Fifty countries voted in elections in 2024 – a year that also brought extreme global weather events, continued fighting in Ukraine and the Middle East, and rioting across the UK.
Throughout the year, photographers have managed to capture stunning and shocking images – from extraordinary political moments to natural wonders.
Here we take a look back at this year in pictures.
8 January: Floodwater from the rivers Avon and Severn surrounds Tewkesbury Abbey amid Storm Henk. Pic: Reuters/Phil Noble
26 March: Dali cargo ship after hitting the Francis Scott bridge in Maryland and causing it to collapse. Pic: AP/Maryland National Guard
24 April: Household Cavalry horses Vida (grey) and Trojan (black) bolt loose in London’s Aldwych. Pic: PA
24 April: Palestinians on the beach in Rafah amid the war in Gaza. Pic: Reuters/Mohammed Salem
17 May: A plane sits on a flooded runway at Porto Alegre airport in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Pic: Reuters/Adriano Machado
4 June: Victoria Thomas Bowen, 25, throws a milkshake over Nigel Farage during election campaigning in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. Pic: TOLGA AKMEN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
19 June. Just Stop Oil protesters deface Stonehenge. Pic: Just Stop Oil/PA
26 June: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange kisses his wife Stella Assange in Canberra after being freed from prison. Reuters/Edgar Su
2 July: Firefighters battle wildfires in Oroville, California. Reuters/Carlos Barria
5 July: Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria Starmer walk into Downing Street after he was elected prime minister. Pic: PA
5 July: Former prime minister Liz Truss loses her seat as an MP at an election count in King’s Lynn. Pic: PA
7 July: Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton celebrates after winning the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Pic: PA
19 July: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the UK cabinet at 10 Downing Street. Pic: PA
29 July: A small boat carrying migrants near a beach in Gravelines, France. Pic: PA
4 August: A chair is thrown at police officers outside a Holiday Inn in Rotherham amid UK rioting sparked by the Southport stabbings. Pic: PA
9 August: The Eiffel Tower with the Olympic Cauldron during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Pic: Reuters/Christian Hartmann
23 August: Lightning strikes above the Kremlin of Suzdal church in Russia. Pic: Reuters/Maxim Shemetov
10 September: Drought of the Rio Negro in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. Pic: Suamy Beydoun/AGIF (via AP)
12 September: Billionaire Jared Isaacman completes the Polarian civilian space walk. Pic: SpaceX
18 September: Wildfires in Povoa de Montemuro, Portugal. Pic: Reuters/Susana Vera
27 September: Devastation in Boone, North Carolina, from tropical Storm Helene. Pic: Reuters/Jonathan Drake
27 September: People gather around the stump of the Sycamore Gap tree in Northumberland National Park a year after it was felled. Pic: PA
2 October: A man jumps off the remains of a ballistic missile following an Iranian attack on Arad, Israel. Pic: Reuters/Amir Cohen
2 October: A solar eclipse in Las Horquetas, Santa Cruz, Argentina. Pic: Reuters/Agustin Marcarian
9 October: A satellite image shows Hurricane Milton before it makes landfall in Florida. Pic: Reuters/CIRA/NOAA
11 October: The Northern Lights above the Kissing Trees near Kinghorn in Fife. Pic: PA
12 October: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS C/2023 with an 80,000-year orbit, passes in Trona Pinnacles, California. Pic: Reuters/David Swanson
19 October: Mourners pay tribute to former One Direction singer Liam Payne at a memorial in Hyde Park, London. Pic: PA
30 October: Cars piled up after being swept away by floods in Valencia, Spain. Pic: AP Photo/Alberto Saiz
6 November: Donald Trump celebrates after being re-elected president at the Palm Beach County Convention Centre in Florida. Pic: Reuters/Brian Snyder
20 November: A volcanic eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland. Pic: AP Photo/Marco di Marco
30 November: A Ukrainian serviceman bids farewell to his comrade Pavlo Vedybida at the Obolon Stadium in Kyiv. Pic: AP/Evgeniy Maloletka
8 December: Syrian opposition fighters celebrate after the ousting of Bashar al Assad’s government. Pic: AP/Omar Sanadiki)
Picture research: Daniel Daukes, picture editor
