John T Daniels

John T. Daniels was an American coast guardsman who, almost by chance, took one of the most important photographs in history. Born in 1873, he was stationed near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, when the Wright brothers came to test their flying machine. On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright asked Daniels to squeeze the bulb on a waiting camera at the right moment.

Daniels captured the exact instant the first powered airplane lifted off the ground, with Orville at the controls and Wilbur running alongside. He later admitted he had never operated a camera before that day. That single frame, taken by an amateur, remains the defining image of the birth of human flight.