From Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding to President Barack Obama watching the death of Osama bin Laden in the situation room, Reuters’ best pictures of the decade capture moments which still move us today.
Events of the last year, such as the horrific inferno which ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral in April or President Donald Trump’s visit to Korea’s the demilitarised zone, also make their way into the evocative gallery.
The war-ravaged Middle East, including ISIS fighters in Syria, and US soldiers in Afghanistan, is well-documented, as well as the Arab Spring in North Africa.
Nature’s power is displayed in a harrowing photo of tsunami waves crashing onto Japan in 2011 and in smoke billowing from a volcano in Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland, which brought European air travel to a standstill in 2010.
And Usain Bolt’s swaggering glance back at his competitors in the Rio Olympics in 2016 is among the sporting moments, another image shows the fatal crash of Dan Wheldon at the IndyCar World Championship in Las Vegas in 2011.
Britain’s Prince William and his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, kiss on the balcony at Buckingham Palace, alongside bridesmaids Grace van Cutsem (left), Margarita Armstrong-Jones and pageboy Tom Pettifer, after their wedding in Westminster Abbey in London on April 29, 2011. When the couple kissed on the balcony of Buckingham Palace before the crowd, the world gasped in delight. But William’s three-year-old goddaughter Grace stole the show in this picture, famously covering her ears during the first public kiss as the crowd cheered.
Smoke billows as fire engulfs the spire of Notre Dame Cathedral shortly before its collapse in Paris, France on April 15, 2019. There was an outpouring of sympathy from around the world when much of the 850-year-old Cathedral has been ripped apart by the blaze. The Queen said she and Prince Philip were ‘deeply saddened’ to see the images of the flames bursting out of the Gothic building in a message to French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron for his part declared that he would rebuild the structure
Usain Bolt of Jamaica looks at Andre De Grasse of Canada as they compete in the 2016 Rio Olympics, Men’s 100m Semifinals at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on August 14, 2016. Bolt had a predictably terrible start but came from behind to run it in in 9.81 seconds, overhauling drugs cheat Justin Gatlin, of the USA, who clocked 9.89, in the dying metres. Canada’s Andre de Grasse clinched the bronze medal in a personal best 9.91.
Anti-Gaddafi fighters fire a multiple rocket launcher near Sirte, previously one of Muammar Gaddafi’s last remaining strongholds in Libya on September 24, 2011. Colonel Gaddafi was captured by Libyan rebels, dragged from a drain in the city of Sirte and battered mercilessly, his face bloodied for all the world to see on mobile phone footage. Gaddafi was said to have been executed by his own personal golden gun which was held up in celebration by jubilant rebels and became a symbol of their victory.
U.S. President Barack Obama (2nd L) and Vice President Joe Biden (L), along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, Washington, U.S., May 1, 2011. Obama watched on a TV screen with government officials as a commando gunned down bin Laden. Via a video camera fixed to the helmet of a U.S. Navy Seal, the leader of the free world saw the terror chief shot in the left eye. The footage of the battle in Bin Laden’s Pakistani hideout was said to show one of his wives acting as a human shield to protect him as he blasted away with an AK47 assault rifle. She died, along with three other men, including one of Bin Laden’s sons. Within hours, the Al Qaeda leader’s body was buried at sea.
The race car of driver Will Power (left) goes airborne during the IZOD IndyCar World Championship race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., October 16, 2011. Dan Wheldon (whose car is not pictured) died from fatal injuries. The father-of-two was catapulted helplessly into the air at 225mph before landing on a barrier.
US President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea on June 30, 2019. ‘You’re the first U.S. president to cross this line,’ Kim told him, moments after Trump became the first American president to venture into North Korean territory. Trump announced after the meeting that in the ‘near future’ the two sides would be able to ‘get some good results after concrete negotiations’ – but with nothing tangible other than the commitment to resume talks.
