Kisses That Changed The Course Of History

Today, about 90 percent of the world's population takes part in the fascinating ritual of kissing.

According to NPR, kissing first originated as a way of passing food mouth-to-mouth between mothers and babies. Or, in an alternative theory, cavepeople used kissing as a way of judging the health of prospective mates through the smell and the taste of their saliva. Whatever the purpose, kissing caught on. There are some notable exceptions to this rule, such as equatorial and sub-Saharan cultures like the Hazda, the Turkana, and Maasai, who simply don't have the practice of smooching, per researcher Shelly Volsche. But in most cultures, kissing serves as a greeting, a sign of comfort, and a form of developing intimacy.

Kissing is so widespread, in fact, that some iconic kisses are seared into the public imagination. Alfred Eisenstaedt's capture of a sailor kissing a nurse on V-J Day in Times Square or Auguste Rodin's sensual statue The Kiss might come to mind. But some kisses are less about romance and more about making a statement. What about those indelible lip-smacking moments that forever changed the course of history? Here are the top kisses which altered lives, laws, and pop culture for better and for worse. Sometimes, a kiss isn't just a kiss.

What's an appropriate penalty for bestowing an unwanted kiss? A fine, a stay in jail, or, perhaps, if you were a citizen of Victorian England, a chunk of your nose? At Artichoke Public House, a London bar, on December 26, 1837, Caroline Newton bit the left nostril off of a man named Thomas Saverland after such a kiss, as told by iNews.

Initially, Saverland (also spelled "Saviland") claimed that Newton had attacked his nose after he had made a joke about her sister being prettier than she was. Saverland pressed charges against her. However, when Newton was tracked down, she claimed that Saverland had repeatedly tried to kiss her, and when she rebuffed him, he becamne violent. Newton said the two had fought, and she'd bit his nose in an act of self-defense.

The jury acquitted Newton. Lana Citron records in A Compendium of Kisses that the Chairman overseeing the trial later told the jury, "Gentlemen, my opinion is, if a man attempts to kiss a woman against her will, she has a perfect right to bite his nose off, if she has a fancy for doing so." This "Law of Kissing," as it was later called, gave legal grounds to punish street harassment and assault in 19th-century England. This set precedent for fining and imprisoning men for "annoying women" and launched a debate about whether "no" means "no" when it comes to stolen kisses.

On November 22, 1968, Star Trek featured an interracial kiss between Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura, played by William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols, respectively, that had a lasting imprint on American culture. Coming just a year after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the legality of interracial marriages in Loving v. Virginia, Star Trek challenged norms of representation at the time.

Only, this galaxy-shattering kiss almost never happened. The showrunners anticipated that some of the show's Southern viewers might protest the interracial lip-lock. So, for the episode "Plato's Stepchildren," they filmed two kisses, one offscreen and one onscreen. Nichols recalled that she and Shatner purposely flubbed their lines so that the network had to choose the original onscreen take.

The kiss made waves and pushed the envelope, per National Geographic, but the executives never got the backlash they expected. Nichelle Nichols told the Archive of American Television that, instead, Star Trek got the most fan mail it had ever received for a single episode, as reported by NBC News. Filmed amid the civil rights movement, this interracial kiss, set roughly 300 years in the future, "suggested that there was a future where these issues were not such a big deal," said television critic Eric Deggans.

It may be considered unheard-of today, but at the height of the Soviet Union's power, it was incredibly common to see socialist leaders share a fraternal kiss. As Radio Free Europe explains, this bit of Communist affection was usually given on the cheek, but as enthusiasm for the state diminished, the kisses got bigger, wetter, and more impassioned.

The most famous of all these brotherly kisses took place on October 4, 1979, when General Secretary of the German Democratic Republic Erich Honecker and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev met to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the GDR, per I Heart Berlin. East Germany and the Soviet Union had just made a ten-year trade agreement to exchange machinery for fuel. Honecker and Brezhnev shared a passionate, open-mouthed kiss — again, totally customary for Communist leaders of the time. 

