The beginning of the end of the decade began with chaos at the U.S. border and “yellow vest” protests in Paris. A photograph of a drowned migrant and his daughter shocked the world, and a teen climate activist gained global attention. Sometimes tragic, sometimes thrilling, sometimes amusing, these are the images that captivated our photo editors in 2019.
/ 50 photos
January
A migrant jumps from the border fence into the U.S. from Tijuana, Mexico, early on Jan. 1. Discouraged by the long wait to apply for asylum through official ports of entry, many migrants choose to cross the U.S. border and turn themselves in to border patrol agents.
A “yellow vest” demonstrator stands on a burning barricade in Paris on Jan. 5. The movement started in anger over fuel tax hikes that hurt working people who commute by car, but grew to encompass broader frustration with President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies, deemed to favor the rich.
Special forces protect people after a bombing in Nairobi, Kenya, on Jan. 15. The blast was followed by a gun battle, rocking an upmarket hotel and office complex. The terror group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack.
Ocean Ramsey, a marine biologist, swims with a 20-foot great white shark off the coast of Hawaii, on Jan. 15. Ramsey estimated the shark weighed in at over two tons. She and her team were studying tiger sharks off the coast of Oahu, documenting the animals’ behavior, when they encountered what Ramsey suspects might be Deep Blue, a great white shark featured on the show “Shark Week.”
A resident cries after a tornado destroyed her house in the neighborhood of Regla, in Havana, on Jan. 28. The strongest tornado to hit Cuba in nearly 80 years touched down with estimated winds of 200 mph in three neighborhoods across eastern Havana.
February
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi applauds President Donald Trump during the State of the Union address on Feb. 5. The image of Pelosi applauding Trump, one of the most memorable moments of the night, instantly went viral.
Schoolgirls look at “The Morning of the Streltsy Execution” by Russian painter Vasily Surikov exhibited at The State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, on Feb. 26.
Michael Cohen, former attorney and fixer for President Donald Trump, prepares to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill on Feb. 27. Cohen painted a scathing portrait of his former boss, alleging that Trump approved hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, knew about the 2016 WikiLeaks email dump in advance and had wanted Congress to receive misleading testimony about his ties to Russia.
Members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces stand guard as a woman walks with a child after leaving ISIS’s last holdout on Feb. 27 in Baghouz in Syria’s northern Deir Ezzor Province. ISIS’s defeat at Baghouz ends its control of inhabited land in the third of Syria and Iraq that it captured in 2014.
March
Megan Anderson and her 18-month-old daughter Madilyn embrace Carol Dean, right, whose husband died when a tornado destroyed the couple’s house in Beauregard, Ala., on March 4. “He was my wedding gift,” said Carol Dean about her husband. “He was one in a million. He’d send me flowers to work just to let me know how he loved me. He’d send me some of the biggest strawberries in the world. I’m not going to be the same.”
A mourner throws dirt in her face after realizing there were no remains of her relative to be recovered at the Ethiopian Airlines crash site near Bishoftu on March 14. Eight Americans were among the 157 people killed when the plane crashed shortly after takeoff in Ethiopia. The flight was headed from Addis Ababa to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, with 149 passengers and eight crew members on board, the airline said.
Students perform a traditional Maori haka during a vigil near Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 18. A lone gunman armed with semi-automatic weapons attacked Muslims attending Friday prayers on New Zealand’s South Island on March 15, killing 51 people in the country’s worst peacetime mass shooting. The attacker broadcast the shooting live on Facebook.
Floodwaters surround a farm near Craig, Mo., on March 22. Major flooding along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and several smaller waterways inundated states in the middle of America, from the Canadian border to Kentucky.
Members of an honor guard walk away after a welcoming ceremony for Russian President Vladimir Putin in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on March 28.
April
Notre Dame’s steeple collapses as the cathedral is engulfed in flames in Paris on April 15. The cathedral spire was destroyed and its roof gutted, but the bell towers were still standing and many valuable works of art were saved after more than 400 firemen worked to contain the blaze.
Soldiers stand inside St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka, following a bomb blast during Easter service on April 21. Coordinated Easter Sunday attacks on three churches and three luxury hotels killed at least 321 people.
