The EU referendum, the US election, the migrant crisis, the terror attacks in Nice and Brussels and the battles for Sirte, Aleppo and Mosul – as well as the Rio Olympics, Euro 2016 and the Ryder Cup – it has been an eventful year. IBTimes UK looks back at the 100 most memorable news and sports images of 2016.
Ieshia Evans is detained by law enforcement as she protests the shooting death of Alton Sterling near the headquarters of the Baton Rouge Police Department in Louisiana on 9. July 2016Jonathan Bachman/ ReutersUsain Bolt of Jamaica looks round as he crosses the line to win the men's 100m semifinals at the Rio 2016 Olympics on 22 August 2016Kai Pfaffenbach/ReutersOutgoing British prime minister David Cameron speaks beside (L-R) his daughter Nancy, daughter Florence, his wife Samantha and son Arthur outside 10 Downing Street before going to Buckingham Palace to tender his resignation to the Queen on 13 July 2016Oli Scarff/AFPA child covered in dust sits in an ambulance after apparently being pulled out of a building in Aleppo that was hit by an air strikeAleppo Media CentreDonald Trump and Nigel Farage grin as they meet at Trump Towers in New York on 13 November 2016Twitter/@Nigel_FarageBritish athlete Alistair Brownlee helps his brother Jonathan to cross the line in second and third place during the ITU World Triathlon Championships 2016 in Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico, on 18 September 2016Elizabeth Ruiz/AFPAn injured woman looks on as another speaks on her mobile phone following twin blasts at Brussels Zaventem airport, as part of co-ordinated attacks claimed by Islamic State group militants at the city's airport and in a Metro train on 22 March 2016Ketevan Kardava/AFPMargaret Aspinall of the Hillsborough Family Support Group shows her emotion as she departs Birchwood Park after hearing the conclusions of the Hillsborough inquest in Warrington on 26 April 2016. The fresh inquests into the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 football supporters were crushed to death, concluded with a verdict of unlawful killing, after the initial verdicts were quashedChristopher Furlong/Getty ImagesA man takes a selfie in front of a fire from oil that was set ablaze by fleeing Isis militants in the Qayyarah area, south of Mosul, on 19 October 2016Yasin Akgul/AFP4 October 2016: Migrants hold up a baby as they wait to be rescued from a boat in the Mediterranean Sea, some 12 nautical miles north of Libya, by members of the NGO Proactiva Open ArmsAris Messinis/AFPMembers of the crowd take selfies as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks in an overflow room after a rally in Orlando, Florida, on 21 September 2016Barbara Kinney/Hillary for AmericaGold medalists of Team GB pose for a selfie with a member of British Airways cabin crew prior to flying back from Rio de Janeiro on 22 August 2016Alex Livesey/Getty Images for British AirwaysUS President Barack Obama, Prince William, and Michelle Obama talk with Prince George at Kensington Palace in London just before bedtime on 22 April 2016Pete Souza/The White HouseGeneral view of the village of Amatrice in Italy, after it was struck by an earthquake, on 4 October 2016Tiziana Fabi/AFPMo Farah of Great Britain reacts after winning gold in the Men's 5000 metre final on Day 15 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium on 20 August 2016Ian Walton/Getty ImagesA boy sits alone on the stands during a tribute to the players of Brazilian team Chapecoense Real who were killed in a plane accident in the Colombian mountains, at the Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, on 29 November 2016Nelson Almeida/AFPA body is seen on the ground on 15 July 2016 after a truck ran into a crowd celebrating the Bastille Day national holidayEric Gaillard/ReutersParalympic gold medalist Oscar Pistorius walks across the courtroom without his prosthetic legs during the third day of the resentencing hearing for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, at Pretoria High Court, South Africa on 15 June 2016Siphiwe Sibeko/ReutersSouad Hamidi removes her Niqab after Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) took control of her village, on the outskirts of Manbij city, Aleppo province, Syria on 9 June, 2016Rodi Said/ ReutersAfghan boy and Lionel Messi fan Murtaza Ahmadi, 5, wears a plastic bag jersey as he plays football in Jaghori district of Ghazni province on 29 January 2016AFP/Getty ImagesFlag bearer Pita Nikolas Aufatofua of Tonga leads his team into the stadium during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games opening ceremony on 5 August 2016Leon Neal/AFPA woman cradles the body of her husband, who was killed on a street by a vigilante group, according to police, in a spate of drug related killings in Pasay city, Metro Manila, Philippines on 23 July 2016Czar Dancel/ReutersUkip leader Nigel Farage and Labour MP Kate Hoey pose on a passenger boat as they accompany a Brexit flotilla of fishing boats on the Thames past the Houses of Parliament in London on 15 June 2016Ben Stansall/AFP16 June 2016: Ukip leader Nigel Farage poses during the launch of an EU referendum poster in