January 1: Fireworks light the sky over Copacabana beach during New Year's celebrations in Rio de Janeiro.
January 5: Conservationists examine a tranquilized orangutan during a rescue-and-release operation in Sungai Magkutub, Indonesia. Orangutans were being relocated after they lost their habitat to forest fires in 2015.
January 5: With tears running down his cheeks, US President Barack Obama talks about the victims of
the Sandy Hook school shooting during a White House news conference. "Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad," Obama said, referring to the 2012 massacre that killed 26 people in Connecticut. Obama, calling for a national "sense of urgency,"
unveiled a series of executive actions on guns, including expanded background checks.
January 8: Drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is escorted by soldiers at a federal hangar in Mexico City. Members of Mexico's navy caught Guzman
in an early morning raid in the coastal city of Los Mochis, a senior law enforcement official told CNN. Mexico
planned to extradite Guzman to the United States, where he faces drug trafficking charges connected to his cartel, authorities said. He had been on the run since escaping from a Mexican prison in July 2015.
January 8: Russian President Vladimir Putin, top, trains with his country's judo team in Sochi, Russia.
January 11: A woman with a David Bowie tattoo poses in front of a Bowie mural in London. The rock legend
died a day earlier after an 18-month battle with cancer. He was 69.
January 11: Andrew Watson, a resident of Flint, Michigan, drops to the floor in tears outside the doors to Flint's City Council. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder was holding a news conference there about
the city's water crisis. Snyder had declared a state of emergency three months after high lead levels were detected in Flint children.
January 12: A picture released by Sepahnews, the media arm for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, shows the Iranian Navy capturing 10 American sailors. The sailors were
briefly detained after traveling into Iranian territorial waters. A report released in June by military investigators found that the 10 sailors
suffered from "failed leadership" on a mission that was plagued by mistakes from beginning to end.
January 16: A horseman jumps over a bonfire during the annual Las Luminarias festival in San Bartolome de Pinares, Spain. In honor of Anthony the Abbot, the patron saint of animals, horses are traditionally ridden through bonfires to purify and protect them in the year ahead.
January 25: A person walks their dog past a dead sperm whale in Skegness, England. Three whales
washed up on the beach over the weekend. Experts believe they may have washed ashore while hunting.
January 30: Jose Wesley, a baby born with microcephaly, cries in Bonito, Brazil. Microcephaly is a neurological disorder that results in newborns with small heads and abnormal brain development.
An outbreak of the Zika virus was linked to a surge of babies with the birth defect.
February 2: Comedian Bill Cosby, second from left, leaves a courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvania, after a preliminary hearing. Cosby
faces three counts of felony aggravated indecent assault from a 2004 case involving Andrea Constand, an employee at his alma mater, Temple University. She was the first of more than 50 women who have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct. Cosby has denied the allegations.
February 2: Dancers take part in a dress rehearsal of "Swan Lake" before it opened at the Joyce Theater in New York.
February 4: Riot police in Athens, Greece, try to avoid a Molotov cocktail thrown by protesters during a nationwide strike. Clashes broke out as tens of thousands of people protested pension reforms that were part of the country's latest economic bailout.
February 8: Odka, a contortionist, promotes the Cirque Berserk show in London.
February 11: People show their support for those occupying the headquarters of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. The federal building in Oregon
was occupied by armed protesters for 41 days until the last remaining ones surrendered to authorities.
February 16: The chair of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is draped in black in Washington.
He died several days earlier at the age of 79.
February 16: A diamond is studied in Ramat Gan, Israel. International Diamond Week attracted buyers from all over the world.
February 21: A chicken tries to eat a dead rat on a ranch in Roseburg, Oregon.
February 24: The APEX telescope in Chile released
a map of the Milky Way that gave astronomers a detailed look at the cold, dense gas from which stars are born in our galaxy. It's the first image of its kind to be captured at the submillimeter wavelengths between infrared light and radio waves.
February 27: A member of the Ku Klux Klan fights a man for an American flag during a KKK rally in Anaheim, California.
Violence broke out between KKK members and counterprotesters, leaving five people injured and 13 people arrested, authorities said.
February 28: Leonardo DiCaprio hugs his friend, former "Titanic" co-star Kate Winslet, at the Academy Awards. DiCaprio won the best-actor Oscar -- the first of his career -- for his role in "The Revenant."
