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2013: Year in Review

We remember names — from the scandalous Miley Cyrus and Edward Snowden to history's Pope Francis and Prince George — and places like Boston and Oklahoma ... a date in 1963

  • The U.S. Capitol is seen reflected in Washington, D.C. (Bloomberg/Getty Images)
    Bloomberg/Getty Images

    January 2

    En español | The president signs the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, averting a "fiscal cliff" that threatened to plunge the nation back into recession. The law also extends expiring jobless benefits, blocks scheduled cuts in Medicare payments to doctors, and delays across-the-board spending cuts.

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  • Jodie Foster, receives the Cecil B. Demille Award, during the 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 13, 2013, in Beverly Hills, California. (NBC/AP)
    NBC/AP

    January 14

    "I'm 50! I'm 50!" actress Jodie Foster shouts at the beginning of a rambling acceptance speech for a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes. She goes on to give her first-ever public shout-out to Cydney Bernard, her then-life partner and co-parent.

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  • Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts administers the oath of office to President Barack Obama during the official swearing-in ceremony in the Blue Room of the White House on Inauguration Day, Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013. (The White House)
    The White House

    January 20

    Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. administers the oath of office that begins President Barack Obama's second term on the date set by the U.S. Constitution. It's the seventh time a president has taken the oath on a Sunday and then again on Monday for ceremonial purposes.

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  • Pope Francis greets the crowd as he arrives for his general audience at St Peter's square. (AFP/Getty Images)
    AFP/Getty Images

    March 13

    Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, 76, is elected the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. Taking the name Francis, he is the first non-European pope in more than 1,200 years, the first Jesuit pope and the first South American to lead the church.

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  • Bill Iffrig lies on the ground as police officers react to a second explosion at the finish line of the Boston Marathon in Boston. (John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe/AP)
    John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe/AP

    April 15

    Bill Iffrig of Lake Stevens, Wash., is running his third Boston Marathon when, as he nears the finish line, he's knocked down by one of two bomb blasts that kill three people and is caught in a news photograph that immediately goes viral. Iffrig, 78, gets up and finishes the race.

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  • Paula Deen appears on NBC News'
    NBCU/Getty Images

    May 17

    "Yes, of course," celebrity chef Paula Deen, 66, replies when asked during a videotaped deposition whether she has ever used the "N-word." After details of the deposition leak out on June 19, Deen loses not only her contract with the Food Network but also a series of endorsement deals.

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  • Barbara Garcia was overwhelmed with emotion when her pet dog is discovered just behind her in the rubble of her house as she is being interviewed by CBS News (CBS THIS MORNING)
    CBS This Morning

    May 20

    A tornado in Moore, Okla., claims 25 lives and destroys homes, vehicles and schools. The next day, during an interview with CBS News, resident Barbara Garcia is overcome with emotion when her miniature schnauzer, Bowser, assumed killed during the storm, is found wriggling beneath debris.

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  • Edward Snowden, a former technical assistant for the CIA, revealed details of top-secret surveillance conducted by the NSA, speaks during an interview in Hong Kong. (Getty Images)
    Getty Images

    June 9

    Edward J. Snowden, a former contractor for the National Security Agency, reveals that he leaked documents detailing mass-surveillance programs of the U.S. government. Snowden, 29, holes up in a Hong Kong hotel after fleeing the United States and in July will be granted temporary asylum in Russia.

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  • Edith Windsor, left, the plaintiff in the historic gay marriage case before the U.S. Supreme Court, accompanied by her attorney Robert Kaplan, arrives at the LGBT Center for a news conference, in New York, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. (AP)
    AP

    June 26

    The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, strikes down the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which has barred the recognition of same-sex marriages. Edie Windsor, 84, who brought the case challenging the law, is cheered as she arrives for a news conference in New York.

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  • Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, show their new-born baby boy Prince George to the world's media outside the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital in London (AFP/Getty Images)
    AFP/Getty Images

    July 22

    Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, and his wife, Kate, "could not be happier" after she gives birth to a boy. The future king (Prince George) is born in the same hospital in London's Paddington where Diana, Princess of Wales, gave birth to princes William and Harry.

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  • Singer Linda Ronstadt discusses her new memoir  on ABC's
    ABC/Getty Images

    August 23

    In an interview with AARP, singer Linda Ronstadt, 67, discloses that she "can't sing a note" anymore because she has Parkinson's disease. Ronstadt says she started showing signs of the debilitating illness as long as eight years ago but chalked up her inability to sing to other ailments.

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  • Marchers commemorate the 50th anniversary of The March on Washington on August 24, 2103, in Washington, DC. (AFP/Getty Images)
    AFP/Getty Images

    August 28

    On the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King's iconic "I Have a Dream" speech, President Obama takes to the same steps of the Lincoln Memorial to remember how the "soaring oratory" of the civil rights leader "gave mighty voice to the quiet hopes of millions."

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  • Diana Nyad swims from Cuba-Swim to Florida (AP)
    AP

    September 2

    At 64, Diana Nyad becomes the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage, stepping ashore in Key West about 53 hours after hitting the water in Havana. "I'm by far at the peak of my life right now, even physically," she later tells AARP.

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  • A 1930 photograph of Mrs. Huguette Clark Gower, daughter of the late Sen. William A. Clark of Montana, a copper magnate. (AP)
    AP

    September 24

    After years of legal wrangling, the estate of millionaire mining heiress Huguette Clark, who died in 2011 at the age of 104, is settled. The deal mainly benefits arts charities and distant relatives; a lawyer and an accountant whose work for Clark came under question won't get a cent.

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  • The Healthcare.gov website is displayed on laptop computer. (Bloomberg/Getty Images)
    Bloomberg/Getty Images

    October 1

    The federal government mostly shuts down after Congress fails to fund the 2014 fiscal year. (Regular operations resume Oct. 17.) It's also the first day of open enrollment on HealthCare.gov, but the website created to carry out the new health care law doesn't cooperate.

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  • Mug shot of former mob boss and fugitive James
    Reuters/Landov

    November 12

    James "Whitey" Bulger, the Boston gangster who eluded authorities for 16-plus years, receives two consecutive life sentences plus five years. A jury convicted Bulger, 84, of racketeering, extortion, money laundering, obstruction of justice, narcotics distribution and participating in 11 murders.

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  • JPMorgan Chase Chairman, President and CEO Jamie Dimon, leaves the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. (Susan Walsh/AP)
    Susan Walsh/AP

    November 19

    In the largest-ever settlement with the U.S. government, banking giant JPMorgan Chase agrees to pay $13 billion and admits to serious misrepresentations in sales of "toxic" mortgage-backed securities. "Pay the price and try to move on," CEO Jamie Dimon later says.

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  • Jean Kennedy Smith at the grave of John F. Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Va., on the 50th anniversary of JFK's death. (AP)
    AP

    November 22

    Somber and mostly subdued remembrances mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. At Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, 85-year-old Jean Kennedy Smith, the slain president's last surviving sibling, lays a wreath at her brother's grave.

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  • Singer Miley Cyrus performs onstage during the 2013 American Music Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on November 24, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Getty Images)
    Getty Images

    December 10

    MTV names Miley Cyrus, who made "twerk" part of the national vocabulary, its Best Artist of 2013. It says Cyrus had the year's most-visited artist page on the Internet and that her medley of "We Can't Stop/Blurred Lines" with Robin Thicke from the MTV Video Music Awards was the most-watched video.

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  • AARP Baby Boomers (Sean McCabe)
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