British comedian known as Lee Nelson (unseen) throws banknotes at FIFA President Sepp Blatter as he arrives for a news conference after the Extraordinary FIFA Executive Committee Meeting at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland on July 20, 2015. The incident took place at the first meeting of the world governing body’s executive committee since its corruption crisis exploded. The meeting in Zurich had been called to allocate the date for a special Congress to elect a new president after Blatter’s announcement that he would step down. That decision followed mounting pressure on FIFA following a series of arrests, including seven FIFA officials in Zurich, following an FBI investigation and separate probes by Swiss authorities into the bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Paralympic gold medallist Oscar Pistorius walks across the courtroom without his prosthetic legs during the third day of the re-sentencing hearing for the 2013 murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, at Pretoria High Court, South Africa on June 15, 2016. Pistorius shot dead Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013 when he fired four times through the locked door of his bedroom toilet, later saying that he thought she was an intruder.
Doaa Elghobashy of Egypt and Kira Walkenhorst of Germany compete in the 2016 Rio Olympics Beach Volleyball Women’s Preliminary in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 8, 2016. The outfit of Elghobashy, who was covered from her head to her ankles, was in stark contrast to her German rival Walkenhorst who stuck to the sport’s traditional two-piece outfit for the clash. Although the International Volleyball Federation used to have standards regulating the size of uniforms, those were loosened heading into the London 2012 Olympics to allow full sleeves and leggings.
A wave approaches Miyako City from the Heigawa estuary in Iwate Prefecture after a magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck the area in Miyako, Japan, March 11, 2011. It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in the country and the fourth most powerful to ever be recorded globally. It killed nearly 16,000 people and caused food and water shortages to hundreds of thousands in the aftermath. The tsunami precipitated the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the most severe nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster
Air Force One carrying U.S. President Barack Obama and his family flies over a neighbourhood of Havana as it approaches the runway to land at Havana’s international airport, Cuba, March 20, 2016. Obama was the first sitting president in nearly 90 years to visit the island, in a trip that the White House said would ‘deepen’ America’s relationship with the authoritarian government following more than half a century of tension.
Rebels hold a young man at gunpoint, who they accuse of being a loyalist to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, between the towns of Brega and Ras Lanuf, Libya, March 3, 2011. The First Libyan Civil War started in 2011 between rebels and those lawyer to Colonel Gaddafi. The conflict was part of the wider Arab Spring, anti-government protests which shook north Africa and the Middle East in the early years of the decade. The unresolved issues of the First Libyan War led to the second civil war which still grips the nation today.
Britain’s Prince Harry gestures next to his wife Meghan as they ride a horse-drawn carriage after their wedding ceremony at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle in Windsor, Britain, May 19, 2018. Bride Meghan made her entrance in a stunning, elegant wedding gown by Clare Waight Keller for Givenchy as she arrived to marry Harry. Harry appeared to wait nervously at the altar of the church and could be seen mouthing to Meghan ‘You look amazing’ as they met at the altar, to which the bride replied ‘thank you.’
ISIS fighters take part in a military parade along the streets of northern Raqqa province, Syria, June 30, 2014. ISIS took over the city, making it the capital of their so-called caliphate, until they were forced out by a US-led coalition in 2017. For three years, Raqqa saw some of ISIS’s worst abuses and grew into one of its main governance hubs, a centre for both its potent propaganda machine and its unprecedented experiment in jihadist statehood.
Lynn and Christopher McDonnell, the parents of seven-year-old Grace McDonnell, grieve near Sandy Hook Elementary after learning their daughter was one of 20 school children and six adults killed after a gunman opened fire inside the school in Newtown, Connecticut, U.S., December 14, 2012. Adam Lanza killed his mother then shot his way into the Newtown school before committing suicide. Lanza’s obsessions with firearms, death and mass shootings have been documented by police files, and investigators previously concluded the motive for the shootings may never be known.
U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes 11-year-old Frank Giaccio as he cuts the Rose Garden grass at the White House in Washington, U.S., September 15, 2017. When Trump walked out to meet the Virginia boy, Giaccio didn’t stop. He kept his safety goggles on and earplugs in, and kept pushing the Honda mower. ‘Wow! Great job, Frank! Great job!’ Trump said. Photographers and video camera operators laughed as Giaccio kept going and Trump was forced to walk alongside him – pronouncing his lawn-cutting ‘perfect’ and asking: ‘Have you done this before?’ Giaccio had written to the president and told him it would be his honour to mow the lawn.
