On this date in 1979, the only anonymous photograph to win a Pulitzer Prize captured nine Kurdish rebels and two of the Shah’s policemen executed by firing squad in revolutionary Iran.

This shot, one of a series taken of the event with the permission of the judge who condemned the men to immediate death in a half-hour trial at the Sanandaj airfield, ran the next day in the Iranian paper Ettela’at, whose editor prudently kept the photographer’s identity secret. Within two days, the stunning photo had rocketed around the world.

It won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography the following spring, still credited anonymously.

Two years ago, the Wall Street Journal revealed — with the photographer’s permission — the identity of the man who shot this indelible image: Jahangir Razmi, who had gone on to a career as one of Iran’s top photographic journalists. He came to New York to collect the prize 27 years late.

The article breaking the story is still available on the Journal‘s website, and on the personal site of reporter Joshua Prager. An NPR story discussing the search for Razmi’s identity is here.

On this day..

• 1909: Joe Gauvitte, wife-slayer
• 1861: Martin Doyle, the last hanged for attempted murder
• 1858: Peter Williams and Abraham Cox, to the air of Old Ironsides
• 1830: Ebenezer Cox, gone postal gunsmith
• 1870: Charles Harth, Prussian spy
• 1824: Johann Christian Woyzeck, non compos mentis?
• 1610: Roger Cadwallador, English priest
• 1853: John Hurley, medicalized
• 1628: Milady de Winter, Three Musketeers villainess
• 1500: 18 thieves in Rome
• 1679: St. David Lewis, the last Welsh martyr
• 30 B.C.E: Caesarion, "Little Caesar"