As the year comes to a close, it’s time to take a look at some of the most memorable events and images of 2019. Events covered in this essay (the first of a three-part photo summary of the year) include the abdication of Japan’s Emperor Akihito, a performance by Lil Nas X, the impact of Cyclone Idai in Mozambique, the battle for the last holdout of the Islamic State, a landing on the far side of the moon, and much more. See also “Top 25 News Photos of 2019,” and “2019 in Photos: Part 2,” and “2019 in Photos: Part 3.” The series comprises 120 images in all.
2019 in Photos: How the First Months Unfolded
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President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in front of a spread of fast food on silver platters, to be provided to the 2018 College Football national champion, the Clemson Tigers, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on January 14, 2019. The catering choice was said to have been due to the continuing government shutdown, which affected White House employees as well. #
Joyce N. Boghosian / The White House -
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Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, surrounded by her grandchildren and other children, raises her right hand as Representative Don Young, the longest-serving member of the House, administers the oath to Pelosi to become the speaker of the House, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on January 3, 2019. #
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People clear heavy snow from a roof in Lofer, Austria, on January 11, 2019. In Salzburg, all parks, public gardens, play areas, and cemeteries were closed because of the danger of trees falling under the weight of the snow. #
Kerstin Joensson / AP -
This picture released on January 11, 2019, shows China's Yutu-2 moon rover, taken by the Chang'e-4 lunar probe, which brought it to the far side of the moon. On January 3, the Chang'e-4 lander successfully made the first soft landing ever on the far side of the moon. #
China National Space Administration / AFP / Getty -
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Civilians run as security forces aim their weapons at a hotel complex in Nairobi, Kenya, on January 15, 2019. Extremists launched a deadly attack on a luxury hotel in Kenya's capital, sending people fleeing in panic as explosions and heavy gunfire reverberated through the complex. #
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An aerial view of people working on the roof of the Beijing Daxing International Airport on January 17, 2019, in Beijing, China. Beijing Daxing is a massive complex built on the outskirts of Beijing, China, from more than 220,000 tons of steel, with a price tag nearing $12 billion. It opened in September 2019. The new facility—billed as the world’s largest single-terminal airport—became Beijing’s second international airport. #
Wang Mingzhu / VCG via Getty -
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Juan Guaidó, president of Venezuela's National Assembly, holds a copy of the Venezuelan constitution during a rally against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government and to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the end of the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, in Caracas, Venezuela, on January 23, 2019. #
Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters -
An aerial view taken after the collapse of a dam that belonged to Brazil's giant mining company, Vale, near the town of Brumadinho, in southeastern Brazil, on January 25, 2019. The collapse of the huge dam released a torrent of muddy iron-ore waste into the valley below, damaging or destroying houses, farms, and vehicles, and killing at least 256 people. #
Douglas Magno / AFP / Getty -
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The U.S. first lady, Melania Trump, talks with 9-year-old Josue (right) from Puerto Rico during a Valentine’s Day visit with young patients at the Children's Inn at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, on February 14, 2019. #
Jonathan Ernst / Reuters -
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A rat reacts while being stuck in a manhole cover in Bensheim-Auerbach, Germany, on February 24, 2019. The rat was later rescued by eight members of the Auerbach Volunteer Fire Department, and released. #
Berufstierrettung Rhein Neckar / Reuters -
From left: U.S. Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib listen as Michael Cohen, former attorney and fixer for President Donald Trump, testifies before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Capitol Hill on February 27, 2019, in Washington, D.C. #
Chip Somodevilla / Getty -
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A model, wearing a mask designed by the artist Dan Schaub, presents a creation by designer Manish Arora during the Fall-Winter 2019/2020 Ready-to-Wear Collection fashion show in Paris, France, on February 28, 2019. #
Christophe Archambault / AFP / Getty -
Smoke and fire billow after shelling hits ISIS's last holdout of Baghouz, in the eastern Syrian Deir Ezzor province on March 3, 2019. Kurdish-led forces backed by U.S. warplanes launched artillery and air strikes against besieged and outgunned jihadists making a desperate last stand in a Syrian village. #
Delil Souleiman / AFP / Getty -
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Residents and family members sift through the debris left of their homes near Lee County Road 38 in Beauregard, Alabama, on March 4, 2019, a day after tornadoes ravaged the area. #
Julie Bennett / AP -
This aerial photo shows an inflatable sculpture called "Companion" (center) by U.S. artist and designer Brian Donnelly, known professionally as Kaws, in a shipyard in Hong Kong on March 11, 2019. The 37-meter-long sculpture was set to be docked in Victoria Harbour from March 22 to 31 as part of Hong Kong Arts Month. #
