Pictures of the decade

Some of the most iconic photographs taken between 2000 and 2009

  • 22 February 2000: Uluru - formerly known as Ayers Rock - turns an unusual colour as waterfalls cascade down it during the worst floods for two decades
    Pictures of the Decade: 22 February 2000: Uluru (Ayers Rock) turns an unusual colour

  • 25 July 2000: Air France flight 4590 takes off from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. The Concorde crashed shortly after this picture was taken killing 113 people
    Pictures of the Decade: 25 July 2000: Air France flight 4590 takes off from Charles de Gaulle

  • 24 August 2000: Relatives of the crew of the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk throw flowers from a ship in the Barents Sea, close to where the submarine sank after an explosion, killing 118 sailors on board
    Pictures of the Decade: 24 August 2000: Relatives of the crew of the submarine Kursk throw flowers

  • 20 October 2000: George Bush at a rally in Bangor, Maine. His opponent Al Gore won the popular vote in the 7 November election but crucially, lost Florida's 25 electoral votes after a recount was halted
    Pictures of the Decade: 20 October 2000: George Bush at a rally in Bangor, Maine

  • 24 November 2000: A judge examines a disputed US election ballot in Florida
    Pictures of the Decade: 24 November 2000: A judge examines a disputed US election ballot in Florida

  • 22 January 2001: After being swallowed, a rainbow trout fingerling peers out of the gullet of a northern pike in an aquarium in Anchorage, Alaska
    Pictures of the Decade: 22 January 2001: A rainbow trout fingerling swallowed by a northern pike

  • 23 March 2001: Cattle are incinerated at Ellonby, near Penrith, Cumbria, during the early stage of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak which lasted for much of the year
    Pictures of the Decade: 23 March 2001: Cattle are incinerated at Ellonby because of foot-and-mouth

  • 8 June 2001: Prime Minister Tony Blair kisses his son Leo on the steps of 10 Downing Street the morning after Labour won a second term with a mjaority of 167 seats
    Pictures of the Decade: 8 June 2001: Prime Minister Tony Blair kisses his son Leo

  • 11 September 2001: The view over the Hudson river in New York City as the World Trade Centre collapsed after passenger airliners were flown into the twin towers
    Pictures of the Decade: 11 September 2001: view over the Hudson as the World Trade Centre collapsed

  • 1 January 2002: The ‘Euro Bridge’ sound and light show followed by fireworks celebrates the launch of the single European currency at Cinquentenaire park in Brussels. Britain declined to join the euro
    2002-03: 2002: Fireworks celebrate the launch of the euro in Brussels

  • 18 January 2002: Al-Qaida and Taliban detainees kneel in a holding area under the surveillance of US military police at Camp X-Ray at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, after they were captured in Afghanistan
    2002-03: 2002: Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay

  • 20 March 2002: A restaurant worker covers her head with a plastic bag near Tiananmen Gate, Beijing, during a sandstorm fuelled by extensive deforestation and desertifi cation in northern China
    2002-03: 2002, Beijing: A woman covers her head with a plastic bag in a sandstorm

  • 24 March 2002: Halle Berry accepts the best actress Oscar for Monsters Ball at the Academy awards in Los Angeles
    2002-03: 2002: Halle Berry accepts best actress awards at the Oscars

  • 30 March 2002: Prince Albert, a 71-year-old former banker, tours Germany with the show Modern Primitives
    2002-03: 2002: Modern Primitives tour

  • 30 March 2002: Shell cases scattered in the West Bank town of Ramallah after street battles during Israel’s siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s HQ. The UN security council called for Israel’s withdrawal
    2002-03: 2002: Shell cases scattered in the West Bank town of Ramallah

  • 7 April 2002: Members of the public queue along the banks of the river Thames in London to pay their respects to the Queen Mother, who was lying in state at Westminster Hall after her death at the age of 101
    2002-03: People queue to see the Queen Mother lying in state at Westminster Hall

  • 15 February 2003: Anti Iraq war demonstrators make their way down Piccadilly, London, before attending a rally in Hyde Park. Police put the number attending the demonstration in London at 750,000, while organisers contended that it was nearer 2 million
    2002-03: 2003: Anti war protesters in London

  • 30 March 2003: Families leaving Basra across one of the town’s bridges manned by British soldiers on the 11th day of the war in Iraq. British troops finally withdrew from Basra and southern Iraq in 2009
    2002-03: 2003: Families leaving Basra

  • 4 April 2003: A British soldier, part of a team led by 2 Close Support regiment, Royal Logistics Corps, is refl ected in a pool of oil as he patrols a looted gas and oil separation plant south of Basra, southern Iraq
    2002-03: 2003: A British soldier in Iraq

  • 7 Oct 2004: A soldier with the Sudan Liberation Army. Hundreds of thousands of Sudanese fled the country after violent civil war broke out with the government-backed janjaweed terrorising the towns
    Pictures of the Decade: 7 Oct 2004: A soldier with the Sudan Liberation Army

  • 12 November 2004: Security men try to control the crowds helping to carry the coffin of the veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, in the West Bank town of Ramallah, to his final resting place
    Pictures of the Decade: 12 November 2004: Security men with Yasser Arafat's coffin

  • 11 December 2004: A crying boy is one of the many freed hostages who were rescued by special forces who entered a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, to confront Chechen terrorists after a three-day standoff
    Pictures of the Decade: 11 December 2004: Freed hostages outside a school in Beslan

