The Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography is one of the American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. From 2000 it has used the "breaking news" name but it is considered a continuation of the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography, which was awarded from 1968 to 1999. Prior to 1968, a single Prize was awarded for photojournalism, the Pulitzer Prize for Photography, which was replaced in that year by Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.

There were 33 Spot News Photography prizes awarded in 32 years including two in 1977 (for 1976 work):

• 1968: Rocco Morabito, Jacksonville Journal, for his photograph of telephone linemen, "The Kiss of Life".
• 1969: Edward T. Adams, Associated Press, for his photograph, "Saigon Execution".
• 1970: Steve Starr, Associated Press, for his news photo taken at Cornell University, "Campus Guns".
• 1971: John Paul Filo, Valley Daily News/Daily Dispatch, of the Pittsburgh suburbs of Tarentum and New Kensington, for his pictorial coverage of the Kent State University tragedy on May 4, 1970.
• 1972: Horst Faas and Michel Laurent, Associated Press, for their picture series, "Death in Dacca".
• 1973: Huynh Cong Ut, Associated Press, for his photograph, "The Terror of War", depicting children in flight from a napalm bombing.
• 1974: Anthony K. Roberts, a freelance photographer of Beverly Hills, California, for his picture series, "Fatal Hollywood Drama", in which an alleged kidnapper was killed.
• 1975: Gerald H. Gay, Seattle Times, for his photograph of four exhausted firefighters, "Lull in the Battle".
• 1976: Stanley Forman, Boston Herald-American, for his sequence of photographs of a fire in Boston, including "Fire Escape Collapse", on July 22, 1975.
• 1977: Stanley Forman, Boston Herald-American, for his photograph The Soiling of Old Glory, which depicts Joseph Rakes attacking Theodore Landsmark — using an American flag as a lance — during a desegregation busing demonstration at Boston City Hall.
• 1977: Neal Ulevich, of the Associated Press, for a series of photographs of disorder and brutality in the streets of Bangkok.
• 1978: John Blair, special assignment photographer for United Press International, for a photograph of a broker held hostage at gunpoint by Tony Kiritsis.
• 1979: Thomas J. Kelly III, Pottstown Mercury, Pennsylvania, for a series called "Tragedy on Sanatoga Road". It is of a man, Richard G., who was holding his wife and daughter hostage as he was running from the police.^[1]
• 1980: Anonymous, Ettela'at, United Press International, for "Firing Squad in Iran". In 2006, the photographer's identity was revealed to be Jahangir Razmi.^[2]
• 1981: Larry C. Price, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, for his photographs from Liberia.
• 1982: Ron Edmonds, Associated Press, for his coverage of the Reagan assassination attempt.
• 1983: Bill Foley, Associated Press, for his series of pictures of victims and survivors of the massacre in the Sabra Camp in Beirut.
• 1984: Stan Grossfeld, Boston Globe, for his series of photographs which reveal the effects of war on the people of Lebanon.
• 1985: Photography staff, Register, Santa Ana, California, for their coverage of the Olympic Games.
• 1986: Carol Guzy and Michel du Cille, Miami Herald, for their photographs of the devastation caused by the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia.
• 1987: Kim Komenich, San Francisco Examiner, for his photographic coverage of the fall of Ferdinand Marcos.
• 1988: Scott Shaw, Odessa American, for his photograph of the child Jessica McClure being rescued from the well into which she had fallen.
• 1989: Ron Olshwanger, a freelance photographer, for a picture published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of a firefighter giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a child pulled from a burning building.
• 1990: Photo staff of the Oakland Tribune, California, for their photographs of devastation caused by the Loma Prieta earthquake of October 17, 1989. The Oakland Tribune team consisted of Tom Duncan, Angela Pancrazio, Pat Greenhouse, Reginald Pearman, Matthew Lee, Gary Reyes, Michael Macor, Ron Riesterer, Paul Miller, Roy H. Williams.
• 1991: Greg Marinovich, Associated Press, for a series of photographs of supporters of South Africa's African National Congress murdering a man they believed to be a Zulu spy.
• 1992: Staff, Associated Press, for photographs of the attempted coup in Russia and the subsequent collapse of the Communist regime.
• 1993: Ken Geiger and William Snyder, Dallas Morning News, for their photographs of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
• 1994: Paul Watson, Toronto Star, for his photograph, published around the world, of a U.S. soldier's body being dragged by Somalis through the streets of Mogadishu.
• 1995: Carol Guzy, Washington Post, for her series of photographs illustrating the crisis in Haiti and its aftermath.
• 1996: Charles Porter IV, a freelancer, for his photographs taken after the Oklahoma City bombing and distributed by the Associated Press, showing a one-year-old victim (Baylee Almon) handed to and then cradled by a fireman.^[3]
• 1997: Annie Wells, Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, California, for her photograph of a firefighter rescuing a teenager from raging floodwaters.^[4]
• 1998: Martha Rial, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, for her portraits of survivors of the conflicts in Rwanda and Burundi.
• 1999: Staff, Associated Press, for its portfolio of images following the embassy bombing in Kenya and Tanzania.

One Breaking News Pulitzer has been awarded annually from 2000 without exception.

• List of American journalism awards
• World Press Photo of the Year
• List of photographs considered the most important