November 23Edwin Hubble1644 In opposition to licensing and censorship during the English Civil War, John Milton's Areopagitica was published, arguing for the right to free expression.1924 The New York Times published evidence from Edwin Hubble (pictured) stating that the Andromeda Nebula, previously believed to be part of the Milky Way, is in fact another galaxy.2003 Rose Revolution: Eduard Shevardnadze resigned as President of Georgia following weeks of mass protests over disputed election results.2009 A crowd of people on their way to register Esmael Mangudadatu's candidacy for governor of Maguindanao, Philippines, were kidnapped and killed by supporters of his rival, resulting in 58 deaths.2011 Arab Spring: After months of protests in Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to transfer power to Vice President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.Colin Turnbull (b.1924)Cornelius Ryan (d.1974)Aklilu Habte-Wold (d.1974)Miley Cyrus (b.1992)More anniversaries: November 22November 23November 24ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

The Finding in the Temple, also called Christ among the Doctors, the Disputation in the Temple and variations of those names, is an episode in the early life of Jesus depicted in chapter 2 of the Gospel of Luke. It is the only event of the later childhood of Jesus mentioned in a canonical gospel. In the episode, Jesus at the age of twelve accompanies Mary, Joseph, and a large group of their relatives and friends to Jerusalem on many pilgrimages. On the day of their return, Jesus remained in the Temple. Mary and Joseph returned home believing he was among their group when he was not. After a day of travel they realised Jesus was missing and returned to Jerusalem, finding him three days later. He was found in the Temple in discussion with the elders, "listening to them and asking them questions". When admonished by Mary, Jesus replied: "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" The Finding in the Temple is frequently shown in art. This representation, titled The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple, is an oil-on-canvas painting produced by William Holman Hunt in 1860. It now hangs in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in Birmingham, England.Photograph credit: William Holman HuntRecently featured: Wait for Me, DaddyRed-lored whistlerMachado de AssisArchiveMore featured pictures

November 22Johnson taking the presidential oath of office1574 Juan Fernndez, a Spanish explorer, discovered an archipelago that now bears his name off the coast of Chile.1635 Dutch colonial forces on Formosa launched a three-month pacification campaign against Taiwanese indigenous peoples.1963 John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas; hours later, Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th president of the United States (pictured).1971 In Britain's worst mountaineering tragedy, five teenage students and one of their leaders were found dead from exposure on the Cairngorm Plateau in the Scottish Highlands.Frank Matcham (b.1854)Edwin Thumboo (b.1933)Chip Berlet (b.1949)Scarlett Johansson (b.1984)More anniversaries: November 21November 22November 23ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

Wait for Me, Daddy is a photo taken by Claude P. Dettloff of The Province on October 1, 1940, of the British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own) 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; restored by Yann ForgetRecently featured: Red-lored whistlerMachado de AssisFomitopsis quercinaArchiveMore featured pictures

November 21: Armed Forces Day in BangladeshAlan Freed1894 First Sino-Japanese War: After capturing the Chinese city of Port Arthur, the Japanese army began a massacre of the city's soldiers and civilians.1959 American disc jockey Alan Freed (pictured), who popularized the term rock and roll, was fired from WABC-AM for his role in the payola scandal.1964 The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City, opened to traffic as the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time.1974 Bombs exploded in two pubs in central Birmingham, England, killing 21 people and leading to the imprisonment of six people who were later exonerated.2009 An explosion in a coal mine in Heilongjiang, China, killed 108 miners.Voltaire (b.1694)Hetty Green (b.1834)Milka Planinc (b.1924)Catherine Bauer Wurster (d.1964)More anniversaries: November 20November 21November 22ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

The red-lored whistler (Pachycephala rufogularis) is one of nine species of whistler occurring in Australia and a member of the family Pachycephalidae. It resides in the low mallee, spinifex, cypress pine and broombush woodland in the desert of central New South Wales, north-western Victoria and adjacent south-eastern South Australia, preferring low mallee woodlands or shrublands with open canopy, above a moderately dense but patchy scrub layer. The male bird has an orange or buff face and throat, a grey breastband extending around the neck and over the head, and rufous underparts with pale yellow or olive edging to primaries. The female is similar but with a paler throat and underparts. While it is often seen perched in trees and shrubs, the red-lored whistler feeds, for the most part, on the ground. Little is known about the movement of this species, although it is thought to be sedentary, with some movement possibly after breeding. It builds a substantial, cup-shaped nest made mostly of coarse bark and mallee leaves, neatly woven around the rim in low shrubs and lays two or three eggs. The species's limited range has seen it listed nationally as a vulnerable species. This red-lored whistler was photographed in the Nombinnie Nature Reserve in New South Wales.Photograph credit: John HarrisonRecently featured: Machado de AssisFomitopsis quercinaApennine ColossusArchiveMore featured pictures

