Wikipedia:Picture of the day/Archive

The Mao Gong ding is a ceremonial bronze vessel (ding) produced c. 805 BC in Western Zhou–era China. It was presented to King Xuan of Zhou by his vassal, the gong (duke) Yin of Mao. The Mao Gong ding was discovered in Shaanxi in 1843 and is currently in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taiwan.

Photograph credit: National Palace Museum

Gangabal Lake is a high-altitude glacial lake situated at the foot of Harmukh, a mountain in the Himalayas in Jammu and Kashmir, India. The lake is called Gangabal, meaning 'place of Ganga' in the Kashmiri language, and is considered to be sacred in Hinduism as an abode of Shiva. The lake has been described as a place of pilgrimage in several ancient Hindu texts such as the Mahabharata, the Nilamata Purana and the Vishnu Smriti, and an annual Hindu pilgrimage to the lake starts from the nearby 8th-century Wangath temple complex. Kashmiri Hindus perform their ancestral rites at the lake and immerse the ashes of the dead into the lake after cremation. This photograph depicts a shrine dedicated to Shiva carved into a boulder at the shore of Gangabal Lake.

Photograph credit: UnpetitproleX

The Young Companion, known as Liángyǒu in Chinese, was a pictorial magazine with captions in both Chinese and English, published in Shanghai, China, between 1926 and 1945. It is regarded as one of the most influential large-scale comprehensive Asian pictorials in the 1920s, and has proven useful to historians in modern times in examining the glamorous side of colonial-era Shanghai. It ran for 174 issues, including two special issues not given monthly issue numbers – the "Sun Yat-sen Memorial Special" and the "Eighth Anniversary". This is the cover of the first issue of The Young Companion, dated 15 February 1926, and featuring a photograph of the Chinese actress Hu Die.

Cover credit: Hujiang Photo Studio; retouched by Chris Woodrich

Abigail Scott Duniway (1834–1915) was an American women's rights advocate, newspaper editor and writer, whose efforts were instrumental in gaining voting rights for women in the United States. In 1871, she founded The New Northwest, a weekly newspaper devoted to women's rights, including women's suffrage. In 1912, Oregon became the seventh state in the U.S. to pass an amendment on women's suffrage. Governor Oswald West asked her to write and sign the proclamation on equal suffrage and, on February 14, 1913, she was the first woman to register to vote in Multnomah County. This photograph shows Duniway signing the precinct voter-registration book, with John B. Coffey, the Multnomah County clerk, standing next to her. The photograph was published in the February 15 issue of The Oregonian.

Photograph credit: The Oregonian; restored by Adam Cuerden

The yellow warbler (Setophaga petechia) is a species of bird in the New World warbler family, Parulidae. It is the most widespread species in the diverse genus Setophaga, breeding in almost the whole of North America, the Caribbean, as well as northern South America. It has 35 subspecies, residing in various different habitats. Depending on the subspecies, the yellow warbler may be between 10 and 18 centimetres (3.9 and 7.1 in) long, with a wingspan from 16 to 22 centimetres (6.3 to 8.7 in). It weighs 7 to 25 grams (0.2–0.9 oz). In winter, female and immature birds all have similarly greenish-yellow uppersides and are a duller yellow below, while males acquire breast and sometimes head coloration. This yellow warbler was photographed in the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in New York City, United States.

Photograph credit: Rhododendrites

Francis II (12 February 1768 – 2 March 1835) was the last Holy Roman Emperor from 1792 to 1806, and the first Emperor of Austria as Francis I from 1804 to 1835. He was also King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia, and served as the first president of the German Confederation following its establishment in 1815. Francis was born in Florence as the eldest son of future Emperor Leopold II and Maria Luisa of Spain. Leopold became Holy Roman Emperor in 1790 but died two years later, and Francis succeeded him. The Holy Roman Empire immediately became embroiled in the French Revolutionary Wars, the first of which ended in Austrian defeat and the loss of the left bank of the Rhine to France. In 1806, after Napoleon created the Confederation of the Rhine, Francis abdicated as Holy Roman Emperor, which in effect marked the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1813, Francis turned against Napoleon and finally defeated him in the War of the Sixth Coalition, forcing him to abdicate. Francis died in 1835 at the age of 67 and was succeeded by his son, Ferdinand I. This oil portrait on canvas, painted in 1815 by Joseph Kreutzinger, depicts Francis wearing Austrian military uniform with the insignia of various orders. The painting hangs in the Neue Galerie of the Universalmuseum Joanneum in Graz, Austria.

