Wikipedia:Picture of the day/Archive

Stańczyk is an oil-on-canvas painting by Jan Matejko, finished in 1862. It depicts Stańczyk, the court jester when Poland was at the height of its political, economic and cultural power during the era of the Renaissance in Poland, during the reign of King Sigismund I the Old in the 16th century. The painting contrasts the solemn jester, who sits alone in a dark room and is the focus of the painting, and the lively royal ball going on in the background. Stańczyk's appearance is gloomy and deep in thought. The painting was acquired by the Warsaw National Museum in 1924. During World War II it was looted by the Nazis and subsequently by the Soviet Union, but was returned to Poland around 1956.

Painting credit: Jan Matejko

The African grey hornbill (Lophoceros nasutus) is a bird of the hornbill family, which is widespread in much of sub-Saharan Africa and the south-west of the Arabian Peninsula. This female of the subspecies L. n. epirhinus was photographed in Namibia's Etosha National Park.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

The geology of the Moon is quite different from that of the Earth. The Moon lacks a true atmosphere, and the absence of oxygen and water eliminates erosion due to weather. Instead, the surface is eroded much more slowly through bombardment of the lunar surface by micrometeorites. It lacks any known form of plate tectonics, has a lower gravitational acceleration, and cooled faster after its formation because of its small size. In addition to impacts, the geomorphology of the lunar surface has been shaped by volcanism, which is now thought to have ended less than 50 million years ago. The Moon is a differentiated body, with a crust, mantle, and core. This global geologic map of the Moon was published by Chinese planetary geologists in 2022 at a scale of 1 to 2.5 million at full resolution. Colours are used to indicate different stratigraphic units corresponding to various periods of the lunar geologic timescale, with structural features and Moon landing sites also marked. The main map uses the Mollweide projection. Two insets are provided for the northern and southern polar areas, as well as two smaller maps illustrating the lithology and tectonic units of the lunar surface.

Map credit: Jinzhu Ji et al.

The Library of Congress is a research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the de facto national library of the United States. Founded in 1800, it is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country and one of the largest libraries in the world. The library is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.: the Thomas Jefferson Building (completed in 1897), the John Adams Building (1938) and the James Madison Memorial Building (1976). It also maintains the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, and a storage facility in Fort Meade, Maryland. The library's functions are overseen by the librarian of Congress, and its buildings are maintained by the architect of the Capitol. This photograph, taken by William Henry Jackson, shows the Thomas Jefferson Building around 1902.

Photograph credit: William Henry Jackson; restored by Mmxx

Wesley Bell is an American attorney and formerly a member of the city council of Ferguson, Missouri. He is currently the prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, Missouri, defeating the long-time incumbent Bob McCulloch in the 2018 Democratic primary election for that position. Bell became the first black county prosecuting attorney in the county's history when he took office in January 2019.

Photograph credit: Jamelle Bouie; edited by Bammesk

La bohème is an opera in four acts composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème (1851) by Henri Murger. The opera, which had its world premiere on 1 February 1896 in Turin, is set in Paris around 1830 and shows the Bohemian lifestyle of the poor seamstress Mimì and her artist friends, including Rodolfo, Marcello and Musetta. This 1895 poster was produced by Adolfo Hohenstein for the publishing house G. Ricordi & C. to advertise the musical score of La bohème, and depicts Mimì and Rodolfo at the end of the opera's third act. Knowing that Mimì is dying and Rodolfo is too poor to help her, but too much in love to separate, they agree to remain together until the spring, when the world is coming to life again and no one feels truly alone. Meanwhile, Marcello and Musetta quarrel about Musetta's flirtatiousness in counterpoint to the other pair's reconciliation.

Poster credit: Adolfo Hohenstein; restored by Adam Cuerden

Bengali cuisine is the culinary style of Bengal, a region encompassing Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura, as well as the Barak Valley in Assam. The cuisine is known for its varied use of flavours including mustard oil, as well as its desserts. There is a strong emphasis on rice as a staple, with fish traditionally the most common protein. Freshwater fish are preferred to seafish, although barramundi, known as bhetki, is also common. Although less popular than fish, Bengalis have eaten a variety of meats since pre-colonial times, ranging from pigs and deer to hedgehogs and turtles. In more recent times, lentils have begun to form a significant part of the diet. This photograph shows a serving of pabda jhaal, a type of Bengali fish curry.