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People collect water falling from a leaking pipeline along the banks of the Guaire River during rolling blackouts in Caracas, Venezuela, on March 11, 2019. Electricity shortages, blamed on poor equipment maintenance and a lack of expertise in the country, plagued Venezuela off and on through the year. #
Fernando Llano / AP -
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Farhana Islam, a 17-year-old from Albert Einstein High School in Kensington, Maryland, demonstrates with other high-school students outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C., during a walkout protest over a lack of U.S. federal government legislation on gun violence on March 14, 2019. The word "enough" is written across her face. #
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An aerial view of the Chicago River as it winds its way through downtown Chicago, Illinois, after being dyed green in celebration of St. Patrick's Day, on March 16, 2019 #
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An Ethiopian relative of a plane-crash victim throws dirt in her own face after realizing that nothing physical is left of her loved one, near Bishoftu, Ethiopia, southeast of Addis Ababa, on March 14, 2019. She was mourning at the scene where an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed shortly after takeoff on Sunday, March 10, killing all 157 on board. #
Mulugeta Ayene / AP -
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Using the schlieren photography technique, NASA was able to capture the first air-to-air images of the interaction of shockwaves from two supersonic aircraft flying in formation. In this image released on March 22, 2019, the two aircraft are flying in formation, approximately 30 feet apart, at supersonic speeds, or faster than the speed of sound, producing shockwaves that are typically heard on the ground as a sonic boom. The images, originally monochromatic and shown here as colorized composites, were captured during a supersonic flight series flown, in part, to better understand how shocks interact with aircraft plumes, as well as with each other. #
NASA via Reuters -
A cast of the "Génie de la Patrie," damaged during a "yellow vest" protest at the Arc de Triomphe in December, is seen during its renovation by the French restorer Agnes Le Boudec in Paris on March 25, 2019. #
Stephane De Sakutin / AFP / Getty -
Enia Joaquin Luis, 11, wakes up beside her sister Luisa, 6, under plastic sheets used to protect them from rain at a shelter in Buzi, Mozambique, on March 23, 2019, in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai. The storm smashed into the coast of central Mozambique, unleashing hurricane-force winds and rains that flooded the hinterland and drenched eastern Zimbabwe, leaving a trail of destruction. #
Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP / Getty -
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A light show, seen above a fjord in northern Norway on April 6, 2019, was the result of a NASA experiment named the Auroral Zone Upwelling Rocket Experiment (AZURE). The lights were created by releasing two harmless gases, trimethylaluminum and a mixture of barium and strontium, into the atmosphere for researchers to study the paths of particles in the Earth's ionosphere, NASA said. #
Yang Sutie / Visual China Group via Getty -
The British actress Gwendoline Christie arrives for the premiere of Game of Thrones' eighth and final season at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on April 3, 2019. Christie portrayed the character Brienne of Tarth beginning in 2012. #
Angela Weiss / AFP / Getty -
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A picture taken on April 16, 2019, shows the altar surrounded by charred debris inside the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, in the aftermath of a fire that devastated the building. #
Ludovic Marin / AFP / Getty -
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) shows a black hole at the center of galaxy M87, outlined by emissions from hot gas swirling around it, in a picture released on April 10, 2019. To make the image, the EHT, a network of eight radio observatories on six mountains and four continents, observed a black hole in Messier 87, a supergiant elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo, on and off for 10 days in April of 2017. #
National Science Foundation via Getty -
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Officials inspect the damaged St. Sebastian's Church after multiple explosions targeted people in churches and hotels across Sri Lanka on April 21, 2019, in Negombo, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka. At least 259 people were killed and hundreds of others wounded in multiple blasts that hit eight different locations, including churches where Christians were marking Easter Sunday and 5-star hotels in commercial capital Colombo. #
Chamila Chamila Karunarathne / Anadolu Agency / Getty -
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Japan's Emperor Akihito walks during a ritual called Taiirei Tojitsu Kashikodokoro Omae no Gi, a ceremony for the emperor to report his abdication to the goddess Amaterasu, at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, Japan, on April 30, 2019. After a nearly 30-year reign, Emperor Akihito stepped down in an abdication ceremony in Tokyo. The 85-year-old monarch passed the throne to his son, Crown Prince Naruhito, after acknowledging that his age and poor health were making it difficult for him to fulfill his duties. #
Kyodo / Reuters -
Sand whipped up by wind shrouds the C-Space Project Mars simulation base as a staff member wearing a mock spacesuit poses in the Gobi Desert outside Jinchang, Gansu province, China, on April 18, 2019. #
Thomas Peter / Reuters -
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