November 20: Transgender Day of RemembranceGraffiti from the occupation of Alcatraz284 Diocletian became Roman emperor, eventually establishing reforms that ended the Crisis of the Third Century.1739 War of Jenkins' Ear: A British naval force arrived at the settlement of Portobello in the Spanish Main, capturing it the next day.1969 A group of Native American activists began a 19-month occupation (graffiti pictured) of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.1979 Armed insurgents attacked and took over the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, declaring that one of their leaders was the Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer of Islam.1994 In accordance with the Lusaka Protocol, the Angolan government signed a ceasefire with UNITA rebels in a failed attempt to end the Angolan Civil War.Carl Axel Arrhenius (d.1824)Benoit Mandelbrot (b.1924)Meredith Whitney (b.1969)Ancel Keys (d.2004)More anniversaries: November 19November 20November 21ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

Machado de Assis (18391908) was a 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 and the birth of the Brazilian republic made Machado become more critical and an observer of the Brazilian society of his time. Generally considered to be Machado's greatest works are Dom Casmurro (1899), Memrias Pstumas de Brs Cubas (Posthumous Memoirs of Brs 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. This photograph of Machado was taken by the Brazilian photographer Marc Ferrez in 1890.Photograph credit: Marc Ferrez; restored by Adam CuerdenRecently featured: Fomitopsis quercinaApennine ColossusEuropean bisonArchiveMore featured pictures

November 19: International Men's Day; World Toilet Day; Liberation Day in Mali (1968)Pel in 19601794 The United States and Great Britain signed the Jay Treaty, the basis for ten years of peaceful trade between the two nations.1824 Temenggong Abdul Rahman of Johor and Sultan Hussein Shah of Johor ceded the governance of Singapore to the British East India Company.1969 Playing for Santos against Vasco da Gama in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian footballer Pel (pictured) scored his thousandth goal.1991 Mexican singer Luis Miguel released the album Romance, which led to a revival of interest in bolero music.2002 The Greek oil tanker Prestige split in two and sank off the coast of Galicia after spilling 420 thousand barrels (17.8million US gallons) of oil, in the worst environmental disaster in Spanish and Portuguese history.Jane Freilicher (b.1924)Margaret Turner-Warwick (b.1924)James Ensor (d.1949)Erika Alexander (b.1969)More anniversaries: November 18November 19November 20ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

Fomitopsis quercina is a species of mushroom in the order Polyporales. Commonly known as the oak mazegill, among other names, its specific epithet refers to the oak genus Quercus, upon which it frequently grows, causing a brown rot. It is found in most of Europe, following the pattern of oak distribution, and has also been reported in northern Africa, North America, Asia and Australia. The mushroom features pores which form a maze-like appearance. Though inedible, it can be used as a natural comb and has been the subject of chemical research. This F.quercina mushroom was photographed growing on a tree branch at De Famberhorst, a nature reserve in the town of Joure in Friesland, Netherlands. The photograph was focus-stacked from 21 separate images.Photograph credit: Dominicus Johannes BergsmaRecently featured: Apennine ColossusEuropean bisonArtemisIArchiveMore featured pictures

November 18Aftermath of the Aggie Bonfire collapse1809 Napoleonic Wars: In the Bay of Bengal, a French frigate squadron captured three East Indiamen mainly carrying recruits for the Indian Army.1872 American suffragette Susan B. Anthony was arrested and later fined $100 for having voted in the presidential election two weeks earlier.1956 At the Polish embassy in Moscow, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev said "We will bury you" while addressing Western envoys, prompting them to leave the room.1999 Texas A&M University's Aggie Bonfire collapsed (aftermath pictured), killing 12 people and injuring 27 others, and causing the university to officially declare a hiatus on the 90-year-old annual event.2014 Two Palestinian men attacked the praying congregants of a synagogue in Jerusalem with axes, knives, and a gun, resulting in eight deaths, including the attackers themselves.Rose Philippine Duchesne (d.1852)Lise stergaard (b.1924)Margaret Atwood (b.1939)Chlo Sevigny (b.1974)More anniversaries: November 17November 18November 19ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

