Like its predecessor, 2021 was a year of challenges undoubtedly dominated by the continuing global Coronavirus pandemic.
However, with the successful roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccines people slowly reclaimed their freedom bit by bit.
Against this backdrop, 2021 was marked by events which gave people pause for thought, endure grief and frustration, and celebrate with hope and a welcome sense of normality.
History was made by the death of a prince and the birth of a republic, and the power of protest was evident as people stood up for causes they believed in, be it climate change, politics, or human rights.
Here is a look at our choice of stand-out images which highlight news stories from across the world.
As the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines accelerated in the beginning of the year, make shift vaccine centre’s popped up in unlikely venues, such as in the Gothic halls of Salisbury Cathedral in Wiltshire. Steve Parsons/PA Archive/PA Images
Supporters of President Donald Trump are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol in Washington. At centre, wearing fur hat with horns, is Jake Angeli who quickly became the face of the riot which saw protesters storm the U.S. Capitol Building on the 6th January in protest against republican Donald Trump losing the U.S. presidency to democrat Joe Biden. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP/Shutterstock
Crowds used their phone torches during a vigil for Sarah Everard in Clapham Common, London, after the Reclaim These Streets protest was officially cancelled. Serving police constable Wayne Couzens, 48, was charged with kidnapping and killing the marketing executive, who went missing while walking home from a friend’s flat in south London on March 3. Victoria Jones/PA Archive/PA Images
Sculptor Andrian Melka at his studio in York, working on his clay portrait of Captain Sir Tom Moore and a small-scale maquette that show his design for a bronze statue that he donated to Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Sir Tom died in February aged 100 from pneumonia and Covid-19. Danny Lawson/PA Archive/PA Images
The Ever Given, a container ship ran aground in the Suez Canal on 23 March, blocking passage of other ships and causing a traffic jam for cargo vessels. The 400-metre-long vessel was buffeted by strong winds on the morning and ended up wedged across the waterway with its bow and stern stuck in the canal banks. On 29 March, the 224,000-ton vessel was finally freed. SUEZ CANAL AUTHORITY/HO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
HRH Queen Elizabeth II takes her seat for the funeral of her husband the Duke of Edinburgh who died on the 9th April. The funeral for Prince Philip was held in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, Berkshire, during continued Coronavirus restrictions meaning social distancing and very few guests in attendance. Jonathan Brady/PA Archive/PA Images
Marcelo Noone-Taylor watches Aquarist Jeremy Simmons examine corals at the new ‘Tiny Giants’ exhibit at ZSL London Zoo, which features a 7-metre long aquarium reef tank, filled with corals rescued from the illegal wildlife trade over the past two decades. The zoo was able to reopen fully to the public in May after the easing of restrictions. Dominic Lipinski/PA Archive/PA Images
The final disassembly of the NHS Louisa Jordan in the SSE Hydro at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow took plasce in July. Specialist covid-19 hospitals were created in 2020 to help NHS hospitals cope with the burden of the pandemic. Jane Barlow/PA Wire/PA Images
Summertime in York saw the reveal of this year’s York Maze, created from over one million living, growing maize plants. The maze this year celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Mr Men and Little Miss books and characters. Richard McCarthy/PA Wire/PA Images
An outbreak of violence in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict commenced on 10 May and continued until a ceasefire came into effect on 21 May. In August, Palestinian children released balloons with messages during a protest calling to end the Gaza siege at the Palestinian side of the Erez crossing border with Israel, in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
An Indigenous community in Kamloops, British Columbia in Canada found evidence that 215 children were buried on the grounds of a school, one of the many in Canada set up to forcibly assimilate them. Monuments like this were erected to honour the unmarked graves at the site in June. Canadian Press/ShutterstocK
Carnival performer Monique Hendry displaying one of her vibrant carnival costumes at the launch of the Edinburgh Festival Carnival which returned in July after a two year absence due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Jane Barlow/PA Wire/PA Images
Local residents watched a large fire at an industrial premises in Juno Drive, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. Jacob King/PA Wire/PA Images
October saw rope access technicians abseil Paris’s famous Arc de Tiomphe to remove the 25,000 square meters of fabric which wrapped the monument in its entirety. The “L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped” project by late artist Christo and Jeanne-Claude was on view from, Sept. 18 to Oct. 3. The famed Paris monument was wrapped in silvery blue, and with 3,000 meters of red rope. Francois Mori/AP/Shutterstock
Extinction Rebellion protesters let off flares as they stood in the fountain at the Queen Victoria Memorial, which they covered in red paint, during a protest outside Buckingham Palace, London. The latter half of the year saw an increase in environmental activism. Jonathan Brady/PA Wire/PA Images
British troops were pictured leaving Camp Bastion in the Helmand Province, Afghanistan in October for the final time in the back of a RAF Hercules transporter aircraft. UK Armed Forces have left the Bastion-Leatherneck complex, handing the base over to 215 Corps of the Afghan National Army (ANA). British troops and United States Marine Corps (USMC) personnel who had been serving under the International Security Assistance Force’s (ISAF) Regional Command (Southwest) (RC (SW)) redeployed to Kandahar after formally marking the end of combat operations. Corporal Andrew Morris/Mod/Shutterstock
Ajou Bol Yel, who lives in Langic, Northern Bahr el Ghazal State in South Sudan poses for a picture. Yel’s family of seven hosted nine neighbours who had lost their homes in devestating floods which has affected almost a half-million people across South Sudan since May through to October. As homes have been destoyed many people have been forced to sleep outside which has resulted in cases of malaria to increase in the area. Adrienne Surprenant/AP/Shutterstock
Climate activist Greta Thunberg arrived in Glasgow’s Central Station with a police guard. The eighteen year old climate activist was here for the United Nation’s COP26 conference which saw thousands of world leaders, policy makers, and protesters descend upon the city to discuss climate change. The conference ran for two weeks at the beginning of November. Andrew Milligan/PA Wire/PA Images
In November, after 396 years, Barbados officially removed the British monarch as its head of state and became the world’s newest republic. Singer Rihanna and Barbados’ new President Sandra Mason stand during the Presidential Inauguration Ceremony to mark the birth of a new republic in Barbados. Rihanna, who is from the Caribbean Island was declared a national hero at the event held in Bridgetown. Shutterstock
Often hailed as a favoured British past-time, people have been queuing across the country to receive their booster vaccinations for Covid-19 as the new, highly transmissible variant named omicron spreads across the country. St.Thomas’s hospital in London has seen extensive queues over the last week in a bid to get boosted before Christmas. The UK government has warned the public that the country is facing a ‘tidal wave’ of Omicron infections. ANDY RAIN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
