As the year comes to a close, it's time to take a look back at some of the most memorable events and images of 2016. Among the events covered in this essay (the first of a three-part photo summary of the year): earthquakes in Ecuador and Taiwan, the passing of entertainers David Bowie and Prince, a total solar eclipse in March, the Zika virus in Brazil, and much more. See also, the Top 25 News Photos of 2016, and the Year in Photos, Part 2, and Part 3. The series comprises 120 images in all. Warning, some of the photos may contain graphic or objectionable content.
2016: The Year in Photos, January-April
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A woman with a Ziggy Stardust tattoo visits a mural of David Bowie in Brixton, south London on January 11, 2016. David Bowie, a music legend who used daringly androgynous displays of sexuality and glittering costumes to frame legendary rock hits "Ziggy Stardust" and "Space Oddity", died of cancer on January 10. #
Stefan Wermuth / Reuters -
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Firefighters work to douse the flames at the Portuguese Language Museum in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on December 21, 2015. According to the fire department, one firefighter died. #
Andre Penner / AP -
Duane Ehmer carries an American flag as he rides his horse on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on January 7, 2016 near Burns, Oregon. An armed anti-government militia group occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Headquarters for more than a month to protest the jailing of two ranchers for arson. The occupiers were eventually arrested or surrendered, with one being shot and killed while resisting arrest. 27 members of the group faced federal charges. Twelve admitted guilt, while another seven were acquitted by a federal jury in October. #
Justin Sullivan / Getty -
A car covered with ice remains stranded on the waterfront in Hamburg, New York on January 12, 2016. The owner left his Mitsubushi Lancer parked overnight outside a restaurant and by the next day, spray from Lake Erie had encased it in ice. #
Lindsay DeDario / Reuters -
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In this Friday, January 15, 2016 photo, Iranian skiers are reflected in the goggles of a skier at Dizin Ski Resort 72 kilometers (45 miles) north of Tehran, Iran. Every weekend, the resort in the Alborz mountain range draws hundreds of skiers from the capital and other towns. #
Ebrahim Noroozi / AP -
This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at "Namib Dune," where the rover's activities included scuffing into the dune with a wheel and scooping samples of sand for laboratory analysis. The scene combines 57 images taken on January 19, 2016, during the 1,228th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. The camera used for this is the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) at the end of the rover's robotic arm. Namib Dune is part of the dark-sand "Bagnold Dune Field" along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp. Images taken from orbit have shown that dunes in the Bagnold field move as much as about 3 feet (1 meter) per Earth year. #
JPL-Caltech / MSSS / NASA -
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A sloth holds on to the post of a traffic barrier on a highway, in this handout photo provided by Ecuador's Transit Commission, in Quevedo, Ecuador, on January 22, 2016. Transit police officers, who were patrolling the new highway, found the sloth after it had apparently tried to cross the street. They returned the animal to its natural habitat after a veterinarian found it to be in perfect condition, according to a press release. #
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Gael Monfils of France dives for a forehand in his fourth round match against Andrey Kuznestov of Russia during day eight of the 2016 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 25, 2016, in Melbourne, Australia. #
Cameron Spencer / Getty -
A man holding an infant stands on the balcony of a damaged house, after curfew ended in the southeastern Turkish town of Silopi on January 19, 2016. At the time, Turkey was waging an all-out offensive against the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), with military operations backed by curfews aimed at flushing out rebels from several southeastern urban centers. #
Ilyas Akengin / AFP / Getty -
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A rescue team member searches for missing people in a collapsed building, after an early morning earthquake in Tainan, Taiwan, on February 6, 2016. A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck southern Taiwan, toppling at least one high-rise residential building and trapping people inside. #
Wally Santana / AP -
A macaque monkey catches knives as it works with a trainer at the Qilingang Monkey Farm on February 2, 2016 in Baowan village, Xinye county, Henan province, China. The area boasts a centuries-long and lucrative history of raising and training monkeys for performance. In Xinye, villagers saw an increase in business with the lunar calendar's "Year of the Monkey". Farmers say most of the monkeys are bred and raised for domestic zoos, circuses, and performing groups, but add that some are also sold for medical research in China and the United States. Despite the popularity of the tradition, critics contend the training methods and conditions constitute animal cruelty. #
Kevin Frayer / Getty -
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A firebomb explodes beside a riot police member during a massive protest on February 4, 2016. Thousands of people marched across Greece on February 4, 2016 as diverse classes united in a crippling general strike over a pension overhaul that sparked a major backlash against embattled leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. #
Aris Messinis / AFP / Getty -
Jackeline, 26, holds her son who is 4-months old and born with microcephaly, in front of their house in Olinda, near Recife, Brazil, on February 11, 2016. In January, the Centers for Disease Control issued a travel warning advising pregnant women against traveling to Brazil and several other nations with reported Zika outbreaks. #
Nacho Doce / Reuters -
One hundred and eighty law clerks line the stairs in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in anticipation of the arrival of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia's casket at the court building February 19, 2016 in Washington, DC. #
Chip Somodevilla / Getty -
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Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush speaks to an audience of voters on February 17, 2016 in Beaufort, South Carolina. Bush brought out his older brother, former U.S. President George W. Bush on February 15, in an attempt to raise his polling numbers before the February 20 primary. #
