As the year comes to a close, it’s time to take a look at some of the most memorable events and images of 2020. Events covered in this essay (the last of a three-part photo summary of the year) include the devastating wildfires in California, the passing of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Nagorno-Karabakh War, the U.S. presidential election, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and much more. Be sure to see the first part, the second part, and “Top 25 News Photos of 2020.”
2020 in Photos: Wrapping Up the Year
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Naomi Osaka wears a protective face mask with the name Ahmaud Arbery stenciled on it after winning her Women's Singles third round match against Marta Kostyuk on the fifth day of the 2020 US Open, at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 4, 2020, in the Queens borough of New York City. Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was pursued and fatally shot while jogging in Glynn County, Georgia. #
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A man stops to shoot a picture of a mural by the artist Shane Grammer, of the late actor Chadwick Boseman's character T'Challa from the 2018 film Black Panther, on September 8, 2020, in Los Angeles. Boseman died August 28 at age 43 after a four-year battle with colon cancer. #
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Amy Scott takes in the view from the Embarcadero as smoke from various wildfires burning across Northern California mixes with the marine layer, blanketing San Francisco in darkness and an orange glow on September 9, 2020, in San Francisco, California. #
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The Houston Astros participate in batting practice under a dark orange sky in front of cardboard cutouts of fans, before their game against the Oakland Athletics at RingCentral Coliseum on September 9, 2020 in Oakland, California. #
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A hooded crow attacks a bat in central Kyiv, Ukraine, on September 15, 2020. Gleb Garanich, a Reuters photographer, said: "Capturing this shot in the beautiful morning light of Kyiv confirmed my belief that stories about the animal world need not only be found in the wild. I was on my way to cover a protest near the Ukrainian parliament and had deliberately left 90 minutes ahead of time as I like to take pictures early in the morning in the center of Kyiv. When I heard a cry and a flapping of wings, I turned in the direction of the noise, raising my telephoto lens, and saw a crow attacking something in the branches of a tree. In the next instant, a bat flew out of the branches, chased by the crow. The bat fell to the ground, hissing at the crow, which continued to attack it. I drove the crow away, but the bat was lying in the grass and could not fly off. I carefully lifted it and carried it to another tree at the end of the alley, placing it on a branch, and went on with my day. This shot reminds me that a photographer should always be alert to what is happening around them, ready to take a picture at any moment." #
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This picture shows cyclists hanging under the Grenoble Bastille cable cars during the 17th stage of the 107th edition of the Tour de France cycling race, 170 kilometers between Grenoble and Meribel, on September 16, 2020. #
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An unexploded rocket sits embedded in the ground in the Ivanyan community that forms part of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, on October 1, 2020. On November 10, a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement was signed by the president of Azerbaijan and the prime minister of Armenia, ending six weeks of warfare over disputed territory in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. #
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Sean Conley, the White House physician, gives an update on the condition of President Donald Trump on October 3, 2020, at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Trump was hospitalized on October 2 due to a COVID-19 diagnosis. #
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President Donald Trump removes his mask upon returning to the White House from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on October 5, 2020 in Washington, D.C. Trump spent three days hospitalized for COVID-19. #
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An event staff member walks among the empty chairs on display to represent the 200,000 lives lost to COVID-19 at the National COVID-19 Remembrance, on the ellipse behind the White House, in Washington, D.C., on October 4, 2020. #
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LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers celebrates with Quinn Cook and their teammates after winning the 2020 NBA Championship in Game Six of the 2020 NBA Finals at the ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on October 11, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. #
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U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett attends her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on October 12, 2020. #
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Protesters storm the San Francisco de Borja Church, which belongs to the Carabineros, Chile's national police force, in Santiago, Chile, on October 18, 2020, during the first anniversary of the start of anti-government mass protests over inequality. #
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On October 14, 2020, Panusaya "Rung" Sithijirawattanakul, a Student Union of Thailand spokesperson, speaks from a truck as prodemocracy protesters march toward the Government House during an anti-government rally in Bangkok. #
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Washington State Department of Agriculture workers, wearing protective suits and working in predawn darkness illuminated with red lamps, vacuum a nest of Asian giant hornets from a tree on October 24, 2020, in Blaine, Washington. Scientists discovered the first nest of so-called murder hornets in the United States earlier in the week and worked to wipe it out Saturday morning to protect native honeybees. #
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An Armenian soldier fires artillery on October 25, 2020, during the ongoing fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. #
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President Donald Trump dances after speaking during a Make America Great Again rally at Laughlin/Bullhead International Airport in Bullhead City, Arizona, on October 28, 2020. #
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President-elect Joe Biden greets a crowd after his address to the nation from the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on November 7, 2020. After four days of counting the high volume of mail-in ballots in key battleground states, the race was called for Biden after a contentious election battle against the incumbent, President Donald Trump. #
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People shoot off fireworks in Washington's Black Lives Matter Plaza while celebrating President-elect Joe Biden's win over President Donald Trump on November 7, 2020. #
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A member of a feminist collective paints the helmet of a riot police officer during a protest against gender and police violence, in Mexico City, Mexico on November 11, 2020. #
Toya Sarno Jordan / Reuters -
Workers move culled minks in Jyllinge, Denmark, on on November 14, 2020. After a COVID-19 mutation that could move from minks to humans was discovered, the Danish government issued a controversial order to cull all 17 million minks in the country, including non-infected minks. #
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Vivian Zayas holds on to the walker that belonged to her recently deceased mother, Ana Martinez, while her family prays before Thanksgiving dinner, on November 26, 2020, in Deer Park, New York. Ana Martinez died from COVID-19 on April 1, at age 78, while recovering at a nursing home from a knee replacement. The family is having their traditional meal of turkey, yams, green beans, and rice and beans—but Zayas removed a seat from the table and put her mother's walker in its place. #
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Alma Abad, a nurse, assists the family members of Florence Bolton, 85, a COVID-19 patient, to FaceTime her as she lies in her ICU bed at Roseland Community Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, on December 1, 2020. #
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In front of a mural, a health-care worker collects a swab sample from a man to be tested for the coronavirus outside Clinic Ajwa in Shah Alam, Malaysia, on December 10, 2020. #
Lim Huey Teng / Reuters -
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