The Apennine Colossus is a stone statue, approximately 11 metres (36 feet) tall, in the estate of Villa Demidoff (originally Villa di Pratolino) in Vaglia in Tuscany, Italy. A personification of the Apennine Mountains, the colossal figure was created by Giambologna, a Flemish-born Italian sculptor, in the late 1580s. The statue has the appearance of an elderly man crouched at the shore of a lake, squeezing the head of a sea monster through whose open mouth water originally emanated into the pond in front of the statue. The colossus is depicted naked, with stalactites in the thick beard and long hair to show the metamorphosis of man and mountain, blending his body with the surrounding nature. It is made of stone and plaster and the interior houses a series of chambers and caves on three levels. Initially, the back of the statue was protected by a structure resembling a cave, which was demolished around 1690 by the sculptor Giovanni Battista Foggini, who built a statue of a dragon to adorn the back of the colossus. The Italian sculptor Rinaldo Barbetti renovated the statue in 1876.Sculpture credit: Giambologna; photographed by RhododendritesRecently featured: European bisonArtemis ISherman's March to the SeaArchiveMore featured pictures

November 17H.H. Holmes1796 French Revolutionary Wars: French forces won the Battle of Arcole in a manoeuvre to cut the Austrians' line of retreat.1894 H.H. Holmes (pictured), one of the first modern serial killers, was arrested in Boston after killing at least nine people.1968 NBC controversially cut away from an American football game between the Oakland Raiders and New York Jets to broadcast Heidi, causing viewers in the Eastern United States to miss the game's dramatic ending.1989 Walt Disney Pictures released The Little Mermaid to theatres, beginning the Disney Renaissance.2009 Administrators at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit discovered that their servers had been hacked, and thousands of emails and files on climate change had been stolen.Nikephoros Melissenos (d.1104)Agnes of Jesus (b.1602)Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain (b.1729)Nicolas Appert (b.1749)More anniversaries: November 16November 17November 18ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

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 century, 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 kilograms (2,200lb). 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 two to three years, and young adult bulls. A typical herd numbers around eight to thirteen animals on average. This male European bison was photographed in the Biaowiea Forest, Poland.Photograph credit: Charles J. SharpRecently featured: ArtemisISherman's March to the SeaPercy GraingerArchiveMore featured pictures

November 16Mosaic of Justinian I in the Basilica of San Vitale534 The second edition of the Code of Justinian, a codification of Roman law by Byzantine emperor JustinianI (pictured), was published.1532 Spanish conquest of Peru: Conquistador Francisco Pizarro orchestrated a surprise attack in Cajamarca, capturing the Inca emperor, Atahualpa.1914 World War I: Austro-Hungarian forces launched an assault against Serbian defensive positions at the Kolubara river, beginning the Battle of Kolubara.1944 World WarII: Operation Queen commenced with one of the heaviest Allied tactical bombings of the war, attacking German targets in the Rur valley.1959 The Sound of Music, a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein based on The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, opened on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.Kalkaua (b.1836)Caroline Birley (b.1851)Panditrao Agashe (d.1986)A. S. Byatt (d.2023) More anniversaries: November 15November 16November 17ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

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. ArtemisI 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 ArtemisI launching from Launch Complex 39BPhotograph credit: NASA/Joel KowskyRecently featured: Sherman's March to the SeaPercy GraingerRunion stonechatArchiveMore featured pictures

Wikimedia templateNovember 15Deodoro da Fonseca1859 Sponsored by Greek businessman Evangelos Zappas, the first modern revival of the Olympic Games took place in Athens.1864 American Civil War: Union army general William Tecumseh Sherman began his March to the Sea, inflicting significant damage to property and infrastructure using scorched-earth tactics on his way from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia.1889 Brazilian emperor PedroII was overthrown in a coup led by Deodoro da Fonseca (pictured), while the country was proclaimed a republic.1922 During a general strike in Guayaquil, Ecuador, police and military fired into a crowd, killing at least 300 people.1959 Two men murdered a family in Holcomb, Kansas; the events became the subject of Truman Capote's non-fiction novel In Cold Blood, a pioneering work of the true crime genre.Madeleine de Scudry (b.1607)Sara Josephine Baker (b.1873)Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (d.1959)Margaret Mead (d.1978)More anniversaries: November 14November 15November 16ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

