Place of the Year 2012: Then and now

Oxford University Press hopes you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Following a weekend of food comas and couch potato-ing, here’s a slideshow celebrating the Place of the Year (POTY) shortlist nominees that hopefully will perk you up this morning. See how our ten finalists have changed over the years. We’re excited to announce the location that will join Yemen, South Africa, Warming Island, Kosovo and Sudan as a Place of the Year winner on December 3rd! Stay tuned!

• London, UK 1897

   

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  Queen Victoria photographed for her Diamond Jubilee. She and Queen Elizabeth II are the only British monarchs to celebrate a 60th anniversary on the throne. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

• London, UK 2012

   

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  Mosaic Picture of Queen Elizabeth II to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee, produced by Helen Marshall using more than 5000 photos at the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne, England. Photo courtesy Abuk Sabuk, Creative Commons License

• Mars 1980

   

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  Dr. Carl Sagan poses with a model of Viking lander, the first NASA Mission to land on Mars, in Death Valley, Calif. Credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory

• Mars 2012

   

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  Curiosity Rover's location during first scooping. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechMars

• Istanbul, Turkey, 1422

   

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  Map of Constantinople, now Istanbul, designed in 1422 by Florentine cartographer Cristoforo Buondelmonti. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons and Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris

• Istanbul, Turkey, 2012

   

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  The city at night © NASA

• CERN 1954

   

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  First excavation on the Meyrin site in Geneva, Switzerland, soon to be home to the European Organization for Nuclear Research. © 1954 CERN

• CERN 2012

   

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  Press conference announcing the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle that gives mass to elementary particles (c) 2012 CERN

• Myanmar/Burma ca. 1890-1923

   

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  Burmese women, one smoking a cigar. Image courtesy of The Library of Congress.

• Myanmar/Burma 2011

   

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  U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton hugs Daw Aung San Suu Kyi at her house in Rangoon, Burma. In April 2012, the Burmese opposition leader was elected to the Burmese Parliament. State Department photo/ Public Domain

• Syria 1911

   

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  Rooftops of Damascus, Syria. Image courtesy of The Library of Congress

• Syria 2007

   

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  View of Damascus from Mount Qassioun. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

• Arctic Circle 1913

   

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  Diana [MacMillan's ship] just before sailing off on an Arctic expedition, 2 July 1913. Image courtesy of the George Grantham Bain Collection at the Library of Congress.

• Arctic Circle 2003

   

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  Polar bears approach the USS Honolulu while it surfaced 280 miles from the North Pole. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Yeoman Alphonso Braggs, US-Navy

• Calabasas, CA 1960

   

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  The Miguel Leonis Abode, a Monterey-style mansion home to Leonis, "The King of Calabasas" and a real estate mogul, and his wife Espiritu Chijulla, the daughter of a Chumash chief, at the end of the 19th century. Image courtesy of The Library of Congress.

• Calabasas, CA 2012

   

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  The current kings and queens of Calabasas. Image courtesy of E! Entertainment

• Athens. Greece ca. 1910-1915

   

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  The Old Parliament House which served the Greek Parliament from 1875 to 1932 and currently the National Historical Museum. Image courtesy of The Library of Congress

• Greece 2011

   

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  Syntagma Square, facing the modern Hellenic Parliament building, has been the site of riots regarding proposed austerity measures amidst Greece's economic collapse in 2012. Photo by Tango7174. Creative Commons via Wikimedia Commons

• Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands 1933

   

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  Map of Tokara Islands and Senkaku Islands, issued in Japan. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

• Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands 2012

   

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  Anti-Japan demonstrations over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands dispute in Hong Kong in September 2012. Image courtesy of Voice of America