These history-defining moments shaped 2020
National Geographic photographers capture a year dominated by disaster, unrest, and uncertainty.
A doctor’s personal protective equipment (PPE) is strewn on the ground outside a hospital in La Louviere, Belgium. The doctor stripped the PPE off to avoid contamination when entering an emergency room from an ambulance.
(From: A world gone viral)
The coronavirus pandemic pushed people to adapt how they practice rituals. In Tver, Russia, mask-wearing worshippers congregate at a church to celebrate a modified Orthodox Easter, a significant religious holiday in the country.
(From: Surreal scenes inside Russia’s battle against the pandemic)
Though early warnings about COVID-19 emphasized the risk to older people, the virus can be dangerous for the young people as well. Medical workers prepare to intubate a young man suffering from lung problems in the COVID-19 ward of Moscow’s Hospital No. 52.
A nurse at Spallanzani Hospital in Rome takes off her protective clothing after visiting a patient with COVID-19.
In April, after President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered a dawn-to-dusk curfew in Kenya, the country’s highways were largely deserted, including this one in the Kitisuru neighborhood of Nairobi.
Loved ones mourn the death of Esther Iyabode Akinsanya, who died after contracting COVID-19 while working as a health care provider at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in London, England.
(From: In the U.K., families of the dead still wonder: was it COVID-19?)
During lockdown in Amman, a young Jordanian flies a kite on a rooftop. Businesses in the city distributed kites to encourage a recreational activity that could be done safely, away from crowds.
California suffered its worst fire season on record this year. Here a firefighter walks through the Sierra National Forest, burned in the ongoing Creek Fire, which started in early September. The largest single wildfire in the state’s history, it has burned nearly 380,000 acres. Firefighters hope to contain it by the end of the year.
(From: Witness California's record blazes through the eyes of frontline firefighters)
Hurricane Laura, one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the U.S. on record, left marsh cane and mud throughout St. Eugene Catholic Church in Grand Chenier, Louisiana.
(From: How powerful hurricanes hasten the disappearance of Louisiana’s wetlands)
Pedestrians walk past a crumbled building in the Mar Mikhael neighborhood of Beirut, Lebanon after a warehouse containing ammonium nitrate exploded at the capital city’s port. At least 600 historic buildings with heritage status were affected by the blast, according to a UNESCO report.
(From: Why must every Lebanese generation endure violent chaos—and its aftermath?)
The day after China passed a national security law criminalizing dissent in Hong Kong, the police cancelled the city’s annual pro-democracy march. Here, journalists in yellow vests duck to avoid a police water cannon aimed at protesters and bystanders.
(From: Hong Kong mourns the end of its way of life as China cracks down on dissent)
Medical professionals at the Republican Medical Center in Stepanakert tend to a wounded combatant fighting on the Armenia side of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
(Read more about the history of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict)
Lauren Stocker and her daughters pause in front of the portrait of the four women Supreme Court justices at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. a day after Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s state funeral in September.
(From: See how Americans are mourning Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the nation's capital)
This year, Matilda McCrear was identified as the last known survivor of the last known slave ship. She was brought to the U.S. aboard the Clotilda as a two-year-old in 1860, and is believed to be buried in an unmarked grave at the Martin Station Cemetery near Safford, Alabama.
(From: The last slave ship survivor and her descendants identified)
Black Lives Matters demonstrators congregate outside the Barclays Centre in New York City as they prepare to march over the Brooklyn Bridge.
(From: Systemic racism and coronavirus are killing people of colour. Protesting isn't enough)
The Tuskegee Confederate Monument was erected in 1906 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. After the monument was vandalized in June, it was covered with blue tarp by the city of Tuskegee, which is looking for ways to remove the monument completely.
Reverend Robert Turner prays in front of an excavation site at Oaklawn Cemetery in Oklahoma, where scientists searching for victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre discovered a mass grave. The bodies have not yet been identified.
(From: Coffins unearthed as the search for victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre continues)
In Queens, New York, a community refrigerator allows people to donate or pick up food. An early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, the borough has seen widespread unemployment and high rates of food insecurity.
(From: Queens, one of the first COVID-19 epicenters, faces a new crisis: hunger)
As they wait to learn the result of the U.S. presidential election, Trump supporters attend a campaign press conference held by Donald Trump Jr., at the Georgia Republican Party Headquarters in Atlanta.
A crowd celebrates Joe Biden’s imminent victory over Donald Trump in the presidential election at a “count the vote” event in Philadelphia on Election Night.
(From: The election is over. See photos of America’s divided reaction)
Trump and Biden supporters clash on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing after the election results are announced.
Following Joe Biden’s win in the presidential election, Cooper Sherwin and Joan Taylor share a kiss while holding a framed copy of the Declaration of Independence. Sherwin and Taylor canvassed for the president-elect in Pennsylvania.
Ali, from Pakistan, celebrates the win of the Biden-Harris campaign with his family in Times Square. Kamala Harris marked a series of firsts with her election to the vice presidency in November. Harris is the first woman, first Black person, and first person of South Asian descent to be elected to the office.
A long-exposure of the SpaceX’s Crew Dragon craft lifting off into orbit from Kennedy Space Center in November. The launch was a major milestone in privately-funded spaceflight.
(From: SpaceX launch kicks off regular commercial flights into orbit)