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 CuerdenRecently featured: Percy GraingerRunion stonechatClimate changeArchiveMore featured pictures

November 14: World Diabetes Day; Dobruja Day in RomaniaApollo 12 launches from the Kennedy Space Center1941 Second World War: After suffering torpedo damage the previous day, the British aircraft carrier HMSArk Royal sank as she was being towed to Gibraltar for repairs.1969 Apollo 12 (pictured) launched from the Kennedy Space Center, becoming the second crewed flight to land on the Moon.1990 Music producer Frank Farian admitted that the German R&B duo Milli Vanilli did not sing the vocals on their album Girl You Know It's True.1992 In poor conditions caused by Cyclone Forrest, Vietnam Airlines Flight474 crashed near Nha Trang, killing 30 people.2003 Astronomers Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz discovered the trans-Neptunian object Sedna.Mikayel Nalbandian (b.1829)John Abercrombie (d.1844)Franz Mller (d.1864)Bernard Hinault (b.1954)More anniversaries: November 13November 14November 15ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

Percy Grainger (18821961) 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 19151920.Photograph credit: Bain News Service; restored by Adam Cuerden and MyCatIsAChonkRecently featured: Runion stonechatClimate changeShirley Graham Du BoisArchiveMore featured pictures

November 13 thelred II of England1002 King thelredII (pictured) ordered the massacre of all Danes in England.1914 Zaian War: Zaian Berber tribesmen routed French forces at the Battle of El Herri in Morocco.1963 A man wielding a dagger was subdued as he was about to attack Sanz Nosaka, the chairman of the Japanese Communist Party.1966 ArabIsraeli conflict: In response to a Fatah landmine incident, the Israeli military conducted a large cross-border assault on the Jordanian-controlled West Bank village of Samu.1974 Ronald DeFeoJr. killed six members of his family in Amityville, New York, events that later inspired the book The Amityville Horror and a subsequent media franchise.Theophilus Holmes (b.1804)Anne Dallas Dudley (b.1876)Arthur Nebe (b.1894)Amelia Bence (b.1914)More anniversaries: November 12November 13November 14ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

The Runion stonechat (Saxicola tectes) is a species of stonechat in the family Muscicapidae, the Old World flycatchers. It is found across the French Indian Ocean island of Runion in forests, shrublands, and artificial environments such as gardens and plantations. The Runion 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 Runion stonechat was photographed in La Roche crite, south of the Runion capital Saint-Denis.Photograph credit: Charles J. SharpRecently featured: Climate changeShirley Graham Du BoisEuropean spruce bark beetleArchiveMore featured pictures

November 12Destruction of Tirpitz in Operation Catechism1932 At the request of the Government of Western Australia, the Australian military officially resumed fighting the Emu War after their prior withdrawal.1944 Second World War: The Royal Air Force sank the German battleship Tirpitz on the ninth attempt (video featured) near Troms, Norway, killing about 1,000 sailors on board.1956 Suez Crisis: During an invasion of Rafah, Israeli soldiers shot and killed almost 111 Palestinian refugees and local inhabitants.1991 Indonesian forces opened fire on student demonstrators protesting the occupation of East Timor in the capital Dili, killing at least 250 people.2014 The European Space Agency's lander Philae touched down on 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko, becoming the first spacecraft to land on a comet.Johan Rantzau (b.1492)Rachel Barrett (b.1874)Jo Stafford (b.1917)Robert Goff, Baron Goff of Chieveley (b.1926)More anniversaries: November 11November 12November 13ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

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 cyclones. 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 animation, produced by NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio with data from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, shows global surface temperature anomalies from 1880 to 2023 on a world map, illustrating the rise in global temperatures. Normal temperatures (calculated over the 30-year baseline period 19511980) are shown in white, higher-than-normal temperatures in red, and lower-than-normal temperatures in blue. The data are averaged over a running 24-month window.Video credit: NASA; visualized by Mark SubbaRaoRecently featured: Shirley Graham Du BoisEuropean spruce bark beetlePyromorphiteArchiveMore featured pictures

