Wikipedia:Picture of the day/February 2023

La bohème is an opera in four acts composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème (1851) by Henri Murger. The opera, which had its world premiere on 1 February 1896 in Turin, is set in Paris around 1830 and shows the Bohemian lifestyle of the poor seamstress Mimì and her artist friends, including Rodolfo, Marcello and Musetta. This 1895 poster was produced by Adolfo Hohenstein for the publishing house G. Ricordi & C. to advertise the musical score of La bohème, and depicts Mimì and Rodolfo at the end of the opera's third act. Knowing that Mimì is dying and Rodolfo is too poor to help her, but too much in love to separate, they agree to remain together until the spring, when the world is coming to life again and no one feels truly alone. Meanwhile, Marcello and Musetta quarrel about Musetta's flirtatiousness in counterpoint to the other pair's reconciliation.

Poster credit: Adolfo Hohenstein; restored by Adam Cuerden

Wesley Bell is an American attorney and formerly a member of the city council of Ferguson, Missouri. He is currently the prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, Missouri, defeating the long-time incumbent Bob McCulloch in the 2018 Democratic primary election for that position. Bell became the first black county prosecuting attorney in the county's history when he took office in January 2019.

Photograph credit: Jamelle Bouie; edited by Bammesk

The Library of Congress is a research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the de facto national library of the United States. Founded in 1800, it is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country and one of the largest libraries in the world. The library is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.: the Thomas Jefferson Building (completed in 1897), the John Adams Building (1938) and the James Madison Memorial Building (1976). It also maintains the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, and a storage facility in Fort Meade, Maryland. The library's functions are overseen by the librarian of Congress, and its buildings are maintained by the architect of the Capitol. This photograph, taken by William Henry Jackson, shows the Thomas Jefferson Building around 1902.

Photograph credit: William Henry Jackson; restored by Mmxx

The geology of the Moon is quite different from that of the Earth. The Moon lacks a true atmosphere, and the absence of oxygen and water eliminates erosion due to weather. Instead, the surface is eroded much more slowly through bombardment of the lunar surface by micrometeorites. It lacks any known form of plate tectonics, has a lower gravitational acceleration, and cooled faster after its formation because of its small size. In addition to impacts, the geomorphology of the lunar surface has been shaped by volcanism, which is now thought to have ended less than 50 million years ago. The Moon is a differentiated body, with a crust, mantle, and core. This global geologic map of the Moon was published by Chinese planetary geologists in 2022 at a scale of 1 to 2.5 million at full resolution. Colours are used to indicate different stratigraphic units corresponding to various periods of the lunar geologic timescale, with structural features and Moon landing sites also marked. The main map uses the Mollweide projection. Two insets are provided for the northern and southern polar areas, as well as two smaller maps illustrating the lithology and tectonic units of the lunar surface.

Map credit: Jinzhu Ji et al.

The African grey hornbill (Lophoceros nasutus) is a bird of the hornbill family, which is widespread in much of sub-Saharan Africa and the south-west of the Arabian Peninsula. This female of the subspecies L. n. epirhinus was photographed in Namibia's Etosha National Park.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

Stańczyk is an oil-on-canvas painting by Jan Matejko, finished in 1862. It depicts Stańczyk, the court jester when Poland was at the height of its political, economic and cultural power during the era of the Renaissance in Poland, during the reign of King Sigismund I the Old in the 16th century. The painting contrasts the solemn jester, who sits alone in a dark room and is the focus of the painting, and the lively royal ball going on in the background. Stańczyk's appearance is gloomy and deep in thought. The painting was acquired by the Warsaw National Museum in 1924. During World War II it was looted by the Nazis and subsequently by the Soviet Union, but was returned to Poland around 1956.