Photograph credit: Nilanjan Sasmal

Frontonia is a genus of free-living unicellular ciliate protists, belonging to the order Peniculida. As peniculids, the Frontonia are closely related to members of the genus Paramecium. However, whereas Paramecia are mainly bacterivores, Frontonia are capable of ingesting large prey such as diatoms, filamentous algae, testate amoebas, and even, in some circumstances, members of their own species.

Photograph credit: Wiedehopf20

Lawrence Hogan (1928–2017) was an American politician who served as a Republican US Congressman, representing the 5th congressional district of Maryland from 1969 to 1975. In 1974, he was the only Republican Representative to vote to recommend all three House articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon. He was also the father of Larry Hogan, the 62nd governor of Maryland.

Photograph credit: unknown; restored by Coffeeandcrumbs

• 1942 series
• 

  1 centavo

• 

  5 centavos

• 

  10 centavos

• 

  50 centavos

• 

  1 peso

• 

  5 pesos

• 

  10 pesos

• 1943–1945 series
• 

  1 peso

• 

  5 pesos

• 

  10 pesos

• 

  100 pesos

• 

  500 pesos

• 

  1000 pesos

The Japanese government-issued Philippine peso was a fiat currency issued in the Philippines during World War II, by the occupying Japanese government. One of several examples of Japanese invasion money, the currency was issued in several denominations and was known by some Filipinos by the derogatory term "Mickey Mouse money". The effect of wartime hyperinflation towards the end of the war can be seen in the rapid increase of denomination values that were put into circulation. These thirteen banknotes were issued in ten denominations from one centavo to one thousand pesos by the Japanese government and are now part of the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution.

Banknote design credit: Empire of Japan

Hope II is a oil-on-canvas painting with added gold and platinum by the Austrian Symbolist artist Gustav Klimt, created in 1907–1908. It depicts a pregnant woman with closed eyes, with a human skull representing death appearing from behind her stomach – perhaps a sign of the dangers of labour. At the foot of the painting, three other women bow their heads, as if praying or mourning. The square painting measures 110.5 centimetres (43.5 in) on each side, and is now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Painting credit: Gustav Klimt

The little bee-eater (Merops pusillus) is a species of bird in the bee-eater family, Meropidae, found in sub-Saharan Africa. The bird has green upper parts with a yellow throat, black gorget, and rich brown upper breast fading to buffish ochre on the belly, while the beak and legs are black.This little bee-eater of the subspecies M. p. argutus was photographed by the Linyanti River in Nkasa Rupara National Park, Namibia.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

Edinburgh Castle is a castle in Edinburgh, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age. Serving as a royal residence for the Kingdom of Scotland from the 12th century or earlier until 1633, Edinburgh Castle was involved in many historical conflicts from the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 14th century to the Jacobite rising of 1745. Few of the present buildings pre-date the Lang Siege of the 16th century when the medieval defences were largely destroyed by artillery bombardment. The most notable exceptions are St Margaret's Chapel (which dates from the early 12th century and is regarded as the oldest building in Edinburgh), the Royal Palace, and the early-16th-century Great Hall. The castle also houses the Scottish regalia, known as the Honours of Scotland, and is the site of the Scottish National War Memorial and the National War Museum. Some of the castle buildings house regimental museums that contribute to its presentation as a tourist attraction. This image shows a view of Edinburgh Castle from the nearby Grassmarket, taken by the Scottish photographer George Washington Wilson between 1865 and 1885.

Photograph credit: George Washington Wilson; restored by Adam Cuerden

Sharon Tate (January 24, 1943 – August 9, 1969) was an American actress and model. During the 1960s, she appeared in advertisements, small television roles and as an extra in films, before appearing in her first major role as Jennifer North in the 1967 film Valley of the Dolls, which earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination. That year, she also performed in the film The Fearless Vampire Killers, directed by her future husband Roman Polanski. On August 9, 1969, Tate and four others were murdered by cult members of the Manson Family in the home she shared with Polanski. She was eight and a half months pregnant at the time of her death. Her last completed film, 12+1, was released posthumously in 1969. This publicity photograph of Tate was released by 20th Century Fox for Valley of the Dolls.