November 11: Armistice Day (known as Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth of Nations and Veterans Day in the United States); Singles' Day in China and Southeast AsiaShrine of Remembrance1778 American Revolutionary War: British forces and their Iroquois allies attacked a fort and the village of Cherry Valley, New York, killing 14 soldiers and 30 civilians.1813 War of 1812: BritishCanadian forces repelled an American attack at the Battle of Crysler's Farm, forcing the United States to give up their attempt to capture Montreal.1934 The Shrine of Remembrance (pictured), a memorial to all Australians who have served in war, opened in Melbourne.1999 The House of Lords Act was given royal assent, removing most hereditary peers from the British House of Lords.2008 After 30 years in power, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was succeeded by Mohamed Nasheed as president of the Maldives.Martha Annie Whiteley (b.1866)douard Vuillard (b.1868)Maria Teresa de Filippis (b.1926)Leonardo DiCaprio (b.1974)More anniversaries: November 10November 11November 12ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

Shirley Graham Du Bois (November11, 1896 March27, 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 CuerdenRecently featured: European spruce bark beetlePyromorphiteJohn TarletonArchiveMore featured pictures

November 10Caroll Spinney with his Oscar the Grouch puppet1599 At the culmination of a Swedish civil war, supporters of the deposed King SigismundIII Vasa were publicly executed in the bo Bloodbath.1969 The children's television series Sesame Street (puppeteer pictured) premiered in the United States.1972 Three men hijacked Southern Airways Flight49 and threatened to crash it into Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the U.S. state of Tennessee.2006 Nadarajah Raviraj, a prominent Sri Lankan Tamil politician and human rights lawyer, was assassinated in Colombo.2009 A skirmish occurred between South Korean and North Korean naval ships off Daecheong Island in the Yellow Sea.Afzal Khan (d.1659)Scipione Piattoli (b.1749)Andrs Manuel del Ro (b.1764)Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu (b.1887)More anniversaries: November 9November 10November 11ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

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 LeidusRecently featured: PyromorphiteJohn TarletonDalmatian pelicanArchiveMore featured pictures

November 9 People walking through Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin1888 Mary Jane Kelly, widely believed to be the fifth and final victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, was murdered in London.1914 World WarI: Off the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, the Australian light cruiser Sydney sank Emden, the last active German warship in the Indian Ocean, at the Battle of Cocos.1939 World WarII: A covert Sicherheitsdienst operation captured two British agents of the Secret Intelligence Service near Venlo in the Netherlands.1989 East German official Gnter Schabowski mistakenly announced the immediate opening of the inner German border, resulting in the fall of the Berlin Wall that night (border crossing pictured).2019 Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan inaugurated the Kartarpur Corridor, a visa-free border crossing connecting the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib to the IndiaPakistan border.Domenico Lorenzo Ponziani (b.1719)Lenore Romney (b.1908)Harry Trott (d.1917)Nadezhda Alliluyeva (d.1932)More anniversaries: November 8November 9November 10ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

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 Crdoba. The sample measures 3.5cm 3.0cm 1.5cm (1.38in 1.18in 0.59in).Photograph credit: David IfarRecently featured: John TarletonDalmatian pelicanCecilia Payne-GaposchkinArchiveMore featured pictures

November 8: Intersex Day of RemembranceShunzhi Emperor1644 The Shunzhi Emperor (portrait shown), the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, was enthroned in Beijing after the collapse of the Ming dynasty as the first Qing emperor to rule over China.1965 Vietnam War: In the Battle of Gang Toi, one of the earliest battles between the two sides, Viet Cong forces repelled an Australian attack.1966 Former Massachusetts attorney general Edward Brooke became the first African American elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction.1974 British peer Lord Lucan disappeared without a trace, a day after allegedly murdering Sandra Rivett, his children's nanny.2006 Israeli artillery shelled a row of houses in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, killing at least 19 Palestinians and wounding more than 40 others.Thomas Bewick (d.1828)Hermann Rorschach (b.1884)Rhea Seddon (b.1947)Johannes Latuharhary (d.1959)More anniversaries: November 7November 8November 9ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

