Year In Photos: U.S.

The tail section of a small plane hangs from the Bank of America tower, in Tampa, Fla. The plane with a student pilot aboard took off from St. Petersburg-Clearwater Airport without permission Saturday and crashed into the skyscraper after ignoring a Coast Guard helicopter's signals to land, authorities said.

Jan. 24

John Walker Lindh leaves the Alexandria Detention Center in Alexandria, Va., before dawn. Lindh received a 20-year prison sentence for joining the Taliban army.

March

The "Tribute in Light," a temporary tribute to the victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks, lights up the sky above lower Manhattan.

Mar. 21

Marjorie Knoller, left, reacts as a guilty verdict is read in a courtroom in Los Angeles. Knoller, whose dogs mauled a neighbor to death in a San Francisco apartment building last year, was found guilty Thursday of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Her husband was convicted of the latter count.

May 7

Current and former members of Enron's board of directors are sworn in before a Senate Subcommittee. Questionable accounting practices helped drive the company into bankruptcy and cost employees most of their retirement savings.

May 22

Washington Police Chief Charles Ramsey, right, talks to reporters at Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C, after bones were found in the park, which were later determined to be the remains of Chandra Levy, the mssing federal intern.

June

A poster of Elizabeth Smart hangs by the roadside as volunteer searchers take to the streets and foothills of Salt Lake City, Utah. Smart's abduction from her bedroom on June 5 was the first of several high-profile kidnappings during the year.

July 28

The ninth and final miner is removed from the Quecreek Mine in Somerset, Pa. Rescue workers pulled the nine miners, one by one, from the watery, 240-foot-deep shaft where they had been trapped for three days.

Sept. 3

A firefighter looks over wildfire in the high desert community of Leona Valley, near Palmdale, Calif. A catastrophic fire season scorched 7.1 million acres of the nation's forests.

Sept. 6

Defendants Derek King, 14, right, and his brother Alex King, 13, left, stand as the jury leaves the courtroom to begin deliberation in their murder trial, in Pensacola, Fla. The King brothers were charged with murdering their father Terry King.

Sept. 11

National Guard Spc. A. Melendez, left, and Cpl. G. Horvath, right, stand near Fort Point at Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Oct. 24

Montgomery County Police Chief Charles A. Moose addresses the media during a news conference in Rockville, Md. Moose was the focus of worldwide media attention as he led 2,000 investigators on a successful hunt for the Washington-area sniper suspects.

Nov. 3

Wrecked vehicles fill the southbound lanes of the Long Beach Freeway after a massive pileup, in Long Beach, Calif. Nearly 200 cars and big-rig trucks collided on the fogbound highway, injuring dozens of people, nine critically, and closing the highway for hours.

Nov. 11

Jean Mayfield weeps in front of her home destroyed by a tornado in Carbon Hill, Ala. A storm system spawned tornadoes and terror as it swept through 14 states. At least 36 people were killed and over 200 people were injured.

Nov. 11

Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, prepares to call to order the conference's annual meeting in Washington. A clerical sex abuse crisis in 2002 threatened to destroy the moral authority of the Roman Catholic Church in America.