Wikipedia:Picture of the day/June 2017

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Picture of the day archives

2004: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2005: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2006: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2007: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2008: January February March April May June July August September October November December
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2010: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2011: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2012: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2013: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2014: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2015: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2016: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2017: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2018: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2019: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2020: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2021: January February March April May June July August September October November December
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2024: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2025: January February March April May June July August September October November December

These featured pictures, as scheduled below, appeared as the picture of the day (POTD) on the English Wikipedia's Main Page in June 2017. 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/June 2017#1]] for June 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


June 1

Monkey selfie

One of two monkey selfies taken by Celebes crested macaques using equipment belonging to the British nature photographer David Slater. In mid-2014, the images' hosting on Wikimedia Commons was at the centre of a dispute over whether copyright could be held on artworks made by non-human animals. Slater argued that, as he had "engineered" the shot, he held copyright, while Wikimedia considered the photographs public domain on the grounds that they were made by an animal rather than a person. In December 2014, the United States Copyright Office stated that works by a non-human are not subject to US copyright, a view reaffirmed by a US federal judge in 2016.

Photograph: Depicted Celebes crested macaque

Recently featured:

June 2

Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia banknote

The first issue (March 1939) of paper currency in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, an unissued 1938 Republic of Czechoslovakia one koruna note originally intended for the Czech army. During the beginning of the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, an oval stamp was applied to the unissued 1938 stock of notes, identifying the currency as valid in the Protectorate. The overprint reads "Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren, Protektorát Čechy a Morava".

Banknote: Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia


June 3

Odiham Castle

Odiham Castle is a ruined castle situated near Odiham in Hampshire, England. It is one of only three fortresses built by King John during his reign. Completed between 1207 and 1214, it fell to a French siege in 1216 but was later rebuilt. Used to host Parliament and, later, as a prison in the 13th and 14th centuries, by 1605 Odiham was described as a ruin. Its only visible remains today are part of the octagonal keep and outlying earthworks.

Photograph: BabelStone


June 4

Venetia James

Venetia James (1861–1948) was a London society hostess and racehorse breeder. Born into the Cavendish-Bentinck family, she married the racehorse owner and breeder Arthur James in 1885. After her husband's death in 1917, James continued to breed horses and participate in races, winning the Victoria Cup and 1932 Coronation Cup. She had close relations to the Royal Family, being godmother to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

Painting: Samuel Luke Fildes


June 5

Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras

A village located in the Batad Rice Terraces, one of five clusters of the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995. The Batad Rice Terraces are part of Banaue, Ifugao.

Photograph: Uwe Aranas


June 6

Saint Joseph and the Christ Child

Saint Joseph and the Christ Child, an oil painting on canvas completed in 1640 by the Italian artist Guido Reni (1575–1642). Born in Bologna into a family of musicians, Reni studied under Denis Calvaert and Ludovico Carracci. He worked extensively in Rome and Naples before returning to Bologna after 1614. Reni worked with various mediums, including canvas and frescoes, and produced multiple etchings. Though the themes he depicted were mostly biblical and mythological, he also painted several portraits.

Painting: Guido Reni


June 7

The Balcony

The Balcony is an 1868 oil painting by the French painter Édouard Manet. It depicts four figures. On the left is Berthe Morisot, who married Manet's brother Eugène in 1874. In the centre is the painter Jean Baptiste Antoine Guillemet. On the right is Fanny Claus, a violinist. The fourth figure, partially obscured in the interior's background, is possibly Leon Leenhoff, Manet's son. Exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1869, the painting was bought by Gustave Caillebotte in 1884. It is currently kept at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

Painting: Édouard Manet


June 8

Capricornus

Capricornus is a constellation commonly represented in the form of a sea-goat, a mythical creature that is half goat, half fish. One of the 88 modern constellations, Capricornus was also one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy. The constellation is located in an area of sky called the Sea or the Water, consisting of many water-related constellations such as Aquarius, Pisces and Eridanus. It is the smallest constellation in the zodiac.

This illustration was included in Urania's Mirror, a set of celestial cards illustrated by Sidney Hall.