Painting credit: Jan Matejko

Suffren was a predreadnought battleship built for the French Navy and completed in 1902. The ship was assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron for most of her career and often served as a flagship. She twice collided with French ships and twice had propeller shafts break before the start of World War I in 1914. Suffren was assigned to the naval operations off the Dardanelles, participating in a series of attacks on Ottoman fortifications. She was moderately damaged on 18 March 1915 and was sent to Toulon for repairs. She returned to provide gunfire support for the Allied forces during the Gallipoli campaign. Suffren provided covering fire as the Allies withdrew from the peninsula and accidentally sank one of the evacuation ships. She was then assigned to the squadron tasked to prevent Greek interference with Allied operations on the Salonica Front. While en route to Lorient for a refit, Suffren was torpedoed off Lisbon by a German submarine on 26 November 1916 and sunk with all hands. This photograph shows Suffren off Toulon in October 1911.

Photograph credit: Agence Rol; restored by Adam Cuerden

Himalayan salt is rock salt (halite) mined from the Salt Range mountains in the Pakistani region of Punjab. The salt is principally sodium chloride but has trace presence of calcium, iron, zinc, chromium, magnesium, and sulfate, minerals which give some veins of the salt a pink or reddish color. Himalayan salt is often used as a substitute for common table salt, sometimes being promoted as a healthier alternative, although there is no scientific evidence to support this. It has also been used as a material for serving dishes, baking stones, and griddles. This image of coarse white and pink grains of Himalayan salt, up to 5 millimetres (0.20 in) in diameter, was focus-stacked from 23 individual photographs.

Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus

Henties Bay is a coastal town in the Erongo Region of western Namibia. It is a holiday and retirement settlement, with angling a popular activity, and also serves as a gateway to the seal colony of Cape Cross, which lies 46 kilometres (29 miles) to the north of the town. The town is named after Major Hendrik "Henty" Stefanus van der Merwe, who found the location in 1929 while looking for water, noting the abundance of fish, and was one of the first to promote the town as a tourist resort. This aerial view of Henties Bay was taken in 2018, with the South Atlantic Ocean in the background.

Photograph credit: Arne Müseler

The sebae anemone (Heteractis crispa) is a species of sea anemone belonging to the family Stichodactylidae. It is widespread throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indo-Pacific, from the eastern coasts of Africa and the Red Sea to Polynesia, and from south Japan to Australia and New Caledonia. It prefers hard-base substrates slightly covered with sand but it can also attach to branching corals from the surface to a depth of 40 metres (130 ft). This sebae anemone was photographed in Ras Muhammad National Park, Egypt. A tiny Red Sea clownfish can be seen among the anemone's tentacles in the centre of the image.

Photograph credit: Diego Delso

Kremenets is a city in the Ternopil Oblast of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kremenets Raion, and lies to the north-east of Pochaiv Lavra. The city is situated in the historic region of Volhynia and features the 12th-century Kremenets Castle. During the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus' in 1240 and 1241, Kremenets was one of few cities that Batu Khan failed to capture. This photograph depicts Kremenets as seen from Castle Hill, with the former buildings of the Krzemieniec Lyceum in the foreground.

Photograph credit: Konstantin Brizhnichenko

Henry Highland Garnet (1815–1882) was an American abolitionist, minister, educator and orator. Having escaped as a child from slavery in Maryland with his family, he grew up in New York City. He was educated at the African Free School and other institutions, and went on to join the American Anti-Slavery Society, delivering abolitionist speeches such as the 1843 "Call to Rebellion". On February 12, 1865, Garnet delivered a sermon in the U.S. House of Representatives while it was not in session, becoming the first African American to speak in that chamber. This photograph is an albumen silver print of Garnet, taken in around 1881.

Photograph credit: James U. Stead; restored by Adam Cuerden

Wire bonding is the method of making interconnections between an integrated circuit or other semiconductor device and its packaging during semiconductor device fabrication. This macro photograph depicts a integrated circuit that functions as an intermediate-frequency amplifier and demodulator in a transceiver, with gold wire ball-bonded on a silicon die.

Photograph credit: Mister rf

The Banquet of Cleopatra is an oil-on-canvas painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, completed in 1744 and now in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. This is the first of three large paintings of the subject by Tiepolo. In addition to these, the much smaller oil studies or modelli for each of the larger paintings survive. The subject of the painting is a supposed historical episode described by both Pliny's Natural History and Plutarch's Lives, in which Cleopatra takes an expensive pearl and dissolves it in her wine prior to imbibing the drink.