See all the winners
February 29: Otto Frederick Warmbier, an American college student detained in North Korea, bows during
a news conference in Pyongyang, North Korea. Warmbier was accused of trying to steal a political banner that was hanging from the walls of his Pyongyang hotel. In a video supplied to CNN, Warmbier was seen sobbing and pleading for forgiveness. Warmbier's parents asked the North Korean government to accept his apology and "consider his youth and make an important humanitarian gesture by allowing him to return to his loved ones." But in March,
Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.
March 4: A snowy owl looks into a camera at an animal park in Neumunster, Germany.
March 9: The casket of Nancy Reagan lies in repose at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. The former first lady
died March 6 at the age of 94.
March 15: A girl meets an animatronic panda bear in London.
March 16: A model presents a creation by designer Yoshikazu Yamagata during Tokyo Fashion Week.
March 21: Cuban President Raul Castro tries to lift up the arm of US President Barack Obama at the end of
a joint news conference in Havana, Cuba. Though they both acknowledged deep disagreements on human rights, political prisoners and economic reforms, the two leaders found common ground on the topic of the economic embargo on Cuba, which both want lifted. Obama went so far as to declare that "the embargo's going to end," though he couldn't say when.
March 22: Two wounded women sit in the airport in Brussels, Belgium, after two explosions rocked the facility. A subway station in the city was also targeted in
terrorist attacks that killed at least 35 people and injured hundreds more.
Faces of fear and hope in Brussels
March 23: A man sits near the top of a sequoia tree in downtown Seattle. Authorities were alerted to the man on March 22, and he was still clinging to its branches nearly a day later. He eventually came down and was charged with malicious mischief,
according to the Seattle Times.
March 24: A dinosaur balloon floats through Petah Tikva, Israel, during a parade for the Jewish holiday of Purim.
March 24: A reveler's face is smeared with colored powder as he dances during Holi celebrations in Gauhati, India. The Holi festival of colors is a Hindu celebration marking the arrival of spring.
March 25: Smoke rises in Palmyra, Syria, where the Syrian army was battling ISIS militants. Syrian forces
recaptured the city a couple days later. It had been in ISIS' hands for months.
March 25: US Sen. Bernie Sanders, who was seeking the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, smiles at a bird after
it landed on his podium in Portland, Oregon.
March 27: Migrants gather for a party at the border station of Idomeni, Greece.
March 30: Doug Ford cries into his mother's coat as he watches the casket of his father, former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, being placed into a hearse. Rob Ford
died of cancer at the age of 46.
March 31: Rescue workers and volunteers try to free people trapped under a collapsed overpass in Kolkata, India. More than a dozen people were killed and many more were missing after the overpass, which was under construction, collapsed in a congested area of the city.
April 14: Dash, a bichon frise, gets a makeover from Melanie Newman, a dog groomer in Melbourne.
April 14: A chimpanzee screams at a worker in Sendai, Japan, after it climbed an electric pole to avoid being captured. The chimp escaped from a zoo in Sendai and was on the loose for nearly two hours.
April 17: Rescue workers search for missing people after
a magnitude-7.0 earthquake caused a landslide in Japan's Kumamoto Prefecture. A magnitude-6.2 quake rattled the area two days earlier.
April 19: Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, center, attends the closing ceremonies of a Cuban Communist Party gathering in Havana, Cuba. Castro formally stepped down in 2008, and his brother Raul, right, is now President.
Fidel Castro died in November at age 90.
April 19: A man in Chacras, Ecuador, investigates a road that collapsed after
a 7.8-magnitude earthquake. It was the strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades. Hundreds of people were killed.
April 19: Four generations of British royalty are seen in this photo released by the Royal Mail, which put out a new set of stamps to commemorate the 90th birthday of
Queen Elizabeth II. Seen with the Queen, from left, are her son Prince Charles; her great-grandson, Prince George; and her grandson Prince William.
April 23: The Solar Impulse 2 flies over San Francisco. The solar-powered airplane, flying around the world without a single drop of fuel,
landed in California after a two-and-a-half-day flight across the Pacific Ocean.
April 23: A Prince fan touches a wall at a venue where the late musician often performed in Minneapolis.
The iconic musician died two days earlier at the age of 57.
Toxicology tests in June concluded that the entertainer died from an accidental overdose of the opioid fentanyl, according to a report by the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office.
