The Year in Review / 2015

Some of the past year's most intriguing photos...

Photos + Descriptions / NBC News Archives - 2015
Please Note: Some Images may be disturbing...

A Cal Fire firefighter is silhouetted by his headlamp as he monitors a backfire while battling the Rocky Fire on Aug. 3, near Clearlake, California.  Some 12,200 people were ordered or advised to evacuate as the wildfire that started July 29 chewed through nearly 109 square miles of dry brush burning about 100 miles north of San Francisco.  Photo by Justin Sullivan

Children cry as migrants waiting on the Greek side of the border break through a cordon of Macedonian special police forces to cross into Macedonia, near the southern city of Gevgelija, Macedonia, on Aug. 21. Macedonian police clashed with thousands of migrants attempting to break into the country after being stranded in no-man's land overnight, marking an escalation of the European refugee crisis for the Balkan country.  Photo by Georgi Licovski 

Clementa Pinckney, Emanuel AME Church pastor and South Carolina state senator, lies in state at the South Carolina State House in Columbia on June 24. Pinckney was one of nine black parishioners killed by a white gunman during a Bible study inside Emanuel AME church in Charleston.  Photo by Jim Watson

An Orioles runner, wearing white, races towards home plate during a game against the Chicago White Sox in Baltimore on April 29. In a first for Major League Baseball, the Orioles hosted the White Sox in a stadium closed to fans, as Baltimore coped with some of the worst U.S. urban rioting in years after the death of Freddie Gray.  Photo by Adrees Latif

Musa, a 25-year-old Kurdish marksman, stands atop a building as he looks at the destroyed Syrian town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, on Jan. 30. Kurdish forces recaptured the town on the Turkish frontier on Jan. 26, in a symbolic blow to the jihadists who have seized large swathes of territory in their onslaught across Syria and Iraq.  Photo by Bulent Kilic

Fran Collings, 82, sits in the remains of her destroyed home in Tokai, Cape Town, South Africa, on March 4. A fire fanned by gale force winds raged over 7,000 acres around the Cape Town south peninsula. Photo by Nic Bothma 

Police officers salute as the coffin of officer Robert Wilson III arrives before a funeral procession on March 14 in Philadelphia. City officials said Wilson was shot and killed after he and his partner exchanged gunfire with two suspects trying to rob a video game store.  Photo by Matt Rourke

A police officer investigates the scene before carrying the lifeless body of 3-year-old refugee Aylan Kurdi from the beach near the resort-town of Bodrum, Turkey, on Sept. 2.  The pictures of the drowned toddler ricocheted across social media — hailed as emblematic of the desperate and deadly refugee struggle to reach Europe.  Photo Undocumented

Vice President Joe Biden, center, pauses his family as they to enter a visitation for his son, former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, on June 4 at Legislative Hall in Dover, Del. Standing with Biden are, from left, his son Hunter, granddaughter Natalie, daughter-in-law Hallie, grandson Hunter and wife Jill. Beau Biden died of brain cancer at age 46.  Photo by Patrick Semansky

A child rescued from Boko Haram in the Sambisa forest is attended to at a camp for the displaced in Yola, Nigeria, on May 3. Hundreds of traumatized Nigerian women and children rescued from the Islamist militant group were released into the care of authorities at the camp.  Photo by Afolabi Sotunde 

A large crowd gathers to lay flowers and candles in front of Le Carillon in Paris on Nov. 15. Le Carillon was one of the first restaurants hit in the multiple attacks across Paris by ISIS gunmen and suicide bombers that killed 130 people.  Photo by Ian Langsdon

The moon passes in front of the sun during a total solar eclipse witnessed from a plane over the Norwegian Sea on March 20.  Photo by Sergei Karpukhin

German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks with President Barack Obama during the G-7 summit near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southern Germany, on June 8.  Photo by Michael Kappeler

A woman and child examine a vehicle swept away during a flash flood on Sept. 15 in Hilldale, Utah.
The little Utah town where at least eight people were killed in a flash flood is the home of a polygamist religious sect.  Photo by Michael Chow

Pope Francis is welcomed to the Speaker's Balcony at the U.S. Capitol by members of Congress on Sept. 24. After visiting Washington and New York City, Pope Francis concluded his U.S. tour with events in and around Philadelphia.  Photo by Doug Mills

Desert surrounds properties in Rancho Mirage, Calif., on April 3. The state's history as a frontier of prosperity and glamour faces an uncertain future as the fourth year of severe water shortages prompted Gov. Jerry Brown to mandate a 25 percent reduction in non-agricultural water use.  Photo by Damon Winter

 Demonstrators climb on a destroyed Baltimore Police car during protests following the funeral of Freddie Gray on April 27.  Gray sustained neck injuries following an April 12 foot chase with police which ended with his being charged with possession of a switchblade and placed into a police van. He sustained neck injuries while riding in the van, and died a week later.  Photo by Chip Somodevilla

Crumpled containers are scattered at the site of explosions at the port in Tianjin, China, on Aug. 16. Huge blasts at a warehouse storing hazardous materials forced the evacuation of thousands and killed 173, many of them firefighters.  Photo by China Stringer Network

Several wild horses escape as a helicopter is used to herd them into a trap along Highway 21 near the Sulphur Herd Management Area south of Garrison, Utah, on Feb. 26. Citing public safety concerns, 100 horses were rounded-up after three confirmed automobile collisions with horses in the last year. The captured horses were made available for adoption through the bureau's Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Program.  Photo by Jim Urquhart 

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets supporters after his rally at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on Aug. 21 in Mobile, Alabama.  Photo by Mark Wallheiser

A column of migrants moves through fields in Rigonce, Slovenia, after crossing from Croatia on Oct. 25th. Tens of thousands of migrants and refugees are coming from Syria and beyond and marching across the Balkans toward the European Union's heartland.  Photo by Darko Bandic

Dollar bills flutter around the head President Sepp Blatter, head of the world soccer governing body known as FIFA, as he arrives for a news conference at FIFA headquarters in Zurich on July 20th. The shower of cash was tossed by a British prankster.  FIFA is reeling from the worst corruption scandal in its more than 100-year history, with 41 people including national soccer bosses as well as entities charged by U.S. prosecutors.  Photo by Arnd Wiegmann 

A Ukrainian coal miner waits for a bus after helping in the search for colleagues following an explosion in Donetsk in war-torn eastern Ukraine, killing more than 30 people. on March 4th - Photo by Vadim Ghirda.


See the full photo gallery of 50 Images at...

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/year-pictures-2015-n485456