Maverick Life

Maverick Life

2019: The Year in Pictures

2019: The Year in Pictures
President Donald Trump exits a press conference on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, 2019 in New York City. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced yesterday that the House will launch a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

An incomplete yet highly reflective gallery of our wild, wild world in 2019.

January: Polar vortex brings extreme cold temperatures

Ice covers the Lake Michigan shoreline on January 30, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. Businesses and schools have closed, Amtrak has suspended service into the city, more than a thousand flights have been cancelled and mail delivery has been suspended as the city copes with record-setting low temperatures. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

February: Creative visionary Karl Lagerfeld dies at age 85

Karl Lagerfeld attends the Conde’ Nast International Luxury Conference at Palazzo Vecchio on April 22, 2015 in Florence, Italy. (Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images for Conde’ Nast International Luxury Conference)

Lady Gaga wins Best Original Song  for ‘Shallow’ at 91st Academy Awards

Lady Gaga, winner of Best Original Song for “Shallow” from “A Star is Born,” poses in the press room during the 91st Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood and Highland on February 24, 2019 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

April: Scientists capture the first image of the black hole

Scientists have obtained the first image of a black hole, using Event Horizon Telescope observations of the center of the galaxy M87. The image shows a bright ring formed as light bends in the intense gravity around a black hole that is 6.5 billion times more massive than the Sun. Image credit: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris catches ablaze

Smoke and flames rise from Notre-Dame Cathedral on April 15, 2019 in Paris, France. A fire broke out on Monday afternoon and quickly spread across the building, collapsing the spire. The cause is yet unknown but officials said it was possibly linked to ongoing renovation work. (Photo by Veronique de Viguerie/Getty Images)

Wikileaks Julian Assange is arrested by Scotland Yard

Julian Assange gestures to the media from a police vehicle on his arrival at Westminster Magistrates court on April 11, 2019 in London, England. After weeks of speculation Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by Scotland Yard Police Officers inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in Central London this morning. Ecuador’s President, Lenin Moreno, withdrew Assange’s Asylum after seven years citing repeated violations to international conventions. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

Kim Jon Un shakes hands with Vladimir Putin

Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s leader, left, shakes hands with Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, ahead of the summit on Russky Island near Vladivostok, Russia, on Thursday, April 25, 2019. Kim huddled with Putin in their first summit Thursday, as the North Korean leader sought diplomatic support to help him find a way out of his stalemate in nuclear talks with Donald Trump. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images

May: Cyril Ramaphosa is elected President of South Africa

President Cyril Ramaphosa is inaugurated as South Africa’s head of state at Loftus Versveld in Pretoria (Photo Felix Dlangamandla/Netwerk24 Story Sarel van der Walt and Bonolo Selebano)

Taiwan becomes the first nation in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage

Married couples kiss while posing for photographs in front of the Taipei 101 building during a pro same-sex marriage party organised by the Taipei City government and Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan in Taipei, Taiwan, on Friday, May 24, 2019. Same-sex couples in Taiwan celebrated as it held the first gay marriages anywhere in Asia on Friday. Photographer: Ashley Pon/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Theresa May announces her resignation

Prime Minister Theresa May makes a statement outside 10 Downing Street on May 24, 2019 in London, England. The prime minister has announced that she will resign on Friday, June 7, 2019. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Formula 1 race car driver, Niki Laude, dies at 70

Austrian former racing driver, Niki Lauda (1949 – 2019) poses at the Ferrari headquarter in Maranello – Modena, Italy on February 7 1992, on May 21, 2019 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)

Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, son of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is born

The official notice of the birth of a baby boy to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex is placed outside Buckingham Palace on May 6, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. Meghan, Duchess of Sussex gave birth to a baby boy weighing 7lbs 3oz at 05:26 BST. (Photo by Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)

June: Anti-government protesters march in Hong Kong

Thousands of anti-government protesters march on a street after leaving a rally in Victoria Park on August 18, 2019 in Hong Kong, China. Pro-democracy protesters have continued rallies on the streets of Hong Kong against a controversial extradition bill since 9 June as the city plunged into crisis after waves of demonstrations and several violent clashes. Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam apologised for introducing the bill and declared it “dead”, however protesters have continued to draw large crowds with demands for Lam’s resignation and completely withdraw the bill. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