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Newlywed Syrian couple Nada Merhi, 18, and Syrian army soldier Hassan Youssef, 27, pose for a wedding picture amid heavily damaged buildings in the war ravaged city of Homs on February 5, 2016. A Syrian photographer thought of using the destruction of Homs to take pictures of newly wed couples to show that life is stronger than death. #
Joseph Eid / AFP / Getty -
A Bernie Sanders action figure prototype photographed in Brooklyn, New York, on February 25, 2016. A Brooklyn product design company, FCTRY, created a prototype for the 6-inch tall plastic version toy of the presidential candidate and Senator from Vermont and started a Kickstarter campaign to fund production. #
Brendan McDermid / Reuters -
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Indian bystanders watch as a wild elephant with a tranqulizer dart in its backside smashes through bicycles and motorcycles on a street in Siliguri on February 10, 2016. The adult male elephant was tranquilized and captured by wildlife officials and transported to a nearby forest. #
Diptendu Dutta / AFP / Getty -
A migrant holds razor wire at the gate on the Greek-Macedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni, on March 1, 2016, where thousands of people were stranded. With Austria and Balkan states capping the numbers of migrants entering their soil, there was a swift build-up along the Greece-Macedonia border. #
Louisa Gouliamaki / AFP / Getty -
A female journalist wears virtual reality headgear as she poses for photographers outside the Great Hall of the People where opening session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was held in Beijing on March 3, 2016. #
Ng Han Guan / AP -
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A picture taken on March 31, 2016 shows a photographer holding his photo of the Temple of Bel taken on March 14, 2014 in front of the remains of the historic temple after it was destroyed by ISIS jihadists in September 2015 in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. Syrian troops backed by Russian forces recaptured Palmyra on March 27, 2016, after a fierce offensive to rescue the city from jihadists who view the UNESCO-listed site's magnificent ruins as idolatrous. #
Joseph Eid / AFP / Getty -
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A visitor interacts with Anish Kapoor's "Random Triangle Mirror" during the press preview for Art Basel in Hong Kong on March 22, 2016, before it opened to the public on March 24. #
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In this March 13, 2016 photo, Syrian refugee girl Amna Zughayar, 9, from Deir el-Zour, Syria, poses for a picture at an informal tented settlement near the Syrian border on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan. About half of the 4.8 million Syrians who fled their homeland are children, and some of the most vulnerable live in dozens of makeshift tent camps, including Jordan, which has taken in close to 640,000 refugees. Children in these camps near the northern city of Mafraq say they miss their old lives in Syria, especially going to school. #
Muhammed Muheisen / AP -
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President Barack Obama dances a tango during a state dinner hosted by Argentina's President Mauricio Macri at the Centro Cultural Kirchner as part of his two-day visit to Argentina, in Buenos Aires, on March 23, 2016. #
Carlos Barria / Reuters -
Yemeni tribesmen from the Popular Resistance Committees, supporting forces loyal to Yemen's Saudi-backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, hold a position during clashes with Shiite Houthi rebels west of the city of Taez, on March 21, 2016. #
Ahmad Al-Basha / AFP / Getty -
In this March 22, 2016 photo, infant Udai Faisal, who is suffering from acute malnutrition, is hospitalized at Al-Sabeen Hospital in Sanaa, Yemen. Udai died on March 24. Hunger has been the most horrific consequence of Yemen’s conflict and spiraled since Saudi Arabia and its allies, backed by the U.S., launched a campaign of airstrikes and a naval blockade in 2015. #
Maad al-Zikry / AP -
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A picture of hands holding smartphones taking pictures of hands holding smartphones, as audience members await Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump before a campaign rally at West Chester University in West Chester, Pennsylvania, on April 25, 2016. #
Matt Slocum / AP -
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Scarlett Macias comforts his father Hercor Macias during the funeral of her mother Valentina Arteaga, who died inside her house during an earthquake, in Portoviejo, Ecuador, on, April 18, 2016. "Daddy, don't cry. I told you, you do not have to mourn," Scarlett told her father minutes after the funeral. The strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along its Pacific coast, sending the Andean nation into a state of emergency. #
Rodrigo Abd / AP -
TPakistani residents cross a flooded street following heavy rain on the outskirts of Peshawar on April 4, 2016. At least 53 people were killed and 60 injured after heavy rain across northwest Pakistan and areas of Kashmir caused landslides and the roofs of dozens of homes to collapse, officials said. #
A Majeed / AFP / Getty -
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Journalist Hassan Hanafi, convicted of murdering colleagues for the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab jihadist group, is tied to a wooden post before being executed by firing squad at a police academy square in Mogadishu on April 11, 2016. Hanafi was sentenced to death in March after military judges said he had confessed to his role in the killing of five journalists after being arrested in August 2014 in Kenya and extradited to Somalia late that year. #
Mohamed Abdiwahab / AFP / Getty -
Colombian astronaut Diego Urbina tests the Gandolfi 2 spacesuit during the Moonwalk project's first Mars mission simulation in the southwestern Spanish town of Minas de Riotinto, Huelva province, on April 22, 2016. The goal of project MOONWALK is to develop and test technologies and training procedures for future human missions to Moon and Mars. #
Jorge Guerrero / AFP / Getty -
A photo issued by Kensington Palace of Prince George (right) meeting the President of the United States Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama (behind) at Kensington Palace in London, with Britain's Prince William on April 22, 2016. #
Pete Souza / White House Photographer / Kensington Palace / Reuters -
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