Photograph credit: 20th Century Fox; restored by Adam Cuerden

"Daisy" is an American political advertisement that aired on television as part of Lyndon B. Johnson's 1964 presidential campaign against Barry Goldwater. Though officially aired only once, on September 7, 1964, it is considered a turning point in political and advertising history. It was designed to broadcast Johnson's anti-nuclear positions, contrary to Goldwater's stance. The commercial begins with Monique Corzilius, a three-year-old girl, picking the petals of a daisy while counting from one to ten incorrectly. After she reaches "nine", a booming male voice is heard counting the numbers backward from "ten", similar to the start of a missile-launch countdown. The scene is replaced by a nuclear explosion, with Johnson's voice-over stating: "We must either love each other, or we must die." Although the Johnson campaign was criticized for frightening voters by implying that Goldwater would wage a nuclear war, various other campaigns since have adopted and used the "Daisy" advertisement.

Advertisement credit: Lyndon B. Johnson 1964 presidential campaign

Along the River During the Qingming Festival is a 12th-century painting attributed to Zhang Zeduan. The original painting captures the daily life of people from the Song dynasty at the capital, present-day Kaifeng. This picture shows a 1736 remake of the painting, which updates the scenery to include Qing-dynasty motifs and shows the influence of Western painting techniques, executed by five artists from the Painting Academy and active at the Qing court.

Painting credit: Chen Mei, Sun Hu, Jin Kun, Dai Hong and Cheng Zhidao, after Zhang Zeduan

Rega is a private, non-profit air rescue service that provides emergency medical assistance in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It was established in 1952 by Rudolf Bucher, who believed the Swiss rescue organization needed a specialized air sub-section. This image is a sequence photograph, stitched from 207 separate frames, of Rega's rescue helicopter Da Vinci in operation in Stoos, Switzerland.

Photograph credit: Roy Egloff

Persicaria maculosa, also known as spotted lady's thumb, Jesusplant and redshank, is an annual plant in the buckwheat family. It is widespread across Eurasia from Iceland south to Portugal and east to Japan. It is also present as an introduced and invasive species in North America, where it was first noted in the Great Lakes region in 1843 and has now spread through most of the continent. P. maculosa grows up to 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) tall and features small pink flowers with a perianth of four or five lobes, fused near the base. It flowers from July to September in the temperate Northern Hemisphere.

Photograph credit: The Cosmonaut

The Lady with an Ermine is a portrait painting widely attributed to the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. Dated to around 1489 to 1491, the work is painted in oils on a panel of walnut wood. Its subject is Cecilia Gallerani, a mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan; Leonardo was painter to the Sforza court in Milan at the time of its execution. It is the second of only four surviving portraits of women painted by Leonardo, the others being Ginevra de' Benci, La Belle Ferronnière, and the Mona Lisa. The painting now hangs in the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, Poland.

Painting credit: Leonardo da Vinci

The Eureka Inn is a hotel in Eureka, California, built in the Elizabethan Tudor Revival architectural style. Opened in 1922, it was purchased in 1960 by Helen Barnum, the matriarch of a successful timber family in the county, before being sold to John Biord after Barnum's death in 1993. In 2004, the inn was closed after tax defaults by its owner, reopening in 2010 after the businessman Libo Zhu purchased and refurbished it. In February 1982, the structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This photograph shows the Eureka Inn's entrance hall as seen in 2020.

Photograph credit: Frank Schulenburg

Kanayi Kunhiraman (born 1937) is an Indian sculptor. Born in the state of Kerala, he studied sculpture at the Government College of Fine Arts in Chennai, where he came into contact with abstract painter K. C. S. Paniker, at the time part of the college's faculty. After a stint teaching at the Ethiraj College for Women, Kunhiraman moved to England for a three-year course at the Slade School of Fine Art. On his return to Kerala, he undertook a number of assignments and in 1976 became head of the sculpture department at College of Fine Arts Trivandrum. He went on to become the college's principal, remaining until 1978 when he became the chair of the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi. This portrait photograph of Kunhiraman was taken in 2019.

