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 2017. Among the events covered in this essay (the first of a three-part photo summary of the year): the inauguration of President Donald Trump; the Women’s March on Washington; the retaking of Mosul, Iraq, from ISIS; observations from Saturn; massive opposition rallies in Venezuela; and much more. See also, the Top 25 News Photos of 2017, and, from this series, 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.
2017 in Photos: How the First Months Unfolded
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United States President-elect Donald J. Trump arrives for the inauguration ceremonies swearing him in as the 45th president of the United States on the West front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on January 20, 2017. #
Brian Snyder / Reuters -
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FARC guerrillas pose for a picture at the 34 Alberto Martinez camp front just days before their demobilization to the final concentration zones in Vegaez municipality, Antioquia department, Colombia, on December 30, 2016. The Colombian government signed a final peace agreement with the FARC guerrilla on November 26 to be implemented within six months, during which FARC members will give up their weapons and start their transition to be reintegrated into society. #
Raul Arboleda / AFP / Getty -
President Barack Obama presents Vice President Joe Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a ceremony in the state dining room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on January 12, 2017. #
Susan Walsh / AP -
Steam rises from chimneys of a heating power plant near a monument of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. The air temperature is at about minus 17 degrees Celsius (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit) during sunset in Moscow, Russia, on January 9, 2017. #
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A combination of photos taken at the National Mall shows the crowds attending the inauguration ceremonies to swear in U.S. President Donald Trump at 12:01pm (left) on January 20, 2017, and President Barack Obama sometime between 12:07pm and 12:26pm on January 20, 2009, in Washington, D.C. One of the first controversies of the Trump presidency involved White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's claim that this was the "largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period," and that "all of this space was full" from the platform to the Washington Monument. This assertion was demonstrably false, as shown by numerous photographs taken at the time. #
Lucas Jackson, Stelios Varias / Reuters -
Hundreds of thousands of marchers fill the street during the Women's March demonstration in Washington, D.C., on January 21, 2017. Large crowds of women and their allies gathered in cities across the U.S. and around the world to raise their voices against the new administration and in support of women's rights, health issues, equality, diversity and inclusion. #
Bryan Woolston / Reuters -
Men soar through the air on their wooden sled during a traditional Bavarian horn sled race, known as "Schnablerrennen," in Gaissach, near Bad Toelz, Germany, on January 22, 2017. #
Matthias Schrader / AP -
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This image may contain graphic or objectionable content.
Click to view imageA picture taken on January 20, 2017, shows a dead body hanging from a utility pole in eastern Mosul, Iraq, during an ongoing military operation against Islamic State jihadists. Iraqi forces battled the last holdout jihadists in east Mosul after commanders declared victory there and quickly set their sights on the city's west. #
Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP / Getty -
A man takes a photograph of his friend as thick smoke rises from a fire, which broke out at oil wells set ablaze by Islamic State militants before they fled the oil-producing region of Qayyara, Iraq, on January 28, 2017. #
Muhammad Hamed / Reuters -
Teenage girls of the Long Horn Miao ethnic minority group wear headdresses as they gather for "Tiaohua" or Flower Festival as part of the lunar new year on February 6, 2017, in Longga village, Guizhou province, southern China. The Long Horn Miao are recognized for their declining practice of wrapping a blend of linen, wool, and the hair of their ancestors around animal horns or a wooden clip to make headdresses. Many young women say they now wear the headdresses only for special occasions and festivals, as the ornaments, which are attached by the horns to their real hair, have proved impractical for modern daily life. China officially recognizes 56 different ethnic minorities, and statistics show over 7 million Chinese identifying themselves as Miao. But the small Long Horn Miao community counts only around 5,000 people living in 12 villages, whose age-old traditions, language, and culture are fading. The government has invested significant amounts of money into local infrastructure and the tourism industry to try to bolster the local economy. #