Illustration: Sidney Hall; restoration: Adam Cuerden


June 9

Befreiungshalle

The Befreiungshalle ("Hall of Liberation") is a Neoclassical monument on the hill Michelsberg above the town of Kelheim in Bavaria, Germany. It was commissioned by King Ludwig I of Bavaria to commemorate the victory over Napoleon in the Befreiungskriege of 1813–1815.

Photograph: Richard Bartz


June 10

Subpage 1

Cendrawasih dance

A performance of the cendrawasih dance by Sekar Jepun, the Balinese dance troupe of Sanata Dharma University.

Inspired by the courtship dance of the bird of paradise, the dance takes the form of a mating ritual. Two women dancers don Pandji-style headdresses with feathers stuck in them, as well as long flowing scarves or skirts with a pink stripe. The skirts serve as the tails of the birds of paradise, and when held their fluttering gives the impression of wings in flight. Shown here is a lone Cendrawasih dancer with her scarf hanging.

Other movements: In flight, Courting movements

Photograph: Chris Woodrich

Subpage 2

Cendrawasih dance

A performance of the cendrawasih dance by Sekar Jepun, the Balinese dance troupe of Sanata Dharma University.

Inspired by the courtship dance of the bird of paradise, the dance takes the form of a mating ritual. Two women dancers don Pandji-style headdresses with feathers stuck in them, as well as long flowing scarves or skirts with a pink stripe. The skirts serve as the tails of the birds of paradise, and when held their fluttering gives the impression of wings in flight, as shown here.

Other movements: Tail hanging, Courting movements

Photograph: Chris Woodrich

Subpage 3

Cendrawasih dance

A performance of the cendrawasih dance by Sekar Jepun, the Balinese dance troupe of Sanata Dharma University.

Inspired by the courtship dance of the bird of paradise, the dance takes the form of a mating ritual. Two women dancers don Pandji-style headdresses with feathers stuck in them, as well as long flowing scarves or skirts with a pink stripe. The skirts serve as the tails of the birds of paradise, and when held their fluttering gives the impression of wings in flight. Shown here are the courting movements, in which both dancers (representing the male and female birds of paradise), circle each other rapidly.

Other movements: Tail hanging, In flight

Photograph: Chris Woodrich


June 11

Stand in the Schoolhouse Door

Vivian Malone entering Foster Auditorium on June 11, 1963, to register for classes at the University of Alabama through a crowd that includes photographers, National Guard members, and Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach. During the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door, George Wallace, the Democratic Governor of Alabama, stood at the door of the auditorium to try to block the entry of two black students, Malone and James Hood. Intended by Wallace as a symbolic attempt to keep his inaugural promise of "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever", the stand ended when President John F. Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard and Guard General Henry Graham commanded Wallace to step aside.

Photograph: Warren K. Leffler; restoration: Adam Cuerden


June 12

A Young Girl Reading

A Young Girl Reading is an 18th-century oil painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. It depicts a young girl, reading from a small book held in her right hand, in profile. She is dressed in a lemon yellow dress, with her hair tied in a chignon. The painting was purchased by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, in 1961 using funds donated by Ailsa Mellon Bruce, the daughter of Andrew W. Mellon, following her father's death.

Painting: Jean-Honoré Fragonard


June 13

Alitta succinea

The common clam worm (Alitta succinea) is a widely distributed species of marine polychaete worm. The photograph shows an epitoke specimen, the worm having turned into a form capable of reproduction. After releasing its sperm or eggs, the animal will die.

Photograph: Hans Hillewaert


June 14

Virgin and Child with Four Angels

Virgin and Child with Four Angels is a small oil-on-panel painting by the Early Netherlandish artist Gerard David. Likely completed between 1510 and 1515, it shows the Virgin Mary holding the child Jesus, while she is anointed Queen of Heaven by two angels above her, accompanied by music provided by another two angels placed at either side of her. The painting is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Painting: Gerard David


June 15

Mandelbrot zoom sequence

A zoom sequence illustrating the set of complex numbers termed the Mandelbrot set. Images of the set, which was defined and named by Adrien Douady in tribute to the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, may be created by sampling the complex numbers and determining whether the result of iterating for each sample point goes to infinity. Images exhibit an elaborate and infinitely complicated boundary that reveals progressively ever-finer recursive detail at increasing magnifications. Consequently, the Mandelbrot set has become popular outside mathematics both for its aesthetic appeal and as an example of a complex structure arising from the application of simple rules.

