On June 28, 1969, NYPD raided a popular gay bar known as the Stonewall Inn. The ensuing riots were a watershed moment for the gay liberation movement and changed America forever.

Members and supporters of the Gay Liberation Front square off against cops at a barricade set up at Greenwich and Charles Streets to prevent the group from reaching the Charles St. Precinct House.

Photo: New York Post Archives / Getty Images

Dozens of women of all ages gathered at a gay pride parade in the Back Bay neighbourhood of Boston.

Photo: Spencer Grant/Getty Images

Left: Members of the Gay Liberation Front form a picket line outside of the Time Inc. offices to protest the magazine’s coverage of gay civil rights in 1969. Right: Protesters rally at a gay rights demonstration in Albany, New York, 1971.

Photo: NYPL

A large crowd participates in a gay pride parade in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, 1970.

Photo: Spencer Grant/Getty Images

Demonstrators smash the front doors of San Francisco City Hall on May 22, 1979. About 5,000 people marched from the city’s LGBT community to City Hall.

Photo: Paul Sakuma/AP

City Supervisor Carol Ruth Silver is helped after being struck by a piece of concrete during a riot at San Francisco City Hall on May 21, 1979.

Photo: Anonymous/AP

A line of police officers confront LGBT protesters outside the Sixth Precinct in New York on July 25, 1979.

Photo: Carlos Rene Perez/AP