2009: The Year In PHOTOS

It's certainly been a long, eventful year - contested elections, stirring protests, a new president, an ever-expanding financial crisis, and a miracle landing in the Hudson. Any way you look at it, the final year of the first decade of the 21st century certainly had its share of heroes and villains, triumphs and defeats, humor and sadness.

And whether it was Obama's inauguration or floods in Malaysia, events good and bad have thrown up a whole range of memorable images this year. Below is a collection of our favorites from around the world. Be sure to vote for which one you think is the year's best.

What others should we have included? Let us know in the comments.

New York, NY - January 15, 2009

Airline passengers wait to be rescued on the wings of a US Airways Airbus 320 jetliner that safely ditched in the Hudson River in New York, after a flock of birds knocked out both its engines.

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Comments

[pebblesvanpeebles]

04:02 PM on 01/20/2010

IT DOESN'T *SAY* YEAR'S *BEST* PHOTOS! IT SAYS YEAR *IN* PHOTOS. Read, damn it!

[SukiTheCat]

02:51 PM on 01/20/2010

Why the image of a young woman dying on the streets is one of the best photos of the year is beyond me

[Rizsha]

02:28 PM on 01/14/2010

We wish to see 2010 in 2011 as peaceful and cheerful for everyone.

[shafff]

08:45 PM on 01/04/2010

The years best photos!!!!!! disgusting

[pebblesvanpeebles]

01:58 AM on 01/20/2010

Read a little closer: year IN photos, not "Year's BEST photos."

[DC]

04:58 AM on 01/01/2010

A photo of a women in her last moments of life is a "best photo?"

The desensitization of Huffpost editors? Where is your great video of a man being stoned to death.

How about a few more snuff photos and films to add to your collection?

Is this going to be censored out?

[beduina]

06:31 PM on 01/01/2010

most MEMORABLE photo! No one said it was the best.
Neda deserves to be etched into our brains forever because she is a symbol of the Iranian Revolution going on strong as I'm writing this.If anything we and with that our media (yet again) is at fault for dropping the ball/camera/microphones and leave the Iranians to fight for themselves again.
There were many Nedas since this video was taken, hundreds have been swept away into prisons to be tortured, raped, many have been executed.
Why is the US press silent again?
That's the real question here.

[KIVPossum]

07:43 AM on 01/11/2010

The best, most iconic, photos don't always show the lovely side of life. What photos changed opinions - the little girl running naked down the street in Vietnam, the girl screaming as she knelt by her dead friend at Kent State, the soldier crying in a helicopter when he learns his buddy is dead.

Anyone can take pictures of roses in bloom.

[mamacat]

07:06 PM on 12/30/2009

The picture of the young Iranian woman who was shot dead on the streets of Tehran is not one of the year's best pictures. It is, however, one of the most memorable, and horrifying.

[Balzac]

04:52 AM on 12/30/2009

Kent State cause a big cultural upheaval in America. Neda's shooting may well bring an end to the current regime in Iran. Cameras are everywhere now, so every time the Iranian police kill another protester, their political legitimacy is weaker. One just got run over, I saw another man shot, and two others hanged.

Neda, Ali Mousavi, the good doctor, and the bright green future of Iran - the hearts and minds of the witnesses around the world are with them.

Too bad Ahmadinejad's forces weren't purely defensive, keeping order instead of killing and intimidating dissidents.

[evagorman]

07:51 PM on 12/29/2009

This photo from Natasha Richardson's funeral moved me a great deal:

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/3/23/1237767858025/Liam-Neeson-and-Vanessa-R-003.jpg

[LMPE]

01:46 PM on 12/29/2009

Another recent one: Jon Stewart exposes how Fox Noise used footage from a different Tea Party rally to make another one look bigger.

[azbird]

05:22 PM on 12/29/2009

Get a life. Done all the time on MSM

[mamacat]

07:05 PM on 12/30/2009

If by MSM one means Faux News.