LondonStefan Wermuth/Reuters22 June 2016: Brendan Cox, the widower of MP Jo Cox, and their two children Cuillin, 5, and Lejla, 3, prepare to join a floating commemoration on the River Thames on what would have been her 42nd birthday. The Labour MP for Batley and Spen was shot and stabbed in the street on 16 June and later diedJack Taylor/Getty Images24 June 2016: Samantha Cameron watches as her husband David resigns as Prime Minister outside 10 Downing Street after Britain voted to leave the European UnionStefan Wermuth/Reuters24 June 2016: Justice Secretary Michael Gove speaks as Vote Leave campaign leader Boris Johnson listens at the group's headquarters in London after Britain voted to leave the EUStefan RousseauRussian President Vladimir Putin waves upon arrival at the chancellery in Berlin on 19 October 2016 for a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the leaders of Ukraine and France in a new push for peace in eastern UkraineOdd Andersen/AFPUS President-elect Donald Trump gives a speech at the New York Hilton Midtown on 9 November 2016 after he stunned America and the world by riding a wave of populist resentment to defeat Hillary Clinton in the race to become the 45th president of the United StatesSaul Loeb/AFPUS Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton makes a concession speech after being defeated by Republican President-elect Donald Trump, while her husband and former President Bill Clinton looks on, in New York on 9 November 2016Jewel Samad/AFP9 November 2016: White House staff listen as US President Barack Obama makes a statement on the election results in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, on 9 November 2016Alex Wong/Getty ImagesPresident Barack Obama shakes hands with President-elect Donald Trump following a meeting in the Oval Office in Washington, DC on 10 November 2016Win McNamee/Getty ImagesAn Iraqi woman holds her cat named Lulu, as she waits for transport in the Kurdish checkpoint village of Shaqouli, about 35 kilometres east of Mosul, after she and her children fled their home in the eastern Intisar neighbourhood of the embattled city on 10 November 2016Odd Andersen/AFPJulian Assange's cat sits at the window of Ecuador's embassy as prosecutor Ingrid Isgren from Sweden interviews Assange in London on 14 November 2016Peter Nicholls/Reuters27 April 2016: A boy is comforted as he cries next to the body of a relative who died in a reported air strike in the rebel-held neighbourhood of al-Soukour in AleppoKaram al-Masri/AFPPeople gather at a makeshift memorial on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice on 17 July 2016, in tribute to the victims of the Bastille Day attackValery Hache/AFPFriends and family members embrace outside the Police Headquarters in Orlando, Florida, during the investigation of a shooting at the Pulse gay club, where 49 people were killed after a gunman opened fire, on 12 June 2016Steve Nesius/Reuters19 July 2016: Inmates sleep an open basketball court inside the Quezon City jail near ManilaNoel Celis/AFP10 November 2016: A child pushes a sheep with wool blackened by smoke and oil from oil wells set on fire by fleeing Isis members, in Qayyarah, IraqChris McGrath/Getty ImagesUS President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton embrace on stage during Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 27 July 2016Saul Loeb/AFPUS President Barack Obama says 'Obama out!' at the White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner in Washington on 30 April 2016Yuri Gripas/ReutersRepublican US presidential nominee Donald Trump hugs a US flag as he comes onstage to rally with supporters in Tampa, Florida on 24 October 2016Jonathan Ernst/Reuters29 February 2016: A man evacuates a boy, while other people lie on the ground after Macedonian police fired tear gas at hundreds of refugees and migrants who tried to break through the Greek-Macedonian border fence in IdomeniLouisa Gouliamaki/AFPMen react after being rescued off the coast of Libya by the Aquarius, a former North Atlantic fisheries protection ship now used by humanitarians SOS Mediterranee and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) on 24 May 2016Gabriel Bouys/AFPA man burns a pair of trousers to make a bonfire on a foggy morning near the Greek village of Idomeni where thousands of refugees and migrants are stranded on 8 March 2016Dimitar Dilkoff/AFPA young Afghan films burning shacks at the so-called Jungle camp in Calais on 1 March 2016Philippe Huguen/AFPSurrendered Turkish soldiers who were involved in the coup are beaten by a civilian on Bosphorus bridge in Istanbul, July 2016ReutersA sloth holds on to the post of a traffic barrier on a highway, in this handout photo provided by Ecuador's Transit Commission, in Quevedo, Ecuador on 22 January 2016ReutersA koala soaked by floodwaters sits on a fence post to escape the deluge in the town of Stirling in the Adelaide Hills of South AustraliaRussell Latter/ ReutersAri Skulason celebrates with his baby after Iceland beat Austria 2-1 in Paris on 22 June 2016Darren Staples/ReutersGreat Britain's Andy Murray kisses the trophy as he celebrates winning the Wimbledon men's