April 28: New Volkswagen cars are parked at a plant in Wolfsburg, Germany.
April 28: A police officer reacts during a clash with protesters in Lyon, France. People were protesting proposed reforms to the country's labor laws, and strikes forced cancellations and delays at two airports serving Paris.
April 30: US President Barack Obama drops the microphone after speaking at the annual dinner of the White House Correspondents' Association.
Obama's 10 best lines
May 7: A wildfire
rips through the forest near Fort McMurray, Alberta. More than 88,000 people were forced to flee their homes.
May 9: A bride attends a mass wedding ceremony in Karachi, Pakistan.
May 16: An opposition protester yells as he is beaten by riot police in Nairobi, Kenya. Police in Kenya's capital
came under fire for what critics said was a heavy-handed response to a largely peaceful opposition protest. Kenya's police chief called for an internal investigation, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka.
May 17: Plebes from the US Naval Academy perform situps with a 12-foot log on top of them during the annual Sea Trials training exercise.
May 21: Some of the wreckage from
EgyptAir Flight 804 was found north of Alexandria, Egypt. There were 66 people on the plane when it crashed during a flight from Paris to Cairo.
May 21: Cadet Alix Idrache
sheds tears of joy as he graduates from the US Military Academy in West Point, New York. "I am from Haiti and never did I imagine that such honor would be one day bestowed on me," he said. He will soon be going to flight school. "Knowing that one day I will be a pilot is humbling beyond words," he said. "I could not help but be flooded with emotions knowing that I will be leading these men and women who are willing to give their all to preserve what we value as the American way of life."
May 27: A member of the humanitarian organization Sea-Watch holds a migrant baby who drowned after a boat capsized off the coast of Libya. The first five months of 2016 were "particularly deadly," according to the U.N. refugee agency, with at least 2,510 migrant deaths through May compared to 1,855 in the same period in 2015.
May 30: After the remains of 40 newborn tiger cubs were found in freezers at a Buddhist temple in Thailand's Kanchanaburi Province,
authorities started removing live tigers from the temple. The Wildlife Conservation Office was investigating the motives behind the temple storing the bodies and looking into the possibility that it was smuggling tiger parts, the organization's director told CNN. The "Tiger Temple" has long been popular with tourists who could walk among live tigers and pose for photos. The temple has said it is a sanctuary for wild animals. Suthipong Pakcharoong, the temple's vice president, told CNN that the temple would comply with the court order but that "there is nothing illegal and dangerous at all."
June 2: A giant panda named Hao Hao holds her newborn baby in her mouth at the Pairi Daiza zoo in Brugelette, Belgium. Giant panda cubs
are very small in relation to their mother -- 1/900th of the size. They are also pink, hairless and blind, not opening their eyes for several weeks.
June 7: A worker at the S.E.A. Aquarium in Singapore demonstrates a way to feed jellyfish.
June 11: A member of the Queen's Guard fainted during the Trooping the Color parade in London. He recovered and returned to duty, authorities said.
June 12: People attend a candlelight vigil for the victims of
the Orlando nightclub shooting. At least 49 people were killed in what was the deadliest mass shooting in US history.
June 12: Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator and star of the hip-hop musical "Hamilton," performs at the Tony Awards. The Broadway smash, about the life of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton,
won 11 awards -- one short of the record set by "The Producers" in 2001.
June 15: Former Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius walks without his prosthetic legs during
his sentencing hearing in Pretoria, South Africa. His attorney was arguing that he was a vulnerable figure who should receive a lesser sentence for the 2014 murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. In July,
a judge sentenced him to six years in prison.
June 15: An Israeli army soldier aims his laser sight at a camera during a night raid in Hebron, West Bank. The army was carrying out raids in the West Bank, searching houses and making arrests a week after
terrorists killed four Israelis at a popular food and shopping complex in Tel Aviv, Israel.
June 19: A cat rides on a motorcycle in Rio de Janeiro. The man in the photo said he always rides with his cat.
June 21: Lucy Lugo, wife of fallen police officer Endy Ekpanya, comforts their son, Julian, during his funeral service in Houston. Ekpanya, a police officer in Pearland, Texas, died after his patrol car was struck by another vehicle.
