Wikipedia:Picture of the day/February 2013

Picture of the day archives

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These featured pictures, as scheduled below, appeared as the picture of the day (POTD) on the English Wikipedia's Main Page in February 2013. 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/February 2013#1]] for February 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


February 1

Nanga Parbat

Nanga Parbat ("Naked Mountain"), in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan. With a summit elevation of 8,126 metres (26,660 ft), the mountain is the ninth-highest mountain in the world. It was first climbed in 1953.

Photograph: Waqas Usman

Recently featured:

February 2

Jeff Dunham

American ventriloquist and stand-up comedian Jeff Dunham with his puppet "Achmed the Dead Terrorist". Dunham, whose puppets Time magazine has described as "politically incorrect, gratuitously insulting and ill tempered", uses Achmed to satirize terrorists.

Photograph: Richard Mclaren


February 3

Republican presidential ticket, 1864

A campaign poster from the National Union Party during the US election of 1864, showing presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln (left) and his running-mate Andrew Johnson. The Republican Party changed its name and selected Johnson, a former Democrat, to draw support from War Democrats during the Civil War.

Lithograph: Currier and Ives, Restoration: Lise Broer


February 4

Hurricane Bob

Hurricane Bob, the first hurricane of the 1991 Atlantic hurricane season and the only one to make landfall on the contiguous United States, as it approaches New England. The Category 3 storm killed 17 people and caused $1.5 billion in damage.

Photo: NOAA / Satellite and Information Service


February 5

Pied Oystercatcher

Two Pied Oystercatchers (Haematopus longirostris) in Tasmania; the one on the left is feeding on a small mussel. Although known as oystercatchers, they rarely feed on oysters.

Photo: JJ Harrison


February 6

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) wearing a cowboy hat at his vacation home in Rancho del Cielo. Reagan, a former actor, purchased the ranch towards the end of his term as Governor of California. He and his wife Nancy would use the ranch throughout his presidency and into the 1990s.

Photo: Michael Evans; Restoration: Peter Weis


February 7

Himalayan Bluetail

The Himalayan Bluetail (Tarsiger rufilatus) is a small passerine bird. Males are of a more vibrant colour than females. This specimen was photographed at the summit of Doi Inthanon in Thailand.

Photograph: JJ Harrison


February 8

Enoch Powell

Enoch Powell (1912–98), a professor of Ancient Greek by age 25 and brigadier during World War II, took up politics in the late 1940s and in the 1960s was selected for several cabinet positions. In 1968, he gave the "Rivers of Blood" speech about the dangers of immigration to the United Kingdom and of proposed anti-discrimination legislation.

Photograph: Allan Warren


February 9

Alstroemeria

Alstroemeria × hybrida, an Alstroemeria hybrid, at the Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens in Bangalore, India. The genus consists of some 120 species and is native to South America.

Photograph: Muhammad Mahdi Karim


February 10

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

A Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, pictured here with an EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens. The Mark II, released in 2008 and discontinued in 2012, was the first DSLR to feature 1080p video recording. It has been used to shoot several television series and films.

Photograph: Charles Lanteigne; Edit: Jjron


February 11

Cathedral of Christ the Savior

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour is a church in Moscow, Russia, south-west of the Kremlin, which was consecrated in 1883. With an overall height of 105 metres (344 ft), it is the tallest Orthodox Christian church in the world.

Photograph: Joaquim Alves Gaspar


February 12

Marabou Stork

The Marabou Stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus) is an African wading bird which feeds mostly on carrion. With a wingspan verified to reach 3.19 m (10.5 ft), it has one of the largest wingspans of any land bird. This specimen was found in Mikumi National Park, Tanzania.

Photograph: Muhammad Mahdi Karim


February 13

Autochrome nude

A nude study in autochrome by Arnold Genthe. Autochrome was patented by the Lumière brothers in 1903 and became the dominant colour photography process for over two decades. It used dyed potato starch in its plates to provide colour. Because of additional filters necessary for the process, it required longer exposure than black-and-white plates.

Photograph: Arnold Genthe; Restoration: Chick Bowen


February 14

The Jewish Bride

The Jewish Bride, an oil painting on canvas by Rembrandt dating from circa 1667. Described by Christoper White as "one of the greatest expressions of the tender fusion of spiritual and physical love in the history of painting", the painting obtained its likely inaccurate current name in the 19th century.