Only, a photograph of this kiss went viral, getting wide newspaper coverage, and graffiti artist Dmitri Vrubel painted the pair on the Berlin Wall, titling it God Help Me Survive This Deadly Love. This satirical depiction, now restored on the Berlin Wall, recalls the deadlier side of Germany's division, namely 140 people who died in attempts to cross the border between 1961 and 1989, as recorded by the Berlin Wall Memorial. For many, the socialist fraternal kiss signified something a lot more foreboding than two wrinkled diplomats smacking lips.

The Mexican city of Guanajuato boasts the Callejon del Beso, or Alley of the Kiss — a location where legendary star-crossed lovers shared their last kiss before death. The legend says that Ana, a rich Spaniard, lived on the left balcony in the alley and fell in love with the poor miner Carlos. One night, Ana's cruel and domineering father caught the couple kissing in the narrow strip between the balconies and stabbed Ana in the chest. Carlos jumped in an attempt to protect Ana, landing on the third step of the alley's stairwell and breaking his neck, as the BBC tells it.

Because of that tragic romantic tale, the third step in the alley's stairwell is painted red to signify romance. Now a tourist attraction, it's said that visiting couples who kiss in this famed alley will have 15 years of good luck (or seven years of bad luck if they fail to swap spit). But in 2009, Mayor Eduardo Romero Hicks of Guanajuato released an anti-obscenity law, with penalties of up to 36 hours in jail and fines of up to 1,500 pesos for offenses like touching in public, as reported by the Latin American Herald Tribune. That put a damper on the whole Alley of the Kiss attraction. After outrage from the citizens of "the kissing capital," Hicks backpedaled on the legislation. According to KGO-TV, he later denied that he'd intended to ban smooching in the alley.

If you were alive to see it, the August 28, 2003, MTV Video Music Awards performance featuring Britney Spears and Madonna is etched permanently in your mind. As the reigning queens of pop for two different generations, Britney and Madonna made history with their steamy, surprising onstage kiss. Lasting all of three seconds, the iconic smooch came in the middle of a medley featuring the pair, Christina Aguilera, and Missy Elliott. While Madonna swapped spit with Christina Aguilera as well, it was the smooch with Britney Spears that brought the fanfare. As Vice noted, the moment was particularly loaded for one audience member, Justin Timberlake, who had broken up with Britney Spears and released the diss track "Cry Me a River" in 2002.

People still talk of the moment years later. It might not retain the same shock factor now (after the Miley Cyrus twerking incident in 2013), but it proved that the spectacle of live television award shows was still relevant. The kiss was seen as a symbol of Madonna passing the pop torch to Britney. The pop titan lip-lock also said something about how same-sex public displays were treated in the early 2000s, as writer Jill Gutowitz pointed out. While the moment was certainly exploitative, "when Britney, Madonna, and Christina collided on stage, on live TV — it was memorable. And it was hot," Gutowitz wrote. "Problematic undertones aside, it actually blazed the trail for future sexy gay TV moments."

There's no kiss quite as dramatic as a pope kissing your feet, prostrated before you with his blessing. In April 2019, in an incredibly rare gesture of peace, Pope Francis knelt to kiss the feet of the warring leaders of South Sudan to promote their reconciliation. After five years of bitter civil war in South Sudan, where an estimated 400,000 lives were lost, President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar met at the Vatican for a healing retreat, per Reuters. In a move that surprised everyone in the room, the frail 82-year-old Pope knelt down — with the help of his aides — and kissed the shoes of Kiir, Machar, and several others in the room.

The kisses came before South Sudan was due to form a unity government after years of bloody dispute between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and its opposition. "In front of the people, hold hands united. So, as simple citizens, you will become fathers of the nation," Pope Francis told the warring leaders, as reported by The Washington Post. 

In February 2020, Riek Machar was sworn in as vice president for Salva Kiir. So, perhaps that papal kiss had some staying power.