A look back at some of the defining moments from around the world in 2016:
POLITICS
After 18 months of bitter, bizarre and sometimes barely believable campaigning, the race for the White House reached its climax in November with Donald Trump triumphing over Hillary Clinton in the US presidential election.
The UK provided the world with another WTF moment with a vote to leave the EU on June 23.
The shock result that saw 52 per cent of the public support Brexit was a victory for then Ukip leader Nigel Farage and a humiliating defeat for then Prime Minister David Cameron.
Cameron resigned on the spot and Theresa May took over after a bitter selection battle.
WAR AND TERROR
The main theatre of war was in Syria, where rebels in December reached a cease-fire deal to evacuate from eastern Aleppo in an effective surrender after nearly six-years of brutal conflict produced catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
Islamic State found itself on the retreat in its Iraq stronghold of Mosul, but snuck in to recapture the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra while the focus was on Aleppo.
In March, Brussels was hit by terror attacks on Zaventem airport and a station close to European Union buildings on the city's metro system, killing 32 people.
The US suffered the deadliest mass shooting in the country's modern history when a gunman who sympathised with Islamist extremist groups killed 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida in June.
In France, a Tunisian man drove a 19-tonne truck along a packed Nice promenade, mowing down people in the Bastille Day crowd on July 14 before he was shot dead by police.
PEOPLE
2016 was full of big personalities.
Bombastic billionaire and president-elect Donald Trump was named Time Magazine Person of the Year, judged as the person who "for better or for worse ... has done the most to influence the events of the year".
Brexit gave the world arch eurosceptic Nigel Farage and ex-London Mayor Boris Johnson, known as much for his often outlandish persona and dishevelled mop of platinum hair as for his politics.
Firebrand Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte launched a deadly war on drugs and a series of profanities against world leaders including Pope Francis - whom he declared a "son of a whore" - President Barack Obama and UN Seretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
After controversially winning the Nobel prize in literature, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan broke his silence by comparing himself to Shakespeare in an apology for not attending the December ceremony in Stockholm.
Another of the big personalities of 2016 wasn't a human. Harambe, an endangered silverback gorilla, was shot by zoo staff after a three-year-old boy fell into his enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo in May. His death prompted an outpouring of online grief and he became the centre of a viral craze.
DISASTERS
The mosquito-borne Zika virus, linked to the rare birth defect microcephaly, was the global medical emergency of the year. The World Health Organisation announced an international public health emergency in February and declared the emergency over in November after the virus had spread to more than 60 countries and territories.
On August 25 a magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck central Italy, killing 300 and destroying the village of Amatrice, followed by a 7.8 tremor New Zealand's South Island on November 14 which killed two people inKaikoura earthquake. On December 7 more than 100 people died and tens of thousands were displaced after a 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck off the Indonesia province of Aceh.
In September, Hurricane Matthew, the fiercest Carribbean storm in nearly a decade, slammed into Haiti leaving in its wake a death toll of to 1,000.
Disaster also came from the skies. On May 19 Egypt Air Flight 804 crashed into the Mediterranean sea en route to Cairo International airport and on November 28 a chartered plane crashed near Medellin, killing 71 people including 19 members of the Chapecoense soccer club.
DISPATCHES
The World farewelled many notables in 2016.
The death of David Bowie after a secret battle with cancer just after his 69th birthday cast a pall over the new year and Prince died at 57 from an accidental opiod overdose at his home in Minnesota in April.
Muhammad Ali was remembered as a "natural force" after he died at 74 following a three-decade battle with Parkinsons disease .
Singer-song writer Leonard Cohen died in his sleep at his Los Angeles home in November.
Actor Gene Wilder died from complications of Alzheimer's disease in August and the author of one of America's most enduring literary classics, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, died in February at the age of 89.
TECHNOLOGY
In September, Apple launched its iPhone 7 amid furore over its decision to do away with the headphone jack. Samsung also found itself batting of negative press in the face of its exploding Note 7 phone fiasco.
Ride hailing company Uber angered authorities when it launched a self-driving service in San Francisco in December while UNICEF revealed Malawi is planning the world's first air corridor for drones used for humanitarian and development purposes, due to open for testing by April 2017.
CELEBRITIES
Angelina Jolie announced in September she was separating from Brad Pitt, ending the Hollywood power partnership known as Brangelina.
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard split amid domestic violence allegations and Heard filed for divorce in May, citing irreconcilable differences.
But arguably the celebrity story of the year goes to Kim Kardashian, who was tied up and robbed of $US10 million worth of jewellery at gunpoint in Paris. Her husband Kanye West checked into hospital after a much publicised meltdown soon afterwards, only to re-emerge two weeks later from Trump Tower after a meeting with the president-elect .
AND ON A HAPPIER NOTE....
The Refugee Olympic Team won a standing ovation and hearts around the world when they marched in the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics in Brazil as independent participants.
