The following images tell the story of the past 365 days’ most compelling events, capturing happenstance moments and monumental occurrences all over the globe. More than ever, photography has become the predominant means for us to communicate. Let’s look back at the year through stunning images.
An Egyptian protester evacuates an injured boy during clashes near Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013.
A Syrian rebel plays football in the Saif al-Dawlah neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013. The United Nations estimated Wednesday that more than 60,000 people have been killed in Syria’s 21-month-old uprising against authoritarian rule, a toll one-third higher than what anti-regime activists had counted. The U.N. human rights chief called the toll “truly shocking.” (Andoni Lubacki/AP)
Protesters flee from tear gas fired by riot police during clashes after protesters removed a concrete barrier at Qasr al-Aini Street near Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, on January 24, 2013. (Reuters/Mohamed Abd El Ghany)
Edward Snowden speaks during an interview in Hong Kong. Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA, and National Security Agency contractor revealed details of top-secret surveillance conducted by the United States’ NSA to the press. (The Guardian via Getty Images)
Jan. 4, 2013, photo Tammy Holmes, and her grandchildren, two-year-old Charlotte Walker, left, four-year-old Esther Walker, third from left, nine-year-old Liam Walker, eleven-year-old Matilda, second from right, and six-year-old Caleb Walker, right, take refuge under a jetty as a wildfire rages nearby in the Tasmanian town of Dunalley, east of the state capital of Hobart, Australia.
77-year-old Yeung Ying Biu sits inside his 1.5 square meter (16 square feet) cage, which he calls home, in Hong Kong. on Jan 25, 2013. Some 100,000 people in the former British colony live in what’s known as inadequate housing, according to the Society for Community Organization, a social welfare group.
A meteor’s trail over the Ural Mountains’ city of Chelyabinsk, about 930 miles east of Moscow, Russia, on February 15, 2013. The 13,000 ton meteor hit Earth’s atmosphere at 42,000 mph and exploded, smashing windows and causing hundreds of minor injuries.(AP Photo/Chelyabinsk.ru, Yekaterina Pustynnikova)
A truck is covered in ice as firefighters work to extinguish a massive blaze at a vacant warehouse in Chicago, Illinois, on January 23, 2013. More than 200 firefighters battled the five-alarm fire as temperatures were in the single digits. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
While the walkways were clear, ice still covered the facades of business storefronts on Nantasket Ave. in Hull, Mass., on Feb. 10. (Barry Chin/The Boston Globe)
February 23: A sleeping giant, Boris the polar bear, undergoes a physical exam at the animal hospital of Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington. A team of veterinarians, technicians and staff also performed a root canal and some minor eye surgery on the 27-year-old bear.
A woman is rescued from flood waters by another resident standing on top of her car during heavy rain in Chalandri suburb north of Athens, Greece, Feb. 22, 2013.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and former NBA star Dennis Rodman watch North Korean and U.S. players in an exhibition basketball game at an arena in Pyongyang, North Korea, Feb. 28, 2013. Rodman arrived in Pyongyang on Monday with three members of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team to shoot an episode on North Korea for a new weekly HBO series
Herring worth billions in exports are seen floating dead Feb. 5, 2013 in Kolgrafafjordur, a small fjord on the northern part of Snaefellsnes peninsula, western Iceland. Between 25,000 and 30,000 tons of herring died since December 2012 due to lack of oxygen thought to have been caused by a landfill and bridge constructed across the fjord.
Feb. 9, 2013. Bratislav Stojanovic, a homeless man, holds candles as sits in a tomb where he lives in southern Serbian town of Nis
March 11: The One World Trade Center building emerges from the clouds in New York’s night sky. Construction on the office complex, which is going up on the site of the original World Trade Center, is set to be completed in early 2014.
March 6, 2013. A llama seeks shelter next to an abandoned school bus at Cox Farms in Centreville, Va.
The wrapped bodies of two dead people hang from an overpass as three more dead bodies lie on the ground in Saltillo, Mexico, March 8, 2013.
