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Year's Best Pictures (1999)

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Leaves	Falling for color Hundreds of cars jam a road in Nikko, Japan, on Nov. 3, as drivers slow down to admire the colorfully tinted leaves of autumn.
Eclipse	Black Sun The last solar eclipse of the millennium is seen in this multiple exposure photograph as it appeared from the famous Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, on Aug. 11.
Opera	Opera Singers perform on a giant stage on Lake Constance during a rehearsal of Giuseppe Verdi's opera 'Ein Maskenball' on July 15. The design of the stage in the lake shows 'Death' reading the book of life.
Plane	Plane Pilot Ron Candiloro breaks through the sound barrier in an F/A-18 Hornet fighter plane over the Pacific Ocean on July 7. The cloud ball effect is caused when forward sound waves squeeze moisture in the air.
Hotel	Hotel A room with a view French jets fly over Dubai's Burj Al-Arab, the world's tallest sea-based hotel, on Nov. 12 during preparations for the Dubai Air Show.
Galaxy	Galaxy NASA Hubble space telescope photo reveals the spiral galaxy NGC 4603, the most distant galaxy in which a special class of pulsating stars called Cepheid variables have been found.