Wikipedia:Picture of the day/April 2015
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These featured pictures, as scheduled below, appeared as the picture of the day (POTD) on the English Wikipedia's Main Page in April 2015. 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/April 2015#1]] for April 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
April 1
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Lucky Diamond Rich (b. 1971) is a New Zealand-born performance artist and street performer who holds the Guinness World Record for most tattooed man, taking the title from Tom Leppard in 2006. He is recognized by Guinness as being covered in tattoos over 100% of his body, including the inside of his eyelids, ears, and mouth. Photograph: TOONMAN blchin |
April 2
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A group of Buddhist monks standing on Preah Pithu Temple (U), Angkor, Siem Reap, Cambodia. Buddhism in Cambodia can be traced back to at least the 5th century, when Mahayana Buddhism was practiced by subjects of the Kingdom of Funan. Today, Buddhism – particularly the Theravada branch – is practiced by the majority of Cambodians, and has influences on numerous aspects of daily life. Photograph: JJ Harrison
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April 3
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Christ Crucified is an oil painting on canvas completed by Diego Velázquez, likely in 1632. Depicting the Crucifixion of Jesus, it shows a nearly naked Christ nailed to the cross in a contrapposto position. The painting is currently held by the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain. Painting: Diego Velázquez
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April 4
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Engraving by Vivant Denon of a costume for French legislators designed by Jacques-Louis David. Denon (1747–1825) originally studied law and served as a attaché, but later devoted himself to art and literature and struck up a friendship with David. During the French Revolution, Denon was commissioned to furnish designs for republican costumes. In 1802, Napoleon appointed Denon to be the first head of the Musée Napoléon (now the Louvre). Drawing: Jacques-Louis David; engraving: Vivant Denon; restoration: Michel Vuijlsteke
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April 5
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Orthetrum chrysostigma is a species of dragonfly in family Libellulidae that is found in much of Africa. Adults of this species prey on various flying insects. Photograph: Muhammad Mahdi Karim
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April 6
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A male (top) and female eastern rosella (Platycercus eximius). These rosellas, which average 30 cm (12 in) in length, are native to southeastern Australia and Tasmania. The species, first described by George Shaw in 1792, is sometimes considered a subspecies of the pale-headed rosella; the two hybridize where their ranges meet. Photograph: JJ Harrison
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April 7
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A natural-color mosaic of Cassini narrow-angle camera images of the unilluminated side of Saturn's D, C, B, A and F rings (left to right) taken on May 9, 2007. The rings are lettered in order of discovery. The A and B rings, separated by the Cassini Division, are the densest; together with the C ring, they constitute the planet's main rings. The D ring is classified as a dusty ring, like the E and G rings (not pictured here), because of the tiny size of its particles. The F ring is a dynamic mixture of larger and smaller particles. Photograph: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
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April 8
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A view of Jaffa, including the bell tower of St. Peter's Church and the minaret of Al-Bahr Mosque, from the Tel Aviv Promenade. An ancient port city in what is now southern Tel Aviv-Yafo, Jaffa is mentioned in the Bible several times in association with the stories of Solomon, Jonah, and Saint Peter. The town was captured by various groups over several millennia, including Arabs, Crusaders, Egyptians, the Ottoman Empire, the French, and British. During the British Mandate tensions arose between the mostly-Jewish population of Tel Aviv and the mostly-Muslim population of Jaffa, and conflict broke out in the late 1940s when the port town was to be included in the new Israeli state. In 1950, Jaffa was merged into Tel Aviv. Photograph: Andrew Shiva
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April 9
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The Pony Express was a mail service operating from 1860 until 1861 that delivered messages, newspapers, mail, and small packages by horseback, keeping California in touch with the rest of the United States. Messages forwarded by Pony Express could cross the country in ten days. Its route from Sacramento, California, to St. Joseph, Missouri, had to cross the Sierra Nevada, the Rocky Mountains, and the Great Plains. Map: William Henry Jackson; restoration: Chris Woodrich
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April 10
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Rekha Raju performing Mohiniyattam, a classical dance form from Kerala, India. Believed to have originated in the 16th century CE, this dance form was popularized in the nineteenth century by Swathi Thirunal, the Maharaja of the state of Travancore, and Vadivelu, one of the Thanjavur Quartet. The dance, which has about 40 different movements, involves the swaying of broad hips and the gentle side-to-side movements. Photo: Augustus Binu
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April 11
