The 46 Most Powerful Photos Of 2016

Here are the most influential, striking, and beautiful pictures from 2016.

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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, July 9.

Lucas Jackson / Reuters

Indian model and acid attack survivor Reshma Quereshi has make up applied before walking to present Indian designer Archana Kochhar's Spring/Summer 2017 collections during New York Fashion Week on Sept. 8.

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A mother shows her 3-month-old baby boy's feet with 16 toes in Yueyang City, China, on May 1. The child, Hong Hong, also has two palms on each hand with 7 fingers on his right hand and 8 fingers on his left hand. A doctor at Hunan Province People's Hospital told Hong's father that his son should have surgery when he is between 6 months and 1 year old

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David Brown of the US celebrates his victory after the men's 100-meter T11 final at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on Sept. 11.

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Usain Bolt of Jamaica competes in the men's 100-meter semifinal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 14.

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Simone Biles of the United States competes on the balance beam during the women's individual all-around final at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 11.

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President Barack Obama hugs his daughter Malia Obama at the Fourth of July White House party in Washington,DC. Malia Obama celebrated her 18th birthday during the party, which featured guests including singers Janelle Monáe and Kendrick Lamar.

Alberto Reyes / Reuters

Air Force One, carrying President Barack Obama and his family, flies over a neighborhood of Havana as it approaches the runway to land at Havana's international airport on March 20.

Noah Berger / AP

Solar Impulse 2 flies over San Francisco on April 23. The solar-powered airplane, which is attempting to circumnavigate the globe to promote clean energy and the spirit of innovation, arrived from Hawaii after a three-day journey across the Pacific Ocean.

Emilio Morenatti / AP

People react as they use the new Samsung Gear 360, a 360-degree camera, at the Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona on Feb. 22.

Manish Swarup / AP

An Indian Hindu widow lies on a bed of flower petals during Holi celebrations at the Gopinath temple, southeast of New Delhi on March 21. A few years ago this joyful celebration was forbidden for Hindu widows, who were expected to live out their days in quiet worship, dressed only in white, their very presence being considered inauspicious for all religious festivities.

Handout / Getty Images

The green sea turtle, also known as Honu, is a symbol of good luck and longevity in Hawaiian lore. This native friend provides a little mystique to the 2,300 athletes who await the start signal of a 140.6-mile journey at the 2016 Ironman World Championship triathlon on Oct. 8 in Kailua Kona.

Allison Joyce / Getty Images

Rupa, 28, has her hair shaved at the Thiruthani Murugan Temple on Nov. 10 in Thiruttani, India, in the hopes that donating it to the gods will cure her daughter's illness. It is common for Hindu believers to tonsure their hair at a temple as a young child and to mark other rites of passage. The "temple hair," as it's known, is then auctioned off to a processing plant and then sold as pricey wigs and weaves in the US, Europe, and Africa.

Sebastian Copeland for Arctica: The Vanishing North

On a February expedition to Nunavut in the Canadian Arctic, photographer Sebastian Copeland captured this striking photo of a deceased polar bear, which he believed was “likely starved to death” due to climate change. While his opinion is not definitive, Andrew Derocher, a professor at the University of Alberta, tells BuzzFeed News that polar bear scientists are “getting more reports and seeing more cases" of starvation.

Daniella Zalcman

Riders from the Standing Rock, Rosebud, and Lower Brule Lakota reservations came together on horseback to push back a police line that had formed between a group of protesters and the entrance to the Dakota Access Pipeline construction site.

Alex Wong / Getty Images

Khizr Khan, father of slain Muslim US soldier Humayun Khan, holds up a booklet of the US Constitution as he delivers remarks on the fourth day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 28.

Jim Young / Reuters

Donald Trump shows off the size of his hands as rivals Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz look on at the start of the US Republican presidential candidates debate in Detroit on March 3.

Lucas Jackson / Reuters

Hillary Clinton at a rally in New York City on June 7.

Rick Wilking / Reuters

Donald Trump hovers behind Hillary Clinton while she answers a question from the audience during their presidential town hall debate at Washington University in St. Louis on Oct. 9.

MANDEL NGAN / AFP / Getty Images

Supporters of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump react to early results during election night at the New York City Hilton Midtown on Nov. 8

Adam Fenster / Reuters

The grave of women's suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony is covered with "I Voted" stickers left by women voters in the U.S. presidential election, at Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York, on Nov. 8.

Jonathan Bachman / Reuters

Catastrophic floods submerge thousands of homes and businesses in Louisiana, including this one in Sorrento on Aug. 21.

Matt Dunham / AP

Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party, celebrates as he leaves a "Leave.EU" organization party for the British European Union membership referendum in London on June 24.

Handout / Reuters

Firefighters take a break from wildfires in Fort McMurray, Alberta, in this photo tweeted on May 5.

