Photography plays a large role, with the still image continuing to hold extraordinary power, bypassing borders and languages and cultures, to inform and educate us. Its success is its impact, altering our actions or thoughts merely because it exists.

Time Magazine has picked it’s top ten photographs of 2014. Some of them show tragedy, some of them are full of life and happiness. Mostly, they depict the major incidents that have happened this year – the things that made headlines, and will be remembered forever.

Have a look:

Taken by Ross McDonnell in Kiev, Ukraine, in January, this image shows the morning after massive riots.

Massimo Sestini took this image in June, over the Mediterranean. It shows a navy boat that has rescued over 500 migrants between Africa and Malta.

Gaza made headlines for much of the year, and Tyler Hicks managed to capture the dire situation perfectly in July. A bomb blast from Israeli fighters killed a group of young boys who were playing on the sea wall.

Nikita Dudnik and his girlfriend were at the beach, in July, on a hot summer’s day in Siberia, when suddenly the weather turned and it started to hail. Nikita caught the images with his mobile phone, never imagining the world would see them.

Lest we forget one of the happier moments of the year: Ellen Degeneres taking a #selfie at the Academy Awards in March. What started out as a joke is now the most retweeted image of all time, standing at 3.36million.

Click through to Time for the rest.