As the year comes to a close, it’s time to take a look at some of the most memorable events and images of 2018. Events covered in this essay (the first of a three-part photo summary of the year) include the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, the March for Our Lives gun control rally, Mark Zuckerberg facing Congress, continued conflict in Syria and Yemen, the birth of a royal baby, and much more. See also “Top 25 News Photos of 2018,” and come back tomorrow and Thursday for the rest of this series, 2018 in Photos: Part 2 and Part 3. The series will comprise 120 images in all. Warning: Some of the photos may contain graphic or objectionable content.
2018 in Photos: How the First Months Unfolded
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A woman holds marijuana for sale at the MedMen store in West Hollywood, California, on January 2, 2018. January 1 was the first day that California allowed the selling of recreational marijuana, and long lines formed at many stores. #
Lucy Nicholson / Reuters -
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A nominee for queen performs during the main stage of the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, held on the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife, on February 7, 2018. The costumes are more than five meters high and more than 80 kilos in weight. The event began on January 12 and finished on February 18, with orchestras playing Caribbean and Brazilian rhythms during festivities that ranged from elections for the Carnival Queen, the Junior Queen, and the Senior Queen, to children and adult murgas (satirical street bands), comparsas (dance groups), and street performances. #
Desiree Martin / AFP / Getty -
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Rescue workers walk out of the Yun Tsui building, which is leaning at a precarious angle, in the Taiwanese city of Hualien on February 8, 2018, after the city was hit by a 6.4-magnitude quake late on February 6. #
Anthony Wallace / AFP / Getty -
Adam Rippon of the United States competes in the figure-skating team event—men's single free skating—on day three of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Ice Arena, on February 12, 2018. #
Dean Mouhtaropoulos / Getty -
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The gold medalist Chloe Kim of the United States poses during the medal ceremony for the snowboard women's half-pipe final on day four of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Medal Plaza, on February 13, 2018. #
Alexander Hassenstein / Getty -
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Delaney Tarr speaks at a rally for gun control at the Broward County Federal Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on February 17, 2018. #
Rhona Wise / AFP / Getty -
Protesters rally against gun violence on the steps of the old Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, Florida, on February 21, 2018. Students at schools across Broward and Miami-Dade Counties in South Florida planned short walkouts on the one-week anniversary of the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. #
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Schoolchildren walk together at Sipandak Elementary School in Tiga Pancur village in Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia, on February 19, 2018, as thick volcanic ash from Mount Sinabung rises into the air following one in a series of eruptions. #
Anto Sembiring / AFP / Getty -
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Fireworks explode near the conclusion of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games' closing ceremony at Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium on February 25, 2018, in Pyeongchang, South Korea. #
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Ten-year-old Omar, who was injured in an airstrike that killed several members of his family in their home in Otaybah, Syria, receives treatment at a makeshift hospital in eastern Ghouta on February 25, 2018. #
Amer Almohibany / AFP / Getty -
Men wear crowns and hold unloaded weapons at the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania, on February 28, 2018. Worshippers clutching AR-15 rifles participated in a commitment ceremony at the Pennsylvania-based church. The event led a nearby school to cancel classes for the day. The church's leader, Reverend Sean Moon, said in a prayer that God gave people the right to bear arms. #
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Druid Malachy, played by Ciaron Davies, reacts with a European eagle-owl named Cracker during the reenactment of Saint Patrick's first landing in Ireland at Inch Abbey in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, on March 11, 2018. #
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KV Svalbard's crew, composed of Norwegian navy privates and scientists from the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research, play soccer as they are protected from polar bears by armed guards in the sea around Greenland, on March 22, 2018. #
Marius Vagenes Villanger / Kystvakten / Sjoforsvaret / NTB Scanpix / Norsk Telegrambyra AS / Reuters -
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A student is photographed as students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School attend a rally with Thurgood Marshall Academy students in advance of the upcoming March for Our Lives event in Washington, D.C., on March 22, 2018. #
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David Hogg, a survivor of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, raises his fist after speaking during the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., on March 24, 2018. #
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President Donald Trump—joined by the Easter Bunny and Melania Trump, the first lady—speaks from the Truman Balcony of the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 2, 2018, during the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. #
Carolyn Kaster / AP -
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on April 10, 2018, about the use of Facebook data to target American voters in the 2016 election. #
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Supporters of the National Socialist Movement, a white nationalist political group, give Nazi salutes while taking part in a swastika burning at an undisclosed location in the state of Georgia, on April 21, 2018. #
Go Nakamura / Reuters -
Mave Grace, 11, who had part of her arm chopped off by militiamen when they attacked the village of Tchee, stands with her sister Racahele-Ngabausi, 2, in an internally displaced persons camp in Bunia, Ituri Province, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on April 12, 2018. According to witnesses, militiamen killed her pregnant mother and her three brothers, and injured Racahele-Ngabausi. #
Goran Tomasevic / Reuters -
This image may contain graphic or objectionable content.
Click to view imageAfghan journalists lie injured and dead on the ground after a second blast in Kabul, Afghanistan, on April 30, 2018. Twin suicide bombings killed at least 29 people in Kabul that day, including nine journalists at work. Among those journalists was photographer Shah Marai, who had worked for AFP for 20 years, using compelling imagery and a compassionate eye to tell the stories of ordinary Afghans caught up in extraordinarily difficult circumstances. #
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Reacquired Volkswagen and Audi diesel cars sit in a desert graveyard near Victorville, California, on March 28, 2018. Volkswagen AG has paid more than $7.4 billion to buy back about 350,000 vehicles, the automaker said in a recent court filing, and is now storing thousands of vehicles around the United States. #
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From left: Former first lady Laura Bush, former President George W. Bush, former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State and first lady Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, former President George H. W. Bush, former first lady Michelle Obama, and current first lady Melania Trump pose for a group photo at the funeral ceremony for the late first lady Barbara Bush at St. Martin's Episcopal Church on April 21, 2018, in Houston, Texas. Bush, wife of former president George H. W. Bush and mother of former president George W. Bush, died at her home in Houston on April 17 at the age of 92. #
Paul Morse / George W. Bush Presidential Center via Getty -
Britain's Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, wave holding their newborn baby son as they leave the Lindo wing at St. Mary's Hospital in London, England, on April 23, 2018. The Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to a healthy baby boy—a third child for Kate and Prince William and fifth in line to the British throne. #
Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP -
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