Animation: Simpsons contributor


June 16

St Christopher's Chapel, Great Ormond Street Hospital

The interior of St Christopher's Chapel at Great Ormond Street Hospital, a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden. Along the back of the chapel is the 'Teddy Bear Choir', a line of teddy bears provided by families. In the foreground is the 'prayer tree', featuring messages of hope for sick children.

Photograph: David Iliff


June 17

Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan is an oil on canvas portrait painted by Thomas Gainsborough between 1785 and 1787. Mrs. Sheridan (Elizabeth Ann Linley) was a talented musician who enjoyed professional success in Bath and London before marrying Richard Brinsley Sheridan in 1773 and abandoning her career. She was 31 when she sat for Gainsborough, dying from tuberculosis seven years later at the age of 38. The portrait was painted between 1785 and 1787, and, was exhibited at Gainsborough's studio at Schomberg House, Pall Mall in 1786. It was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in 1937.

Painting: Thomas Gainsborough


June 18

Red-legged seriema

A portrait of a red-legged seriema (Cariama cristata), a mostly predatory terrestrial bird in the seriema family (Cariamidae). Found in South America, its range covers grasslands from Brazil to Uruguay and northern Argentina. This bird is also known as the crested seriema for the soft feathers that emerge from the base of the bill to form a fan-shaped crest.

Photograph: Charles J. Sharp


June 19

Illustration by John Bauer

A watercolor illustration by John Bauer (1882–1918) titled "Still, Tuvstarr sits and gazes down into the water", which accompanied Helge Kjellin's fairy tale "The Tale of the Moose Hop and the Little Princess Cotton Grass" in the 1913 edition of Among Gnomes and Trolls. In this scene, Tuvstarr looks for her lost heart in a tarn, symbolizing innocence lost.

Born and raised in Jönköping, Sweden, Bauer moved to Stockholm at age 16 to study at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts. He painted and illustrated in a romantic nationalistic style, in part influenced by the Italian Renaissance and Sami cultures. Most of his works are watercolors or prints in monochrome or muted colours; he also produced oil paintings and frescos.

Painting: John Bauer


June 20

NGC 4414

NGC 4414 is an unbarred spiral galaxy about 62 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. It is a flocculent spiral galaxy, with short segments of spiral structure but without the dramatic well-defined spiral arms of a grand design spiral. NGC 4414 is a very isolated galaxy, with no signs of past interactions with other galaxies.

Photograph: Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA)


June 21

Alexander J. Dallas

Alexander J. Dallas (1759–1817) was an American statesman who served as the U.S. Treasury Secretary under President James Madison between 1814 and 1816. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Dallas was raised in Great Britain but emigrated to Philadelphia in 1783. There he was admitted to the bar and edited several publications. From 1791 to 1800, he served as the first reporter of decisions for the Supreme Court of the United States. He also served as Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1791–1801), and acted as United States Secretary of War and Secretary of State (both in 1815).

Engraving: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restoration: Andrew Shiva


June 22

The Evening Air

The Evening Air, a c. 1893 oil painting on canvas by Henri-Edmond Cross (1856–1910). It uses a technique known as pointillism, in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image. Developed by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac in 1886, this technique became part of the Neo-Impressionist movement.

Painting: Henri-Edmond Cross


June 23

Pantanal jaguar

A wild male jaguar (Panthera onca) near the Rio Negro in the Pantanal, Brazil. Jaguars from the Pantanal are the largest of their species, about 2.7 m (8.9 ft) long, with an average weight of about 100 kg (220 lb), and some weighing more than 135 kg (298 lb). A red jaguar was a mascot of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, and during the 2016 Summer Olympics, a jaguar in the national colors of green and yellow was the Brazil team's mascot.

