Wikipedia:Picture of the day/April 2014
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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 2014. 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 2014#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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A map showing where to find the deadly snark, hidden amidst bandersnatch, beamish, frumious, galumphing, jubjub, mimsiest, outgrabe and uffish. Held by a bellman, this map is considered equally useful wherever one is. It has been used to successfully find the creature once, although the discoverer, a baker, vanished without a trace. He left behind friends such as a beaver, butcher, and boots. Map: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and Henry Holiday; restoration: Adam Cuerden
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April 2
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A depiction of the Greek story Apollo and Daphne by the Italian painter Antonio del Pollaiolo (1431–98). In the story, the god Apollo mocks Eros for using a bow and arrow. In revenge, Eros shoots the nymph Daphne with a lead arrow, and Apollo with a gold arrow. This causes Apollo to fall hopelessly in love with Daphne, while she hates him with all her heart. Ultimately, to escape from Apollo's unwanted advances, Daphne calls upon her father, Peneus, for help. He grants her request by transforming her into a tree. Such is Apollo's love that he vows to tend the tree for eternity. Painting: Antonio del Pollaiolo
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April 3
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"The Lady of Shalott" is a Victorian ballad by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92). The poem recasts Arthurian subject matter, the legend of Elaine of Astolat. In the poem, the Lady of Shalott is cursed to weave eternally without ever looking out at the world, but when she does she falls in love with Sir Lancelot. She strikes out into the world to find him, finding death as she floats along the river towards Camelot. The poem was a popular subject for pre-Raphaelite painters, though this illustration is from a 1901 critical edition of Tennyson's work. Illustration: W. E. F. Britten; restoration: Adam Cuerden
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April 4
Subpage 1
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An illustration for the Gilbert and Sullivan play Princess Ida, completed by William Russell Flint (1880–1969) for the 1909 printing of Savoy Operas, a compilation of four Gilbert and Sullivan works. Flint began illustrating at age 14, working as an apprentice lithographer while studying at the Royal Institute of Art, Edinburgh. After a time as a medical illustrator, Flint found work with The Illustrated London News. He produced several literary illustrations, including for the Savoy Operas and a 1912 edition of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. This illustration depicts the start of the literal battle between the sexes at the end of Act II. The titular Princess Ida has imprisoned Prince Hilarion (who had snuck into her women's college, disguised as a female), and his father sends soldiers to batter down the gate in order to rescue him.
Illustration: William Russell Flint; restoration: Adam Cuerden
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Subpage 2
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An illustration for the Gilbert and Sullivan play Princess Ida, completed by William Russell Flint (1880–1969) for the 1909 printing of Savoy Operas, a compilation of four Gilbert and Sullivan works. Flint began illustrating at age 14, working as an apprentice lithographer while studying at the Royal Institute of Art, Edinburgh. After a time as a medical illustrator, Flint found work with The Illustrated London News. He produced several literary illustrations, including for the Savoy Operas and a 1912 edition of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. This illustration depicts the end of Act II. The men who sneaked into the college disguised as women have been found out and arrested, and Prince Hilarion's father forces his way into the college to negotiate his release. Ida refuses, and the act ends with the promise of a war between the sexes to come.
Illustration: William Russell Flint; restoration: Adam Cuerden
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Subpage 3
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An illustration for the Gilbert and Sullivan play Princess Ida, completed by William Russell Flint (1880–1969) for the 1909 printing of Savoy Operas, a compilation of four Gilbert and Sullivan works. Flint began illustrating at age 14, working as an apprentice lithographer while studying at the Royal Institute of Art, Edinburgh. After a time as a medical illustrator, Flint found work with The Illustrated London News. He produced several literary illustrations, including for the Savoy Operas and a 1912 edition of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. This illustration is from Act III: Princess Ida has found herself in a literal battle between the sexes, but her women, although theoretically trained, have never been asked to act in practice in any of the more brutal arts. Here, she questions her fusiliers, who have left their rifles in the armoury lest "in the heat and turmoil of the fight, they might go off".
Illustration: William Russell Flint; restoration: Adam Cuerden
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Subpage 4
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An illustration for the Gilbert and Sullivan play Princess Ida, completed by William Russell Flint (1880–1969) for the 1909 printing of Savoy Operas, a compilation of four Gilbert and Sullivan works. Flint began illustrating at age 14, working as an apprentice lithographer while studying at the Royal Institute of Art, Edinburgh. After a time as a medical illustrator, Flint found work with The Illustrated London News. He produced several literary illustrations, including for the Savoy Operas and a 1912 edition of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. This illustration presents the beginning of the luncheon at the end of Act II, in which drunken shenanigans accidentally reveal the gender of the disguised men. "Enter the 'Daughters of the Plough', bearing Luncheon."