June 28: Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, speaks to Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, at a meeting of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. Farage, the most vocal architect of Britain's seismic decision to leave the European Union, gloated to the Parliament as members booed and turned their backs on him. Juncker
fired back in his own speech. "You were fighting for the exit, the British people voted in favor of the exit. Why are you here?" he said.
July 7: Police respond to a scene where shots were fired in downtown Dallas. Five police officers
were fatally shot during a protest over police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota. Seven other officers were injured in the ambush, as were two civilians. The attacker was killed by a bomb-carrying police robot after negotiations failed.
July 9: A young woman stands in the street as two police officers move in to arrest her near the headquarters of the Baton Rouge Police Department in Louisiana. She was one of hundreds of protesters
who blocked a Baton Rouge roadway to decry police brutality.
July 11: A hamerkop tosses a toad in its mouth at Kruger National Park in South Africa.
July 15: The Rev. Jesse Jackson consoles Alton Sterling's son, Cameron, at Sterling's funeral in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Sterling, 37, was fatally shot by police in Baton Rouge on July 5. Vigils and memorials
spread across the country after cell phone video of the shooting was shared widely on social media. Federal authorities are still investigating what happened.
July 16: Turkish soldiers surrender on Istanbul's Bosphorus Bridge after a failed coup attempt. At least 246 people were killed and more than 1,500 were injured in violence that broke out the night before. Thousands were detained, and the country
went into a state of emergency.
July 21: Donald Trump, the Republican Party's presidential nominee, delivers a speech at
the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. "I have had a truly great life in business," he said as he accepted the nomination. "But now, my sole and exclusive mission is to go to work for our country -- to go to work for you. It's time to deliver a victory for the American people."
Unprecedented: A race like no other
July 26: A thunderstorm occurs over Mount Sakurajima as the volcano erupts in Tarumizu, Japan.
July 27: Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, holds up a glass as
she celebrates backstage at the Democratic National Convention. Among those joining her were her husband, former US President Bill Clinton, and her running mate, US Sen Tim Kaine.
July 30: The barrel of a tank is seen as the vehicle moves across challenging terrain in Alabino, Russia. It was part of the International Army Games, a competition that involved troops from Russia and several other nations.
August 7: Performers dressed as Pikachu, a character from the Pokemon franchise, ride an elevator during the "Pikachu Outbreak" event in Yokohama, Japan. Hundreds of Pikachus were appearing at city landmarks to attract visitors in the Minato Mirai area.
August 9: The Olympic diving pool turned green in Rio de Janeiro. Officials
blamed the color change on a chemical imbalance in the water, but they said there were no health risks to the athletes.
August 10: New York City police grab a man who was
climbing the Trump Tower using giant suction cups. The 19-year-old was arrested and taken to Bellevue Hospital for a psychological evaluation, according to a law enforcement official. He was later charged with reckless endangerment and criminal trespassing.
August 13: A young daredevil, center, waits for her turn as another person rides a motorbike around the "Devil's Barrel" at a carnival in Deli Serdang, Indonesia.
August 14: Brazil's Globo media group released surveillance footage that shows US swimmers Ryan Lochte, James Feigen, Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz at a gas station in Rio de Janeiro. The Olympians initially said they were robbed at gunpoint there by men in police uniforms. Brazilian police
said the athletes concocted a story to cover up an act of vandalism that led to a confrontation with security guards.
August 14: Danielle Blount and her 3-month-old baby, Ember, wait to be rescued by the Louisiana Army National Guard near Walker, Louisiana. More than 30,000 people
were rescued in southern Louisiana after heavy rains caused flooding.
August 14: Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt looks back at his Olympic competitors during a 100-meter semifinal. Bolt
won the final a short time later, becoming the first man in history to win the 100 meters at three straight Olympic Games.
August 17: This still image, taken from a video posted by the Aleppo Media Center, shows a young boy in an ambulance after an airstrike in Aleppo, Syria. It took nearly an hour to dig the boy,
identified as Omran Daqneesh, out from the rubble, an activist told CNN. The airstrike destroyed his home, where he lived with his parents and two siblings.
August 24: A rescued woman is carried away on a stretcher after
a 6.2-magnitude earthquake in Amatrice, Italy. The earthquake devastated towns across central Italy and killed more than 250 people.
August 26: More than 300 wild reindeer
were killed by a single lightning strike in central Norway. Kjartan Knutsen, a spokesman for the Norwegian Environment Agency, said the reindeer were huddled together because of the bad weather in Hardangervidda National Park. Humans rarely visit the remote area.
