the country’s suffering..