Painting credit: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

"We Can Do It!" is an American Second World War poster produced by J. Howard Miller in 1943 for Westinghouse Electric as an inspirational image to boost female worker morale. It depicts a woman in a blue work shirt and a red-and-white polka-dot bandana flexing her right biceps while looking out at the viewer, with the title "We Can Do It!" in a speech bubble at the top of the poster. No more than 1,800 copies were printed. It was not initially seen beyond several Westinghouse factories in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the midwestern U.S., where it was scheduled to be displayed for two five-day work weeks starting Monday, February 15, 1943. The poster was little seen during the war, but was rediscovered in the early 1980s and widely reproduced in many forms, often also called "Rosie the Riveter" after the iconic figure of a strong female war production worker. The image was used to promote feminism and other political issues beginning in the 1980s.

Poster credit: J. Howard Miller; restored by Adam Cuerden

Vernon Jordan (1935–2021) was an American business executive and civil rights attorney. After growing up in the racially segregated society of the Southern United States, Jordan graduated from DePauw University in Indiana as the only black student in a class of 400. He went on to work for various organizations involved in the civil rights movement, first as a lawyer and then as an activist, before becoming a political advisor to President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. This photograph shows Jordan working on a voter education program in 1967, seated at a desk with a typewriter at the offices of the Southern Regional Council in Atlanta.

Photograph credit: Warren K. Leffler; restored by Adam Cuerden

The beautiful demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo) is a European damselfly belonging to the family Calopterygidae. It is found across most of Europe as well as parts of the North African Mediterranean coast and the Arctic polar sea. The insect's body length is around 49 to 54 millimetres (1.9 to 2.1 in), with hindwings of 31 to 37 millimetres (1.2 to 1.5 in). It has small hemispherical eyes located laterally on the head, two pairs of wings similar in shape and a slender abdomen. The species presents an evident sexual dimorphism in colour pattern. This male beautiful demoiselle was photographed in Hampshire, England, in 2016.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

The Lakhmid kingdom was an Arab kingdom in southern Iraq and eastern Arabia from the late 3rd century to 602. The Lakhmids were generally but intermittently the allies and clients of the Sasanian Empire, and participant in the Roman–Persian Wars. This Persian-language manuscript, dating from the 15th century and illustrated by Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād, depicts the construction of al-Khornaq Castle in the Lakhmid capital al-Hirah. The manuscript is in the collection of the British Museum in London.

Illustration credit: Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād

The Stopića Cave is a limestone cave near Sirogojno, on the slopes of Mount Zlatibor in western Serbia. It has been protected by the state as a natural monument. It is located in the village of Rožanstvo, 19 kilometres (12 mi) from the town of Zlatibor. This photograph shows cascading tufa "bathtubs" filled with water within the cave.

Photograph credit: Čedomir Žarković

The human genome is the complete set of nucleic acid sequences for humans, encoded as DNA within the 23 chromosome pairs in cell nuclei and in small DNA molecules found within mitochondria. This includes both protein-coding DNA sequences and various types of DNA that does not encode proteins. This schematic representation of the human diploid karyotype shows the organization of the human genome into chromosomes, as well as annotated bands and sub-bands as seen on G banding. The diagram shows both the female (XX) and male (XY) versions of the 23rd chromosome pair. Chromosomal changes during the cell cycle are displayed at the top center. The human mitochondrial genome is shown to scale at the bottom left.

Diagram credit: Mikael Häggström

Robert le diable is an opera in five acts composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer between 1827 and 1831, to a libretto written by Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne. Superficially based on the medieval legend of Robert the Devil, it is regarded as one of the first French grand operas. This illustration depicts the set design by Pierre-Luc-Charles Cicéri of the opera's third act, known as the Ballet of the Nuns.

Painting and lithography credit: Pierre-Luc-Charles Cicéri; additional lithography by Eugène Cicéri, Philippe Benoist, Adolphe Jean-Baptiste Bayot; restored by Adam Cuerden

Hair Like Mine is a 2009 photograph by Pete Souza, the chief official White House photographer, showing Jacob Philadelphia, the five-year-old son of a United States National Security Council staff member, touching the head of President Barack Obama in the Oval Office. The moment arose after Philadelphia had asked the president: "I want to know if your hair is like mine." The photograph was called "iconic" by Time, and was later described by First Lady Michelle Obama as symbolizing progress in the African-American struggle for civil rights.