Sameer Al-doumy / AFP / Getty Images

A Syrian gamer uses the Pokémon Go app on his mobile phone to catch a Squirtle amid the rubble in the besieged, rebel-controlled town of Douma, a flashpoint east of the capital Damascus, on July 23.

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Five-year-old Omran Daqneesh sits in an ambulance after being pulled out of a building hit by an airstrike in Aleppo, Syria, on Aug. 17.

Khalid Mohammed / AP

People wait for missing family members as paramedics look for burned bodies inside a mall at the scene of a massive truck bomb attack claimed by the Islamic State group in the Karada neighborhood of Baghdad on July 7.

Thaer Mohammed / AFP / Getty Images

A Syrian woman carries the body of her infant after he was retrieved from the rubble of a building following a reported airstrike on the al-Muasalat area in Aleppo on Sept. 23.

Yasin Akgul / AFP / Getty Images

Oil is set ablaze in the Qayyarah area south of Mosul during an operation by Iraqi forces against Islamic State jihadists to retake the main hub city on Oct. 19.

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A barefoot woman attempts to flee from the fighting in Topzawa, Iraq, as Iraqi special forces enter the outskirts of Mosul.

Maad Al-zikry / AP

Infant Udai Faisal is hospitalized for acute malnutrition the Al-Sabeen Hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, on March 22. Udai died on March 24. Hunger has been the most horrific consequence of Yemen’s conflict and has spiraled since Saudi Arabia and its allies, backed by the U.S., launched a campaign of airstrikes and a naval blockade a year ago.

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Members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO evacuate a dead body on a stretcher during a rescue operation in the Mediterranean Sea, some 12 nautical miles north of Libya, on Oct. 4.

ANSA / MASSIMO PERCOSSI / AP

An injured man is pulled from the rubble in Amatrice, Italy, where a 6.1 earthquake struck just after 3:30 a.m. on Aug. 24. The quake was felt across a broad section of central Italy, including the capital Rome, where people in the historic center felt a long swaying followed by aftershocks.

Warzer Jaffm For BuzzFeed News

A Kurdish Special Forces soldier is carried by his comrades after being badly wounded by mortar fire during a mission north of Mosul, Iraq, on Oct. 20. Doctors later had to amputate his leg.

Ben Curtis / AP

A Kenyan riot police officer stomps on a protester in downtown Nairobi on May 16. Kenyan police have teargassed and beaten opposition supporters demanding the disbandment of the electoral authority over alleged bias and corruption.

Ketevan Kardava / Getty Images

Flight attendant Nidhi Chaphekar, right, reacts in the moments following a suicide bombing at Brussels Zaventem airport on March 22. Georgian journalist Ketevan Kardava, special correspondent for the Georgian Public Broadcaster, was traveling to Geneva when the attack took place; she was knocked to the floor and began to take photographs in the moments that followed. At least 31 people were killed and more than 260 injured in twin suicide blasts at Zaventem and a further bomb attack at Maelbeek Metro Station.

Stringer / Reuters

The Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France, after a heavy truck ran into a crowd at high speed, killing scores of people celebrating the Bastille Day national holiday on July 14.

Gokhan Sahin / Getty Images

A woman is wounded in Ankara on July 16 after a group within Turkey's military failed to overthrow the government.

Noel Celis / AFP / Getty Images

Inmates sleep on the ground of an open basketball court inside the Quezon City jail in Manila on July 19. There are 3,800 inmates at the jail, which was built six decades ago to house 800.

Jefferson Siegel / New York Daily News / Getty Images

Kesha cries as she learns she will not be released from her record label contract in Manhattan Supreme Court on Feb. 19.

Gerald Herbert / AP

Cameron Sterling, son of Alton Sterling, is comforted by a crowd at a vigil outside the Triple S convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on July 6. Alton Sterling, 37, was shot and killed by Baton Rouge police outside the store where he was selling CDs.

Pool New / Reuters

Ground personnel help US astronaut Scott Kelly get out of a Soyuz capsule shortly after landing near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on March 2.

Ezra Shaw / Getty Images

The Chicago Cubs celebrate after winning 8–7 in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series at Progressive Field on Nov. 2 in Cleveland.

Jim Young / Reuters

Tiffany Findley and Adriana Kelley kiss outside the wake for Pulse shooting victim Javier Jorge Reyes, during a counter protest against the Westboro Baptist Church in Orlando on June 15.

Jung Yeon-je / AFP / Getty Images

Protesters hold candles during an antigovernment rally in central Seoul on Nov. 12. South Korea's scandal-hit president was impeached after protests escalated sharply, with organizers claiming a million-strong turnout at one of the largest — and loudest — antigovernment protests the country has ever witnessed.

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Destn Montague listens to President Barack Obama speak at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's 46th Annual Legislative Conference Phoenix Awards Dinner, on Sept. 17 in Washington, DC.