singles final against Canada's Milos Raonic at the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, on 10 July 2016Tony O'Brien/ReutersA fighter allied with the UN-backed government holds a bunch of grapes as he fires a rife at Islamic State militants during a battle in Sirte on 31 July 2016Goran Tomasevic/Reuters28 April 2016: An injured woman reacts at a site hit by air strikes in a rebel-held area of Old AleppoAbdalrhman Ismail/ReutersSaida Ahmad Baghili, 18, who is affected by severe acute malnutrition, sits on a bed at the al-Thawra hospital in the Red Sea port city of Houdieda, Yemen on 24 October 2016Abduljabbar Zeyad/ReutersHomes destroyed and damaged by Hurricane Matthew are seen in Jeremie, in western Haiti, on 7 October 2016Nicolas Garcia/AFPA boy smiles while carrying a blanket on his head after Hurricane Matthew hit Jeremie, Haiti on 13 October 2016Carlos Garcia Rawlins/ReutersThe Boeing 747 Air Force One carrying US President Barack Obama and his family flies over a neighbourhood of Havana as it approaches the runway to land at Cuba's international airport, on 20 March 2016Alberto Reyes/Reuters23 March 2016: US President Barack Obama dances a tango during a state dinner hosted by Argentina's President Mauricio Macri in Buenos Aires during his two-day visit to ArgentinaCarlos Barria/ReutersSoldiers cry after the urn with the ashes of Cuban leader Fidel Castro was driven through Santa Clara on 1 December 2016, during its four-day journey across the island for the burial in Santiago de CubaRonaldo Schmidt/AFPSolar Impulse 2 flies over the pyramids of Giza prior to landing in Cairo, Egypt on 13 July 2016Jean Revillard/SI2/ReutersSyrian children play on a street with plastic toys guns in a rebel-held district of the northern city of Aleppo on 6 July 2016Ameer Alhabi/ AFPSyrian civil defence volunteers evacuate a baby from a destroyed building following a reported air strike on the rebel-held neighbourhood of al-Kalasa in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on 28 April 2016Ameer Alhalbi/AFPMembers of MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) and the Red Cross try to rescuscitate a man who was rescued from the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya. It is thought he was suffering after breathing fumes from a boat engineDan Kitwood/Getty ImagesPope Francis visits the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau on 29 July 2016Filippo Monteforte/AFPA pigeon flies ahead of Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, and Princes William, Harry and Kate Duchess of Cambridge behind as they wave to guests attending the Patron's Lunch on the Mall, an event to mark her 90th birthday on 12 June 2016Toby Melville/ Reuters11 June 2016: Prince Charles, Kate Middleton, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, Prince William, Prince Harry, the Queen and Prince Philip stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the Trooping the Colour, marking the Queen's 90th birthdayBen A Pruchnie/Getty ImagesPope Francis reaches to embrace the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, during a historic meeting in Havana on 12 February 2016 – the first meeting between their two branches of the church in nearly a thousand yearsGregorio Borgia/AFP11 January 2016: A woman with a tattoo of David Bowie pays her respects in front of a mural of the British singer, painted by Australian street artist James Cochran, aka Jimmy C, in Brixton, south LondonJustin Tallis/AFPAn aerial view of the 30th annual Burning Man arts and music festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada on 31 August 2016Jim Urquhart/ReutersEllen DeGeneres wipes away tears as her citation is read before being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President Barack Obama during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on 22 November 2016Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesRobin Roy (C) reacts as US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets her at a campaign rally in Lowell, Massachusetts on 4 January 2016Brian Snyder/Reuters18 February 2016: Clark Reynolds, aged 3, is greeted by US President Obama during a Black History Month celebration at the White House in Washington, DCPete Souza/The White HouseA man protesting the shooting death of Alton Sterling is detained by law enforcement near the headquarters of the Baton Rouge Police Department in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on 9 July 2016Jonathan Bachman/ ReutersAn aeroplane flies past the London Eye wheel, and moon, a day before the "supermoon" spectacle in London on 13 November 2016Toby Melville/ ReutersKate Cameron, aged 8, cuddles Abernethy the prize-winning bull at the119th annual autumn sale of pedigree highland cattle in Oban, Scotland on 10 October 2016Jeff J Mitchell/Getty ImagesA man walks through a garden on an autumn day in Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir on 15 November 2016Danish Ismail/ReutersSecret Service agents await the arrival of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on the golf course at his Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeen, Scotland, on 25 