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Anatomical diagram of an adult female chambered nautilus, the best known species of nautilus, a "living fossil" related to the octopuses. The animal has a primitive brain that forms a ring around its oesophagus, has four gills (all other cephalopods have only two), and can only move shell-first (seemingly "backwards") by pumping water out through its funnel. The shell and tentacles are shown here as shadows. Diagram: K.D. Schroeder
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April 12
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The Albert Bridge is a road bridge over the River Thames in West London, connecting Chelsea on the north bank to Battersea on the south. Designed and built by Rowland Mason Ordish in 1873, it initially operated as a toll bridge but was commercially unsuccessful; the tolls were lifted after six years. The roadway is only 27 feet (8.2 m) wide and the bridge has serious structural weaknesses; it has been reinforced several times but never replaced, despite calls for closure or pedestrianisation. Photograph: David Iliff
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April 13
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A Gynaephora selenitica caterpillar on a meadow vetchling. The larvae of this moth species can feed on a variety of plants, mostly Fabaceae species but also including shrubs and some other plants. In the species' range, from central Europe to the Urals, larvae can be found from July to April. Photograph: Ivar Leidus
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April 14
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The north face of Jalovec, a mountain in the Julian Alps. It is the sixth-highest peak in Slovenia, rising to 2,645 metres (8,678 ft) above sea level. Photograph: Christian Mehlführer
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April 15
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The Sleeping Venus is an oil painting on canvas begun by the Italian Renaissance master Giorgione and completed by Titian after the former's death in 1510. One of Giorgione's last works, it portrays a nude woman whose profile seems to follow that of the hills in the background. This lone nude, unprecedented in Western painting at the time, influenced numerous future artists. The work is now held in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, Germany. Painting: Giorgione and Titian
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April 16
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Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, in 2009. Born in 1955, Henri is the eldest son of Grand Duke Jean and Princess Joséphine-Charlotte of Belgium. He took the throne after his father's abdication in 2000. Photograph: א (Aleph)
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April 17
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The common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is a medium-sized passerine bird in the starling family, Sturnidae, which is found through much of the world. Measuring about 20 cm (8 in) in length, these starlings are a noisy bird in communal roosts and other gregarious situations. This species is omnivorous, taking a wide range of invertebrates, as well as seeds and fruit. Photograph: Pierre Selim
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April 18
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The House of the Estates is a historical building located opposite of the Bank of Finland building in Helsinki, Finland. Built in 1891, it housed the three commoner estates of the four estates of the realm of Finland. It continues to be sporadically used for governmental meetings. Photograph: Joaquim Alves Gaspar
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April 19
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Mycena overholtsii is a species of fungus in the family Mycenaceae which produces mushrooms which are relatively large for its genus, Mycena. The caps reach up to 5 cm (2.0 in) in diameter, with stems up to 15 cm (5.9 in) long. M. overholtsii grows on well-decayed conifer logs near snowbanks, during or just after snowmelt. It is commonly found in North America, though it has also been reported in Japan. Photograph: Noah Siegel, United States Forest Service
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April 20
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"The Lotos-Eaters" is a poem by Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, published in his 1832 poetry collection. Written after a trip to Spain, it describes a group of mariners who, upon eating the lotos, are put into an altered state and isolated from the outside world. The poem is inspired by a similar scene in Homer's Odyssey. This illustration, completed by W. E. F. Britten for a 1901 printing of Tennyson's works, accompanies the lines: Let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind, Illustration: W. E. F. Britten; restoration: Adam Cuerden
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April 21
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A 14-frame clip showing the atmosphere of Jupiter as viewed from the NASA probe Cassini. Taken over a span of 24 Jupiter rotations between October 31 and November 9, 2000, this clip shows various patterns of motion across the planet. The Great Red Spot rotates counterclockwise, and the uneven distribution of its high haze is obvious. To the east (right) of the Red Spot, oval storms, like ball bearings, roll over and pass each other. East-west bands adjacent to each other move at different rates. Strings of small storms rotate around northern-hemisphere ovals. The large grayish-blue "hot spots" at the northern edge of the white Equatorial Zone change over time as they proceed eastward across the planet. Ovals in the north rotate counter to those in the south. Small, very bright features appear quickly and randomly in turbulent regions, possibly lightning storms. The smallest visible features at the equator are about 600 km (370 miles) across. Animation: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
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April 22
