Yet a single photograph has the power to remind us – in a way that a year's worth of words cannot – why certain stories mattered.
Look at those people standing on the wings of a ditched airliner as it floats in a frigid river. They appear almost nonchalant as they wait to be rescued. "The Miracle on the Hudson" was the big news nearly a full year ago, but that one picture brings it all back as if it happened yesterday.
Flip through these snapshots in time and see what you might have forgotten about 2009 if not for the work photojournalists do every day of every year.
More from Time: Top 10 Pictures of the Year | The Top 10 Everything of 2009
From Pixcetera: Pictures of the Year
Also on Sphere: 2009's Top Scandals | Weirdest Stories | Dumbest Criminal Suspects | Deaths