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 CuerdenRecently featured: Dalmatian pelicanCecilia Payne-GaposchkinTentacled flatheadArchiveMore featured pictures

November 7: International Inuit DayTufted jay1723 O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60, a dialogue cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach for Leipzig, was first performed.1837 American abolitionist Elijah Parish Lovejoy was murdered by a pro-slavery mob in Alton, Illinois, during an attack to destroy his printing press and abolitionist materials.1934 The first specimens of the tufted jay (pictured) to be scientifically described were collected in Mexico.1949 Oil was discovered in the Caspian Sea off the coast of Azerbaijan, leading to the construction of Neft Dalar, the world's first offshore oil platform.1987 Singapore's first Mass Rapid Transit line opened, with train services running between Yio Chu Kang and Toa Payoh.1991 Magic Johnson announced his retirement from professional basketball due to HIV infection.Ibn Hazm (b.994)Paul Sandby (d.1809)Ruby Hurley (b.1909)Ellen Stewart (b.1919)More anniversaries: November 6November 7November 8ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

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. SharpRecently featured: Cecilia Payne-GaposchkinTentacled flatheadThe Abduction of EuropaArchiveMore featured pictures

November 6: Gustavus Adolphus Day in Estonia, Finland and Sweden Red Cloud1217 King HenryIII of England issued the Charter of the Forest, re-establishing the rights of access of free men to royal forests.1794 French Revolutionary Wars: Two British ships are intercepted by a French squadron, leading to the French seizure of the HMS Alexander.1868 Red Cloud (pictured), a Native American leader of the Oglala Lakota tribe, signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie, ending Red Cloud's War and establishing the Great Sioux Reservation.1917 First World War: Canadian forces captured Passendale, Belgium, after three months of fighting against the Germans at the Battle of Passchendaele.1988 Two earthquakes occurring 12 minutes apart struck Yunnan near the ChinaMyanmar border, killing more than 730 people.Nasta Rojc (b.1883)Jerry Yang (b.1968)Emma Stone (b.1988)Anthony Sawoniuk (d.2005)More anniversaries: November 5November 6November 7ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (19001979) 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 CuerdenRecently featured: Tentacled flatheadThe Abduction of EuropaCoconutArchiveMore featured pictures

November 5: Election Day (United States) (2024); Guy Fawkes Night in Great Britain and some Commonwealth countriesAline Chrtien1138 L Anh Tng was enthroned as the emperor of i Vit at the age of two, beginning a 37-year reign.1943 World WarII: An unknown aircraft dropped four bombs on Vatican City, which maintained neutrality during the war.1995 Aline Chrtien (pictured) thwarted Andr Dallaire's attempt to assassinate her husband, Canadian prime minister Jean Chrtien, by locking the bedroom door in 24Sussex Drive, their official residence in Ottawa.2003 American serial killer Gary Ridgway pleaded guilty to 48 counts of first-degree murder.2013 The Indian Space Research Organisation launched the Mars Orbiter Mission, India's first interplanetary probe.Louis Bertrand Castel (b.1688)Edwin Flack (b.1873)James Robert Baker (d.1997)Habibollah Asgaroladi (d.2013)More anniversaries: November 4November 5November 6ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

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 DelsoRecently featured: The Abduction of EuropaCoconutMauritius kestrelArchiveMore featured pictures

November 4: Constitution Day in the Dominican Republic (2024); National Unity and Armed Forces Day in ItalyBarack Obama1890 The City and South London Railway, the first deep-level underground railway in the world, officially opened, running 3.2mi (5.1km) between the City of London and Stockwell.1912 The keel of USSNevada was laid down, beginning construction on the United States Navy's first "super-dreadnought".1938 The Hlinka Guard and Slovakian police began the deportation of several thousand Jews from the country.1964 Ruhollah Khomeini was arrested by SAVAK, the Iranian secret police, and exiled to Turkey.2008 Barack Obama (pictured) became the first African American to be elected President of the United States.Hu Zongxian (b.1512)John Paulet, 2nd Marquess of Winchester (d.1576)Shakuntala Devi (b.1929)Tabu (b.1971)More anniversaries: November 3November 4November 5ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

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: RembrandtRecently featured: CoconutMauritius kestrelDiwaliArchiveMore featured pictures