Wikipedia:Picture of the day/April 2010
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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 2010. 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 2010#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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An advertisement exhorting readers to "GET FAT", in which the woman depicted makes a conspiratorial wink as she shares the secret to her beauty. Advertisement: The Gribler Bank Note Co. from photo by Bakers Art Gallery
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April 2
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Wind turbines belonging to the Thorntonbank Wind Farm located in the North Sea, 28 km (17 mi) off the coast of Belgium. Electricity generation started in early 2009, with an initial capacity of 30 MW, and that number is expected to rise to 300 MW by 2015. A 37 km (23 mi) 150 kV undersea cable connects the wind farm to the shore. Photo credit: Hans Hillewaert
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April 3
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New Norfolk, a town on the River Derwent, in south-east Tasmania, Australia, as seen from Pulpit Rock Lookout. The town is located 35 km (22 mi) north-west of Hobart and takes its name from Norfolk Island, from where the town's pioneers originally re-settled. Photo credit: Noodle snacks
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April 4
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The flower head of a sunflower. The head comprises numerous florets, or small flowers, which are often yellow, maroon, or orange in color. The florets are arranged in a spiral pattern that allows for the most efficient packing of seeds within the flower head. Photo credit: Muhammad Mahdi Karim
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April 5
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Two boys enjoy treats during the 1911 Easter egg roll at the White House lawn, the highest-profile event on Easter Monday in the United States. The day after Easter is a holiday in some largely Christian cultures, especially Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox cultures. The White House Easter egg roll has been held annually since 1814. Photo: Harris & Ewing; Restoration: Lise Broer
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April 6
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A poster from an 1884 American production of William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth, a tale of regicide and its aftermath. Starting anti-clockwise from top-left, we see Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches, Macbeth just after the murder of King Duncan, Banquo's ghost, and Macbeth dueling with Macduff. Over the centuries, the play has attracted some of the greatest actors in the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The play has been adapted to film, television, opera, novels, comic books, and other media. Shakespeare borrowed the story from several tales in Holinshed's Chronicles, a popular history of the British Isles, although the story itself bears no relation to the actual history of Macbeth of Scotland. Lithography: W.J. Morgan & Co.; Restoration: Adam Cuerden
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April 7
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Leaving the opera in the year 2000, a ca. 1882 lithograph by Albert Robida, showing a futuristic view of air travel over Paris in the year 2000. Science fiction in the late 1800s is best represented by Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, but Samuel Butler, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling also wrote futuristic stories that were popular. Restoration: Michel Vuijlsteke
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April 8
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United States President Jimmy Carter (right) greeting Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at the White House on April 8, 1980, shortly after the Camp David Accords went into effect. The agreements were signed by Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on September 17, 1978, and led directly to the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty. Photo credit: U.S. News & World Report |
April 9
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A wasp of the genus Polistes, the most common type of paper wasp, on a vespiary. There are over 300 recognized species and subspecies, making it the largest genus within the family Vespidae. They commonly build nests on human habitation, where they can be very unwelcome, although they are generally non-aggressive. Photo credit: Muhammad Mahdi Karim |
April 10
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Frances Densmore (left) and Blackfoot chief Mountain Chief during a recording session for the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1916. Densmore (1867–1957) was an American ethnographer and ethnomusicologist who worked to document the music of Native Americans in the United States and its use in their cultures. She helped preserve their culture in a time when white settlers were encouraging Native Americans to become Americanized. Photo: Harris & Ewing; Restoration: Michel Vuijlsteke |
April 11
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An engraving of Marguerite de Navarre (1492–1549), the queen consort of King Henry II of Navarre, from an 1864 English edition of the Heptaméron, a collection of her own short stories. She was a patron of humanists and reformers, and as the older sister of King Francis I of France, Marguerite held tremendous influence in France, so much so that French historian Jules Michelet called her the "Mother" of the French Renaissance and American scholar Samuel Putnam called her the "First Modern Woman". Engraver: John James Hinchliff; Restoration: Adam Cuerden |
April 12
