This is the year we caught our first glimpse of the royal baby, spied on Putin in the deep sea, watched Hillary get grilled on the Hill, and so much more. Relive the year in pictures.
Even the president needs a vacation once in a while. Here, Obama takes a dip while visiting Pyramid Rock Beach in Kaneohe, Hawaii.
The White House/Getty
India’s holy Ganges River plays host to the Maha Kumbh Mela—a royal bathing day for Hindu devotees and also the largest religious gathering on earth. The event, which is held every 12 years, attracts an estimated 100 million people.
Daniel Berehulak/Getty
Reefs catch the USS Guardian in the Sulu Sea, off the coast of the Philippines. This pit stop was probably not on the day’s itinerary, but a beautiful place to be stuck nonetheless.
Reuters
Hillary Clinton kicks off 2013 with intense questioning from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing about the attacks on Benghazi, which left four people dead including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
Jason Reed/Reuters
Civil war rips through Damascus, Syria, and leaves a member of the Free Syrian Army wounded. A hand grenade thrown by Syrian Army soldiers is the weapon of choice.
Goran Tomasevic/Reuters
A lot goes on behind the scenes during Fashion Week in New York. Here, one model endures the very hands-on process of getting runway ready for the Betsey Johnson Fall 2013 collection.
A brave swimmer dives into an icy lake in central Beijing. What’s the average temperature this time of year at Houhai Lake? A balmy 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
Endless debris left from Superstorm Sandy’s path of destruction remains months after the storm rocked the East Coast. A worker cleans up what used to be the Fun Town Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, a state that faces an estimated $37 billion in damage.
Mark Wilson/Getty
Practice makes perfect for US Navy Gulf Coast team as they participate in mock direct action drills on the Pearl River in Mississippi. The six-hour training program is conducted under the cover of darkness where instructors pose as enemies on the riverbanks.
Luke Sharrett/Getty
It can be hard to grasp the toll of international warfare, but for one young girl in Aleppo it is all very real. She has just returned home from school to find that her house had been destroyed by a jet missile.
Muzaffar Salman/Reuters
The events of the horrific Boston Marathon bombing come to a head as 19-year old perpetrator Dzhokhar Tsarnaev prepares to surrender to authorities. The state police photographer who released the photo of a wounded Tsarnaev hiding inside a boat was subsequently placed on restricted duty.
Sean Murphy/Massachusetts State Police via AP
A Chinese soldier goes above and beyond the call of duty, carrying a 60-year old man from a town in the Sichuan province hit by a 6.6-magnitude earthquake. Landslides followed, leaving around 11,000 people injured.
Jason Lee/Reuters
In a photo released by North Korea’s Central News Agency, we get a glimpse into the life of leader Kim Jong-un. Here he waves to the Pyongyang Myohyangsan Children’s Camp.
KCNA/Reuters
Natural disaster strikes again, this time on U.S soil. Tornados ripped through Oklahoma in the spring, leaving the couple pictured here to save what little they can from a destroyed house.
The people of central Istanbul peacefully defend a park’s trees from being destroyed, only to be met with the powerful sting of tear gas from Turkish riot police. The 70-year old trees, brought about by a pedestrian project, were to be replaced with artillery barracks.
Osman Orsal/Reuters
Taking a tough stand in Texas, Sen. Wendy Davis embarks on a 21-hour filibuster in the fight against restrictive abortion laws. Her lengthy legislative performance put her in the spotlight as an ally for abortion-rights activists and supporters.
Eric Gay/AP
Asiana Airlines flight 214 crash-lands at San Francisco International Airport, killing three passengers and injuring 180. The cause of the crash is under investigation, and it is yet to be determined if the pilot is at fault.
Justin Sullivan/Getty
Planes, trains, and…submersibles? Russian President Vladimir Putin comes along for a journey to the bottom of the sea floor in the Gulf of Finland to check out a sunken ship.
Sasha Mordovets/Getty
The sheer magnitude of a refugee camp housing some 115,000 Syrians across the border in Jordan is hard to believe in this aerial photo.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty
What’s a ‘Year in Photos’ gallery without a little Carlos Danger? Anthony Weiner gave it a good shot but in the end the nudie pics and sexts caught up to the New York mayoral candidate, and the race was not his to be won.
Eric Thayer/Reuters
The baby is finally born! Prince George arrives weighing in at 8 lbs 6 oz to proud parents William and Catherine. This royal bundle of joy has his work as future King of England cut out for him already.
A horrific train crash in northwestern Spain, said to be one of Europe’s worst rail disasters, leaves 79 people dead. The conductor was said to have been operating the train at excessive speeds and has been charged with multiple counts of neglect and homicide.
Time’s Man of the Year, Pope Francis, delivers a message to eager listeners in Rio de Janeiro. He is being lauded for his progressive approach to the Catholic Church and his dedication to helping the poor.