The newly elected Pope Francis I waves to the waiting crowd from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica
Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady” who transformed Britain and inspired conservatives around the world by radically rolling back the state during her 11 years in power, died April 8,2013 following a stroke. She was 87.
A victim’s body lies amid rubble at the site of the collapsed garment factory in Savar, Bangladesh, on April 25, 2013.(AP Photo/A.M.Ahad)
A Bangladeshi man holds on to a woman, both victims of a building collapse, in the debris of Rana Plaza garment factory in Savar near Dhaka, Bangladesh, April 25, 2013. The collapse killed 1,129 people and caused President Obama to announce the suspension of U.S. trade privileges for Bangladesh because of concerns over labor rights and worker safety.
April 27, 2013. A swarm of the Red Locusts north of the town of Sakaraha, south west Madagascar.
April 13: Indian villager Fatima Begum kisses the head of her 18-month-old daughter, Roona, at their hut in Jirania, India. Roona suffers from hydrocephalus, a disorder causing cerebral fluid to build up in the brain. Doctors had given her just a few months to live, but she recently underwent surgery to improve her condition.
Police officers stand over marathon runner Bill Iffrig as a second explosion sounds near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Three people were killed and at least 264 were injured in the terror attack.
May 9, 2013. A man falls from a high floor of a burning building in central Lahore, Pakistan.
Damage from the tornado in Moore, Okla
A Briarwood teacher embraces a student after he was pulled to safety.
May 5, 2013. An activist tries to take another severely injured activist to the hospital, as no one else offers to help, in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
A Turkish riot policeman uses tear gas as people protest against the destruction of trees in a park brought about by a pedestrian project, in Taksim Square, central Istanbul on May 28, 2013.
Firefighters battle the Powerhouse wildfire at The Angeles National Forest, with the fire now having destroyed several homes near the Lake Hughes area in California on June 1, 2013.
A protester is hit by tear gas in the Besiktas neighborhood of Istanbul.
June 12, 2013. Bobby Henline, 41, a veteran of four tours to Iraq and sole survivor of an IED blast that killed the other four soldiers in his humvee in Iraq in 2007, swims at a Motel 6 in Humble, Tx. after visiting the father of Rodney McCandless. Rodney was killed in the IED explosion that injured Bobby.
June 18, 2013. A member of the Free Syrian Army sits with his weapon inside a house in Aleppo’s al-Sayyid Ali neighborhood.
June 23, 2013. A supermoon rises next to the ancient Greek temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, some 65 kilometers south of Athens.
Opponents of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy celebrate in Cairo after Morsy was ousted in a military coup.
July 13, 2013. Family members pray over the bodies of two Syrian children, Safia Baour, 14, and her three-year-old brother Khaled, who were killed after a shell landed on their family home as they gathered to break their fast with the iftar meal in Maaret Al-Numan in southern Idlib province, Syria.
A message is displayed on the face of Keesha Clark during a march to protest the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial, in Los Angeles, Calif. July 20, 2013. Celebrities and hundreds of protesters participated in rallies across the country to express anger over the acquittal of Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin.
ALLAHABAD, INDIA 08/06/2013 After a monsoon, a boy dangled from a power line before diving into an overflowing Ganges River.
DAMASCUS, SYRIA 0 8/21/2013 Hundreds of Syrians were killed in a chemical weapons attack.
Aug. 14, 2013. An Egyptian woman tries to stop a military bulldozer from hurting a wounded youth during clashes that broke out as Egyptian security forces moved in to disperse supporters of Egypt’s deposed president Mohamed Morsi in a huge protest camp near Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in eastern Cairo.
