Wikipedia:Picture of the day/November 2024
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These featured pictures, as scheduled below, have been chosen to appear as the picture of the day (POTD) on the English Wikipedia's Main Page in November 2024. 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/November 2024#1]]
for November 1).
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November 1
Diwali is a five-day Hindu festival of lights which symbolises the spiritual victory of light over darkness and good over evil. It commemorates the day when Hindu god Rama, along with his wife-consort Sita and brother Lakshmana, returned to his kingdom of Ayodhya after defeating demon-king Ravana and following 14 years of exile. Celebrations peak on the night of the third day of the festival—the main day of Diwali, which is today—marking the darkest night of the Hindu lunisolar calendar. People celebrate on this day by lighting traditional lamps (diyas) and candles. Pictured here is a woman lighting candles on Diwali. Photograph credit: AjoyDutta1997; edited by Aristeas
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November 2
The Mauritius kestrel (Falco punctatus) is a bird of prey from the family Falconidae endemic to the forests of Mauritius, where it is restricted to the southwestern plateau's forests, cliffs, and ravines. It colonized the island and evolved into a distinct species from other Indian Ocean kestrels, probably during the Gelasian or Early Pleistocene periods. The Mauritius kestrel can reach a size between 26 and 30.5 cm (10.2 and 12.0 in), with a mass of up to 250 g (8.8 oz) and rounded wings with a span of approximately 45 cm (18 in). Males are slightly smaller than the females. It is a carnivorous bird, eating geckos, dragonflies, cicadas, cockroaches, crickets, and small birds. It hunts by means of short, swift flights through the forests. This Mauritius kestrel was photographed in the Ebony Forest reserve near Chamarel, Mauritius. Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp
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November 3
The coconut (Cocos nucifera) is a member of the palm tree family, Arecaceae. Originally native to the Central Indo-Pacific, in the regions of Maritime Southeast Asia and Melanesia, coconuts are now found across the world due to human cultivation and dispersal. They are normally cultivated in hot and wet tropical climates. The term coconut also commonly refers to the seed and fruit of the coconut tree, which is botanically a drupe. The fruit has three layers including an edible white, fleshy endosperm and is filled with a liquid known as coconut water. The coconut thus played a critical role in the migration of Austronesian peoples across the Indian Ocean, as it provided a portable source of both food and water for long sea voyages. In modern times coconuts are used extensively in cooking and cuisine, using the raw flesh, the water or in alternative forms such as coconut milk and coconut butter. These coconuts, one whole and one halved, were grown in the Dominican Republic; this photograph was focus-stacked from 19 separate images. Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus
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November 4
The Abduction of Europa is a 1632 oil-on-panel painting by Rembrandt. One of his rare mythological works, it was inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses, part of which tells the tale of Zeus's seduction and capture of Europa. The painting shows a coastal scene with Europa being carried away in rough waters by Zeus in the form of a bull while her friends remain on shore with expressions of horror. The use of an ancient myth to impart a contemporary thought and his portrayal of the scene using the High Baroque style are two strong aspects of the work. It was also influenced by Titian's painting of the same subject 70 years earlier, although there are significant differences; Rembrandt's painting is less violent in nature than Titian's. The Abduction of Europa is now in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum in New York City. Painting credit: Rembrandt
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November 5
The tentacled flathead (Papilloculiceps longiceps) is a species of marine fish belonging to the flathead family, Platycephalidae. It is found in the western Indian Ocean, including the Red Sea, and also in the Mediterranean Sea, probably as a result of migration through the Suez Canal. The tentacled flathead is a well camouflaged, ambush predator of fish and crustaceans, living near coral reefs on sand or rubble substrates at depths of up to 15 metres (49 feet). The species has an elongate body, with a maximum published length of 70 centimetres (28 inches), although 50 centimetres (20 inches) is more typical. It has a depressed head with five prominent nuchal spines, ridges on its operculum and preoperculum, a spine on the rear of the suborbital ridge, and smaller spines elsewhere. The body is mottled brownish or greenish dorsally, and whitish ventrally. There are three or four dark bands on the caudal fin, and the other fins are marked with large, dark blotches. This tentacled flathead was photographed in the Red Sea in Ras Muhammad National Park, off the southern coast of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Photograph credit: Diego Delso
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November 6
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900–1979) was a British-born American astronomer and astrophysicist who proposed in her 1925 doctoral thesis that stars were composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Her groundbreaking conclusion was initially rejected because it contradicted the scientific wisdom of the time, which held that there were no significant elemental differences between the Sun and Earth. Independent observations eventually proved she was correct. Her work on the nature of variable stars was foundational to modern astrophysics. Photograph credit: Science Service; restored by Adam Cuerden