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A baseball team composed mostly of child laborers from an Indiana glassmaking factory, as photographed by Lewis Hine in August 1908. Hine (1874–1940) was an American sociologist who promoted the use of photography as an educational medium and means for social change. Beginning in 1908, he spent ten years photographing child labor for the National Child Labor Committee. The project was a dangerous one, and Hine had to disguise himself – at times as a fire inspector, post card vendor, Bible salesman or industrial photographer – to avoid the factory police and foremen. Photograph: Lewis Hine; restoration: Lise Broer
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April 23
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A longhorn beetle of the subfamily Cerambycinae exhibiting cryptic coloration, as photographed in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. This subfamily is widely distributed, with over 716 genera, consisting of 3,889 species, worldwide. Photograph: Muhammad Mahdi Karim
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April 24
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An Armenian woman kneeling beside a dead child in a field during the Armenian Genocide, conducted by the government of the Ottoman Empire. The genocide is conventionally held to have begun on 24 April 1915, when Ottoman authorities arrested and later executed some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders. Much of the remaining Armenian population were deported into the deserts of Syria, where most died from starvation, exhaustion, and systematic massacres. The total number of people killed has been estimated at between 1 and 1.5 million. Though the events are widely recognized as a genocide by historians, the Turkish government rejects such a description. Photograph: American Committee for Relief in the Near East; restoration: MjolnirPants
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April 25
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HMAS Australia was a County-class heavy cruiser of the Royal Australian Navy. Laid down in Scotland in 1925, the ship entered service in 1928. She served predominantly in the South-West Pacific until the beginning of World War II, when she was tasked to the northern Atlantic. In 1942, Australia was reassigned as flagship of the ANZAC Squadron, where she supported US naval and amphibious operations throughout South-East Asia. A series of kamikaze attacks during the invasion of Lingayen Gulf led to Australia being recalled for repairs in the United Kingdom, where she remained until the end of the war. In her later years, Australia served as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan and as a training ship. She was sold for scrap in 1955. Photo: Allan Green; restoration: Chris Woodrich
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April 26
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A diagram of vernier calipers, a device used to measure the distance between two opposite sides of an object, showing the individual parts:
Here the metric scale shows a distance of 2.475 cm between the jaw faces: the 0 mark on the vernier is between 2.4 and 2.5, and the 7.5 mark is the one best aligned with a mark on the main scale. Similarly, the inch scale shows (155/8)/16, or 125/128, of an inch. Diagram: Joaquim Alves Gaspar, modified by ed g2s
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April 27
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The Pig-faced Lady of Manchester Square and the Spanish Mule of Madrid, an 1815 cartoon print by George Cruikshank depicting a pig-faced woman and contrasting her with the unpopular Ferdinand VII of Spain. At this time, rumours had spread that such a woman was living in fashionable Manchester Square, and various newspapers (such as the Morning Herald and Morning Chronicle) reported this as fact. Eyewitness accounts, marriage proposals, and tales of attacks by the woman further fanned the flames, and the rumour was recollected as fact as late as the 1860s. Stories of pig-faced women originated in the late 1630s; the last significant work to treat their existence as genuine was published in 1924. Print: George Cruikshank
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April 28
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A female chestnut teal (Anas castanea), a species of dabbling duck commonly found in southern mainland Australia and Tasmania. These omnivores, which can be differentiated from grey teals by their darker colour and larger size, prefer coastal estuaries and wetlands. Photograph: Fir0002 |
April 29
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The Dakota, a cooperative apartment building located in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City, in 1890. The building, constructed between 1880 and 1884, was designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh in a fusion of Renaissance revival and English Victorian styles. The Dakota has been home to numerous celebrities since opening, including actress Judy Garland, football player Joe Namath, composer Leonard Bernstein, and musician John Lennon. Photograph: Historic American Buildings Survey; restoration: Lise Broer |
April 30
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A detailed eighteenth-century map of Scandinavia by J. B. Homann, depicting Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Baltic states of Livonia, Latvia and Curlandia. The map notes fortified cities, villages, roads, bridges, forests, castles and topography. The elaborate title cartouche in the upper left quadrant features angels supporting a title curtain and a medallion supporting an alternative title in French, "Les Trois Covronnes du Nord". Born in 1664, Homann became an engraver and cartographer in the late 17th century, and opened his own publishing house in 1702. In 1715 Emperor Charles VI appointed him Imperial Geographer of the Holy Roman Empire. Homann held the position until his death in 1724. |
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