Wikipedia:Picture of the day/August 2014
|
Featured picture tools: |
These featured pictures, as scheduled below, appeared as the picture of the day (POTD) on the English Wikipedia's Main Page in August 2014. Individual sections for each day on this page can be linked to with the day number as the anchor name (e.g. [[Wikipedia:Picture of the day/August 2014#1]] for August 1).
You can add an automatically updating POTD template to your user page using {{Pic of the day}} (version with blurb) or {{POTD}} (version without blurb). For instructions on how to make custom POTD layouts, see Wikipedia:Picture of the day.Purge server cache
August 1
|
Portrait of a Young Girl is a small oil painting on oak panel completed between 1465 and 1470 by Petrus Christus. Unlike in prior Early Netherlandish paintings, the sitter is placed in an airy, three-dimensional, realistic setting. This portrait, described by art historian Joel Upton as "a polished pearl, almost opalescent, lying on a cushion of black velvet", was influential in the decades after its completion. Painting: Petrus Christus
Recently featured:
|
August 2
|
A chocolate factory designed by the architect Jules Saulnier for Menier Chocolate in Noisiel, France. Completed in 1872, it has been cited as the first true skeleton structure, with exterior walls needing only simple infill. The factory was designated by the government of France as an official Monument historique in 1992, and it is on the tentative list to be named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Photograph: Myrabella
Recently featured:
|
August 3
|
The great-winged petrel (Pterodroma macroptera) is a species of petrel endemic to southern Australia and New Zealand; this specimen was photographed east of Tasmania. Two subspecies of the great-winged petrel are recognized. Photograph: JJ Harrison
Recently featured:
|
August 4
|
A mating pair of Photograph: Muhammad Mahdi Karim
Recently featured:
|
August 5
|
Photograph: European Southern Observatory
Recently featured:
|
August 6
|
A NASA video, titled Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror, explaining the atmospheric entry, descent, and landing of the Mars rover Curiosity as part of the Mars Science Laboratory mission. The landing sequence required 6 vehicle configurations, 76 pyrotechnic devices, a large supersonic parachute, and more than 500,000 lines of computer code. (higher resolution) Video: NASA
Recently featured:
|
August 7
|
The Canary Island spurge (Euphorbia canariensis) is a succulent member of the genus Euphorbia endemic to the Canary Islands. It is a small tree which grows to between 3 and 4 metres (9.8 and 13.1 ft) in height and is made up of fleshy quadrangular or pentagonal trunks that look like cacti. This specimen was photographed close to the Mirador de Archipenque at Los Gigantes. Photograph: Claude Meisch
Recently featured:
|
August 8
|
A panoramic view of the their only child. The 8,180-acre (3,310 ha) campus is located in what is now Silicon Valley, and the university's graduates include founders of Google, Yahoo!, and Hewlett-Packard .
Photograph: King of Hearts
Recently featured:
|
August 9
|
A male myrtle warbler (Setophaga coronata coronata) in breeding plumage, photographed in the Léon-Provancher Ecological Reserve, Québec, Canada. This form, found in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada, is considered conspecific with the Audubon's warbler, which is found further west. The myrtle warbler can be distinguished from the Audubon's by its white eyestripe, white (not yellow) throat, and contrasting cheek patch. Photograph: Simon Pierre Barrette
Recently featured:
|
August 10
Subpage 1
|
Shown here is a $5 note, dated 10 August 1861, which includes a portrait of the first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, on the right, and the then-incomplete Statue of Freedom on the left. This bill is scanned from the National Numismatic Collection at the National Museum of American History.
Banknote: Bureau of Engraving and Printing (image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History)
Recently featured:
|
Subpage 2
|
Shown here is a $10 note, dated 10 August 1861, which includes an allegorical image of Bald Eagle perched on olive branches with a ribbon stating E PLURIBUS UNUM. This bill is scanned from the National Numismatic Collection at the National Museum of American History .
Banknote: Bureau of Engraving and Printing (image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History)
Recently featured:
|
Subpage 3
|
Shown here is a $20 note, dated 10 August 1861, which features a feminine allegory representing either Liberty, or perhaps America, in the center. The figure has a sword in her right hand and holds a striped shield, featuring a Bald Eagle at the top, in her left. This bill is scanned from the National Numismatic Collection at the National Museum of American History .
