Wikipedia:Picture of the day/November 2012

The mushroom cloud from the Ivy Mike nuclear test, one of two tests conducted as part of Operation Ivy at the Pacific Proving Grounds on Elugelab in the Marshall Islands. Mike was the first successful full-scale test of a multi-megaton thermonuclear weapon, and it left an underwater crater 6,240 ft (1,900 m) wide and 164 ft (50 m) deep where the island had been.

Photo: United States Department of Energy

A sample of a 1.7 kg (3.7 lb)

The Carniolan honey bee (Apis mellifera carnica) is a subspecies of the western honey bee native to the Balkans and surrounding areas. It is adapted to the Kočevje sub-region of Carniola (now in Slovenia). It is the second most popular among beekeepers (after the Italian bee).

Photo: Richard Bartz

A statue of the

Photo: Los Angeles County Museum of Art

A campaign poster from the 1900 United States presidential election for the incumbent William McKinley, who would eventually win. The poster shows McKinley standing on a gold coin, representing the gold standard, with support from soldiers, businessmen, farmers and professionals, claiming to restore prosperity at home and victory abroad. The election was a repeat of the 1896 election, pitting McKinley against William Jennings Bryan.

Image: Northwestern Litho. Co.; Restoration: NativeForeigner

An officer of the

The

Photo: JJ Harrison

The

Curve is a theatre in the "Cultural Quarter" of Leicester, England. It was designed by Rafael Viñoly and opened on 11 November 2008.

Photo: Celuici

Heavy rust on the links of a chain near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It was continuously exposed to moisture and salt-laden spray, causing surface breakdown, cracking, and flaking of the metal. In colloquial usage, "rust" refers to red iron(III) oxide and is formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the presence of water.

Photo: WikipedianMarlith/Iamthedeus

Emperor of Brazil Pedro II was the second and last ruler of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. Born in Rio de Janeiro, his father Pedro I's abrupt abdication and flight to Europe in 1831 left him as Emperor at the age of five. Inheriting an Empire on the verge of disintegration, Pedro II turned Brazil into an emerging power in the international arena. On November 15, 1889, he was overthrown in a coup d'état by a clique of military leaders who declared Brazil a republic. However, he had become weary of emperorship and despaired over the monarchy's future prospects, despite its overwhelming popular support, and did not support any attempt to restore the monarchy.

Photo: Mathew Brady/Levin Corbin Handy

The

A diagram showing the structure of

The near-elegant frog shell (Bufonaria perelegans) is a species of sea snail in the frog shell family. It is found in the western Pacific Ocean, off the coasts of the Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Thailand. The shell ranges from 65 to 115 mm (2.6 to 4.5 in) in length.

Photo: George Chernilevsky

The

The original

Composer: John Joseph Woods; Restoration: SMasters

The

The

The longtail tadpole shrimp (Triops longicaudatus) is a freshwater crustacean resembling a miniature horseshoe crab. It is one of the oldest animal species still in existence. Like its relative Triops cancriformis, the longtail tadpole shrimp is considered a living fossil because its basic prehistoric morphology has changed little in the last 70 million years, exactly matching ancient fossils.

Photo:

Samuel Reshevsky (1911–92) was a famous chess prodigy and later a leading American chess grandmaster. He learned to play chess at age four, and at age eight he was beating accomplished players with ease, such as in this photo from 1920, and giving simultaneous exhibitions. Although he never became a truly professional chess player, he competed for the World Chess Championship and maintained a rivalry with Bobby Fischer.

Photo: Kadel & Herbert

Synthetic crystals of high-purity

Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, a character named after the Golden Rule, from The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby, a children's novel by Charles Kingsley. Published in 1863, the book was extremely popular in England, and was a mainstay of British children's literature for many decades. The book had been intended in part as a satire, a tract against child labour, as well as a serious critique of the closed-minded approaches of many scientists of the day in their response to Charles Darwin's ideas on evolution.

Artist: Jessie Willcox Smith; Restoration: ErikTheBikeMan

Benjamin Haydon's painting of Thomas Clarkson addressing the 1840 Anti-Slavery Convention, held by the Anti-Slavery Society at Exeter Hall in London. The organisation was the second to bear that name and was dedicated to the abolishment of slavery worldwide. It continues to function today as Anti-Slavery International.

Painting by Benjamin Haydon