August 29: Migrants swim away from a crowded wooden boat as they are rescued in the Mediterranean Sea north of Sabratha, Libya. Thousands were rescued from more than 20 boats.
September 5: Roman Catholic nuns from the Missionaries of Charity attend a service for the late Mother Teresa in Kolkata, India. Mother Teresa, who devoted her life to helping the poor and ill in India,
was declared a saint by Pope Francis on September 4.
September 7: A woman and man in East Liverpool, Ohio, are seen passed out from a drug overdose as a child sits in the back seat of a car. The East Liverpool city administration
posted the photo on Facebook, along with one other image, in order to show the
devastating effects of heroin addiction. Rhonda Pasek, the child's grandmother who is seen in the photo, was
sentenced to 180 days in jail and ordered to pay $280 in fines after pleading no contest to endangering a child and disorderly conduct and public intoxication.
Editor's note: A portion of this photo has been blurred by CNN because of the age of the subject.
September 21: Wax figures of celebrity couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are moved apart at Madame Tussauds London. Jolie
had just filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. The actors were married in August 2014.
September 22: A protester embraces a member of the National Guard in Charlotte, North Carolina. Violent protests
erupted in Charlotte following the death of Keith Lamont Scott, who was shot by police in an apartment complex parking lot. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said Scott exited his car with a gun and that he was shot after he wouldn't drop it. Scott's family said he was unarmed and sitting in his car reading a book. A two-month investigation
later determined that the police officer was justified in shooting Scott and that "all the credible evidence" led to the conclusion that Scott was armed. Mecklenburg County District Attorney Andrew Murray said he didn't reach the conclusions alone; a total of 15 prosecutors unanimously agreed with the decision.
September 23: A waterspout passes near a beach in Turkey's Hatay Province.
September 28: Baseball fans and members of the Miami Marlins organization surround the hearse carrying Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez,
who died in a boating accident. Fernandez, a 24-year-old native of Santa Clara, Cuba, was a beloved figure in Miami, where so many of his countrymen have settled and prospered. He was a two-time All-Star and the National League's Rookie of the Year in 2013.
October 2: People form a human tower during an annual competition in Tarragona, Spain.
October 5: Anias and Jadon McDonald, twins who were born conjoined at the head in September 2015, are seen eight days before
they were surgically separated at a New York hospital. The procedure, known as craniopagus surgery, is so rare that it has been conducted only 59 times since 1952. CNN was allowed
exclusive access to the surgery and the McDonald family.
October 7: Veterinary nurse Lauren Emmett carries out a procedure on a dog in London.
October 8: A woman cries as the coffin of Roberto Laguerre is carried away for burial in Jeremie, Haiti. Laguerre, 32, died when the wall of a church next to his home fell during
Hurricane Matthew.
October 9: Jimji, 6, cries out "Papa" as workers move the body of her father, Jimboy Bolasa, for burial in Manila, Philippines. Bolasa, 25, was found dead along with his neighbor. New Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte campaigned hard on
a no-nonsense approach to crime, and on several occasions he has hinted openly that he doesn't oppose his police force or even citizens taking the lives of suspected criminals. Critics see the approach as a complete disregard of due process. "It's absolutely crippling to see that image and to see that little girl experiencing so much pain and loss; to know that her father was never given a trial, never had the opportunity to defend himself in front of a court,"
Daniel Berehulak said about the photo, which he took
on assignment for The New York Times. "He was tortured and executed in the space of 30-45 minutes."
Duterte's crackdown: 6 stories from the front lines
October 17: A passenger jet passes over a house as it prepares to land at London's Heathrow Airport.
October 17: Fans dressed as "Star Wars" characters Darth Vader and Chewbacca use the bathroom during a film festival in Antalya, Turkey.
October 18: Police stand guard at the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand, where the body of King Bhumibol Adulyadej was enshrined.
The King's death was announced October 13. He was 88.
October 19: Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton gestures to the crowd after
the final presidential debate, which took place in Las Vegas. There was no handshake between her and Republican nominee Donald Trump.
October 24: A child's body is seen at a makeshift hospital after a cluster bomb attack in Douma, Syria.
