Wikipedia:Picture of the day/August 2016

Soldiers Playing Cards and Dice (also known as The Cheats), c. 1618–1620, by Valentin de Boulogne (c. 1590 – 1632). Born in Coulommiers, France, Valentin was the son of a painter and studied in Italy under Simon Vouet.

Painting: Valentin de Boulogne

Wah-ro-née-sah (The Surrounder), an

Painting: George Catlin

The 2014 edition of the

The

Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) was photographed in the cabin of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module after becoming the first person to walk on the Moon and spending two and a half hours outside the spacecraft along with Buzz Aldrin. Armstrong, an American astronaut, joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1962 after participating in the U.S. Air Force's Man in Space Soonest and X-20 Dyna-Soar human spaceflight programs. He commanded Apollo 11, his second and final spaceflight, in July 1969, after commanding the Gemini 8 Earth orbital mission in 1966.

Photograph: Buzz Aldrin

A panoramic view of Bath, Somerset, looking north from Alexandra Park. The English city, known for its Roman Baths and Georgian architecture, had a population of 88,859 in 2011. It is home to software, publishing and service-oriented industries, and a bustling tourist industry which hosts more than 1 million staying visitors and 3.8 million day visitors annually.

Photograph: David Iliff

Nils Torvalds (b. 1945) is a Swedish-speaking Finnish broadcast journalist, writer and politician, who is serving as a Member of the European Parliament. Born in Ekenäs, Torvalds has been active in politics since he was a college student in the 1960s. He is the son of Ole Torvalds and the father of Linus Torvalds.

Photograph: David Iliff

A male and female mandarin duck (Aix galericulata) at Martin Mere, Lancashire, United Kingdom, showing the sexual dimorphism of the species. The adult male has a red bill, large white crescent above the eye and reddish face and "whiskers", as well as a purple breast with two vertical white bars, and ruddy flanks. The female is similar to female wood duck, with a white eye-ring and stripe running back from the eye, but is paler below, has a small white flank stripe, and a pale tip to its bill.

This species was once widespread in East Asia, but large-scale exports and the destruction of its forest

Photograph: Francis C. Franklin

The equirectangular projection is a simple map projection attributed to Marinus of Tyre, who Ptolemy claims invented the projection about AD 100. The projection maps meridians to vertical straight lines of constant spacing, and circles of latitude to horizontal straight lines of constant spacing. The projection is neither equal area nor conformal. Because of the distortions introduced by this projection, it has few applications beyond base imagery to be reprojected to some more useful projection.

Map: Strebe, using Geocart

The sharp-tailed sandpiper (Calidris acuminata) is a small wader. It breeds in the boggy tundra of northeast Asia and is strongly migratory, wintering in south east Asia and Australasia.

Photograph: JJ Harrison

Old Court at

Brahmaea wallichii, also known as the owl moth, is a moth from the family Brahmaeidae. With a wingspan of about 90–160 mm (3.5–6.3 in), it is one of the largest species of Brahmin moth. This nocturnal species is found in India, Bhutan, Myanmar, China, Taiwan and Japan.

Photograph: Arthur Chapman; edit: Papa Lima Whiskey and Ryan Kaldari

An assignat banknote, issued in 1792, with a face value of 400 livres. An early French banknote first issued in 1789, during the French Revolution, the assignat was backed by the value of seized properties. Amidst widespread counterfeiting, limited use, and opposition from counter-revolutionaries, the assignat devalued quickly and was replaced by the mandat in 1796.

Banknote: République Française; image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection at the National Museum of American History (Smithsonian Institution)

Shane Tuck, a United States Navy mass communication specialist, conducting underwater photography training off the coast of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2012. Underwater photography is usually done while scuba diving, but can also be done while diving on surface supply, snorkeling, swimming, from a submersible or remotely operated underwater vehicle, or from automated cameras lowered from the surface. It frequently requires specialized equipment and techniques.

Photograph: Jayme Pastoric/US Navy

Sulfur mining near the one-kilometer-wide turquoise-colored acidic crater lake at the Ijen volcano complex, a group of stratovolcanoes in the Banyuwangi Regency of East Java, Indonesia. During the mining process, sulfur-laden baskets are carried by hand from the crater floor. The work is paid well relative to the cost of living in the area, but very onerous.

Photograph: Sémhur

Sgùrr nan Gillean is a mountain in the northern section of the Cuillin range on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. With a height of 964 m (3162 feet), it is one of eleven Munros on the Cuillin ridge.

Photograph: David Iliff

Manuel L. Quezon (1878–1944) was a Filipino statesman, soldier, and politician who served as president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1935 to 1944. He is considered to have been the second president of the Philippines, after Emilio Aguinaldo (1897–1901). During his presidency, Quezon tackled the problem of landless peasants in the countryside, reorganized the islands' military defense, promoted settlement and development in Mindanao, and opposed graft and corruption within the government. He established an exiled government in the U.S. with the outbreak of the war and the threat of Japanese invasion.

Photograph: United States Office of War Information; restoration: Chris Woodrich

The

The interior of

The black-fronted dotterel (Elseyornis melanops) is a small, slender plover found in Australia and New Zealand. It is common in freshwater wetlands, where it can be found feeding on insects and other small creatures.

Photograph: JJ Harrison

The September 29, 1907, edition of

NASA engineer Ernie Wright looks on as the first six flight-ready primary mirror segments for the James Webb Space Telescope are prepped to begin final cryogenic testing at the Marshall Space Flight Center. Intended to serve as a replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope is currently under construction and scheduled to launch in October 2018. It is expected to enable a broad range of investigations across the fields of astronomy and cosmology.

Photograph: NASA/MSFC/David Higginbotham

The dining hall at