It was a year dominated by news of political appointments and departures, controversial policies for migrant families, sports victories and devastating natural disasters. In between, there were countless stories of individuals and moments, captured by a photographer's eye. Of the two million images WSJ editors looked through this year, these are the most striking photos of the year.
January
heiko junge/EPA/Shutterstock
A "Super Blue Blood Moon" over Longyearbyen, Norway, on Jan. 31.
brendan mcdermid/Reuters
This group of women you so heartlessly abused over such a long period of time—are now a force, and you are nothing…. The tables have turned, Larry. We are here, we have our voices and we are not going anywhere.”
— Gymnast Aly Raisman speaks at the Jan. 19 sentencing hearing for Larry Nassar, a former team USA Gymnastics doctor who pleaded guilty in November 2017 to sexual-assault charges.
February
leah millis/Reuters
Hope Hicks, then-White House communications director, leaves the U.S. Capitol after attending the House Intelligence Committee closed- door meeting in Washington, Feb. 27, where she declined to answer questions about her work as one of President Trump’s most trusted advisers.
Joe Raedle/Getty
She was whispering, hiding…. She’s 14 years old and she had to see multiple dead bodies.…It’s something that you hear about all the time, and you never think it will happen to you.”
— Security expert Joel Leffler, who was on a business trip in Dallas when he reached his 14-year-old daughter, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, on the phone.
March
amer almohibany/AFP/Getty
A wounded Syrian man waits for treatment March 13 at a makeshift clinic during Syrian government airstrikes on Zamalka, near Syria's capital of Damascus.
Fabiola Ferrero for WSJ
They tell me, ‘Mommy, please, I’m hungry, I want to eat….’ I voted swearing at the government.”
— July Castellano, 40, a mother of five in Los Valles del Tuy, Venezuela, who didn’t want to vote for anyone in last year’s elections in Venezuela, but feared food would be withheld if she abstained.
April
Mohammed Talatene/Zuma Press
A veiled Palestinian woman stands in front of burning tires during clashes against Israeli soldiers in the South of Gaza Strip, April 6.
AP
Panic just ensues…. Now the entire plane is shaking. Air was being sucked out of the cabin. People started screaming.”
— Marty Martinez, a Dallas businessman who was aboard the Southwest Airlines plane that made an emergency landing at Philadelphia Airport after an engine broke apart April 17. One person was killed.
May
danny lawson/AFP/Getty
Meghan Markle walks down the aisle in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on May 19 during her wedding to Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.
marco garcia/Reuters
The lava doesn’t chase you down the road like in the movies…. It moves slow. You can see where the real threat is.”
— Gary Hoffeld, a resident who lives in a subdivision about 8 miles downwind of Leilani Estates near Pahoa, Hawaii, one of two rural areas ordered for evacuation as lava flowed quickly from Kilauea volcano.
June
alfredo estrella/AFP/Getty
Mexico's presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador waves to supporters at the closing rally of his campaign in Mexico City on June 27, ahead of the country's presidential election. He won with more than 53% of the vote.
Adria Malcolm for WSJ
Angelica and Ruth had been among the thousands of people arriving monthly at legal U.S. border crossings and asking for the U.S. government to protect them.... Most won’t win, according to U.S. government data on asylum cases.
Read more »July
Angelo Merendino/Getty
Workers take down the LeBron James banner from the Sherwin Williams building in Cleveland on July 3. The former Cavaliers star had announced he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers on a four-year, $154 million deal.
royal thai army/EPA/Shutterstock
We’re not sure if this was a miracle, science or what…. All the 13 Wild Boars are now out of the cave.”
— The Thai Navy SEALs, as posted on their Facebook page the day the rescue of 13 members of the Thai soccer team was completed.
August
Patrick Record/AP
King Bass, 6 years old (left), sits on his parents' car with his sister Princess, 5, watching the Holy Fire burn in Lake Elsinore, Calif. More than one-thousand firefighters battled to keep the raging Southern California forest fire from reaching foothill neighborhoods on Aug. 10.
Fauzy Chaniago/AP
A military paramedic tends to a boy who suffered a head injury from a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Lombok Island, Indonesia. Among those killed was a 21-year-old air-traffic controller who stayed at his post when the quake struck to ensure a passenger jet that was preparing to take off safely departed.
Read more »September
Andrew Carter/The News & Observer/AP
Robert Simmons, Jr. and his kitten Survivor are rescued from floodwaters after Hurricane Florence dumped several inches of rain in New Bern, N.C., Sept. 14.
October
Jack Taylor/Getty
During Sotheby's Contemporary Art Sale on Oct. 5, the Banksy artwork "Girl With Balloon" shredded through the bottom of the frame as it was being sold. The buyer, who paid $1.4 million for the work, now titled "Love Is in the Bin," agreed to proceed with the sale.
Wayne Lawrence for WSJ
In the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton's winning margin on Milwaukee's majority-black north side dropped by 24,000 votes from Barack Obama's margin there four years before. Donald Trump won the state by 22,748 votes.
Read more »November
Marc Lester/AP
Vine Road, south of Wasilla, Alaska, was damaged after back-to-back earthquakes measuring magnitudes 7.0 and 5.7, Nov. 30.
December
francois guillot/AFP/Getty
Members of the 'yellow vests' movement protest on Nov. 24 near the Arc of Triomphe in Paris, angry over high fuel taxes and rising living costs.