The great visual cliché of the Arab Spring uprising—angry demonstrators in crowded streets, fists raised for photojournalists’s lenses—is on full view here. But the dynamism and fierce expression of the Yemini boy photographed during a demonstration in Sana gave Hani Mohammed’s picture iconic stature. Photo by Hani Mohammed/AP “Lens,” New York Times

The tremor began in Tunisia and soon the entire Arab world began to shake. After Hosni Mubarak fell in Egypt with surprising rapidity, Libyans rose up against their leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. But the campaign to oust the Qaddafi proved to be long and fierce. Nowhere was it more intense than the house-to-house fighting that took place in the city of Misrata. On April 20, photojournalist Chris Hondros photographed a rebel fighter pursuing government troops through a burning building in Misrata. Later that day, Hondros and photojournalist Tim Hetherington were killed covering the battle. Photo by Chris Hondros, Time

While the fighting spread throughout Libya, the capital city, Tripoli, remained in the hands of Qaddafi’s forces throughout the summer. In this photo, a Qaddafi supporter in Tripoli dances and waves a picture of the leader. Photo by Moises Saman New York Times

After the fall of Tripoli, Qaddifi fled to the city of Surt, his tribal homeland, and it was there that his own remaining forces held out in a surprisingly stubborn last-ditch resistance. In this photo, the patient confidence of the rebels, now called “transitional forces,” was quite apparent. Shortly after it was taken, Qaddafi was captured fleeing the city and killed. Photo by Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images “Lens,” New York Times

On May 1, President Barack Obama and senior staff gathered in the White House basement Situation Room to keep a real-time vigil as Navy Seals dropped into Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. White House photographer Pete Souza documented the scene. (A classified document in front of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was blurred out before the photo’s release.) Many thought Clinton was expressing shock at something she was seeing at the time—presumably the killing of Bin Laden—but she later said she was merely fighting back an allergic sneeze. The image will endure as a piece of White House history. Photo by Pete Souza/The White House

A so-called Super Outbreak of tornados stretching across the American south from Mississippi to Virginia made April the most active tornado month on record, with 875 tornadoes resulting in 361 fatalities, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. (The previous record was set in April, 1974 with 267 tornadoes.) Photographer Dusty Compton photographed one of the tornados as it moved through Tuscaloosa, Alabama on April 27. Photo by Dusty Compton. Tuscaloosa News/AP

On May 22, a massive tornado took shape and bore down on the city of Joplin, Missouri, killing 161, making it the single deadliest tornado since modern record keeping began in 1950, according to NOAA. Many others, like this couple, were left homeless. Photo by Edward Keating Time

On March 11, an offshore 8.9-magnitude earthquake in the Pacific Ocean launched a tsunami that crashed over Japan’s northern coast. Few photographs of the actual tsunami wave effectively captured its size and power. This image did just that by showing what was happening in Heigawa estuary in Iwate Prefecture as disaster approached. Photo from Reuters/Mainichi Shimbum “In Focus,” The Atlantic

Photographer David Guttenfelder presented the scope of the damage left by the tsunami. Photo by David Guttenfelder The New Yorker

The most lasting damage from the tsunami occurred at the Fukushim nuclear power plant, which suffered a meltdown and radiation release. This photo, which shows a volunteer bathing a two-month-old who had been evacuated from the contaminated area, echoes W. Eugene Smith’s famous “Minamata” image. Photo by Go Takayama/AFP/Getty Images “Lens,” New York Times

The death toll from a magnitude-7.1 earthquake that struck Turkey on October 23 was already at 350 and climbing when rescuers found a 14-month-old infant, still alive, buried under a building in Ecris. The look on the face of the rescue worker holding the child speaks of utter tenderness, turning this image into a symbol of hope. Photo from Reuters “Framework,” Los Angeles Times

It isn’t much of a photograph, but it managed to quiet Donald Trump—no easy feat—for a while, at least. In April the White House released this image of Barack Obama’s birth certificate from a hospital in Hawaii, putting an end to the question of whether he was born in the United States, as the Constitution requires of the president. Trump, who had been vocalizing about the “birther” issue as part of a possible presidential bid, faded instantly to the cultural background, a place he hates to be. Photographer: Unknown The Huffington Post

Early in 2011 the big talk in the Republican Party was not Mitt Romney’s hair, Michele Bachmann’s knowledge of history, Rick Perry’s hunting lodge, or Newt Gingrich’s Greek cruise—it was Sarah Palin, the GOP’s most glamorous star. Over Memorial Day, Palin, who had not yet ruled out a run for the presidency, launched an East Coast bus tour at the Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Rally in Washington, D.C. “I love the smell of emissions,” she told FOX News. Photo by Damon Winter The New York Times