Painting credit: Joseph Kreutzinger

Ilulissat is the municipal seat and largest town of the municipality of Avannaata in western Greenland. It is located on the eastern shore of Disko Bay, just north of the Ilulissat Icefjord World Heritage Site, and approximately 350 km (220 mi) north of the Arctic Circle. With a population of 5,149 as of 2025, it is the third-largest city in Greenland, after Nuuk and Sisimiut. The area around the town was inhabited by Inuit peoples from prehistoric times, with evidence of Saqqaq and Dorset settlements. Dutch whalers traded extensively with the local population from the 17th century and referred to the area as Maklykout. Ilulissat was later established as a trading post by Jacob Severin's company in 1741, and was named in his honor after the Battle of Jacobshavn, in which Danish forces defeated the Dutch whalers. The town was the site of the Arctic Ocean Conference in 2008, in which representatives from Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States met to discuss territorial claims in the Arctic. This 2024 photograph shows a panorama of Ilulissat taken from the south west.

Photograph credit: Ekrem Canli

Sabellastarte spectabilis, commonly known as the feather duster worm or the fan worm, is a species of benthic marine polychaete worm in the family Sabellidae. It is native to tropical waters of the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea but has spread to other parts of the world. It is a filter feeder and inhabits holes and cracks in reefs, rocky shores, coral and lava, under boulders in still water, and in tidal pools and channels exposed to heavy surf. S. spectabilis is buff in colour with purple specks, around 8 centimetres (3 inches) in length and up to 1.2 centimetres (0.5 inches) in width. It lives in a tough, leathery tube covered with fine mud, from which projects a branchial crown of branched tentacles. The worm is popular in aquariums because of its distinctive appearance and its ability to remove organic particles and improve water quality. This S. spectabilis worm was photographed in the diving resort of Anilao in Mabini, Batangas, in the Philippines.

Photograph credit: Diego Delso

Laura Clay (February 9, 1849 – June 29, 1941) was a leader of the American women's suffrage movement and the co-founder and first president of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association. She was one of the most important suffragists in the South, favoring the states' rights approach to suffrage. A powerful orator, she was active in the Democratic Party and had important leadership roles in local, state and national politics. In 1920 at the Democratic National Convention, she was one of two women to be the first women to have their names placed into nomination for the presidency at the convention of a major political party. This photograph by the Gerhard Sisters shows Clay in 1916.

Photograph credit: Gerhard Sisters; restored by Kentuckian

Paula Modersohn-Becker (8 February 1876 – 20 November 1907) was a pioneering German painter who made significant contributions to the development of modern art in the early 20th century. Born in Dresden, she displayed artistic talent from an early age and went on to receive formal training from local painter Bernhard Wiegandt. She then moved to join the Worpswede artists' colony in northern Germany, receiving tuition from Fritz Mackensen. Modersohn-Becker is celebrated for her role in the emergence of Expressionism and her innovative approach to portraiture and self-portraiture. This Self-Portrait at 6th Wedding Anniversary was painted in 1906 and is now in the collection of the Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum in Bremen.

Painting credit: Paula Modersohn-Becker

The Pacific gull (Larus pacificus) is a bird in the gull family, Laridae, native to the coasts of Australia. It is moderately common in a band along the coast between Carnarvon, Western Australia, in the west, and Sydney in the east, as well as Tasmania and other islands off the continent's southern coast. The Pacific gull ranges in length from 58 to 66 centimetres (23 to 26 in), with a wingspan of 137 to 157 centimetres (54 to 62 in). Its diet consists of fish and invertebrates, such as crabs, sand flatheads and cephalopods. This Pacific gull of the subspecies L. p. pacificus was photographed in Moulting Lagoon Important Bird Area, Tasmania.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

Luge is a winter sport that involves a one- or two-person sled, also known as a luge, on which athletes sled supine (face-up) and feet-first. Lugers control the movement of the sled by shifting their weight or applying pressure with their calf muscles and shoulders, and can reach speeds of more than 140 km/h (87 mph; 39 m/s). The sport is organised by the International Luge Federation and has been part of the Winter Olympic programme since 1964. This photograph shows the Ukrainian brothers Myroslav and Ivan Lenko training in 2022 in Mariazell, Austria, for the Luge World Cup.