Photograph credit: Pete Souza

Physalis peruviana, also known by various names including the cape gooseberry or the Peruvian groundcherry, is a species of plant in the nightshade family (Solanaceae) native to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Known to be cultivated in the Inca Empire, the plant has been grown in England since the late 18th century and the region around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa since at least the start of the 19th century. It is now cultivated or grows wild across the world in temperate and tropical regions. This photograph shows the P. peruviana fruit, which is a round, smooth berry 1.25 to 2 cm (1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in) wide. It is bright yellow to orange in color and sweet when ripe, with a characteristic, mildly tart grape- or tomato-like flavor.

Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus

The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II is a single-seat twin-turbofan attack aircraft developed by Fairchild Republic for the United States Air Force. Nicknamed the Warthog, it has been in service since 1976, and is named for the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, a World War II–era fighter-bomber. The A-10 was designed to provide close air support to ground troops by attacking armored vehicles, tanks, and other enemy ground forces, with a secondary mission of forward air control, which involves directing other aircraft in attacks on ground targets. This A-10, assigned to 74th Fighter Squadron, was photographed in 2011 flying over Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Photograph credit: William Greer

Harriet Jacobs (1813 or 1815 – 1897) was an African-American writer who was born into slavery in Edenton, North Carolina. During her teenage years, seeking protection from sexual harassment by her enslaver James Norcom, she began a relationship with the white lawyer Samuel Sawyer, who became the father of her children Joseph and Louisa Matilda. When Norcom threatened to sell her children if she did not submit to his desire, Jacobs escaped and hid in a tiny crawl space under the roof of her grandmother's house, so low that she could not stand up in it. After staying there for seven years, she finally managed to escape to the free North, where she was reunited with her children. In 1861, she published an autobiography titled Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl under the pseudonym Linda Brent, a book which was later described by her biographer Jean Fagan Yellin as an "American classic". This portrait of Jacobs, her only known formal photograph, was taken in 1894 by Gilbert Studios in Washington, D.C.

Photograph credit: Gilbert Studios; restored by Adam Cuerden

The Inquisition Tribunal is a 46-by-73-centimetre (18 by 29 in) oil-on-panel painting produced by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya between 1812 and 1819. It depicts an auto-da-fé by a tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition taking place inside a church. The officials in the scene are predominantly monks, with only a single secular judge present, while the four accused are wearing tall, pointed corozas or capirotes (white pointed hats) on their heads and clad in sanbenitos describing their offences. The painting is now in the collection of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid.

Painting credit: Francisco Goya

The blue-billed duck (Oxyura australis) is a small Australian stiff-tailed duck, with both the male and female growing to a length of 40 centimetres (16 in). The male has a slate-blue bill which changes to bright-blue during the breeding season, which gives the duck its common name. The male has deep chestnut plumage during breeding season, reverting to a dark grey. The female retains black plumage with brown tips all year round. The duck is endemic to Australia's temperate regions, inhabiting natural inland wetlands and also artificial wetlands, such as sewage ponds, in large numbers. It can be difficult to observe due to its cryptic nature during its breeding season through autumn and winter. The male duck exhibits a complex mating ritual. The species is omnivorous, with a preference for small aquatic invertebrates. This male blue-billed duck was photographed near Penrith, New South Wales, in 2020.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

Katherine Johnson (1918–2020) was an African-American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of U.S. crewed spaceflights. During her 33-year career at NASA and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, she earned a reputation for mastering complex manual calculations and helped the space agency pioneer the use of computers to perform tasks. She worked with the Apollo program, calculating rendezvous paths for the lunar lander and command module on its flights to the Moon. Johnson's calculations were essential to the beginning of the Space Shuttle program and she also worked on plans for a mission to Mars. In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, as a pioneering example of African-American women in STEM. She was portrayed by Taraji P. Henson as a lead character in the 2016 film Hidden Figures. This NASA photographic portrait of Johnson was taken in 1983.

Photograph credit: NASA