2013 was a year filled with ups, downs, controversies and above all, surprise. While we say that at the end of every year, here are 60 photos to help illustrate our point. Example number one? This brave man runs up a greasy pole known as a “gostra” during the feast of St. Julian, near Valletta, Malta.
Taken moments before this Sumatran tiger killed the swine, here it is featured playing with it.
A Filipino zoo owner reads a bedtime story to his pet snakes in Manila.
Poodles perform at the Ukrainian National Circus.
All Children’s Hospital admit Sao Doan watches as Spider Man washes her window in Florida.
A lost dog wanders about the polluted waters of Ahmedabad on World Earth Day.
An ursine employee at China’s Harbin International Ice and Snow World Festival dons a panda costume.
A fly lands between Barack Obama’s eyes while giving a speech at the White House.
A pig uses a dead sow as “land” amid floods in Chongqing, China.
A penguin at the Prague Zoo took a moment to observe the city’s flooding commercial zones this past summer.
Women relax by St. Petersburg’s Peter and Paul Fortress.
A deceased leopard in a Czech taxidermy shop receives acupuncture treatment to keep its skin tight.
Seeing red, a monkey is surrounded by carps in Hefei, China’s wildlife park.
Horses being transported from a cargo ship to a truck in East Java, Indonesia.
One demonstrator locks lips with a riot officer amid a protest against the construction of a high-speed train between Lyon and Turin.
Three Brazilians in masks participating in the Cavalhadas festival, a tradition that re-enacts the Christian knights’ medieval defeat of the Moors.
A young Indian boy hovers above the Ganges river’s overflowing waters.
A troop of kangaroos clear the fairway during the Handa Australian Open in Canberra, Australia.
7-year-old Mandira Budhatoki poses for a photo 118 miles northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal. Mandira suffers from Congenital Hypertrichosis Lanuginosa, also known as “werewolf syndrome”.
A horse blessing ceremony in the church of Saint Rocco before the famous Palio horse race in Siena, Italy.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service confiscate a gorilla hand with a chipped manicure in Baltimore, Maryland.
A group of (hopefully) friends contort themselves into a wall as part of Porto, Portugal’s “Bodies in Urban Spaces” project.
Green algae blankets a Qingdao beach. While aesthetically unpleasing, the seaweed is non-toxic.
During halftime at a LA Galaxy and Seattle Sounders soccer game, a dinosaur representing LA’s Natural History Museum took to the green.
Pope Francis poses with the youth at Saint Peter’s Basilica.
A deer stranded on the roof in Verneuil-sur-Indre, France.
Over the summer, the Elbe river in Germany flooded over. This scene is taken from Magdeburg.
A pet tiger makes a good pillow for a chihuahua in Maringa, Brazil.
Children beating a gay rights activist protesting in Russia, following the proposal of a new law that would effectively prohibit gay rights rallies.
Palestinian boys running from explosions, carting away AK47s. Each year, Islamic Jihad runs paramilitary summer camps for over 10,000 children
George W. Bush locks eyes with US Army 1st Lieutenant Melissa Stockwell, the first female American soldier to lose a limb in the war in Iraq. Here, Stockwell is reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
A girl mourns the death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez during his funeral in Caracas.
Madagascar, inundated with a swarm of red locusts.
A group of baby pandas being treated with utmost care at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.
A man holding two burned birds after a fire tore through a homeless compound in Benghazi, Libya.
South African Matt Silver-Vallance made a 7 kilometer flight in helium-filled balloons to raise money and awareness for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital.
Masha the 11-year-old bear practices her tightrope technique during a St. Petersburg circus rehearsal.
An alligator struts through the PGA Tour Zurich Classic in Louisiana.
In the Philippines’ Malabon Zoo, a python leans in on an orangutan.
Two pygmy chimps indulge in some sports at Germany’s Wilhelma Zoological Botanical Gardens.
Ahmed, 7, stands before a Free Syrian Army stronghold in Aleppo, smoking a cigarette.
With two guns piercing through his cheeks, this Chinese Jui Tui Shrine acolyte takes part in Phuket, Thailand’s annual vegetarian festival.
The demure ensemble that two-year-old Princess Anne wore during Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation is featured at Buckingham Palace.
Rightfully aggravated lions after having snowballs thrown at them in the Hangzhou Zoo.
In Mexico City on Valentine’s Day, a child draws a nude model in a workshop.
The Sisters of Consolation cheer on cyclists during the Tour de France in its fifth stage.
During heavy rainfall and landslides in Yingxiu, Sichuan province, over 300 people were excavated.
Pelicans awaiting their release into an outdoor enclosure in Marlow, eastern Germany.
People throwing turnips during the Jarramplas Festival in Piornal, Spain.
Riot officers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, try to restore order following the protest against a raise in bus fares.
The two most recent popes meet at Italy’s Castel Gandolfo.
Rex, the world’s first bionic man is featured at London’s Science Museum. Equipped with a functional artificial circulatory system and blood, the humanoid can be yours for $1 million.
Russian children in Krasnoyark pour cold water onto themselves even as the temperature is -9.4 degrees Fahrenheit.
A woman in Cambodia has her head shaved to commemorate the passing of King Sihanouk.
Demonstrating the food chain in one snap, a group of students at the University of Delaware reeled in a female sand shark only to discover a dogfish inside of it.
American Garrett McNamara rides a wave in Nazare, Portugal.
Over 15,000 campers took to the 2013 International I Camping Festival in Jiangxi province’s Pingxiang.
John Boehner showcases some uncharacteristic warmth when tickling John Griffin III, the son of US Representative Tim Griffin following a vote on border safety and security.
Abayed, the dog featured here, was shot last year and immediately became paralyzed. Now, the herding dog sports a wheel walking aid so that he doesn’t have to sacrifice his time outdoors.
A tree edges its way through several thousands of used tires at a French recycling center.