Photograph credit: Steffen Prößdorf

Amblyeleotris rubrimarginata is a fish in the family Gobioidei, the gobies. It is found on reefs or in seagrass beds in the western Pacific, from New Caledonia to the Great Barrier Reef and around New Guinea, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, at depths from 3 to 26 metres (10 to 85 ft). As with other Amblyeleotris species, it has a symbiotic relationship with alpheid shrimps, with an individual or a pair of gobies sharing a burrow with a pair of shrimps. A. rubrimarginata is up to 8 centimetres (3.1 in) in length, and its background colour is whitish, marked with five vertical brown or orange bars. It is most readily distinguished from its congeners by a row of red spots along the margin of both dorsal fins and the upper part of the caudal fin, and also by a prominent black spot just above and behind the eye. This A. rubrimarginata fish was photographed at the resort of Anilao in Mabini, Batangas, in the Philippines.

Photograph credit: Diego Delso

Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) was an Arab scholar, historian, philosopher, and sociologist. Born in Tunis into an upper-class Andalusian family of Arab descent, his family's high rank enabled him to study with prominent teachers in the Maghreb, where he received a classical Islamic education including the Quran, as well as mathematics, logic, and philosophy. He lost both his parents to the Black Death at the age of 17. As was traditional for members of his family, Ibn Khaldun then went on to have a career in politics. His best-known book is the Muqaddimah or Prolegomena (Introduction). This influenced 17th-century and 19th-century historians such as Kâtip Çelebi, Mustafa Naima and Ahmed Cevdet Pasha, who used its theories to analyse the growth and decline of the Ottoman Empire. Ibn Khaldun is regularly ranked among the most prominent Muslim and Arab scholars and historians in history. This bust of Ibn Khaldun is situated in the entrance of the kasbah in Béjaïa, Algeria.

Sculpture credit: unknown; photographed by Reda Kerbouche

The gray catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) is a species of bird in the mimid family, Mimidae. It is native to most of temperate North America east of the Rocky Mountains, mostly migrating to the southeastern United States, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean in winter. It is gray in color across most of its body, and with a length ranging from 20.5 to 24 cm (8.1 to 9.4 in) and a span of 22 to 30 cm (8.7 to 11.8 in) across the wings. The gray catbird's diet consists mainly of arthropods and berries, with foraging taking place on the ground in leaf litter, and also in shrubs and trees. This gray catbird was photographed in Brooklyn, New York City, United States.

Photograph credit: Rhododendrites

Euromaidan was a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv. The protests were sparked by President Viktor Yanukovych's sudden decision not to sign the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement, instead choosing closer ties to Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union. The scope of the protests widened to include calls for the resignation of Yanukovych and the Azarov government. The uprising climaxed on 18–20 February 2014, when fierce fighting in Kyiv between Maidan activists and police resulted in the deaths of almost 100 protesters and 13 police. As a result, Yanukovych and the parliamentary opposition signed an agreement on 21 February to bring about an interim unity government, constitutional reforms and early elections. This photograph shows the crowd of protesters in Kyiv on 2 February 2014.