An opponent of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro returns a tear gas canister to soldiers who launched it at a small group of civilians and rebel troops gathered outside La Carlota airbase in Caracas on April 30. Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets the following day after opposition leader Juan Guaidó called for the “largest march” in the country’s history.
May
Lady Gaga arrives, in spectacular fashion, at the Met Gala celebrating “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 6.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agent Frank Pino searches José, 27, as his 6-year-old son José Daniel watches in El Paso, Texas, on May 16. Father and son spent a month trekking across Mexico from Guatemala. At the time, about 1,100 migrants from Central America and other countries were crossing into the El Paso border sector every day.
Climbers line up near the summit of Mount Everest on May 22. A rush of climbers marked one of the busiest days on the world’s highest mountain. Many teams had to line up for hours to reach the summit, risking frostbite and altitude sickness.
Members of the Army’s Golden Knights parachute team perform during a Memorial Day event at Jones Beach on Long Island, New York, on May 25.
Floodwaters from the Mississippi River cut off the roadway from Missouri into Illinois at the states’ border on May 30 in Saint Mary, Mo. The middle section of the country experienced major flooding since mid-March especially along the Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi rivers. Towns along the Mississippi River saw the longest stretch of major flooding from the river in nearly a century.
June
President Trump is greeted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on June 3. Some claimed on Twitter that the president fist-bumped the queen when he arrived, but it was just a slightly awkward handshake.
Military re-enactors look on as 280 paratroopers take part in a parachute drop onto fields on June 5 in Sannerville, France, ahead of D-Day commemorations. The Normandy invasion was a pivotal moment in World War II, weakening the Nazis’ hold on Western Europe after they suffered a punishing defeat in Stalingrad in the east.
A squirrel appears to take a deep whiff of a flower in Vienna on June 5. Amateur photographer Dick van Duijn captured this moment after taking almost 500 shots of ground squirrels. “Afterwards, he ate the flower,” he said.
Sled dogs wade through standing water on the sea ice during a Danish Meteorological Institute expedition in northwestern Greenland on June 13. Because the ice is thick there are few fractures for water to drain through.
Brian Isaack Clyde stands outside the Earle Cabell federal courthouse in downtown Dallas on June 17. Clyde was fatally shot after exchanging fire with federal officers. Dallas Morning News photographer Tom Fox was waiting to enter the building to cover a trial when the attack took place.
Salvadoran migrant Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his 23-month-old daughter drowned in shallow water on June 24 while trying to cross the Rio Grande to Brownsville, Texas. The searing photograph of their bodies, captured by journalist Julia Le Duc and published by the Mexican newspaper La Jornada, highlights the perils faced by mostly Central American migrants fleeing violence and poverty and hoping for asylum in the United States.
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un looks on as President Trump steps across the line that divides North and South Korea on June 30. Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to cross the 1953 armistice line separating North and South Korea.
July
Megan Rapinoe strikes her signature pose as she celebrates with teammates Alex Morgan and Samantha Mewis, left, after scoring during the FIFA Women’s World Cup final against The Netherlands at Stade de Lyon in France on July 7. The U.S. women’s team won, 2-0, to take their fourth World Cup title.
Chimene Jackson kisses her husband, Johnnie, shortly after dawn outside her parents’ home in Trona, Calif., on July 8. The house suffered structural damage during an earthquake and firefighters told them a stronger earthquake could cause the house to collapse.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley from Massachusetts speaks as fellow Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York hold a news conference at the Capitol on July 15 to address a tweet by President Trump. Trump tweeted that the progressive Democratic congresswomen should “go back” and fix the “totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez and Pressley were all born in the United States; Omar arrived in the U.S. from Somalia as a child.
A villager shouts for help as a wildfire approaches a house at Casas da Ribeira village in Macao, central Portugal, on July 21. The fire was put out by more than 1,000 firefighters.
Robert Mueller testifies before the House Judiciary Committee on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, on July 24. Mueller told Congress that his investigation did not exonerate President Trump of wrongdoing and that it found that Russia had worked to boost his election in a “sweeping and systematic fashion” as the former special counsel defended his nearly two-year probe.