Kevin Frayer / Getty -
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Men carrying a shrine jump over a bonfire, wishing for good luck during a traditional Chinese lunar new year celebration in Jieyang, Guangdong province, China, on February 2, 2017. #
China Daily / Reuters -
Former U.S. President Barack Obama tries his hand at kite surfing during a holiday with British businessman Richard Branson on his island Moskito in the British Virgin Islands, on February 7, 2017. #
Jack Brockway / Virgin Handout / Reuters -
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A woman who told police that she and her family were from Sudan is taken into custody by a RCMP officer just over the U.S.-Canada border in Hemmingford, Quebec, on February 12, 2017. In February, Reuters photographer Christinne Muschi spent time at the end of a small country road in Hemmingford, Quebec, that dead-ends at the U.S.-Canada border, just across from another dead-end road near Champlain, New York. She was photographing refugees, who were traveling alone or in small groups and had taken taxis to the end of the road in the U.S., then walked across the border into Canada and into the custody of the RCMP. While the location is not an official border crossing, it is one of several spots that have become informal gateways to an increasing number of refugees choosing to leave the United States. Canadian advocacy groups said they were preparing for even more asylum-seekers following increased anti-Muslim rhetoric in the U.S. and public expressions of welcome made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. #
Christinne Muschi / Reuters -
An activist holds up a flower during a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's immigration policies to call for unity in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on February 17, 2017. #
Favia Lucero / Reuters -
Firefighters investigate the scene after a small plane crashed into the roof of a condominium building across the Merrimack River from Lawrence Municipal Airport on February 28, 2017, in Methuen, Massachusetts. #
Elise Amendola / AP -
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Two Staten Island Ferries catch the last rays of the setting sun while crossing paths as one departs from and the other arrives at the lower Manhattan terminal on March 3, 2017, in New York City. #
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A man cries as he carries his daughter while walking from an Islamic State-controlled part of Mosul towards Iraqi special forces soldiers during a battle in Mosul, Iraq, on March 4, 2017. #
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Click to view imageA Humvee passes over the body of an ISIS jihadist lying in a street in west Mosul on March 10, 2017, as Iraqi forces advance in the city in the ongoing battle to seize it from ISIS. #
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Saturn's tiny moon, Pan, viewed on March 7, 2017, by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Pan is about 21 miles wide, orbiting in a gap in Saturn's rings. This view, the closest and most detailed yet, shows its pronounced equatorial ridge, made up of particles from the rings that have accumulated on Pan's equator over the centuries. #
JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute / NASA -
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Displaced Iraqi women who just fled their home rest in the desert as they wait to be transported while Iraqi forces battle with Islamic State militants in western Mosul, Iraq, on February 27, 2017. Photographer Zohra Bensemra: "I took this picture in a desert on the outskirts of Western Mosul of 90-year-old Khatla Ali Abdallah after she fled the battle for Mosul. Her fearful eyes red with fatigue, Khatla was so exhausted she could not stand or even sit properly. She looked to me like she had not eaten or drank water for a long time. The moment was so emotional that I had tears in my eyes when I photographed Khatla. I felt bad because I could not do anything for her apart from taking pictures to show the world the agony and torment of people trying to flee Mosul to safety. I was sad too, imagining this woman as my own grandmother and feeling helpless to make her comfortable. When you face such a moment, you always think that it could happen to anyone of us. But despite all, Khatla looked beautiful to me, almost as if every wrinkle on her face told a story. I was fortunate to find her a few days later in a refugee camp after showing people my photograph of her. She has survived decades of turbulence in northern Iraq. She told me "the fighting there is the worst I have ever seen". She had been carried across the desert by her grandsons, under sniper and mortar fire, one of thousands who braved the difficult and dangerous journey out of Islamic State's shrinking stronghold in western Mosul. Khatla made me smile when she expressed her remorse about her 20 chickens she had to leave behind. She had looked after them even while hiding from crossfire in her house's basement. Despite all the terror she experienced under ISIS rule, it had not destroyed her humanity, she said, 'Even animals deserve life.'" #