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November 7
The Dalmatian pelican (Pelecanus crispus) is a bird in the family Pelecanidae. With a length of 160 to 183 centimetres (63 to 72 inches), a mass of 7.25 to 15 kilograms (16.0 to 33.1 pounds) and a wingspan of 245 to 351 centimetres (96 to 138 inches), it is the largest pelican species and one of the world's largest living flying birds. The Dalmatian pelican has a range spanning across much of central Eurasia, from the Mediterranean in the west to the Taiwan Strait in the east, and from the Persian Gulf in the south to Siberia in the north. It is a short-to-medium-distance migrant between breeding and overwintering areas. The Dalmatian pelican's preferred habitat is lakes, rivers, deltas and estuaries, and it feeds on various fish species such as the common carp and European perch. Like many pelicans, it is often silent, but can be vocal during the mating season, engaging in a wide range of guttural, deep vocalisations, including barks, hisses and grunts. This Dalmatian pelican was photographed in flight over the Danube Delta in Romania. Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp
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November 8
John Tarleton (8 November 1811 – 25 September 1880) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Second Naval Lord. He was given command of the fifth-rate HMS Fox in 1852, of the frigate HMS Eurydice in 1855 and of the frigate HMS Euryalus in 1858: he led the latter ship as an element of the Channel Squadron and then of the Mediterranean Squadron. Tarleton served as Junior Naval Lord from 1871 and then as Second Naval Lord from 1872 to 1874. He was promoted to Vice Admiral in 1875 and retired in 1879. He is seen here in an 1860 photograph by John Jabez Edwin Mayall. Photograph credit: John Jabez Edwin Mayall; restored by User:Adam Cuerden
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November 9
Pyromorphite is a mineral species composed of lead chlorophosphate: Pb5(PO4)3Cl, sometimes occurring in sufficient abundance to be mined as an ore of lead. First distinguished chemically by Martin Heinrich Klaproth in 1784, it was named pyromorphite by Johann Friedrich Ludwig Hausmann in 1813. It is usually green, yellow or brown in color, with a resinous lustre. Crystals are common and have the form of a hexagonal prism terminated by the basal planes, sometimes combined with narrow faces of a hexagonal pyramid. Other forms include crystals with a barrel-like curvature and globular or reniform masses. Pyromorphite is part of the apatite group of minerals and bears a close resemblance physically and chemically with two other minerals, mimetite and vanadinite. This focus-stacked photograph, merged from 26 separate images, shows a sample of pyromorphite extracted from the Resuperferolitica Mine in Santa Eufemia, in the Spanish province of Córdoba. The sample measures 3.5 cm × 3.0 cm × 1.5 cm (1.38 in × 1.18 in × 0.59 in). Photograph credit: David Ifar
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November 10
The European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus), is a species of bark beetle in the true weevil family, Curculionidae. It is found in Europe and Asia Minor and east to China, Japan, North Korea and South Korea. Bark beetles are so named because they reproduce in the inner bark, living and dead phloem tissues, of trees. Their preferred trees in which to reside include spruces, firs, pines and larches. The species has the ability to spread quickly over large areas and some scientists hypothesize that long-distance movements originating from the Iberian Peninsula may have contributed to its invasion of northern Norway spruce forests. This female European spruce bark beetle was photographed in Naninne in the province of Namur, Belgium. Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus
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November 11
Shirley Graham Du Bois (November 11, 1896 – March 27, 1977) was an American-Ghanaian writer, playwright, composer, and activist for African-American causes. Born in Indianapolis to an Episcopal minister, she moved with her family throughout the United States as a child. After marrying her first husband, she moved to Paris to study music at the Sorbonne. After her divorce and return to the United States, Graham Du Bois took positions at Howard University and Morgan College before completing her BA and master's at Oberlin College in Ohio. Her first major work was the opera Tom-Tom, which premiered in Cleveland in 1932. She married W. E. B. Du Bois in 1951, and the couple later lived in Ghana, Tanzania and China. She won several prizes, including an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for her 1949 biography of Benjamin Banneker. This photograph of Graham Du Bois was taken by Carl Van Vechten in 1946. Photograph credit: Carl Van Vechten; restored by Adam Cuerden
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November 12