Illustration: William Russell Flint; restoration: Adam Cuerden
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April 5
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The Pisa Baptistry of St. John is a religious building in Pisa, Italy. Constructed in 1152 to replace an older baptistry, it was completed in 1363, and is the second building, in chronological order, in the Piazza dei Miracoli, near the Duomo di Pisa Cathedral and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The baptistry, with a height of 54.86 metres (180.0 ft) and a circumference of 107.24 metres (351.8 ft), was designed by Diotisalvi. Photograph: Celuici
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April 6
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Naqsh-e Rustam is an ancient necropolis located about 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) northwest of Persepolis, Iran. Dating to at least 1,000 BCE, the necropolis contains four tombs tentatively identified as those of Achaemenid kings, including Darius I and Xerxes I. There are also reliefs of Sasanian kings such as Ardashir I and Shapur I. Photograph: Ggia
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April 7
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NGC 4565 (also known as the Needle Galaxy) is an edge-on spiral galaxy about 30 to 50 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. NGC 4565 is a giant spiral galaxy more luminous than the Andromeda Galaxy, and has a population of roughly 240 globular clusters, more than the Milky Way. Photograph: Ken Crawford
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April 8
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A panoramic view of the Roman Theatre in Palmyra, in the Syrian Desert, from the cavea. Dating to the 2nd century CE and constructed by the Severan dynasty, the theatre was left unfinished. It was cleaned and restored beginning in the 1950s, and now serves as a venue for the annual Palmyra festival. Photograph: Guillaume Piolle
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April 9
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Philaethria dido, the scarce bamboo page or dido longwing, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae which is found from the Amazon rainforest up through Mexico. They are often confused with the malachite butterfly, Siproeta stelenes, but can be told apart by their wing shape. Photograph: Böhringer Friedrich
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April 10
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The Graslei harbour is a popular destination in the Belgian city of Ghent. It is found in the city centre. Photograph: Joaquim Alves Gaspar
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April 11
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The Sawtooth Valley, here viewed from the Galena Summit, is located in central Idaho, United States. About 30 miles (50 km) long, the valley is part of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in the Sawtooth National Forest. The entire length of the valley is traversed by State Highway 75; the valley also contains several large lakes, including Redfish, Alturas, Pettit, and Stanley. Photograph: Acroterion
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April 12
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Dipodium punctatum is an orchid native to Australia. This leafless mycoheterotrophic plant is often found in protected shady positions in dry forests or woodlands and can grow to 40–100 centimetres (16–39 in) in height. Photograph: Benjamint444
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April 13
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The Cize-Bolozon viaduct is a road-rail bridge crossing the Ain gorge in France. The original viaduct, constructed in 1875, was destroyed during World War II. The current viaduct opened in 1950 and carries rail traffic on the top deck and road traffic on the lower one. Photograph: David Gubler
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April 14
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Roadkill occurs when an animal or animals are struck and killed by motor vehicles, something which happens millions of times a year worldwide. Some species numbers are significantly affected by roadkill: it is estimated to be responsible for 50% of deaths of Florida panthers, for instance. In this case, a deer was killed on the Okatie Highway (Highway 170) alongside the Chechesee River, South Carolina, USA; in the US there are roughly 250,000 deer-vehicle collisions yearly, leading to about 200 human deaths and over $1 billion in property damage. Photograph: John O'Neill
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April 15
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Five views of a shell of Tonna galea, a species of marine gastropod mollusc in the family Tonnidae. The shell is very large, with an average height of 6 inches (150 mm), but thin and inflated (though relatively durable); as such, the shell weighs considerably less than most other gastropod shells of similar size. From left to right: Dorsal, lateral (right side), ventral, back, and front view. Photograph: H. Zell; edit: Heinrich Pniok
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April 16
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The star cluster Pismis 24 lies in the core of the large emission nebula NGC 6357, which extends one degree on the sky in the direction of the constellation Scorpius. Part of the nebula is ionised by the youngest (bluest) heavy stars in Pismis 24. The intense ultraviolet radiation from the blazing stars heats the gas surrounding the cluster and creates a bubble in NGC 6357. The brightest point of light above the centre of this image is Pismis 24-1, once thought to be the most massive known star but now known to be a binary system.
