As the year comes to a close, it’s time to revisit some of the most memorable events and images of 2021. Events covered in this essay (the second of a three-part photo summary of the year) include the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, vaccination drives worldwide, flooding in Western Europe, periodical cicadas in the United States, a “sea snot” outbreak in Turkey, wildfires in Greece, and much more. Check back tomorrow for the last installment, and be sure to see the first part and “Top 25 News Photos of 2021.”
2021 in Photos: A Look at the Middle Months
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Gold medalist Sunisa Lee of the United States kisses her medal won in the women's gymnastics individual all-around at Ariake Gymnastics Center during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on July 29, 2021. #
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A photo taken by Aysegul Aksoy, working as an anesthetic technician at Umraniye Training and Research Hospital, shows Aksoy's colleague, a health-care worker, looking out from a face shield during a shift helping coronavirus patients in a hospital in Istanbul, Turkey, on May 11, 2021. #
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An asylum-seeking mother from Central America and her three children are followed by a Texas Highway Patrol officer as they look for cover during a heavy downfall, after crossing the Rio Grande into the United States from Mexico, in La Joya, Texas, on May 19, 2021. #
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Phil Mickelson of the United States celebrates with the Wanamaker Trophy after winning during the final round of the 2021 PGA Championship, held at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina, on May 23, 2021. #
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Palestinian children hold candles during a rally amid the ruins of houses destroyed by Israeli strikes, in Beit Lahia, Northern Gaza Strip, on May 25, 2021, in Gaza City. Gaza residents returned to damaged and destroyed homes as a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas appeared to be holding. The cease-fire brought to an end 11 days of fighting, which killed more than 250 Palestinians, many of them women and children, and 13 Israelis. #
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Impoverished Sri Lankans salvage debris that washed ashore on May 26, 2021, from the burning Singaporean ship X-Press Pearl, which had caught fire several days earlier off the coast of Colombo, Sri Lanka. #
Eranga Jayawardena / AP -
Peru's presidential candidate Pedro Castillo (right) hands over bread during a breakfast with members of his family before casting his vote, in Chugur, Peru, on June 6, 2021. #
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This aerial photograph, taken from above the Caddebostan shore of Turkey's Marmara Sea, shows boats moving through a patch of mucilage, or sea snot, on June 8, 2021. Pollution, warmer temperatures, and other environmental factors resulted in a proliferation of phytoplankton, which released an overabundance of mucus in the region. #
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Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Red Bull Racing kicks his tire as he reacts after crashing during the F1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan at Baku City Circuit on June 6, 2021, in Baku, Azerbaijan. #
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Relatives and neighbors wail during the funeral of Waseem Ahmed, a policeman who was killed in a shootout, on the outskirts of Srinagar, in Indian-controlled Kashmir, on June 13, 2021. #
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Health-care worker Nazir Ahmed carries a cooler with vaccines while he looks for Kashmiri shepherds to vaccinate in Tosamaidan, southwest of Srinagar, in Indian-controlled Kashmir, on June 21, 2021. #
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A fan dressed as Jesus crowd-surfs during the Download Pilot festival at Donington Park in Donington, England, on June 20, 2021. Download Pilot was a 10,000-capacity festival, part of a U.K.-government test event to examine how COVID-19 transmission takes place in crowds. #
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A man is detained by police after a fight broke out during a Loudoun County School Board meeting which included a discussion of critical race theory and transgender students, in Ashburn, Virginia, on June 22, 2021. #
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A picture taken on July 15, 2021, shows cars piled up by floodwater at a roundabout in the Belgian city of Verviers, after heavy rains and floods lashed Western Europe. #
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Players from Italy's national football team parade with the UEFA Euro 2020 trophy on a double-decker bus in Rome, Italy, on July 12, 2021, a day after Italy won the UEFA Euro 2020 final football match against England. #
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People dance at the Egg, a London nightclub, in the early hours of July 19, 2021, in London, England. At midnight on July 19, England dropped most of its remaining COVID-19 social restrictions, such as those requiring mask-wearing indoors and limits on group gatherings, among other rules. #
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Demonstrators tear down a statue of Italian explorer Cristobal Colon, also known as Christopher Columbus, during protests in Barranquilla, Colombia, on June 28, 2021. #
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Search-and-rescue personnel pull a body out of the rubble after the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, north of Miami Beach, Florida, on June 24, 2021. A total of 98 people were killed when part of the 12-story condominium collapsed. #
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Kian Navales poses at home in Quezon City, Philippines, on July 6, 2021, holding a pillow with a photo on it of his late father, Arthur, who died from COVID-19. Navales, who also had the virus, says he misses going out for noodles with his dad. #
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Naomi Osaka of Team Japan lights the Olympic cauldron with the Olympic torch during the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on July 23, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. #
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An underwater view shows China's Xie Siyi as he enters the water after completing a dive in the preliminary round of the men's 3-meter springboard-diving event during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Tokyo Aquatics Center on August 2, 2021. #
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Zsuzsanna Tomori of Hungary is seen in action during the Brazil versus Hungary women's handball match at Yoyogi National Stadium during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, on July 27, 2021. #
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Karsten Warholm of Team Norway reacts after winning the gold medal in the men's 400-meter hurdles final on day 11 of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on August 03, 2021. #
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Destroyed houses, seen in Les Cayes, Haiti, on August 14, 2021. A 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on August 14, killing more than 2,200 people and injuring more than 12,000. #
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A U.S. Chinook helicopter flies over the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 15, 2021. Helicopters were landing at the U.S. embassy in Kabul as diplomatic vehicles left the compound amid the Taliban advance on the Afghan capital. #
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A baby is handed to the American army over the perimeter wall of the Kabul Airport, for it to be evacuated, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 19, 2021, seen in this still image taken from video obtained from social media. #
Omar Haidari via Reuters -
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A basketball hoop is seen, melted following the Dixie Fire on August 8, 2021, near Greenville, California. The Dixie Fire grew to become the largest wildfire of the 2021 California fire season, burning nearly 1 million acres. #
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A cow is lowered by helicopter after its summer sojourn high in the Swiss Alpine meadows near the Klausen Pass, Switzerland, on August 27, 2021. Photographer Arnd Wiegmann: "In parts of Switzerland, cows spend the summer months in the lush mountain pastures of the Alps. In the region of the Klausen Pass, which is 1,948 meters (6,391 feet) above sea level, more than a thousand cattle were due to come back down at the end of August. Sometimes they need a little help making the trip. A farmer told me about 10 injured cows would be flown out by helicopter the day before the rest of the herd made the annual Alpine drive, or 'Alpabzug.' The cows hung from the helicopter in a special suspension harness on a long rope and were brought down one-by-one in quick succession to a plateau near the top of the Klausen Pass. Waiting farmers and a flight technician received them and quickly released them. Surprisingly, they appeared very calm and did not seem to be anxious after their flight." #
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A member of the far-right group Proud Boys and a left-wing counterprotester fight in a truck on August 22, 2021, in Portland, Oregon. The Proud Boys and other far-right extremists fought with anti-fascist activists in Portland on the anniversary of a similar fight in 2020. #
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People wade through floodwater on August 31, 2021, in Barataria, Louisiana, after Hurricane Ida passed through. Many shops, stores, and services were closed as power throughout New Orleans and the surrounding region was out. Ida made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on August 29 in Louisiana and brought flooding and wind damage along the Gulf Coast. #
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