Contemporary climate change involves rising global temperatures and significant shifts in Earth's weather patterns. Climate change is driven by emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. Emissions come mostly from burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas), and also from agriculture, forest loss, cement production and steel making. Climate change causes sea level rise, glacial retreat and desertification, and intensifies heat waves, wildfires and tropical storms. These effects of climate change endanger food security, freshwater access and global health. Climate change can be limited by using low-carbon energy sources such as wind and solar energy, by forestation, and shifts in agriculture. Adaptations such as coastline protection cannot by themselves avert the risk of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts. Limiting global warming in line with the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement requires reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. This NASA animation shows global surface temperature changes from 1880 to 2023. The colour blue denotes cooler temperatures and red denotes warmer temperatures. Video credit: NASA; visualization by Mark SubbaRao
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November 13
The Réunion stonechat (Saxicola tectes) is a species of stonechat in the Old World flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. It is found across the French Indian Ocean island of Réunion in forests, shrublands and artificial environments such as gardens and plantations. The Réunion stonechat is a member of the common stonechat superspecies, but it is distinct, together with its closest relative the Madagascar stonechat, from the rest of that group being insular derivatives of the African stonechat. The male is black above and white below, with a white supercilium (sometimes absent), half-collar, covert patch, and a variable-sized orange patch on the breast. Females differ from males in being browner above, more buff-toned below, and often lacking the white greater covert patch. This male Réunion stonechat was photographed in La Roche Écrite, south of the Réunion capital Saint-Denis. Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp
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November 14
Percy Grainger (1882–1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early 20th century. Grainger left Australia in 1895 to study at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. Between 1901 and 1914 he was based in London, where he established himself first as a society pianist and later as a concert performer, composer and collector of original folk melodies. He met many of the significant figures in European music, forming friendships with Frederick Delius and Edvard Grieg, and became a champion of Nordic music and culture. In 1914, Grainger moved to the United States, where he took citizenship in 1918. He experimented with music machines that he hoped would supersede human interpretation. Although much of his work was experimental and unusual, the piece with which he is most generally associated is his piano arrangement of the folk-dance tune "Country Gardens". This glass negative of Grainger was taken at some point around 1915–1920. Photograph credit: Bain News Service; restored by Adam Cuerden and MyCatIsAChonk
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November 15
Sherman's March to the Sea was a military campaign of the American Civil War conducted through Georgia by Major General William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army. The campaign began on November 15, 1864, with Sherman's troops leaving Atlanta, recently taken by Union forces, and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 21. His forces followed a "scorched earth" policy, destroying military targets as well as industry, infrastructure, and civilian property, disrupting the Confederacy's economy and transportation networks. The operation debilitated the Confederacy and helped lead to its eventual surrender. This picture shows an engraving by Alexander Hay Ritchie depicting Sherman's March to the Sea. Engraving. credit: Alexander Hay Ritchie; restored by Adam Cuerden
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November 16
Artemis I was an uncrewed Moon-orbiting mission that was launched on November 16, 2022. It was the first major spaceflight of NASA's Artemis program and marked the agency's return to lunar exploration since the Apollo program after five decades. It was the first flight test of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the mission's main objective was to test the Orion spacecraft in preparation for future Artemis missions. Artemis I was launched from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center. After reaching orbit, the upper stage separated and performed a trans-lunar injection before releasing Orion and ten CubeSat satellites. Orion completed one flyby of the Moon on November 21 and completed a second flyby on December 5. This picture shows Artemis I launching from Launch Complex 39B Photograph credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
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November 17
The European bison (Bison bonasus), also known as the wisent, is a mammal in the family Bovidae, one of two extant species of bison. Having been hunted to extinction in the wild by the early 20th centry, the European bison was reintroduced to the wild in various European countries by the 2010s, following captive breeding programmes. It is the heaviest wild land animal in Europe, and individuals in the past may have been even larger than their modern-day descendants. The largest bulls of the species have a mass of up to 1,000 kg. The European bison is a herd animal, which lives in both mixed and solely male groups. Mixed groups consist of adult females, calves, young aged 2–3 years, and young adult bulls. A typical herd numbers around 8–13 animals on average. This male European bison was photographed in the Białowieża Forest, Poland Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp
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November 18
The featured picture for this day has not yet been chosen.