Photograph credit: Mullookkaaran

Macracantha is a genus of orb-weaver spider containing a single species, M. arcuata. It is found in India and China and through Southeast Asia to Borneo. The females of this genus have tough, shell-like abdomens armed with three pairs of spines. The middle spines project upward and outward, curving in toward each other along their length, and have a length of 20 to 26 millimetres (0.79 to 1.02 in), whereas the abdominal width is only 8 to 9 millimetres (0.31 to 0.35 in). The female's front and rear spines are short and roughly equal in length. The male of the species measures only 1.5 millimetres (0.059 in), with stout, conical spines. This photograph shows a M. arcuata spider in Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand.

Photograph credit: Rushen

The 2021–22 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai eruption and tsunami was a volcanic event caused by Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai, a submarine volcano in the Tongan archipelago in the southern Pacific Ocean. Beginning in December 2021, the eruption reached a large and powerful climax on 15 January 2022. Described by scientists as a "magma hammer", the volcano produced a series of four underwater thrusts at the height of the eruption, displaced 10 cubic kilometres (2.4 cu mi) of rock, ash and sediment, and generated the largest atmospheric explosion recorded by modern instrumentation. The eruption caused tsunamis along the Pacific rim. This animation, depicting the initial ash plume and shockwave produced by Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai on 15 January 2022, was created by the Japan Meteorological Agency from sixteen photographs taken at ten-minute intervals by the Japanese weather satellite Himawari 8.

Animation credit: Japan Meteorological Agency

Kaleva Church is a church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in the district of Liisankallio in Tampere, Finland. Designed by Reima and Raili Pietilä, the building was constructed between and 1964 to 1966. It was constructed using slip forming, with seventeen narrow 35-metre-high (115 ft) hollow concrete U-shapes and full height windows between them. The walls were cast in twelve days. The floor plan of the church resembles a fish, an ancient symbol of Christianity.

Photograph credit: Kallerna

Rhodochrosite is a carbonate mineral with the chemical composition MnCO₃ (manganese carbonate). In its (rare) pure form, it is typically a rose-red color, but can also be shades of pink to pale brown. It streaks white, and its Mohs hardness varies between 3.5 and 4.5. Its specific gravity is between 3.45 and 3.6. The mineral is formed by oxidation of manganese ore, and is found in South Africa, China and South America. It is Argentina's national gemstone, and was named as the official state gemstone by the U.S. state of Colorado in 2002. This photograph shows a rhodochrosite specimen on a matrix that originated from Peru.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

The plate carrée projection is a map projection in which the horizontal coordinate is the longitude and the vertical coordinate is the latitude. The name derives from the French for "flat square". The plate carrée is a special case of the equirectangular projection, which has been in use since the earliest days of spherical cartography: the Roman mathematician Ptolemy attributed its invention to Marinus of Tyre, in around AD 100. This composite satellite image, titled "Blue Marble", was produced by NASA and shows Earth's land surface, shallow water and shaded topography.

Photograph credit: NASA

Della H. Raney (January 10, 1912 – October 23, 1987) was an American nurse. Raney was the first African American nurse to report for duty in World War II, and the first to be appointed chief nurse. In 1944, she became the first black nurse affiliated with the Army Air Corps promoted to captain, and was later promoted to major in 1946. Raney retired from the Army in 1978. This photograph of Raney seated behind her desk was taken in 1945; at the time, she headed the nursing staff at the station hospital at Camp Beale in California.

Photograph credit: United States Office of War Information; restored by Adam Cuerden

Woodpeckers are a group of birds in the family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions. Most species live in forests or woodland habitats, although a few species are known that live in treeless areas, such as rocky hillsides and deserts, and the Gila woodpecker specialises in exploiting cacti. This photograph shows a female campo flicker (Colaptes campestris), a woodpecker species native to South America, in the Pantanal, Brazil.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region IC 1396 located in the constellation Cepheus about 2,400 light-years away from Earth. The combined action of the light from the massive star ionizing and compressing the rim of the cloud, and the wind from the young stars shifting gas from the center outward led to very high compression in the nebula. This pressure has triggered the current generation of protostars. This photograph of the Elephant's Trunk Nebula was taken with a 127 mm (5.0 in) refracting telescope.

Photograph credit: Chuck Ayoub