Aug. 30, 2013. Lightning strikes the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
Nick Vujicic, right, is accompanied by a life guard as he treads water in an acrylic enclosure keeping safe while diving among sharks, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2013 in Singapore. Vujicic, a Serbian Australian evangelist and motivational speaker born with tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by the absence of all four limbs, is in the city-state to give a motivational talk and was visiting “The Shark Encounter at Marine Life Park” at one of Singapore’s main tourist attractions in Resorts World Sentosa. (Wong Maye-E/AP)
Colorado flooding
Dave Jackson closes a mailbox with his foot after delivering the mail to a home surrounded on three sides by a flooded Cheyenne Creek, Sept. 13, 2013 in Colorado Springs, Colo. Flood waters cascaded downstream from the Colorado Rockies, transforming normally scenic rivers and creeks into unforgiving torrents and forcing thousands more evacuations from water-logged communities beset by days of rain.
Women carrying children run for safety as armed police hunt gunmen who went on a shooting spree in Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi September 21, 2013.
People take cover behind a counter at the Westgate shopping mall after a shootout in Nairobi, Kenya,
Sept. 21, 2013.
A man in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, dodges tidal waves under the influence of Typhoon Usagi. Good thing he’s got that umbrella
Young Palestinian groom Ahmed Soboh, 15, and his bride Tala, 14, pose for a photograph inside Tala’s house, which was damaged during an Israeli strike in 2009, during their wedding party in Beit Lahiya town, northern Gaza Strip, Sept. 24, 2013.
Furloughed Americorps employee Jeffrey Wismer sits alone on the Washington Mall, Oct. 8, 2013, as he calls on congress to end the government shut down.
Blood-red … sky over Sydney Harbour
Oct. 17, 2013. Plumes of smoke were visible from Bondi Beach after strong north westerly winds and high temperatures resulted in dozens of bush fires across great Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the Southern Highlands in Australia.
An Orthodox pilgrim dunks himself in the Jordan River Qasr el-Yahud on the Jordanian side
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn (C, seated) signs the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act into law at a ceremony in Chicago, Illinois, November 20, 2013. Quinn on Wednesday signed into law a bill extending marriage rights to same-sex couples, making the home state of President Barack Obama the 16th to allow such unions. REUTERS/Jim Young
According to catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide Typhoon Nari, aka Santi, made landfall in the Philippines, “as of 18:50 October 11, 2013 UTC (2:50 October 12, 2013 PHT; 14:50 October 11, 2013 EDT), just south of Baler, Luzon, as a Category 1 storm with a central pressure of 975 mb, sustained (10-minute) wind speeds of 120 km/h [75 mph], and gusts reaching 176 km/h.
A young boy pauses while searching for washed out canned goods in Tacloban City on Nov. 14 in Tacloban, Philippines.
A residential compound is seen during a smoggy day in Wujiaqu, Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region, Nov. 19, 2013.
Washington, Ill., sits in ruins the morning after a severe tornado
Fast and Furious star Paul Walker has died in a horrifying car crash.
Afghan schoolchildren take lessons in an open classroom at a refugee camp on the outskirts of Jalalabad, Nangarhar province on December 1, 2013. Afghanistan has had only rare moments of peace over the past 30 years, its education system being undermined by the Soviet invasion of 1979, a civil war in the 1990s and five years of Taliban rule. (Noorullah Shirzada / AFP / Getty Images)
A pro-European integration protester walks between a riot police line in Kiev Dec 11, 2013. Ukrainian riot police reoccupied part of the square in central Kiev on Wednesday where protesters
have been demonstrating against the government’s decision to pull out of negotiations
on a trade pact with the European Union and rebuild economic ties with Russia
Men kneel down while riot police stand guard near the presidential administration building
Ukrainian riot police face protesters outside government building in Kiev
President Obama Takes ‘Selfie’ During Nelson Mandela’s Memorial Service
A young boy looks through a fence as he waits in line with thousands of people hoping to board a bus that will take them to view Mandela’s body in Pretoria, South Africa.
Vladimir Putin pardons jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Pussy Riot Released From Russian Jail
A suicide bomber struck a busy railway station in southern Russia on Sunday, killing at least 16 others and wounding scores more, officials said, in a stark reminder of the threat Russia is facing as it prepares to host February’s Olympics in Sochi.
Very poignant compilation. Vastly different from the initial propagandist one.