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April 17
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Judith Leyster (1609–60), depicted here in a c. 1630 self-portrait, was a Dutch Golden Age painter who mostly made genre works, portraits, and still lifes. Born in Haarlem, she had begun painting by the age of twenty. By 1633 she had joined the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke, the first woman to become a member. In 1646 she married Jan Miense Molenaer; only two of her works are known to have been completed after this marriage. Painting: Judith Leyster
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April 18
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Pietà is a Renaissance sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti housed in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. It depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother, a very young Mary, after the Crucifixion. Statue: Michelangelo; photograph: Stanislav Traykov
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April 19
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The Collignon projection is an equal-area pseudocylindrical map projection first known to be published by Édouard Collignon in 1865 and subsequently cited by A. Tissot in 1881. This image is a derivative of NASA's Blue Marble summer month composite, with oceans lightened to enhance legibility and contrast. Map: Strebe, using Geocart
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April 20
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The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall, seating a maximum of 5,272, on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. Constructed beginning in 1867, the hall was inaugurated on 29 March 1871. Since 1941 it has held The Proms, an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events. Photograph: David Iliff
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April 21
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"Sir Galahad" is a poem written by Alfred Tennyson and published in his 1842 collection of poetry. As with several of Tennyson's other works, the poem has to do with Arthurian legend; in this poem, Sir Galahad experiences a vision of the Holy Grail. Tennyson revisited this topic in his Idylls of the King. In this illustration from a 1901 edition, an apparition appears to Galahad, urging him to continue his quest: Then move the trees, the copses nod, Illustration: W.E.F. Britten; restoration: Adam Cuerden
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April 22
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A panoramic view of Bangalore from Corporation Circle, with UB City to the left and Richmond area to the right. Kanteerava Indoor Stadium is in the foreground. The third largest city in India, the city is known as the Silicon Valley of India for its numerous IT exports. Photograph: Muhammad Mahdi Karim
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April 23
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Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks is an oil on canvas painting completed by Ilya Repin from 1880 to 1891. It depicts Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Host writing a reply filled with vulgarities and invectives to an ultimatum from Turkish Sultan Mehmed IV. The 203 cm × 358 cm (80 in × 141 in) work is now held at the Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg. Painting: Ilya Repin
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April 24
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A 3-week-old donkey (Equus africanus asinus), in Kadzidłowo, Poland. A female donkey is normally pregnant for about 12 months, and usually gives birth to a single foal; twins are rare. Photograph: Lilly M
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April 25
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Incredipede is a physics-based puzzle video game by Northway Games released in 2012. The main character is Quozzle, an Incredipede with the ability to morph in order to complete short challenges. Screenshot: Colin Northway
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April 26
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The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (pictured here in a late 19th-century photochrom) was a theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, beside the River Avon, constructed in 1879 to commemorate the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. This theatre burned down in 1926, and was replaced by the Elisabeth Scott-designed Royal Shakespeare Theatre, which still stands. Photochrom: Detroit Publishing Company; restoration: Adam Cuerden
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April 27
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An overhead view of Skylab, the United States' first space station, in Earth orbit as photographed from the Skylab 4 Command and Service Modules. Skylab 4 was the last mission to Skylab and brought back its final crew; this photograph was the last one taken of the station before the mission re-entered Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated in 1979. Photograph: NASA
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April 28
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The Duchess of Padua is an 1891 stage play by Oscar Wilde, rarely staged since its premiere, which follows two star-crossed lovers. Guido arrives in Padua and intends to take revenge for his father's murder by killing the Duke, only to fall in love with the Duchess. He decides to spare the Duke's life, but finds that the Duchess has killed him so that she can be with Guido. When Guido spurns her advances, the Duchess has him arrested for her husband's murder. Guido does not reveal her involvement, and after the trial the Duchess visits him; in his cell, she kills herself by drinking poison, and he follows suit by stabbing himself. This illustration, from a 1901 printing, illustrates the line, "Alackaday! I am fallen so low in place. I can reward thee only with niggardly thanks." Illustration: Unknown; restoration: Adam Cuerden
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April 29
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The bubble-tip anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor) is a species of sea anemone in the family Actiniidae. The bubble tips are exhibited by juvenile individuals found near the surface, whereas older specimens in deeper water will often have stringy tentacles. This species is found through much of the tropical Indo-Pacific and may host a variety of clownfish. Photograph: Nick Hobgood
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April 30
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Gun-type fission weapons are fission-based nuclear weapons whose design assembles their fissile material into a supercritical mass by the use of the "gun" method: shooting one piece of subcritical material into another. This design is rather inefficient owing to the slowness of the process and the amount of uranium required, and has fallen out of use. The bomb Little Boy, which was detonated over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, was of this type. Diagram: Dake, Papa Lima Whiskey, Mfield
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