  • 12 January 2005: B of the Bang, the UK's tallest sculpture, designed by Thomas Heatherwick, was unveiled in east Manchester. The 58m weathered steel structure, a memorial to the Commonwealth Games standing in the shadow of Manchester City's Eastlands stadium, has now been dismatnled due to structural problems
    Pictures of the Decade: 12 January 2005: B of the Bang sculpture designed by Thomas Heatherwick

  • 13 January 2005: Kibabu, a 240kg male western lowland gorilla eats during feeding time at Taronga Zoo, Sydney
    Pictures of the Decade: 13 January 2005: Kibabu, a 240kg male western lowland gorilla

  • 18 April 2007: Dame Ellen MacArthur sailed solo around the world, beating the record set by Francis Joyon
    Pictures of the Decade: 18 April 2007: Dame Ellen MacArthur sailed solo around the world

  • 13 June 2005: Michael Jackson leaves Santa Maria court with his family members and bodyguards after being cleared of all charges in his child abuse case
    Pictures of the Decade: 13 June 2005: Michael Jackson leaves Santa Maria court after his case

  • 7 July 2005: An injured passenger is helped away from Edgware Road station after a series of co-ordinated bomb blasts rocked the public transport system in the capital - the day terrorism returned to London
    Pictures of the Decade: 7 July 2005: An injured passenger is helped away from Edgware Road station

  • 12 September 2005: The mudflats in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire, where at least 21 Chineses immigrants who were wroking as cockle pickers, were killed after they became cut off by the fast moving tide
    Pictures of the Decade: 12 September 2005: Morecambe Bay, where 21 Chinese cockle pickers died

  • 1 February 2006: A Jewish settler struggles with an Israeli security officer as authorities evacuated the illegal West Bank settlement of Amona, near the Palestinian town of Ramallah
    Pictures of the decade: A Jewish settler struggles with an Israeli security officer in Amona

  • 13 July 2006: President George W Bush reacts to a crying baby on a visit to Trinwillershagen, Germany
    Pictures of the decade: President George W Bush and a crying baby

  • 26 December 2006: A survivor rinses soot from his face at the scene of an oil pipeline explosion near Nigeria's capital Lagos, that killed more than 200 people and severely burned many others
    Pictures of the decade: A survivor rinses soot from his face after an oil pipeline explosion

  • 30 December 2006: TV image of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein at his execution in Baghdad
    Pictures of the decade: Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein at his execution in Baghdad

  • 22 January 2007: Night falls on the container ship MSC Napoli which was damaged by gales and then beached by salvors in the Channel. Goods from her cargo turned up on nearby beaches
    Pictures of the decade: Beached Cargo Ship Raises Pollution Fears Off The Devon Coast

  • 27 June 2007: Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah greet the media at 10 Downing Street after Brown took over as prime minister from Tony Blair
    Pictures of the decade: Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah greet the media at 10 Downing Street

  • 22 July 2007: Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire is surrounded by floodwaters from the rivers Avon and Severn
    Pictures of the decade: Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire is surrounded by floodwaters

  • 3 August 2007: Kate McCann clutches her daughter Madeleine's Cuddle Cat nearly 100 days after her daughter Madeleine went missing from a holiday apartment in Portugal. She has not yet been found
    Pictures of the decade: Kate McCann clutches her daughter Madeleine's Cuddle Cat toy

  • 13 May 2008: Heavily pregnant Zhang Xiaoyan, 34, is pulled alive from an apartment that collapsed after a powerful earthquake in China. Up to 70,000 people were killed, with an estimated 10 million left homeless
    Pictures of the decade: A woman is rescued after a powerful earthquake in China

  • 12 June 2008: Sudanese women walk to their homes in a refugee camp near Gos Beida in eastern Chad. The conflict in Darfur flared in 2003 forcing thousands from their homesR
    Pictures of the decade: Sudanese women walk to their homes in a refugee camp in eastern Chad

  • 9 August 2008: A Georgian clutches a relative's body after a Russian plane bombed an apartment block in Gori, 50 miles from Tbilisi, during the conflict over South Ossetia
    Pictures of the decade: A Georgian man mourns after Russian plane bombed an apartment block in Gori

  • 5 November 2008: Barack Obama arrives to speak to supporters in Chicago at an election night rally with his wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha after being declared the winner of the US presidential campaign
    Pictures of the decade: Barack Obama arrives to speak to supporters in Chicago

  • 7 November 2008: The head of collapsed Lehman Brothers, Richard Fuld Jr prepares to testify
    Pictures of the decade: The head of collapsed Lehman Brothers, Richard Fuld Jr prepares to testify

  • 11 January 2009: Kate Winslet wins the Golden Globe for best actress
    Pictures of the decade: 11 January 2009: Kate Winslet wins the Golden Globe for best actress

  • 16 January 2009: Passengers awaiting rescue huddle on the wings of a US Airways Airbus A320 that was forced to ditch in the Hudson river after hitting birds following takeoff from LaGuardia airport, New York
    Pictures of the decade: Passengers awaiting rescue huddle on wings of a plane in the Hudson river

  • 9 June 2009: Supporters of the Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi at a rally three days before the disputed presidential election. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner, sparking protests
    Pictures of the decade: Supporters of the Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi at a rally
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