Banknote: Bureau of Engraving and Printing (image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History)
Recently featured:
|
August 11
|
|
A diagram of a typical turbojet engine. Air is compressed as it enters the engine, and is mixed with fuel that burns in the combustion section. Released through the exhaust, the resulting hot gases provide forward thrust and turn the turbines that drive the fan blades of the compressor. Diagram: Jeff Dahl
Recently featured:
|
August 12
|
The , it feeds primarily on insects. This specimen was photographed at the Prague Zoo in the Czech Republic. Photo: Karel Jakubec
Recently featured:
|
August 13
|
The Gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) is a bright orange butterfly of the family Nymphalidae and subfamily Heliconiinae, found from Argentina in the south to California in the north. Photograph: Wilfredor
Recently featured:
|
August 14
|
A panoramic view of the Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa, in the Portuguese Alentejo. For centuries it was the seat of the House of Braganza, one of the most important noble houses in Portugal and the kingdom's ruling house from 1640 until a republican government replaced King Manuel II in the 5 October 1910 revolution. Photograph: Alvesgaspar
Recently featured:
|
August 15
|
The harlequin beetle (Acrocinus longimanus) is a large tropical longhorn beetle native to the Americas. The species' common name is derived from the elaborate pattern of black, red and greenish yellow markings on the wing covers of both sexes. Photograph: Didier Descouens
Recently featured:
|
August 16
|
A panoramic view of Photograph: User:Rainer Lippert
Recently featured:
|
August 17
_-_Geographicus_-_EastIndies-cary-1801.jpg)
|
An 1801 map of the Map: John Cary
Recently featured:
|
August 18
|
A male Photo: JJ Harrison
Recently featured:
|
August 19
|
Photo: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Recently featured:
|
August 20
|
Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901) was a politician who became the 23rd president of the United States. The grandson of former president William Henry Harrison, Benjamin Harrison was a lawyer and soldier before becoming a U.S. senator from Indiana. After defeating the incumbent Grover Cleveland, in 1889 Harrison became president; during his four-year term he enacted such policies as the McKinley Tariff and the Sherman Antitrust Act. Photo: Pach Brothers, restoration: Adam Cuerden
Recently featured:
|
August 21
|
|
Photo: 663highland
Recently featured:
|
August 22
|
|
A diagram of a typical Diagram: BillC; modifications: MaCRoEco
Recently featured:
|
August 23
|
|
Al-Ameen College of Pharmacy is a pharmacy college in Bangalore, India. Established in 1983, it is under the purview of the Al-Ameen Educational Society. Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim
Recently featured:
|
August 24
|
The reverse of a 1933-dated specimen of the double eagle ($20 gold piece) designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. 445,500 specimens were minted with this date, but after the Gold Reserve Act withdrew the legal tender status of gold coins and outlawed most private possession of gold, almost all were destroyed. Only two double eagles were intentionally spared; they are in the National Numismatic Collection of the National Museum of American History. But at least twenty more were stolen by an unidentified person. Of these, nine were melted down in the 1940s and 50s and ten more are held at Fort Knox. Another, which had belonged to King Farouk of Egypt, was recovered in 1996 and sold at auction in 2002 to an anonymous bidder for almost 7.6 million dollars. Coin: Augustus Saint-Gaudens; photo: United States Mint
Recently featured:
|
August 25
|
The Photo: Pierre Dalous
Recently featured:
|
August 26
|
|
The central part of the ceiling at the Galerie des Batailles, a 120-by-13-metre (394 by 43 ft) gallery at the Palace of Versailles joining onto the grand and petit appartements de la reine. Designed by Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine and Frédéric Nepveu upon the order of Louis Philippe I, the gallery's design includes a wide cornice supporting a coffered painted ceiling with entablatures supported by Corinthian columns along the length of the gallery. Photo: -donald-
Recently featured:
|
August 27
|
Photo: H. Krisp
Recently featured:
|
August 28
|
|
The mosque at the Taj Mahal complex in Agra, India. This red sandstone building, on the western side of the complex, faces the west side of the mausoleum. In the forefront is a howz, meant for ablution. On the eastern side of the complex is the jawab ("answer"), a mirror image of the mosque except for the missing mihrab and different floor pattern; this jawab was mainly intended for architectural balance. Both were constructed in 1643. Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim
Recently featured:
|
August 29
|
Spialia mafa is a species of butterfly in the spread-winged skipper subfamily that is found in south-western Africa. These skippers bask with their wings held wide open, but close the wings when at rest. The subfamily consists of seven tribes, a number which has increased in the past several decades as more tribes were recognized. Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim
Recently featured:
|
August 30
|
A Map: Strebe, using the Geocart map projection software
Recently featured:
|
August 31
|
|
This image represents a view from the "front" of the neural system of a giant are the parietovisceral (not the cerebral) which connect to the circumpallial nerve somewhat like an axle connects via spokes to the rim of a wheel. The circumpallial nerve forms a complete folded double ring around the edge of the animal's disk-like mantle inside each valve (mantle not shown here). The hundreds of nerves of the scallop's eyes and tentacles would have appeared as long thin lines jutting off along the entire length of this nerve like hazy fringe. Diagram: K.D. Schroeder
Recently featured:
|
Picture of the day archives and future dates