As the year comes to a close, it’s time to take a look at some of the most memorable events and images of 2021. Events covered in this essay (the first of a three-part photo summary of the year) include the January 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, the inauguration of President Joe Biden, the ongoing effects of the coronavirus pandemic worldwide, tensions on the border between Ukraine and Russia, a new volcano erupting in Iceland, and much more. Check back later this week for parts two and three, and be sure to see our earlier “Top 25 News Photos of 2021.”
2021 in Photos: How the First Months Unfolded
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Trump supporters participate in a rally in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, as Congress prepares to affirm President-elect Joe Biden's victory. Thousands of people gathered to show their support for President Donald Trump and his baseless claims of election fraud, and a significant portion of them later marched to the U.S. Capitol building and broke in, attempting to stop the certification. #
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Jake Angeli, also known as the "QAnon Shaman," roams through the U.S. Capitol Building with other rioters on January 6, 2021. Later, Angeli was identified, arrested, and tried on federal charges of illegal entry and obstruction. In November, Angeli entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to 41 months in prison. More than 700 of the January 6 rioters have now been charged with crimes. #
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Members of the National Guard rest in the Visitor Center of the U.S. Capitol on January 13, 2021, in Washington, D.C. Security was increased throughout Washington following the breach of the U.S. Capitol, and leading up to the presidential inauguration. #
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The bust of U.S. President Zachary Taylor is covered with plastic after blood was smeared on it when a pro-Trump mob broke into the U.S. Capitol building, seen on January 7, 2021. #
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The U.S. Capitol is seen behind a fence with razor wire at sunrise on January 16, 2021. More than 20,000 National Guard soldiers were assigned to guard Washington, D.C., as preparations were made for the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th U.S. president. #
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Kelvia Andrea Goncalves, 16, is supported by her aunt Vanderleia dos Reis Brasao, 37, as she reacts during the burial of her mother, Andrea dos Reis Brasao, 39, who passed away from COVID-19, at the Parque Tarumã cemetery in Manaus, Brazil, on January 17, 2021. #
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From left, Douglas Emhoff, U.S. Vice President–elect Kamala Harris, Jill Biden, and U.S. President-elect Joe Biden look down the National Mall as lamps are lit to honor the nearly 400,000 American victims of the coronavirus pandemic at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on January 19, 2021, in Washington, D.C. #
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Joe Biden, beside his wife, Jill, is sworn in as the 46th president of the United States by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on January 20, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol. #
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A view of a home decorated to celebrate Dino Gras on January 24, 2021, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Most of the traditional Mardi Gras activities in New Orleans were canceled this year because of the pandemic. But locals spent their time and effort working on safe alternative celebrations to keep the spirit of Carnival alive—including the decoration of hundreds of houses in the style of Mardi Gras floats. #
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A morgue attendant at the Pretoria branch of the South African funeral and burial services company AVBOB applies a biohazard-warning sticker to the body of a patient who died from a COVID-19-related illness, ahead of his burial on January 22, 2021. #
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Police detain a man during a rally in support of the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny in St. Petersburg, Russia, on January 31, 2021. Navalny, 44, was detained on January 17 upon returning to Moscow after five months in Germany recovering from a near-fatal poisoning with a nerve agent. He was later jailed while awaiting trial for violating a suspended sentence he was handed in 2014. #
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People run for safety as Kurdish animal-rights activists release a bear into the wild in Duhok, Iraq, on February 11, 2021. The photographer Ari Jalal: "In Kurdistan, animal-rights activists were rescuing bears from captivity in people's homes and releasing them back into the wild. This bear had been kept as a pet in a garden in Kurdistan, and this was the moment it was set free. As the bear was let out of its cage, the journalists and onlookers started running. The people were just as scared of the bear as the bear was of them. Taking photos of wild animals was new to me, but luckily I had spent four hours with the bear the day before. I knew the bear had been raised as a pet so wasn't aggressive. So when it was released, I understood its behavior and was not scared of it—unlike the other journalists who ran and screamed." #
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The nurses Gokalp Balli (left) and Bilge Koc from the Gevas Public Health Center vaccinate 74-year-old Basra Payza with the Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccine during a house call in the village of Daldere on February 12, 2021, in Van, Turkey. #