Painting: Rembrandt


February 15

Australian Brushturkey

An Australian Brushturkey (Alectura lathami) in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. The species, which measures up to 60–75 centimetres (24–30 in) in length, is the largest extant species of megapode. Although physically similar, the species is not closely related to the Turkey.

Photograph: JJ Harrison


February 16

A mass grave for children in Dadaab

A young girl standing amid the freshly made graves of 70 children in Dadaab, Kenya. Many of them died of malnutrition during an extensive drought in East Africa, which began in July 2011. Many people died on their journeys to the overcrowded refugee camps; the camp in Dadaab, although built for 90,000 people, held at least 440,000 at its peak.

Photograph: Andy Hall


February 17

Cary Grant

Actor Cary Grant (1904–86) in a publicity photo for Suspicion (1940). Known for his transatlantic accent, debonair demeanor and "dashing good looks", Grant is considered one of classic Hollywood's definitive leading men. During his 34-year career he acted in over 50 films, including The Eagle and the Hawk, Bringing Up Baby, and North by Northwest.

Photograph: RKO publicity photographer; Edit: Chris Woodrich


February 18

Buzz Aldrin saluting

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin saluting the flag of the United States, part of the Lunar Flag Assembly, during Apollo 11. The Lunar Flag Assembly was designed to survive a Moon landing and to appear to "wave" as it would in a breeze on Earth. This flag fell over when the Lunar Module Eagle took off.

Photograph: Neil Armstrong


February 19

Morgan Pressel

American professional golfer Morgan Pressel, who first qualified for the Women's Open at age 12. Pressel had her first victory in the Kraft Nabisco Championship in 2007. She made her first professional hole-in-one, an eagle, at that year's Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic.

Photograph: Keith Allison; Edit: Brandmeister


February 20

Portrait of a Bald Eagle

The Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is a bird of prey found in North America. As visible here, adults are not bald, but have a head of white feathers. Its name comes from an older meaning of the word, meaning "white headed".

Photograph: W. Lloyd MacKenzie


February 21

Marrus orthocanna

Marrus orthocanna is a species of siphonophore, a colonial animal composed of a complex arrangement of zooids, some of which are polyps and some medusae. It lives at depths ranging between 200 and 800 m (660 and 2,600 ft), in the Arctic and other cold, deep waters.

Photograph: Kevin Raskoff


February 22

Sonia Sotomayor

Sonia Sotomayor is an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. She was nominated in 2009 by President Barack Obama to replace retiring Justice David Souter. Sotomayor is the first Hispanic and the third woman to be appointed to the Court.

Photograph: Steve Petteway


February 23

Brown fur seal

A brown fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus) hauling-out on the Hippolyte Rocks off the coast of Tasmania. These large seals, which can measure over 2.2 metres (7 feet) in length, feed mostly on fish but are also known to eat squid and crabs.

Photograph: JJ Harrison


February 24

Raja Shelduck

A Raja Shelduck (Tadorna radjah) at Centenary Lakes in Cairns, Australia. The Raja Shelduck prefers the brackish waters of mangrove flats and paperbark tree swamps, but will live elsewhere during the wet season. It feeds mainly on mollusks, insects, sedge materials and algae.

Photograph: JJ Harrison


February 25

Bison skull pile

A pile of American bison skulls, waiting to be ground for fertilizer; a man stands atop the pile, with another in front of it. Bison, long a staple of Plains Indian tribal culture, were aggressively hunted by European settlers in the United States, nearly leading to the extinction of the species.

Photograph: Unknown; Restoration: Chick Bowen


February 26

Ames process
The Ames process was developed during the Manhattan Project to refine uranium. Left to right:
  • Pressure vessel containing uranium halide and sacrificial metal being lowered into a furnace
  • After the reaction, remnant slag in the container
  • Uranium metal "biscuit" end product

Photographs: Unknown


February 27

Matanuska Glacier

A portion of the terminus of Matanuska Glacier, a valley glacier in the US state of Alaska. At 27 miles (43 km) long by 4 miles (6.4 km) wide, the Matanuska Glacier is the largest glacier accessible by road in the country and the source of the Matanuska River, also seen here.

Photograph: Sbork


February 28

First American Colored Senator and Representatives

An 1872 lithograph depicting seven early African Americans in the United States Congress, (from left to right) Senator Hiram Revels and Representatives Benjamin Turner, Robert DeLarge, Josiah Walls, Jefferson Long, Joseph Rainey, and Robert Elliott. During the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War, some several hundred African-American officeholders were elected – all of whom were members of the Republican Party.

Lithograph: Currier and Ives; Restoration: Adam Cuerden


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