The last year of this decade started amid a power struggle between the White House and the Democratic leaders in Congress, resulting in the longest government shutdown in U.S. history that lasted for 35 days.
By the end of 2019, a U.S. president had been impeached for only the third time in history by the House of Representatives.
In between those two historic events, all eyes stayed on Congress and President Donald Trump. Capitol Hill was the scene of endless hearings related to special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in U.S. elections and an impeachment inquiry that followed Trump's phone call with Ukraine asking for an investigation into a political rival.
Elsewhere, communities found themselves once again coping with gun violence. A school in Colorado lost two students within weeks of the 20th anniversary of Columbine. A Poway, California, synagogue was the scene of a shooting six months after 11 people died at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue. The list of shooting scenes expanded when gunfire erupted at a garlic festival in Gilroy, California, a kosher market in Jersey City, New Jersey, and a backyard barbecue in Fresno.
Weeks- and months-long protests became the norm around the world, intensifying in scale and longevity. Hong Kong protesters sunk the territory's GDP in a pro-democracy, anti-Beijing demonstration that persisted from summer to winter. French strikers shut down the country's metro system and the Eiffel Tower amid pension changes. In Sweden, a 16-year-old girl picketing alone in front of parliament became the symbol of a global youth movement for climate change.
See the photos.