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A male Scarlet Robin, a common red-breasted Australian robin found in continental Australia and its offshore islands. The male is very similar in appearance to the male Pacific Robin and the two were considered conspecific, having only been split into different species in 1999. Photo credit: Noodle snacks
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April 13
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A poster for El Capitan, an operetta by John Philip Sousa with libretto by Charles Klein. It opened on April 13, 1896, in Boston, after which it transferred to Broadway, where it ran for 112 performances, starring DeWolf Hopper. Since then, it has been produced numerous times internationally and has remained popular for some time. The piece was Sousa's first successful operetta and his most successful stage work. Poster: Sewell T. Collins, Jr.; Restoration: Adam Cuerden
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April 14
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George Atzerodt (1835–1865) conspired with John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Atzerodt planned to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson on April 14, 1865. He got as far as the hotel where Johnson was staying, entered the hotel bar, and spent the evening drinking instead of attempting the assassination. Atzerodt's inquiries as to the whereabouts of Johnson raised suspicions soon after Lincoln's death, and authorities were notified. He was arrested on April 20 and executed along with three other co-conspirators by hanging on July 7. Photo: Alexander Gardner; Restoration: Lise Broer
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April 15
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Brighton Pier and Brighton Beach, located in Brighton, England, looking eastward. Usually known as the "Palace Pier" (short for the Brighton Marine Palace, seen left of centre), it was renamed in 2000 by its owners to suggest that it is Brighton's only pier, the others having been closed in years past. However, the name has not yet been recognised by the National Piers Society or even local newspaper The Argus. Photo credit: David Iliff
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April 16
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An 1890s photochrom print of Dresden, the capital city of Saxony in Germany, with Dresden Frauenkirche (left), Augustus Bridge (centre), and Katholische Hofkirche (right) visible. Dresden in the early 20th century was a leading European centre of culture and science, but suffered heavy damage due to an Allied bombing on February 13, 1945. Photochrom: Detroit Publishing Co.
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April 17
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One stalk of broccoli and a cross-section of another. Broccoli is one of a number of vegetable cultivars of the species Brassica oleracea, which also includes cauliflower, kale, brussels sprouts, and cabbage. Broccoli is available in several cultivars itself, the most familiar being 'Calabrese' (shown here). Photo credit: Fir0002
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April 18
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The cellular location, substrates and products of enzymes involved in human steroidogenesis, the production of steroid hormones from cholesterol and their transformation into other steroids. The coloured areas show the major classes of steroid hormones: progestagens, mineralocorticoids, glucocorticoids, androgens and estrogens, although some classes overlap. White circles indicate changes in molecular structure compared with precursors. Image credit: David Richfield/Mikael Häggström
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April 19
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Ottoman machine gun corps, before the Second Battle of Gaza, which took place on 19 April 1917. The First Battle of Gaza, just three weeks prior, had ended in defeat for the British Empire, and this second attempt to break through Turkish defenses was also unsuccessful. Six months later, on the third attempt, the Allied forces were finally able to break the Gaza–Beersheba line. Photo: American Colony, Jerusalem
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April 20
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The caterpillar of a Graphium butterfly, on the leaf of a sugar-apple tree. Graphium is a genus of mostly tropical swallowtail butterflies, commonly known as swordtails. Because they are very colorful, species of Graphium are popular with collectors. Photo credit: Muhammad Mahdi Karim
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April 21
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The flower of a Pig's Ear (Cotyledon orbiculata), a succulent plant belonging to the Crassulaceae family. The bell-shaped flowers are small, usually less than 3 cm (1.2 in) in length, and droop from the top of a 60 cm (24 in) tall stalk. They are usually orange-red in colour but yellow varieties also exist. Photo credit: Noodle snacks
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April 22
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Pale Blue Dot is the name given to this 1990 photo of Earth taken from Voyager 1 when its vantage point reached the edge of the Solar System, a distance of roughly 3.7 billion miles (6 billion kilometres). Earth can be seen as a blueish-white speck approximately halfway down the brown band to the right. The light band over Earth is an artifact of sunlight scattering in the camera's lens, resulting from the small angle between Earth and the Sun. Carl Sagan came up with the idea of turning the spacecraft around to take a composite image of the Solar System. Six years later, he reflected, "All of human history has happened on that tiny pixel, which is our only home."