October 26: Smoke rises from
"The Jungle," a makeshift migrant camp in Calais, France, that authorities
began dismantling on October 24. During evacuations, some of the migrants set shelters on fire. By the middle of the week, more than 4,400 people had been bused out of Calais to other regions of the country. The town is known for being a major transit point for migrants trying to reach Great Britain.
October 27: Red deer fight at a wildlife park in Bonn, Germany.
October 31: A woman is caned in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The province of Aceh is strictly Muslim and is the only province in the country implementing Sharia law. Public canings happen there regularly and often attract huge crowds.
November 3: The Chicago Cubs celebrate
after winning Game 7 of the World Series. The Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians in 10 innings to end the longest championship drought in major US sports. The Cubs hadn't won the World Series since 1908.
November 9: An image of Donald Trump is projected onto the Empire State Building in New York after Trump became President-elect of the United States.
November 10: US President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with President Barack Obama
during a meeting at the White House. "My No. 1 priority in the next two months is to try to facilitate a transition that ensures our President-elect is successful," Obama said.
November 11: A member of Iraq's special forces guards two suspected ISIS fighters found hiding in a house in Mosul, Iraq. An Iraqi-led offensive was launched in October
to reclaim Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and the last major stronghold for ISIS in the country.
November 14: A cat named James wears a collar and tie as he looks out the window of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The embassy has been home to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for more than four years now.
November 20: Police use a water cannon on people protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline near Cannon Ball, North Dakota. The
Dakota Access Pipeline is a $3.7 billion project that would cross four states and change the landscape of the US crude oil supply. But the Standing Rock Sioux tribe says the pipeline would affect its drinking-water supply and destroy its sacred sites.
November 21: Six children were killed after a school bus
crashed and flipped over in Chattanooga, Tennessee. More than a dozen other students were injured -- some with severe head or spinal injuries -- and the driver faces charges of reckless driving and vehicular homicide.
November 28: SWAT team members walk up the steps of a parking garage after
an attack on the campus of Ohio State University. Authorities said Abdul Razak Ali Artan, an 18-year-old student, rammed his car into a group of pedestrians before using a butcher knife to cut several people. At least 11 people were hospitalized. Artan was fatally shot by a campus police officer.
November 30: The ashes of longtime Cuban leader Fidel Castro are driven through the streets of Havana, Cuba. Cubans
gathered across the country to see his remains make their way to Santiago de Cuba.
November 30: Players from the Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense mourn their fallen teammates
during a tribute at the team's stadium in Chapeco, Brazil. A charter airplane carrying 77 people, including most players from Chapecoense,
crashed near Rionegro, Colombia, on November 28. Seventy-one people were killed, officials said. Six survived: three players, two crew members and one journalist.
December 4: Edgar Maddison Welch, a 28-year-old from Salisbury, North Carolina, surrenders to police outside a pizzeria in the nation's capital. He was later charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. Washington's Metropolitan Police Department said Welch admitted he had come
to investigate "Pizza Gate," a fictitious online conspiracy theory. Two firearms were recovered inside the restaurant, and an additional weapon was recovered from the suspect's vehicle, police said.
December 5: The remains of the Ghost Ship warehouse are seen in Oakland, California. A fire that
killed 36 people ravaged the warehouse during a dance party on December 2. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, authorities said.
See 2015: The year in pictures
December 12: Children dressed as Santa Claus participate in a parade that collected food for the needy in Lisbon, Portugal.
December 15: Arabic writing that reads "some day we will return" is seen on a bus window as civilians evacuate Aleppo, Syria.
The evacuations began under a new ceasefire between rebels and pro-government forces.
December 19: A gunman gestures after
assassinating Andrey Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey, at a photo exhibition in Ankara, Turkey. Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the gunman was Mevlut Mert Altintas, a Turkish police officer. In a video circulating on social media, the shooter was heard shouting, "Allahu akbar (God is greatest). Do not forget Aleppo! Do not forget Syria! Do not forget Aleppo! Do not forget Syria!" Russia is the most powerful ally of the Syrian regime and has carried out airstrikes since September 2015 to prop up embattled leader Bashar al-Assad. Karlov, 62,
had served in Ankara since July 2013.
December 28: Women mourn the death of a family member in Toba Tek Singh, Pakistan. Local police said dozens of people were killed and many transported to hospitals after they consumed contaminated alcohol during the Christmas holidays.