A monthly archive of Wikipedia's featured pictures
These featured pictures previously appeared (or shall appear) as Picture of the day as scheduled below. You can add the automatically updating Picture of the day to your userpage or talk page using {{pic of the day}}
(text version) or {{POTD}}
(short version). For instructions on how to make custom POTD layouts, see Wikipedia:Picture of the day.
April 1 - Sun
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April 2 - Mon
Eugen Sandow (1867–1925) was a pioneering German
bodybuilder. Born in
Königsberg,
Prussia, he joined a circus to avoid military service. Fellow strongman Ludwig Durlacher urged Sandow to travel to
London and take part in a
strongman competition, which he handily won. Sandow rose rapidly to fame and was soon touring Europe and the United States, being featured in a
short film series that depicted him flexing. After a bout of ill health, Sandow focused on opening public gyms, inventing or improving exercise equipment, and training would-be military recruits as well as
King George V. Sandow is now known as the "father of modern bodybuilding".
Photograph: D. Bernard & Co; restoration: Adam Cuerden
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April 3 - Tue
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April 4 - Wed
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April 5 - Thu
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April 6 - Fri
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April 7 - Sat
The winding tower of Shaft 12 at the
Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex, a large former industrial site in the city of
Essen, Germany. Mining activities took place from 1851 until 1986, and over this period twelve shafts were opened. The last of these, built in the
New Objectivity style, began operations in 1932. It has been considered an architectural and technical masterpiece, being termed the "most beautiful coal mine in the world". The Zollverein Complex was declared a
World Heritage Site by
UNESCO in 2001.
Photograph: Thomas Wolf
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April 8 - Sun
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April 9 - Mon
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April 10 - Tue
An 1860 lithograph showing the assassination of Riccardo, the Earl of Warwick, in the climactic scene of the opera
Un ballo in maschera. Composed by
Giuseppe Verdi, with a libretto by
Antonio Somma, it was based on the assassination of King
Gustav III of Sweden and initially intended to be performed as
Gustavo III. However, after extensive censorship, the play was reset in the colonial United States and rewritten to center around a British governor in
Boston. First performed in 1859,
Un ballo in maschera has been widely staged, with many productions since the 1930s restoring the Swedish setting.
Lithograph: Francesco Corbetta; restoration: Adam Cuerden
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April 11 - Wed
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April 12 - Thu
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April 13 - Fri
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April 14 - Sat
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April 15 - Sun
The
Eurasian blue tit (
Cyanistes caeruleus) is a small
passerine bird in the
tit family. Easily recognisable by its blue and yellow plumage and small size, the species is a widespread and common resident breeder throughout temperate and subarctic Europe and western Asia. It feeds primarily on insects and spiders, but may consume seeds and other vegetable-based foods outside of the breeding season.
Photograph: Francis Franklin
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April 16 - Mon
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April 17 - Tue
The jettisoned
Service Module of the
Apollo 13 spacecraft, photographed as the beleaguered Command Module was preparing for
reentry. The seventh manned mission in the
Apollo space program, Apollo 13 was launched on April 11, 1970. It was commanded by
James A. Lovell, with
John L. "Jack" Swigert and
Fred W. Haise as crew. After an oxygen tank exploded on April 13, the Service Module was crippled and a planned
lunar landing was aborted. Despite great hardship caused by limited power, loss of cabin heat, shortage of
potable water, and the critical need to make
makeshift repairs to the carbon dioxide removal system, the crew returned safely to
Earth on April 17, 1970.
Photograph: NASA
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April 18 - Wed
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April 19 - Thu
Both sides of a 1910s advertisement for
Hudson's Soap, a product developed by
Robert Spear Hudson. This folded, diecut card depicts four policemen standing in a row, holding a banner with ten panels proclaiming the virtues of the product, with a further four slogans (such as "Arrest all dirt") on their own backs. Through intense advertising such as this, Hudson's grew from a single shop in 1837 to a company employing more than 1,000 people. The brand was sold by
Hudson's son to
Lever Brothers (now part of
Unilever) in 1908. Today, it is sold under the
brand name Rinso.
Advertisement: Anonymous; restoration: Adam Cuerden
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April 20 - Fri
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April 21 - Sat
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April 22 - Sun
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April 23 - Mon
The
Apple Bandai Pippin is a multimedia technology console designed by
Apple Computer based on the
Apple Pippin platform, and produced by
Bandai. Only 100,000 of the consoles were produced between its 1996 release and 1997 discontinuation. The Bandai Pippin was intended to create an inexpensive computer aimed mostly at playing CD-based multimedia software, especially games, but also functioning as a
thin client.
Photograph: Evan Amos
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April 24 - Tue
Marvel Science Stories was an American
pulp magazine that ran for a total of fifteen issues in two separate runs, both edited by Robert O. Erisman. The first issue was dated August 1938, and carried stories with more sexual content than was usual for the genre. The magazine was canceled after the April 1941 issue, but when a boom in
science fiction magazines began in 1950, the publishers revived it. The first issue of the new series was dated November 1950; a further six issues appeared, the last dated May 1952. Contributors to the first run included
Henry Kuttner,
Arthur J. Burks, and
Jack Williamson; the second run published stories by
Arthur C. Clarke,
Isaac Asimov,
Jack Vance, and
L. Sprague de Camp, among others.
Illustration: Norman Saunders; restoration: Adam Cuerden
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April 25 - Wed
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April 26 - Thu
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April 27 - Fri
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April 28 - Sat
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April 29 - Sun
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Picture of the day archive
Today is Wednesday, April 25, 2018; it is now 00:16 UTC