Zohra Bensemra / Reuters -
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A boy rides his bike past destroyed cars and houses in a neighborhood recently liberated by Iraqi security forces on the western side of Mosul, Iraq, on March 19, 2017. #
Felipe Dana / AP -
Skyscrapers Shanghai Tower (left), Jin Mao Tower (top) and Shanghai World Financial Center, are seen during a hazy day in the financial district of Pudong in Shanghai, China, on March 20, 2017. #
Aly Song / Reuters -
President Donald Trump reacts as he sits in a truck while he welcomes truckers and CEOs to attend a meeting regarding healthcare at the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 23, 2017. #
Carlos Barria / Reuters -
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Pro-Trump rally participants yell at an anti-Trump protester as the two sides clash during the Southern California Make America Great Again march in support of President Trump, the military, and first responders, at Bolsa Chica State Beach in Huntington Beach, California, on March 25, 2017. #
Patrick Fallon / Reuters -
Police officers detain a man during an unauthorized anti-corruption rally in central Moscow on March 26, 2017. Thousands of Russians demonstrated across the country on March 26 to protest corruption, defying bans on rallies which were called by prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny—who was arrested along with scores of others. Navalny called for the protests after publishing a detailed report this month accusing Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of controlling a property empire through a shadowy network of non-profit organizations. #
Alexander Utkin / AFP / Getty -
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An injured person walks outside Sennaya Ploshchad metro station following an explosion in St. Petersburg, Russia, on April 3, 2017. 14 people were killed and dozens injured in the terror attack. #
Anton Vaganov / Stringer / Reuters -
A relocated rhino charges a Nepalese forestry and technical team after being released as part of a relocation project in Shuklaphanta National Park, some 510 kilometers from Kathmandu on April 4, 2017. Conservationists captured a rare one-horned rhinoceros in Nepal on April 3 as part of an attempt to increase the number of the vulnerable animals, which are prized by wildlife poachers. Five rhinos—one male and four female—will be released into a national park in Nepal's far west in the hope of establishing a new breeding group. #
Prakash Mathema / AFP / Getty -
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Demonstrators scuffle with security forces during an opposition rally in Caracas, Venezuela, on April 4, 2017. Venezuelan security forces quelled masked protesters with tear gas, water cannons, and pepper spray in Caracas after blocking an opposition rally against socialist President Nicolas Maduro. The clashes began after authorities closed subway stations, set up checkpoints, and cordoned off a square where opponents had planned their latest protest against both the government and the crippling economic crisis. Photographer Carlos Garcia Rawlins: "For me that was the day that made a difference, never before had I seen the protesters and police clashing men-to-men and struggling back and forward. From then, the strategy of the police changed and they never faced the protesters so close again." #
Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters -
Bloodstains remain on pews inside St. George Church after a suicide bombing in the Nile delta town of Tanta, Egypt, on April 9, 2017. Bombs exploded at two Coptic churches in the northern Egyptian cities of Tanta and Alexandria as worshipers were celebrating Palm Sunday, killing over 40 people and wounding scores more. #
Nariman El-Mofty / AP -
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A demonstrator wearing a makeshift gas mask fashioned with the head of a teddy bear takes part in an anti-government protest in Caracas, Venezuela, on April 13, 2017. While demonstrations were often held in middle-class neighborhoods, this wave of unrest sparked, for the first time, protests in the slums that have historically been bastions of support for the socialist revolution launched nearly two decades ago by late President Hugo Chavez. #
Ariana Cubillos / AP -
Thirteen-year-old Aibhin Kenneally from the Flynn-O'Kane dance group warms up backstage before performing during the World Irish Dancing Championships in Dublin, Ireland, on April 11, 2017. #
Clodagh Kilcoyne / Reuters -
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