July: Boris Johnson becomes UK Prime Minister after being elected Tory leader 

New Prime Minister Boris Johnson waves from the door of Number 10, Downing Street after speaking to the media on July 24, 2019 in London, England. Boris Johnson, MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, was elected leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party yesterday receiving 66 percent of the votes cast by the Party members. He takes the office of Prime Minister this afternoon after outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May took questions in the House of Commons for the last time. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

USA wins FIFA Women’s World Cup Trophy

Megan Rapinoe of the USA lifts the FIFA Women’s World Cup Trophy following her team’s victory in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup France Final match between The United States of America and The Netherlands at Stade de Lyon on July 07, 2019 in Lyon, France. (Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

The climate crisis continues as the Sahara heat wave sends temperatures to record levels

In this aerial view melting ice forms a lake on free-floating ice jammed into the Ilulissat Icefjord during unseasonably warm weather on July 30, 2019 near Ilulissat, Greenland. The Sahara heat wave that recently sent temperatures to record levels in parts of Europe is arriving in Greenland. Climate change is having a profound effect in Greenland, where over the last several decades summers have become longer and the rate that glaciers and the Greenland ice cap are retreating has accelerated. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

August: American novelist, Nobel Prize in Literature, and college professor Toni Morrison dies at age 88

Novelist Toni Morrison laughs with U.S. President Barack Obama before being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, May 29, 2012. The Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

50 years ago, the iconic ‘Abbey Road’ photograph was made

Beatles impersonators recreate the iconic ‘Abbey Road’ photograph made 50 years ago today, on August 8, 2019 in London, England. 50 years ago today, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr held up traffic on the zebra crossing outside their recording studio in north London to get the cover shot for the album, Abbey Road. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

September: President Donald Trump’s ‘wall’ is used as a platform for protest art

A 70 feet (about 21 meter) tall art installation created by French artist JR rises above and appears to peek over the border wall that bisects Tecate, Mexico and Tecate, California, USA, 10 September 2017. The art piece utilises a large black and white photograph in a public place in the same fashion as graffiti art. EPA-EFE/PAUL BUCK

October: At 22, Simone Biles is the most decorated artistic gymnast of all time, men and women combined

Simone Biles competes on the balance beam during the Senior Women’s competition of the 2019 U.S. Gymnastics Championships at the Sprint Center on August 09, 2019 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

November: The South African Springboks win the Rugby World Cup in Japan

South African captain Siya Kolisi (C-L) and South African president Cyril Ramaphosa (C-R) hold the cup as the team celebrates winning the Rugby World Cup final match between England and South Africa at the International Stadium Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Yokohama, Japan, 02 November 2019. EPA-EFE/MARK R. CRISTINO

December: Zozibini Tunzi is crowned Miss Universe 2019

Miss Universe 2019 Zozibini Tunzi, of South Africa, appears at a press conference following the 2019 Miss Universe Pageant at Tyler Perry Studios on December 08, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images)

TIME and Daily Maverick‘s Our Burning Planet name climate activist Greta Thunberg as Person of the Year

Swedish environment activist Greta Thunberg attends an event with scientists at the COP25 Climate Conference on December 10, 2019 in Madrid, Spain. The COP25 conference brings together world leaders, climate activists, NGOs, indigenous people and others for two weeks in an effort to focus global policy makers on concrete steps for heading off a further rise in global temperatures. (Photo by Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)

South African-directed documentary, ‘Influence’, is selected to compete at Sundance Film Festival in 2020

Influence, a feature-length documentary written and directed by Richard Poplak and Diana Neille, will be premiering in competition at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah in January. Influence charts the recent advancements in weaponized communication by investigating the rise and fall of the world’s most notorious public relations and reputation management firm: the British multinational Bell Pottinger. It is the first South African-directed film to compete in the World Cinema Documentary portion of the festival, against 11 other international films. 15,100 documentary and feature filmmakers applied to premier at the 2020 edition. Photo: Daniel Hewett

Disney Plus releases ‘Star Wars: The Mandalorian’ and Baby Yoda forces his way through the internet

The Child, also known as Baby Yoda, from Star Wars: The Mandalorian. Photo: Episodic Photos, Disney

President Donald J Trump becomes the third president of the United States to be impeached

President Donald Trump exits a press conference on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, 2019 in New York City. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced yesterday that the House will launch a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

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