celebrate national hugging day with history’s most enthusiastic huggers

LIFE magazine dispatched its world-class photographers to cover significant world events—battles and elections, state dinners and tragedies—but it also took pains to cover events of more quotidian significance. One example: hugs.

Celebrate National Hugging Day With History’s Most Enthusiastic Huggers

Whether between mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, children and puppies, lovers or friends, images of people embracing provide a counterbalance to the graver images that so often fill the news. On Jan. 21, as National Hugging Day reminds us of the many psychological benefits of a squeeze, LIFE looks back at its most joyful images of hugs.

UCLA students Marjorie Henshaw and Johnny Hessel embrace one another at homecoming, 1939. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Caption from LIFE: In dry-land training, one Jacksonville lifeguard demonstrates to another how a violent drowning swimmer gets a stranglehold on a would-be rescuer. Grip can be easily broken by pushing hard with both hands on victim's chin. (1939) George Karger—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

A soldier hugs his wife goodbye at Penn Station before he leaves for war, 1944. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

An American soldier and his English girlfriend embrace under a tree in Hyde Park, London, 1944. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

A mother hugs her son goodbye, 1947. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Lt. Col. James P. Devereux hugs his son upon his return, 1947. Thomas D. McAvoy—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Two students hug at Michigan's Menominee High School's annual football game against its rivals, Wisconsin Marinette High School. Lisa Larsen—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

A man hugs his daughter, 1949. Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Dancers Roland Petit and Renee (Zizi) Jeanmaire hug each other after performing in the ballet "Carmen," 1949. Gordon Parks—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Christina Goldsmith embraces a Weimaraner puppy, which she took from a new litter of her father's stock, 1950. Bernard Hoffman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

A young couple cuddles while sitting in a hole in the sand on a hot Independence Day at the beach, 1950. Ralph Crane—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

A woman hugs her dog, Bruiser, 1950. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis embrace at a party celebrating their marriage, 1951. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Josephine Baker receives a hug from columnist and friend Nora Ray Holt in her dressing room after her show at the Strand theater, 1951. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

A young mother hugs one of her sons, 1955. Mark Kauffman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Bonnie Heath and Jackson C. Dudley, co-owners of a race horse named "Needles," hug as the horse flashes across the finish line to win the 1956 Kentucky Derby. Hank Walker—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

A child cuddles a puppy as part of a hospital's animal therapy program, 1956. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Desi Arnaz embraces Lucille Ball at the new home of their TV production empire, Desilu Studios, 1958. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Olympic track star Wilma Rudolph hugs her grade-school teacher, 1960. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Mrs. Malcolm S. Carpenter hugs her children, 1962. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Steve McQueen and his wife, Neile Adams, embrace in the kitchen of their Hollywood home, 1963. John Dominis—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Frank Sinatra shares a hug at Warner Bros. Studio, 1965. John Dominis—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

A hug during a Twiggy look-alike contest in Stockholm, 1967. Ralph Crane—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Astronaut Eugene Cernan hugs his daughter Tracy, 1969. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Shirley MacLaine hugging fellow delegate after McGovern victory at the Democratic National Convention, 1972. Bill Eppridge—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Photo: Jim Palmer/AP, Sven Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images, Getty Images, Doug Mills/The New York Times/Redux

When Sammy Davis Jr. surprise-hugged President Richard Nixon at the 1972 GOP convention, it apparently reflected poorly on both of them. Photo: Jim Palmer/AP

At the June 1979 SALT II summit in Vienna, as David Satter recalled in the Times, “[Soviet leader Leonid] Brezhnev greeted [Jimmy] Carter with the words, ‘God will not forgive us if we fail.’ Photo: Carter Bettman/Corbis

"That Bill Clinton -- such a people’s person. Look at how he immediately connects with a random fan in the crowd."– thoughts of American TV viewers, November 6, 1996. Photo: Getty Images

During a trip to Ramallah in 1999, First Lady and (soon-to-be senate candidate) Hillary Clinton gave Suha Arafat, wife of Yasser, a hug and a kiss just after Arafat had made a speech accusing Israel of gassing Palestinians and poisoning their water supply. Photo: Sven Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images

February 1998: Nelson Mandela (L) hugs British supermodel Naomi Campbell in front of American actress Mia Farrow, British model Kate Moss (second from left) and model Christy Turlington AFP/Getty Images

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