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April 23
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Andrew Gregg Curtin (1817–1894) was a U.S. lawyer and politician. He served as the 15th governor of Pennsylvania during the American Civil War. During the Civil War, Curtin organized the Pennsylvania reserves into combat units, and oversaw the construction of the first Union military camp for training militia. After the Battle of Gettysburg, Governor Curtin was the principal force behind the establishment of the National Cemetery there. After serving two terms as governor, Curtin was appointed ambassador to Russia by Ulysses S. Grant, and he later served in the House of Representatives from 1881 until 1887. Photo: Mathew Brady/Levin Handy; Restoration: Michel Vuijlsteke
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April 24
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An engraving of a scene from Tom Cobb, a three-act farce by W. S. Gilbert. Here, the eponymous Cobb sits smoking a pipe in the background while the Effingham family form a group in front. Gilbert, with Arthur Sullivan, had already produced their hit one-act comic opera Trial by Jury by the time Tom Cobb was written, but both Gilbert and Sullivan were still producing a considerable amount of work separately. The play premiered on 24 April 1875, but although it was praised by the critics, the original production ran for only 53 performances. Artist: David Henry Friston; Restoration: Adam Cuerden
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April 25
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An 1838 colored lithograph of the Great Hypostyle Hall of the Precinct of Amun-Re, the largest of the four main enclosed areas of Karnak, a complex of ruins near the city of Luxor, Egypt. The site is a vast open-air museum and the largest ancient religious site in the world. Construction of temples started in the Middle Kingdom and continued through to Ptolemaic times. Approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings, enabling it to reach a size, complexity, and diversity not seen elsewhere. Hypostyle Hall contains 134 massive columns arranged in 16 rows, with some of the columns reaching 21 m (69 ft) tall and up to 3 m (9.8 ft) in diameter. Artist: David Roberts & Louis Hahge; Restoration: Lise Broer
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April 26
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A photomontage of the four sides of the Frieze of Parnassus, a large sculpted stone frieze circling the base of the Albert Memorial in London, England. It consists of 169 life-size full-length sculptures of individual artists from history. The total length of the frieze is around 210 ft (64 m). Depicted from top: musicians and poets (south side), painters (east), architects (north), and sculptors (west). Photo credit: David Iliff
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April 27
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A caricature of Idi Amin (1925–2003), President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979, as a bloated, powerful figure in military dress covered with medals and insignia, holding a scepter, and crowned by a small head with heavy features. Amin's rule was characterised by human rights abuses, political repression, ethnic persecution, extrajudicial killings, nepotism, corruption and gross economic mismanagement. The number of people killed as a result of his regime is estimated by international observers and human rights groups to range from 100,000 to 500,000. Tanzanians and exiled Ugandans infiltrated Uganda and overthrew Amin's government in 1979. He fled to Libya, then Saudi Arabia, where he remained for the rest of his life. Artist: Edmund S. Valtman; Restoration: Lise Broer
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April 28
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Sedum rubrotinctum, commonly known as the "Jelly Bean Plant" or "Pork and Beans", is a succulent plant native to Mexico. The plant has short tips that resemble jelly beans, which turn red during the summer, and blooms yellow flowers in mid-spring. Sedum rubrotinctum is poisonous and can cause irritation when ingested or touched. Photo credit: Noodle snacks
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April 29
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One of over a thousand species of carpenter ant. These ants are found throughout the world. They build colonies in moist, decaying, or hollow wood, which makes them pests to humans due to their proclivity for establishing nests in buildings. Photo credit: Muhammad Mahdi Karim
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April 30
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A Nazi Party campaign poster for the 1932 Reichstag election. Translated into English, the poster reads, "The people are voting for list 1 [indicating the party's position on the ballot], the National Socialists, in the Reichstag election." The Nazis won 33% of the vote, a slight drop from the previous election. The Nazis interpreted the result as a warning that they must seize power before their moment passed. Chancellor Franz von Papen, his successor Kurt von Schleicher, and nationalist press magnate Alfred Hugenberg were able to persuade President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Adolf Hitler as Chancellor in January 1933. In the following election, the Nazis were able to secure nearly 44% of the Reichstag. Poster: Rehse-Archiv für Zeitgeschichte und Publizistik
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