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From left: Emma Banker, Jessi McIrvin, and Valerie Sanchez record vocals in pop-up tents during choir class at Wenatchee High School on February 26, 2021, in Wenatchee, Washington. The school was using pop-up tents as COVID-19 enclosures for its music programs as students returned to classrooms. #
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A resident of the Villa Sacra Famiglia nursing home, Anna, hugs her daughter through a plastic screen during the coronavirus pandemic, on February 24, 2021, in Rome, Italy. One year after the start of the pandemic, the home inaugurated its "Hug Room," which allows guests and their families to touch each other while remaining separated and protected. #
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People pray as screens show devotees gathering via Zoom during a ceremony to commemorate Makha Bucha Day at the Wat Phra Dhammakaya temple in Pathum Thani province, Thailand, on February 26, 2021. #
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A protester sprays a fire extinguisher as demonstrators clash with riot police officers during a protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, on February 28, 2021. #
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The actor Michael K. Williams poses for the 2021 Critics Choice Awards on March 7, 2021, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Williams passed away in September of 2021. #
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Women clash with the police along a fence in front of the National Palace, as they protest during a demonstration to commemorate International Women's Day in Mexico City, on March 8, 2021. #
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People wear protective masks as they commute during a sandstorm on March 15, 2021, in Beijing, China. China's capital and the northern part of the country were hit with a sandstorm, sending air-quality indexes to hazardous levels and canceling flights. #
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People come to visit the massive memorial of flowers and flags at the scene of the March 22 shooting at a King Soopers grocery store, where 10 people were killed, on March 24, 2021, in Boulder, Colorado. #
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Weekend hikers look at the lava flowing from the erupting Fagradalsfjall volcano some 25 miles west of the Icelandic capital Reykjavik, on March 21, 2021. The eruption continued off and on until October. #
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Minors are housed at the Donna, Texas, Department of Homeland Security holding facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley, run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, on March 30, 2021. The minors were housed by the hundreds in eight pods that are about 3,200 square feet in size. Many of the pods had more than 500 children in them. The Biden administration, for the first time on March 30, allowed journalists inside its main detention facility for migrant children at the border, revealing a severely overcrowded tent structure where more than 4,000 kids and families were crammed into pods and the youngest were kept in a large playpen with mats on the floor for sleeping. #
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Volodymyr, a member of the Ukrainian armed forces, plays with puppies in a trench on the line of separation from pro-Russian rebels in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on April 10, 2021. The photographer Oleksandr Klymenko: "In April 2021, I was photographing Ukrainian soldiers on the front line waiting as the world watched in alarm at the large buildup of Russian troops on the country's border. I had arrived at this position at 5:15 a.m., after it had been fired on by pro-Russian rebels in the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic in the night. Vova, the soldier in my photograph, had shown me the edge of the trench, where enemy snipers often shoot, as the sun rose. As we sat down, I noticed a puppy run towards Vova, then another. As he stroked the puppies I watched as Vova's face changed, becoming gentle and thoughtful. Vova told me the puppies had only recently been born and are looked after by the soldiers. 'We feed them what we eat ourselves,' he said." #
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The motorcycle racer Takaaki Nakagami, of LCR Honda Idemitsu, crashes in the second MotoGP free-practice session of the Portuguese Grand Prix at the Algarve International Circuit in Portimão, Portugal, on April 16, 2021. #
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A funeral worker removes empty coffins that held remains that were later cremated at La Recoleta cemetery in Santiago, Chile, during the coronavirus pandemic, on April 21, 2021. #
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A model swims in a transparent swimming-pool bridge that crosses between the top floors of two apartment buildings at Embassy Gardens, next to the new U.S. embassy in southwest London, on April 22, 2021. The 82-foot-long acrylic pool, known as the Sky Pool, allows residents to swim from one building to the other, 10 stories above the ground. #
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A truck drives on the Enterprise Bridge over a section of Lake Oroville on April 27, 2021, in Oroville, California. The state had just reentered a drought emergency because of water levels dropping in the state's reservoirs. At the time, water levels at Lake Oroville had dropped to 42 percent of its full capacity. #
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