Recording artist Ariana Grande performs onstage during the 2014 iHeartRadio Music Festival at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on September 19, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and his daughter Irina Virganskaya attend the Free Your Mind Award Presentation at the Cinema For Peace charity dinner at the China Club on November 8, 2009 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images). BERLIN – NOVEMBER 08 2009

“«The Red Detachment of Women» (simplified Chinese: 红色娘子军) is a Chinese ballet which premiered in 1964. It is perhaps best known in the West as the ballet performed for U.S. President Richard Nixon on his visit to China in February 1972. Adapted from the earlier film of the same title under the personal direction of Zhou Enlai, which in turn adapted from the novel by Liang Xin, it depicts the liberation of a peasant girl in Hainan Island and her rise in the Chinese Communist Party”.

Men at work at the Cardiff Institute, making huge baskets, unique in size and construction, for loading oil cake in South Africa. (Photo by Maeers/Getty Images). 1938

Shortlisted: “Two big eyes” by Miao Yong (Zejiang province, China). Damselflies look over the leaves. “I was photographing insects in a park near my home when suddenly I found two damselflies in the grass. They kept flying and it was very difficult to focus until suddenly they parked behind a leaf”. (Photo by Miao Yong/2017 Royal Society of Biology Photographer of the Year)

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and these striking images of 2017 are no exception. The photo highlights include incredible snapshots of the natural world as well as some awesome animal and human encounters. The vibrant gallery also shows thrill-seekers pushing themselves to the limit with breathtaking stunts captured in perfect clarity. The pictures have been taken by a host of photographers from around the world. Here: The two lion cubs singing their hearts out at Antelope park in Zimbabwe. (Photo by David Jenkins/Caters News Agency)

A resident gestures about the loss of his home following an overnight fire at the Addition Hills area in suburban Mandaluyong city east Manila, Philippines, Monday, November 14, 2016. Fire officials say the overnight fire destroyed hundreds of homes, rendered more than 5,000 people homeless and resulted in the death of two residents. (Photo by Bullit Marquez/AP Photo)