The full moon rises through the Olympic Rings hanging beneath Tower Bridge during the London 2012 Olympic Games in Britain, August 3, 2012. The eyes of the world were firmly fixed on London, from the hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the globe who arrived to share the Olympic experience, to the billion plus people who tuned in to watch events unfold on TV. And they saw a united London, a city that rose to the occasion and has basked in the spotlight.
Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May stands out from the crowd as she arrives for a family photo during the European Union leaders informal summit in Salzburg, Austria, September 20, 2018. Mrs May’s faltering Brexit negotiations with the Bloc appeared to be exposed by her frequently stilted interactions with her counterparts during her tenure. To many it symbolised the EU’s attitude towards Britain following the decision to leave the EU in June.
The Northern Lights are seen above the ash plume of a volcano in Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland, April 22, 2010. The eruptions caused travel chaos across Europe as air travel was disrupted on the continent for six days. Hundreds of planes were grounded due to dust and ash filling the sky and it caused the greatest air travel disruption since World War Two.
Indians who are considered uncontacted by anthropologists, react to a plane flying over their community in the Amazon basin near the Xinane river in Brazil’s Acre State, Brazil, March 25, 2014. Leaders of the Ashaninka tribe, which shared territory with the tribe and other uncontacted ones, had asked the government and NGOs for help in controlling what they considered the encroachment of these tribes on their own area, stating that the movement of other tribes is caused by pressure from illegal logging across the border in Peru
Anti-government protesters celebrate inside Tahrir Square after the announcement of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation in Cairo, Egypt. President Obama hailed the resignation of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak. ‘In stepping down, President Mubarak has responded to the Egyptian people’s hunger for change,’ he said. ‘Today belongs to the people of Egypt.’ Mubarak’s three decades of authoritarian rule ended when he handed power to the Egyptian military following 18 days of protests.
Pope Benedict XVI enters a building during his visit to Lambeth Palace in London, Britain, September 17, 2010. The Pope made history by becoming the first pontiff to step foot inside Lambeth Palace. Lambeth Palace, on the south bank of the River Thames, has been the London residence of archbishops of Canterbury since the 13th century. It acts as a home for the Archbishop and his family when in London and as the central office for his ministry.
U.S. Army soldiers from the 2nd Platoon, B battery 2-8 field artillery, fire a howitzer artillery piece at Seprwan Ghar forward fire base in Panjwai district, Kandahar province southern Afghanistan, June 12, 2011. Trump has made little secret of his desire to bring the 14,000 U.S. troops home from Afghanistan, where American troops have been deployed since a U.S.-led campaign overthrew the Taliban in 2001. But there are concerns among Afghan officials and U.S. national security aides about a U.S. withdrawal, with fears Afghanistan could be plunged into a new civil war that could herald a return of Taliban rule and allow international militants, including Islamic State, to find a refuge.
Film producer Harvey Weinstein arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, U.S., May 25, 2018. The 67-year-old mogul was charged with two counts of rape, a count of criminal sex act and two counts of predatory sexual assault for allegedly raping a woman in 2013 and sexually assaulting another in 2006. Weinstein’s case was seen as a watershed moment and followed from the Times Up and #MeToo movements which drew attention to powerful men abusing their positions with women
White House Communications Director Hope Hicks leaves the U.S. Capitol after attending the House Intelligence Committee closed door meeting in Washington, U.S., February 27, 2018. President Donald Trump’s longtime aide Hicks declined to answer questions about her time in the White House during a nine-hour, closed-door interview with the House intelligence committee, saying she was advised not to. The panel was probing Russian interference in the 2016 election and any contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russia. Hicks was his spokeswoman during the 2016 presidential campaign and is now White House communications director.
Men use ropes to try and right a supply truck overloaded with wheat straw, used as animal feed, along a road in Dargai, in the Malakand district, about 100 miles northwest of Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on April 13, 2012