August
Melody Stout, Hannah Payan, Aaliyah Alba, Sherie Gramlich and Laura Barrios comfort one another during a vigil for victims of the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, on Aug. 3.
Simone Biles competes on the balance beam during the senior women’s competition at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships in Kansas City, Mo., on Aug. 9. Biles made history with a double-double dismount from the balance beam, becoming the first gymnast to land a beam dismount with two flips and two twists.
Farmer Helio Lombardo Do Santos walks through a burned area of the Amazon rainforest, near Porto Velho, Brazil, on Aug. 26. Fires in the rainforest gained global attention in August when images of the smoke darkening skies over Brazil prompted an international outcry.
September
Volunteers walk through wind and rain from Hurricane Dorian as they rescue families in Freeport, Bahamas, on Sept. 3. The storm plowed through the commonwealth’s northwest region as a Category 5 hurricane, killing at least 50.
Police fire water cannons at protesters outside government headquarters in Hong Kong on Sept. 15. Protesters are furious over what they see as creeping interference by Beijing in Hong Kong’s affairs despite promises by Beijing to grant the city wide-ranging autonomy and freedoms denied in mainland China.
Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg marches during the Global Climate Strike in New York on Sept. 20. When she was 15, Thunberg skipped school on Fridays to demonstrate outside the Swedish Parliament to push her government to curb carbon emissions. Her campaign gave rise to a grassroots movement called Fridays for Future that has gone global, inspiring millions of people to take action.
President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meet in New York on Sept. 25 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Accusations that Trump held up military aid to pressure ent Zelenskiy to investigate his political rivals are central to the impeachment effort.
The launch of a Russian Soyuz rocket is seen from the International Space Station on Sept. 25. NASA astronaut Christina Koch tweeted out the photo, making reference to astronaut Jessica Meir: “What it looks like from @Space_Station when your best friend achieves her lifelong dream to go to space.”
October
In a surprising act of forgiveness, Botham Jean’s younger brother, Brandt Jean, hugs former police Officer Amber Guyger in court in Dallas on Oct. 2. Jean’s teenage brother told Guyger, who was convicted in his brother’s murder, that “if you truly are sorry — I know I can speak for myself — I forgive you.”
A girl cries during her father’s funeral in Port-au-Prince on Oct. 16, as thousands across Haiti attended funerals for protesters who have died in demonstrations aimed at ousting President Jovenel Moïse. Moise’s critics say he has lost control of the country and should resign.
Embers fly off a tree as the Kincade fire burns in Kellogg, Calif., on Oct. 29. The wildfire leveled dozens of homes and charred tens of thousands of acres in Northern California’s wine country, forcing the largest evacuation in Sonoma County history.
November
Members of the extended LeBaron family look at a burned car where some of the nine murdered members of the family were killed in an ambush in Bavispe in Mexico’s Sonora state on Nov. 5. Three young mothers and six children were killed in the attack. Officials have said a drug cartel is suspected in the attack, but they initially suggested that one of the mothers’ vehicles was set afire unintentionally, when a bullet hit the gas tank.
Sharnie Moren and her 18-month-old daughter, Charlotte, watch as thick smoke rises from bush fires near Nana Glen, Australia, on Nov. 12. Australia’s most populous state declared a state of emergency as dozens of fires ravaged the countryside with authorities warning of “catastrophic” fire risk — the highest level of bush fire danger.
Pissi Myles, a drag performer from Asbury Park, N.J., and a special contributor with Happs News, reports with a cellphone during impeachment hearings on Nov. 13. “They scouted him out at his Barracuda show on Sunday,” David Ayllon, Myles’ husband and business partner, told NBC News. “I do know they were looking for a comedian who could improv on the spot and deliver the news in a fun way.”
December
A protester stands in clouds of tear gas as French police clash with demonstrators supporting a national strike near Place de la Republique in Paris on Dec. 5. Workers across many public sectors — including teachers, doctors, nurses, railway personnel and garbage collectors — participated in the nationwide general strike over plans to overhaul the pension system.
Tourists on a boat watch the eruption of the volcano on New Zealand’s White Island on Dec. 9. The volcano erupted in a towering blast of ash and scalding steam while dozens of tourists explored its moon-like surface. Sixteen people were killed and many survivors were severely burned.