In general, pictures of the day are scheduled in order of promotion to featured status. See Wikipedia:Picture of the day/Guidelines for full guidelines.
November 19
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In general, pictures of the day are scheduled in order of promotion to featured status. See Wikipedia:Picture of the day/Guidelines for full guidelines.
November 20
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (21 June 1839 – 29 September 1908), was a pioneer Brazilian novelist, poet, playwright and short story writer, widely regarded as the greatest writer of Brazilian literature. In 1897, he founded and became the first President of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. He was multilingual, having taught himself French, English, German and Greek later in life.
Machado's work shaped the realist movement in Brazil. He became known for his wit and his eye-opening critiques of society. Generally considered to be Machado's greatest works are Dom Casmurro (1899), Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas ("Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas", also translated as Epitaph of a Small Winner) and Quincas Borba (also known in English as Philosopher or Dog?). In 1893, he published "A Missa do Galo" ("Midnight Mass"), often considered to be the greatest short story in Brazilian literature. Photograph credit: Marc Ferrez (photographer); restored by Adam Cuerden
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November 21
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In general, pictures of the day are scheduled in order of promotion to featured status. See Wikipedia:Picture of the day/Guidelines for full guidelines.
November 22
Wait for Me, Daddy is a photo taken by Claude P. Dettloff on October 1, 1940, of The British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own Rifles) marching down Eighth Street at the Columbia Street intersection, New Westminster, British Columbia. While Dettloff was taking the photo, Warren "Whitey" Bernard ran away from his mother to his father, Private Jack Bernard. The picture received extensive exposure and was used in war-bond drives. Photograph credit: Claude P. Dettloff
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November 23
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November 24
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test, abbreviated as DART, was a NASA space mission aimed at testing a method planetary defense against near-Earth objects. The target asteroid, Dimorphos, is a minor-planet moon of the asteroid Didymos. DART was launched on November 24 2021 and had successfully collided with Dimoprhos on 26 September 2022 about 11 million kilometers (6.8 million miles) from Earth. The collision shortened Dimoprhos' orbit by 32 minutes and was achieved by the momentum transfer associated with the recoil of the ejected debris, which was larger than the impact. This video is captured by a 20-centimeter aperture camera called the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) and shows a compiled time lapse of DART's final 5 and a half minutes until impact. credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
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November 25
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In general, pictures of the day are scheduled in order of promotion to featured status. See Wikipedia:Picture of the day/Guidelines for full guidelines.
November 26
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In general, pictures of the day are scheduled in order of promotion to featured status. See Wikipedia:Picture of the day/Guidelines for full guidelines.
November 27
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November 28
The ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata) is a species of turkey residing primarily in the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, as well as in parts of Belize and Guatemala. It is a relative of the North American wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), although is somewhat smaller. The body feathers of both sexes are a mixture of bronze and green iridescent color, with neither sex possessing the beard typically found in wild turkeys. Tail feathers of both sexes are bluish-grey with an eye-shaped, blue-bronze spot near the end with a bright gold tip. These spots, or ocelli (for which the ocellated turkey is named) have been likened to the patterning typically found on peafowl. This ocellated turkey was photographed near Tikal in the Petén region of Guatemala. Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp
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November 29
The Rose of Persia; or, The Story-Teller and the Slave, is a two-act comic opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by Basil Hood. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 29 November 1899, closing on 28 June 1900 after a profitable run of 211 performances. The opera then toured, had a brief run in America and played elsewhere throughout the English-speaking world. Painting credit: Dudley Hardy; restored by Adam Cuerden
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November 30
Winston Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from 1922 to 1924, he was a member of Parliament from 1900 to 1964, and represented five different constituencies. This black-and-white photograph of Churchill, titled The Roaring Lion, was taken on 30 December 1941 by the Armenian-Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh in the Centre Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada. Churchill is particularly noted for his posture and facial expression in the photograph, which have been compared to the wartime feelings that prevailed in the United Kingdom – persistence in the face of an all-conquering enemy. Photograph credit: Yousuf Karsh
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