Photograph credit: Ввласенко

Yarrow Mamout was an African-American freedman of Guinean origin. Born into the Fula people in around 1736, Mamout was raised as a Muslim and learned to read and write in Arabic as well as his native Fula language. Captured and enslaved in 1752, he was brought to Maryland on the slave ship Elijah and was sold to Samuel Beall, a plantation owner in Takoma Park, Maryland. Mamout was enslaved there for 44 years, being manumitted when Beall died in 1796; he immediately purchased and freed his 7-year-old son, Aquilla. Mamout then became a successful businessman. He remained a devout Muslim, refusing to eat pork or drink alcohol and praying regularly. This 1819 portrait of Mamout was created by painter Charles Willson Peale and is now in the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Painting credit: Charles Willson Peale

Choriaster granulatus, the granulated sea star, is a species of sea star in the family Oreasteridae, and the only species of its genus. It is found both individually and in groups, and resides in the Indo-Pacific region, the Red Sea, Fiji, and the Great Barrier Reef, at depths of up to 53 metres (174 ft) and temperatures of 24 to 29 °C (75 to 84 °F). It favours sandy habitats with rubble slopes and detritus as well as among corals and sponges. C. granulatus has a convex body and five short arms with rounded tips and is relatively large among sea stars, having a maximum radius of about 27 centimetres (11 in). It is most commonly pale pink with brown papillae radiating out from the centre, but can also exhibit colours ranging from grey to yellow and even red. It is a carnivore, having a diet of small invertebrates such as coral polyps as well as carrion. This C. granulatus sea star was photographed off the coast of Zanzibar, Tanzania.

Photograph credit: Diego Delso

A time-lapse video of the aurora australis, as seen from the International Space Station. Aurorae are natural light displays in the sky caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude thermosphere. The particles originate in the magnetosphere and solar wind and, on Earth, are directed by Earth's magnetic field into the atmosphere.

Video credit: NASA / ISS Expedition 28 crew

The Torment of Saint Anthony is the earliest known painting by the Italian artist Michelangelo, painted in around 1487–1488 when he was only 12 or 13 years old. A copy of The Temptation of Saint Anthony, an engraving by Martin Schongauer, it shows Saint Anthony being assailed in the desert by demons, whose temptations he resisted. This was a common medieval subject, included in the Golden Legend and other sources, although this composition shows a later episode where St Anthony, normally flown about the desert supported by angels, was ambushed in mid-air by devils. The Torment of Saint Anthony is in the permanent collection of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, United States.

Painting credit: Michelangelo

The blue petrel (Halobaena caerulea) is a small seabird in the family Procellariidae, the only member of its genus. It is distributed across the Southern Ocean but breeds at only six known sites, all close to the Antarctic Convergence zone. Its plumage is predominantly blue-grey, with an "M" banding across its top, which is similar to that of the closely-related prion. It also has a white-tipped tail. The blue petrel is 28 cm (11 in) in length with a wing span of 66 cm (26 in), and feeds predominantly on krill as well as other crustaceans, fish, and squid. This blue petrel was photographed off the eastern coast of the Tasman Peninsula in Tasmania, Australia.

Photograph credit: JJ Harrison

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age resulted in more than 800 works representing virtually every Western classical genre of his time. Many of these compositions are acknowledged as pinnacles of the symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral repertoire. Mozart is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music, with his music admired for its "melodic beauty, its formal elegance and its richness of harmony and texture". The oil painting, titled Portrait of the Mozart Family, is traditionally attributed to Johann Nepomuk della Croce and was painted around 1780. In the foreground, the painting depicts Mozart and his sister Maria Anna together playing a fortepiano, and their father Leopold holding a violin. In the background, their recently deceased mother Anna Maria is depicted in a framed portrait alongside a sculpture of Apollo playing a lyre. The painting was considered by Maria Anna to have the most authentic portrait of her brother, and has inspired further depictions of Mozart. It is currently in the collection of the Tanzmeisterhaus Salzburg.

Painting credit: attributed to Johann Nepomuk della Croce

Gurudongmar Lake is a glacial lake located to the north of the Himalayas in the northeast Indian state of Sikkim. At an elevation of more than 5,150 metres (16,900 feet), it is one of the highest lakes in the world. The lake is fed by glaciers of the Khangchengyao massif and forms the headwaters of the Teesta River. It is considered to be sacred by Buddhists and Sikhs. This photograph shows a partially frozen Gurudongmar Lake.

