AUDIO SLIDESHOW. WNYC takes a look back at the year that was: the noteworthy news-makers, the career-ending scandals, the historic uprisings, just to name a few of the headline-grabbers. Take a look at memories from 2011.

The family of Private Danny Chen have found some relief after the U.S. Army charged eight soldiers in the death of the 19-year old soldier from New York City.

New York is a city of specialists from foodies to academics, laborers to shopkeepers. Every Wednesday, Niche Market will take a peek inside a different specialty store and showcase the city's purists who have made an art out of selling one commodity. Slideshow below.

Thousands of grim-faced officers gathered at a small Roman Catholic Church in Long Island on Monday to mourn the loss of Officer Peter Figoski, a 22-year veteran of the force who was remembered as a dedicated cop and loving dad.

New York is a city of specialists from foodies to academics, laborers to shopkeepers. Every Wednesday, Niche Market will take a peek inside a different specialty store and showcase the city's purists who have made an art out of selling one commodity. Slideshow below.

Dozens of Christmas tree stands pop up during this time of the year on streets corner and lots across the city. Learn what it takes to run one of these stands, and why the smell might be worth it.

Preparation for an Orthodox Jewish wedding might not include a running of the brides, but there are some added details, on top of the usual wedding preparations. That’s why hundreds of couples — and some singles — attended the “Big Fat Jewish Wedding Expo,” Monday night.

On the warmest November 28th since 1990, when temperatures reached 69 degrees, Monday broke 70. And at the Soho Trees Christmas tree stand, customers still bought their Douglas Firs and Canadian Balsams.

Five years ago today, Sean Bell was shot and killed by police as he left his bachelor party. To memorialize Bell, his fiancée, Nicole Paultre Bell, headed to the corner of Liverpool Street (now named Sean Bell Way) and 94th Avenue, as she does every year. “That’s my time to think about everything that we’ve been through, everything that Sean went through that night just trying to make it home to his family,” she said.

Each day, more than 700,000 people pass through Grand Central Terminal — one of the city's famous landmarks. WNYC took a behind-the-scenes tour of this historic terminal station.

Hundreds of protesters returned to Zuccotti Park early Tuesday evening, about an hour after a ruling by Manhattan Supreme Court ruled that they could legally return to the park. Police cleared a path at the north and south ends of the park and a steady stream of protesters filed in to cheers and applause.

The same day anti-Wall Street protesters were evicted from Zuccotti Park, a judge's ruled they could not return with tents and sleeping bags to the space that has served as the group's defacto headquarters in Lower Manhattan for nearly two months.

PHOTOS | Protesters Cleared From Zuccotti Park

Police continued to investigate an anti-Semitic hate crime that rocked Midwood, Brooklyn, last week as distressed residents of the Jewish enclave tried to get back to life as usual in the neighborhood home to many Holocaust survivors and their children.

Many young service members will be celebrating their Veteran’s Day this year, and they’re are still adapting to life stateside. For many that means joining organizations like the American Legion and VFW, groups that have served WWII, Korean War and Vietnam Vets for years. But for many young men and woman, these groups don’t provide the quick responses, networking and social media access this generation demands.

In the tradition of peripatetic portraitists, Mimi Vang Olsen travels far and wide to meet her subjects in person.

The majority of the 79 protesters who appeared in Manhattan court Thursday to face charges on disorderly conduct stemming from a September protest march refused prosecutors' offers to dismiss the charges if they stay out of trouble for six months.

Joan Didion's latest book, "Blue Nights," explores the death of her 39-year old adopted daughter Quintana. It's an event, “I hadn't dealt with it at any level, and I needed to,” she told WNYC's Leonard Lopate on Wednesday.

A unique weather phenomenon that occurs in the spring and fall caused unusually high high tides in the New York area a few days this week.

Hundreds of Long Island Rail Road employees may have scammed their way to large pensions in what prosecutors claim could amount to a $1 billion scheme, authorities said Thursday.

WNYC began visiting the World Trade Center site in April 2010 and continues to document the construction of One World Trade Center, the 9/11 Memorial, the transportation hub and the people working on the site.