The year 2009 is now coming to a close, and it's time to take a look back over the past 12 months through photographs. Historic elections were held in Iran, India and the United States, some wars wound down while others escalated, China turned 60, and the Berlin Wall was remembered 20 years after it came down. Each photo tells its own tale, weaving together into the larger story of 2009.
Pro-democracy protesters carrying a mock coffin try to cross a police line during a demonstration demanding China improve its human rights record, outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong October 1, 2009 as China celebrates the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Norway's Anders Jacobsen competes in the first jump during the third stage of the Four Hills FIS ski jumping championship (Vierschanzentourne
Michael Jackson's daughter Paris (center) is comforted by family members at a memorial service for the music legend at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on July 7, 2009. 
From 20 degrees above the ring plane, Cassini's wide angle camera shot 75 exposures in succession for this mosaic showing Saturn, its rings, and a few of its moons a day and a half after exact Saturn equinox, when the sun's disk was exactly overhead at the planet's equator. The images were taken on Aug. 12, 2009, at a distance of approximately 847,000 km (526,000 mi) from Saturn. 
A leopard walks with a tranquilizer dart hanging from its neck, in the residential area of Jyotikuchi in Guwahati, the capital city of the northeastern state of Assam, India on March 15, 2009. Three people were mauled by the leopard after the cat strayed into the city before it was tranquilized by forestry department officials. The full grown male leopard was wandering through a part of the densely populated city when curious crowds startled the animal, a wildlife official said. 
The sun sets behind the London eye on March 16, 2009 in London, England. 
Palestinian civilians and medics run to safety during an Israeli strike over a UN school in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip early on January 17, 2009. A woman and a child were killed early today in the Israeli strike on the UN-run school in northern Gaza where civilians were sheltering from the fighting, medics and witnesses said. 
Thousands of scrapped taxis are abandoned at a yard in the center of Chongqing city on March 4, 2009. Traffic congestion and pollution have worsened dramatically in Chinese cities as the country's long-running economic expansion has allowed increasing numbers of consumers to make big-ticket purchases such as cars. 
Bengal Tiger Kingda Ka smashes pumpkins during Fall at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, November 8, 2009. 
A Palestinian demonstrator uses a tennis racket to return an empty tear gas canister at Israeli soldiers during a protest against the controversial Israeli barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin near Ramallah October 23, 2009. 
Ultra-Orthodox Jews belonging to the Vishnitz Hassidic sect dance on their benches as they celebrate the Jewish festival of Purim late on March 9, 2009 in Bnei Brak, a religious town near Tel Aviv. 
A ring of water vapour is created around pilot Lt. Justin Halligan (left) and Lt. Michael Witt (right) as they fly their F/A-18F Super Hornet airplane while performing at New York Air Show at Jones Beach in Wantagh, New York, May 23, 2009. 
SC Braga's goalkeeper Eduardo Carvalho pulls his shirt over his head at the end of their Portuguese First league football match against FC Porto at the AXA Stadium in Braga, on September 19, 2009. Braga won the match 1-0. 
Supporters of former South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun gather during a funeral ceremony in downtown Seoul on May 29, 2009. Thousands of weeping mourners packed the streets to pay their last respects to former President Roh Moo-Hyun amid a massive outpouring of grief and tight security. 
Belgian milk producers pour about 3 million liters (793,000 gallons) of milk onto a field near the Belgian city of Ciney September 16, 2009 in protest over a growing industrial dispute over low prices. Support is growing among European Union member states for a new regulatory set-up for milk farmers struggling with depressed prices, France's agriculture minister, Michel Barnier, said on Tuesday. 
Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin rides a horse in southern Siberia's Tuva region August 3, 2009. Putin, a judo black belt who has flown in a fighter aircraft and shot a Siberian tiger in the wild, plunged into the depths of Lake Baikal aboard a mini-submersible on Saturday in a mission that added a new dimension to his macho image. 
Debris hangs on a destroyed building next to a giant statue and restaurant boat swept away along the Marikina river on September 29, 2009, outside Manila. Hundreds of thousands of exhausted Philippine flood survivors endured squalor in schools, gymnasiums and other makeshift shelters on September 29 as the death toll from Typhoon Ketsana (known in the Phillippines as "Ondoy") eventually climbed to over 650. 
A strange light phenomenon is sighted in the night sky above parts of northern Norway early December 9, 2009. Russia's new submarine-based intercontinental missile suffered the latest in a series of test failures, newspapers reported on Thursday, as unusual lights were spotted in Norway across the border from the launch site. 
A local performer dressed in traditional costume sings during the celebrations for the lantern festival in the city of Tianjin, located 100 km (62 miles) east of Beijing February 9, 2009. The lantern festival marks the last day of the two-week Chinese lunar new year celebrations. 
An empty wheelchair belonging to quadriplegic Patrick Ivison, 15, sits idle on the beach while Ivison, his mother, and friends prepare for another surf ride at the Cardiff State Beach in San Diego, California on October 6th, 2009. 
Fireworks illuminate the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin November 9, 2009, during celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. 
The new PS20 solar tower at the Solucar Platform in Sanlucar la Mayor, southern Spain, seen on Sept. 23, 2009. PS20, one of the most powerful commercial solar tower in the world, consists of a solar field made up of 1,255 mirrored heliostats aimed at the tower, producing steam which is converted into electricity generation by a turbine. 
Supporters of ousted Honduras' President Manuel Zelaya clash with soldiers near the presidential residency Tegucigalpa, Monday, June 29. 2009. Police fired tear gas to hold back thousands of Hondurans outside the occupied presidential residency as world leaders from Barack Obama to Hugo Chavez appealed to Honduras to reinstate Zelaya as president. 
Ted Kennedy Jr. kisses the casket of his father in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica during a funeral mass in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston on August 29, 2009. President Barack Obama, three former presidents and a nation's elite gathered in the rain to attend a grand Catholic funeral for Ted Kennedy, America's legendary political patriarch. 
A Hindu woman devotee offers prayers after taking a holy dip in the waters of river Ganga in the northern Indian city of Allahabad May 4, 2009. 
A young girl and her dog looks out from a vehicle as she and her family wait for security clearance at a checkpoint on the outskirt of Bannu, a town on edge of the Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009 as they flee a military offensive in South Waziristan. Pakistani troops and the Taliban fought fierce battles in Waziristan, a militant sanctuary near the Afghan border, with both sides claiming early victories in an army campaign that could shape the future of the country's battle against extremism. 
An eruption of Mt. Redoubt seen at sunset from the cockpit of a DC-6 flying over Cook Inlet near Anchorage, Alaska on March 31, 2009. Photograph kindly provided by Bryan Mulder - pilot and photographer.
A local couple canoes through Atlanta's famous Krog Tunnel on September 21st, 2009, after flooding followed heavy rains throughout the region.
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