The 100th annual Pulitzer Prizes were handed out on Monday, bringing honors to the AP for a series that freed thousands of slaves, a Washington Post database that tracked the number of deadly police shootings in the U.S., and a hip hop Broadway musical about Alexander Hamilton.
The AP won the gold medal in public service for its investigation series entitled "Seafood from Slaves" about the Southeast Asian fishing industry. The series helped secure the freedom for more than 2,000 slaves. It is the 52nd Pulitzer won by the AP.
The Washington Post was recognized for its enterprise work on police shootings in the United States. The Post won the Pulitzer for "Fatal Force," a project that detailed the number of deadly police shootings throughout the country last year.
That national reporting award had been telegraphed on Monday morning, after Politico Playbook reported that Washington Post national reporter Wesley Lowery "jubilantly told friends at a party this weekend that he and a Post team" had been tipped off to the win.
"Fatal Force" created a database detailing the 990 people who were shot dead by police in 2015.
"60+ journalists, chronicled 990+ police shooting," Lowery tweeted on Monday. "Honored to have played a part, and inspired by my WaPo colleagues."
Related: Last year's Pulitzer Prize winners
The prizes, named for the pioneering newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, were established by Columbia University in 1917.
There are 14 journalism categories, primarily recognizing the work of print newspapers, but also recognizing magazines and digital news organizations. There are five book categories, one drama category and one music composition.
Joby Warrick won in the nonfiction category for his book, "Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS."
And as expected, Lin-Manuel Miranda won in the drama category for his smash hit musical "Hamilton."
Miranda showed plenty of gratitude on Twitter.
For many journalists, it's one of the most anticipated days on the calendar.
Reporters and editors across the country often gather in their newsrooms to hear the Pulitzer winners as they are announced. Some, like the Los Angeles Times on Monday, are stocked with champagne for the occasion.
Los Angeles Times national reporter Matt Pearce tweeted a photo of his co-workers clinking glasses after the newspaper's staff won the Pulitzer for breaking news reporting. The Times staff was recognized for their coverage of the San Bernardino massacre.
ProPublica's T. Christian Miller and The Marshall Project's Ken Armstrong took home the Pulitzer for explanatory reporting for an expose on a serial rapist and one of his victims.
The 11,000-word piece, a rare instance of collaboration between two rival outlets, came about after Miller and Armstrong learned they were chasing the same story.
ProPublica and The Marshall Project were this year's only digital winners, but not the only collaborators to be recognized.
The Pulitzer for investigative reporting went to Leonora LaPeter Anton and Anthony Cormier of the Tampa Bay Times and Michael Braga of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune for their reporting on violence and neglect in Florida mental hospitals.
The Pulitzer committee called it a "stellar example of collaborative reporting by two news organizations."
The Tampa Bay Times also notched a win in the category of local reporting, with reporters Michael LaForgia, Cara Fitzpatrick and Lisa Gartner honored for their series on the failures of a local school board.
Other winners
Otherwise, the winners and finalists were all from print-based organizations.
The New Yorker magazine won a Pulitzer for the first time — and it won two.
The feature writing winner, Kathryn Schulz, tweeted her reaction: "Honored and staggered, in the other order. Thank you, Pulitzer committee."
The prize committee called Schulz's story about the Cascadia fault line "a masterwork of environmental reporting and writing."
The magazine's other honoree, television critic Emily Nussbaum, won the prize for criticism.
David Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker, told staffers in an email on Monday that the Pulitzer results were "simply astounding" and a "source of immense pride."
"This is a day of celebration at The New Yorker, first and foremost for these writers, who are so deserving," he said in the email.
The New York Times and Boston Globe each took home two Pulitzers. Times reporter Alissa Rubin won in the category of international reporting for her coverage on the plight of refugees.
A group of Times photographers -- Mauricio Lima, Sergey Ponomarev, Tyler Hicks and Daniel Etter -- were co-winners in the category of breaking news photography, an honor they shared with the photography staff at Thomson Reuters.
The Globe's Jessica Rinaldi won in the category of feature photography. Her Globe colleague, Farah Stockman, was awarded the Pulitzer for commentary.
Other winners were John Hackworth of Sun Newspapers in Charlotte Harbor, Florida, for editorial writing and Jack Ohman of The Sacramento Bee for editorial cartooning.