Photograph: Charles J. Sharp


June 24

John the Baptist

St. John the Baptist is an oil painting on walnut wood by Leonardo da Vinci. It depicts the Biblical John the Baptist in isolation, using chiaroscuro so the figure appears to emerge from the shadowy background. Probably completed from 1513 to 1516, this High Renaissance work is believed to be the artist's final painting. It is now exhibited at the Louvre in Paris, France.

Painting: Leonardo da Vinci


June 25

Dome of the Rock

The Dome of the Rock is an Islamic shrine located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. One of the oldest extant works of Islamic architecture, the Dome of the Rock was initially completed in 691 CE at the order of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik during the Second Fitna, built on the site of the Roman temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, which had in turn been built on the site of Herod's Temple, destroyed during the Roman Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. After the original dome collapsed in 1015, it was rebuilt in 1022–23, patterned after nearby Byzantine churches and palaces. The site has great significance for Muslims owing to traditions connecting it to the creation of the world and to the belief that the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey to heaven started from the rock at the center of the structure. The rock also bears great significance for Jews as the site of Abraham's attempted sacrifice of his son.

Photograph: Andrew Shiva


June 26

The Roses of Heliogabalus

The Roses of Heliogabalus is an 1888 painting by the Anglo-Dutch artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema. It depicts a probably invented episode from the life of the Roman emperor Heliogabalus, taken from the Augustan History, in which the emperor smothers some dinner guests with drifts of pink rose petals falling from a false ceiling above. The painting is owned by the Spanish-Mexican billionaire businessman and art collector Juan Antonio Pérez Simón.

Painting: Lawrence Alma-Tadema


June 27

Rusty-naped pitta

A male (top) and female rusty-naped pitta (Hydrornis oatesi) in Mae Wong National Park, Thailand. This species of bird in the family Pittidae was described by amateur ornithologist Allan Octavian Hume in 1790. It is found in East and Southeast Asian subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, montane forests, and bamboo forests.

Photograph: JJ Harrison


June 28

Boötes

The constellation Boötes ('the plowman') as depicted in Urania's Mirror, a set of constellation cards published in London c. 1825. In his left hand Boötes holds his hunting dogs, Canes Venatici. Below them is the constellation Coma Berenices, named after the hair of Berenice II of Egypt. Above Boötes' head is the now obsolete constellation Quadrans Muralis; another obsolete constellation, Mons Maenalus, can be seen at his feet.

Illustration: Sidney Hall; restoration: Adam Cuerden


June 29

Wilbert Robinson

Wilbert Robinson (1863–1934) was an American catcher, coach and manager in Major League Baseball. Robinson made it to the major leagues in 1886 with the Philadelphia Athletics of the American Association, transferring to the Baltimore Orioles in 1890. After the Orioles, by then playing in the National League, folded in 1899, he played one season with the St. Louis Cardinals before spending his final season with a new Baltimore Orioles team in the American League. (That team later moved to New York. The present Baltimore Orioles are yet another team.) Robinson played 1,316 games as a catcher, compiled a career batting average of .273, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945. He is shown here in 1916 as the manager of the Brooklyn Robins or Dodgers (now the Los Angeles Dodgers).

Photograph: Bain News Service; restoration: Adam Cuerden


June 30

Leica Standard

The Leica Standard was the fourth version of the 35 mm Leica Camera to be launched from Ernst Leitz in Wetzlar, Germany. Conceived by Oskar Barnack in 1913, the camera began production in 1925, but did not receive full-scale production until the end of the decade. It was introduced as a basic model and in production at the same time as the Leica II and Leica III.

Photograph: Kameraprojekt Graz 2015; edit: Hubertl


Picture of the day archives and future dates

2004: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2005: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2006: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2007: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2008: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2009: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2010: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2011: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2012: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2013: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2014: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2015: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2016: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2017: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2018: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2019: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2020: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2021: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2022: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2023: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2024: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2025: January February March April May June July August September October November December