Photograph credit: Yoghya; edited by UnpetitproleX

Hermann Schwarz (25 January 1843 – 30 November 1921) was a German mathematician, known for his work in complex analysis. Between 1867 and 1869, he worked at the University of Halle, then at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich. From 1875, Schwarz worked at Göttingen University, dealing with the subjects of complex analysis, differential geometry, and the calculus of variations. In 1892, he became a member of the Berlin Academy of Science and a professor at the University of Berlin, where his students included Lipót Fejér, Paul Koebe and Ernst Zermelo. Schwarz's name is attached to many ideas in mathematics. This photograph of Schwarz, taken around 1890, is in the collection of the ETH Library.

Photograph credit: Louis Zipfel; restored by Adam Cuerden

The redtoothed triggerfish (Odonus niger) is a tropical fish in the family Balistidae, the triggerfishes. It is native to the tropical Indo-Pacific area, including the Red Sea, the African east coast, the Marquesas Islands and the Society Islands, across to southern Japan and the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. Redtoothed triggerfish are normally deep blue or purple with a light blue head. They are omnivorous and mostly opportunistic feeders, with crustaceans as their primary food source. They also feed on zooplankton and algae, and remains of cephalopods and fish have been found in their stomachs. This redtoothed triggerfish was photographed off the coast of Anilao in the Philippines.

Photograph credit: Diego Delso

Amanda Smith (January 23, 1837 – February 24, 1915) was an American Methodist preacher and former slave who funded the former Amanda Smith Orphanage and Industrial Home for Abandoned and Destitute Colored Children in Harvey, Illinois. She was a leader in the Holiness movement, preaching the doctrine of entire sanctification throughout Methodist camp meetings across the world. This photograph of Smith was taken around 1885 and is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

Photograph credit: T. B. Latchmore; restored by Adam Cuerden

Pouteria campechiana, also known as the canistel, is an evergreen tree native to southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and El Salvador. It is cultivated in its native countries and has been introduced into several other countries, including Brazil, Taiwan, and the United States. The edible part of the tree is its fruit, which is colloquially known as an egg fruit. The ripe fruit is used in jam and marmalade, on pancakes, and in a milkshake known as "eggfruit nog". This picture shows a whole P. campechiana fruit.

Photograph: Augustus Binu

Nohkalikai Falls is a 340-foot-tall (100 m) plunge waterfall located in the northeast Indian state of Meghalaya. It is the tallest plunge waterfall in India and is situated near Cherrapunji, one of the wettest places on Earth. Nohkalikai Falls are fed by the rainwater collected on the summit of a relatively small plateau. Below the falls is a plunge pool with water of an unusual shade of green.

Photograph credit: Vikramjit Kakati

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  Male plum-headed parakeet
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  Female plum-headed parakeet

The plum-headed parakeet (Psittacula cyanocephala) is a species of parakeet in the family Psittacidae. It is endemic to the Indian subcontinent, from the foothills of the Himalayas to southern India and Sri Lanka, and inhabits forests, open woodland, and sometimes city gardens. It is a predominantly green bird, with a length of 33 to 37 centimetres (13 to 14+1⁄2 in) and a weight of 55 to 85 grams (2 to 3 oz). The male has a red head which shades to purplish-blue on the back of the crown, nape and cheeks, while the female has a bluish-gray head. The plum-headed parakeet is a gregarious and noisy species with swift twisting flight and a range of raucous calls. It feeds on grains, fruits, flower petals, sometimes also raiding agricultural fields and orchards. It nests in holes, chiselled out by the pair, in tree trunks, and courtship includes bill rubbing and courtship feeding. These male and female plum-headed parakeets were photographed in Jim Corbett National Park, in the Indian state of Uttarakhand.

Photograph credit: Giles Laurent

The Lingnan School was an art movement active in the late Qing dynasty and Republic of China that sought to modernize Chinese painting through borrowing from other artistic traditions. Established by the brothers Gao Jianfu and Gao Qifeng, together with Chen Shuren, the Lingnan School has been considered one of the major art movements of 20th-century Chinese painting. Stylistically, the Lingnan School was marked by a blending of traditional Chinese approaches and Western techniques, as mediated by Japanese understandings. These included matters of lighting and atmosphere, as well as depictions of subjects rarely found in earlier Chinese works. This 1916 work is by Gao Qifeng and is titled The Roar of the Tiger.

Painting credit: Gao Qifeng