Paulo Whitaker/Reuters
Ariel Castro captured and kept three women for over a decade in his home, fathered their children among other horrors. After being sentenced to life in prison Castro committed suicide in his jail cell only a month later.
Aaron Josefczyk/Reuters
A national guardsman in Mali stands watch outside a mosque in the city of Bamako. Muslims were at the end of the month-long fast for Ramadan.
Joe Penney/Reuters
Syria in the news again: what is thought to be a brutal attack using nerve gas in Damascus kills over 200 people, many of them children. The Syrian president is said to be the one behind the attack, which sparked worldwide debate about the use of chemical weapons.
Bassam Khabieh/Reuters
Venus Williams celebrates a victory on the court of a U.S. Open match, but the joy is short-lived. The two-time champion, who was playing with a back injury, did not take home the title this year.
Mike Segar/Reuters
Victims are rescued from the rubble of two collapsed residential buildings in Vadodra, India. Although there were fatalities, thanks to the efforts of emergency workers the death toll remained low.
Amit Dave/Reuters
A young boy says goodbye to his father as he is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. U.S. Army Staff Sgt Joshua Bowden was wounded while serving his country in Afghanistan. Since the war began in 2003, over 2,000 U.S. service members have died in Afghanistan.
Susan Walsh/AP
The gruesome cemetery at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys is excavated by anthropologists. The school has a long history of questionable behavior—from abuse of the students to disappearing children.
Reuters
Wildfires tear through California yet again, destroying almost 4,000 acres of land around Mount Diablo State Park.
Noah Berger/Reuters
While the west coast battled fires, Colorado faced the opposite problem: Massive flooding invaded whole towns like Greeley, taking out bridges and roads along the way.
John Wark/AP
A New Miss America reigns supreme, and this year it’s Miss New York, Nina Davuluri. Although last year’s winner was from New York as well, Davuluri is the first winner of Indian descent.
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Fighting near Giza Pyramids in Egypt comes to a head when Giza Police General Nabil Farrag is killed by unidentified militants. Egyptian security forces were trying to take Giza over from the Islamists.
Ahmed Abdel Fattah/AP
Gun violence goes global as four gunmen open fire on a mall in Nairobi, Kenya. The four-day siege was classified as a terrorist act and left almost 70 people dead.
Goran Tomasevic/Reuters
Your eyes are not playing tricks on you. That is indeed a hot air balloon designed to look as if it were magically floating upside down. Get yourself to Mount Gilboa, Israel, for next year’s festival and you could score yourself a front row seat.
Nir Elias/Reuters
The bride and groom pictured, ages 14 and 15 respectively, celebrate their big day in a worn-torn home near the Gaza Strip.
Mohammed Salem/Reuters
A gunman at Washington D.C.‘s Navy Yard claimed the lives of 12 people.
FBI/Getty
Can you imagine being evicted after 24 years in your home? That is what happened to Maria Isabel Rodriguez Romero and her family in Madrid, Spain.
Andres Kudacki/AP
A boat of migrants headed for Sicily drowned. Where the vessel, carrying some 250 people, was coming from no one knows.
Reuters
Are you ready for some football? The Jacksonville Jaguars won’t be able to stop this amazing touchdown by wide receiver Eddie Royal. It’s a good day to be a San Diego Chargers fan.
Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
It takes a strong woman to stand up to a Senate Judiciary Committee on “Stand Your Ground” laws, but Sybrina Fulton is the one for the job. She is the mother of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed 17-year old killed in Florida by George Zimmerman.
Win McNamee/Getty
A very important day at the White House indeed. First lady Michelle Obama furthers her initiative to bring healthier food to children with a little help from her pals Elmo and Rosita.
Yuri Gripas /Reuters
An entire town in the Philippines is in shambles after Super Typhoon Haiyan tore through. The devastation was so widespread that it was tough for aid and relief to get to the 14 million people affected in the immediate aftermath.
Ted Aljibe/AFP via Getty
The greatest Batman stunt of all time comes to the streets of San Francisco, and all in the name of a 5-year old boy names Miles Scott. Scott is fighting his own battle with leukemia, in additional to fighting crime in Gotham City.
Jeff Chiu/AP
Things heat up in Ukraine as protestors take to the streets to join forces with the EU instead of Russia. And this was no small gathering: tens of thousands gathered in Kiev to make their voices heard.
Efrem Lukatsky/AP
Coming this close to the water’s edge, a Metro-North train derails in the Bronx, New York. The incident claimed the lives of four, and could reportedly be the result of the conductor dozing off.
Mark Lennihan/AP
A country mourns the loss of a great leader, Nelson Mandela.
Themba Hadebe/AP
The casket of Nelson Mandela, 95 when he died, travels through the streets of South Africa as its countryman sings the praises of their leader. Mandela passed away in South Africa after fighting a battle with pneumonia for the past few years.
Muhammed Muheisen/AP
Religious groups clash in Central African Republic as Muslim and Christians face off. Hundreds have died as a result of the violence.
Jerome Delay/AP