June 2016Carlo Allegri/ReutersBritish Prime Minister Theresa May is welcomed to the Sri Someshwara Temple in Bangalore, India, on 8 November 2016Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesA boy pauses on his bike in front of an oil field in Qayyarah that was set on fire by retreating Isis fighters ahead of the Mosul offensive on 21 October 2016Carl Court/ Getty ImagesIlluminated by the flash of an exploding stun grenade, a student jumps on a falling policeman while another policeman fires a rubber bullet during a running battle at WitsMarco Longari/AFPDenver Broncos inside linebacker Brandon Marshall kneels during the national anthem on September 2016, before their game against the Carolina Panthers at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver, ColoaradoRon Chenoy/ReutersRickie Fowler of the United States looks on while fellow team members celebrate with their partners after winning the Ryder Cup, at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, on 2 October 2016Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images6 May 2016: A group trying to rescue animals from Fort McMurray wait at a road block on Highway 63 near as smoke rises from a major forest fire near Fort McMurray, Alberta, CanadaCole Burston/AFP13 December 2016: Syrian pro-government forces take a selfie in the courtyard of the 1,000-year-old Umayyad mosque in Aleppo after regaining control of the Old CityGeorge Ourfalian/AFP22 October 2016: Displaced Iraqis arrive at a refugee camp in the town of Qayyarah, south of Mosul, during an operation to recapture the city of Mosul from Islamic StateBulent Kilic/AFPNewly displaced Iraqis who fled from the city of Mosul are reunited at a refugee camp with their relatives who arrived two years ago on 26 October 2016Bulent Kilic/AFPJamaica's Usain Bolt jokes with Canada's Andre De Grasse after they crossed the finish line in the Men's 200m Semifinal during the athletics event at Rio 2016 in the Olympic Stadium, on 17 August 2016Olivier Morin/AFPReal Madrid's Isco almost drops the trophy as they celebrate winning the Uefa Champions League at the San Siro Stadium, Milan, Italy, on 28 May 2016Kai Pfaffenbach/ReutersUS President Barack Obama is welcomed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel upon his arrival at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany on 17 November 2016Fabrizio Bensch/ReutersRefugees walk through a frozen field after crossing the border from Macedonia, near the village of Miratovac, Serbia, on 18 January 2016Marko Djurica/ ReutersA coffin is seen floating in flood waters in Ascension Parish, Louisiana on 15 August 2016Jonathan Bachman/ ReutersA woman burns an EU flag while a man holds an anti-Brexit placard outside the Supreme Court on the second day of a hearing into whether Parliament's consent is required before the Brexit process can begin, on 6 December 2016Leon Neal/Getty ImagesDemocratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her husband former president Bill Clinton react to the balloon drop at the end of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on 28 July 2016Jim Young/ReutersDonald Trump and his son Barron react at the end of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, on 21 July 2016Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesPrime Minister-in-waiting, Theresa May, reacts to photographers after walking to the wrong car after attending a Cabinet meeting at Downing Street on 12 July 2016Carl Court/Getty ImagesA bottle flies over an England supporter engulfed in tear gas during clashes with police in Marseille, southern France, on 10 June 2016, on the eve of England's Euro 2016 football match against RussiaLeon Neal/AFPEngland's Wayne Rooney announces his retirement from international football during a press conference at St George’s Park in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, on 30 August 2016Carl Recine/ReutersA supporter of former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders makes his way past delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 25 July 2016Mike Segar/Reuters28 August 2016: A brief rain shower does nothing to dampen the spirits of revellers at the Notting Hill CarnivalJack Taylor/Getty ImagesA Syrian refugee holds a child carrying a placard during a protest by refugees and migrants who left a registration camp on the Greek island of Chios on 3 April 2016Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP
Ongoing crises in the Middle East were illustrated through photos of some of their youngest victims. A photo of a five-year-old boy caked in debris while seated in an ambulance in Aleppo, Syria, was heavily shared.
Latin America and the Caribbean saw some of the most momentous events in their recent history in 2016, with Barack Obama becoming the first sitting US president to visit Cuba in 88 years, a peace deal being reached to end Colombia's bloody conflict and a visit by Argentine Pope Francis, the first pontiff to come from the heavily Roman Catholic region. But tragedy also haunted the continent as a plane carrying the Chapecoense football team crashed in Colombia and Hurricane Matthew devastated Haiti.
