Wikipedia
Best articles Wikipedia has to offer
July 8 Wikipedia featured article
14th-century depiction of Edgar
Edgar (c. 944 – 8 July 975) was King of the English from 959 until his death. He mainly followed the political policies of his predecessors but made major changes in the religious sphere, with the English Benedictine Reform becoming a dominant religious and social force. His major administrative reform was the introduction of a standardised coinage, and he issued legislative codes concentrated on improving the enforcement of the law. After his death, the throne was disputed between the supporters of his two surviving sons; Edward the Martyr was chosen with the support of Dunstan, the archbishop of Canterbury. Chroniclers presented Edgar's reign as a golden age when England was free from external attacks and internal disorder. Modern historians see Edgar's reign as the pinnacle of Anglo-Saxon culture but disagree about his political legacy, and some see the disorders following his death as a natural reaction to his overbearing control. (Full article...)
Recently featured:July 9 Wikipedia featured article
Head of a goblin shark
The goblin shark is a rare species of deep-sea shark. Sometimes called a "living fossil", it is the only extant representative of the family Mitsukurinidae, a lineage 125 million years old. This species looks unlike any other shark, with a long, flattened snout, highly protrusible jaws containing prominent nail-like teeth and pink coloration. Its snout is covered with ampullae of Lorenzini that enable it to sense minute electric fields produced by nearby prey, which it can snatch up by rapidly extending its jaws. It is usually three to four metres long (10 to 13 ft) when mature. Goblin sharks inhabit upper continental slopes, submarine canyons and seamounts deeper than 100 metres (330 ft). Anatomical features, such as its flabby body and small fins, suggest that it is sluggish in nature. It hunts for teleost fishes, cephalopods and crustaceans both near the sea floor and in the middle of the water column. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed it as Least Concern. (Full article...)
Recently featured:July 10 Wikipedia featured article
Fresco excavated by Marinatos at Akrotiri
Spyridon Marinatos (1901–1974) was a Greek archaeologist who specialised in the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations of the Aegean Bronze Age, and excavated the Minoan site of Akrotiri (fresco pictured) on Thera between 1967 and 1974. He received several honours in Greece and abroad, and was considered one of the most important Greek archaeologists of his day. He joined the Greek Archaeological Service in 1919 and spent much of his early career on the island of Crete, where he excavated several Minoan sites. He served three times as head of the Greek Archaeological Service, including under the military junta which ruled Greece between 1967 and 1974. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the junta; in the late 1930s, he had been close to the dictatorial regime of Ioannis Metaxas. Marinatos died while excavating at Akrotiri in 1974, and is buried at the site. (Full article...)
Recently featured:July 11 Wikipedia featured article
Llullaillaco is a dormant stratovolcano on the border between Argentina and Chile. It lies in the Puna de Atacama, a region of tall volcanic peaks on a high plateau close to the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places in the world. Its maximum elevation is most commonly given as 6,723 metres (22,057 ft), making it the second- or third-highest volcano in the world. Between 3700 m and 5000 m elevation there is a sparse plant cover, while at lower altitudes the climate is too dry for plants to grow. The volcano formed during the Pleistocene in two stages. The oldest rocks are about 1.5 million years old. About 150,000 years ago, the volcano's southeastern flank collapsed, generating a debris avalanche that reached as far as 25 kilometres (16 mi) from the summit. There are reports of activity from the 19th century. There are a number of archaeological sites on the mountain; Llullaillaco marks the highest archaeological site in the world. (Full article...)
Recently featured:July 12 Wikipedia featured article
Holkham Hall is an 18th-century country house in Norfolk, England, constructed in the Neo-Palladian style for Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester. The hall was designed by the architect William Kent, with contributions from Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, the Norfolk architect and surveyor Matthew Brettingham and Thomas Coke himself. Holkham is one of England's finest examples of the Palladian revival style of architecture. The exterior consists of a central block, of two storeys and four flanking wings. The interior of the hall is opulent, but by the standards of the day, simply decorated and furnished. The Holkham estate was built up by Sir Edward Coke, a lawyer in the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I and the founder of his family's fortune. It remains the ancestral home of the Coke family, who became Earls of Leicester. The house is a Grade I listed building, and its park is listed as Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. (Full article...)
Recently featured:July 13 Wikipedia featured article
Picture illustrating heartburn
Heartburn is a burning sensation felt behind the breastbone. It is a symptom that is commonly linked to acid reflux and is often triggered by food, particularly fatty, sugary, spicy, chocolate, onions, citrus, and tomato-based products. Lying down, bending, lifting, and performing certain exercises can exacerbate heartburn. Causes include acid reflux, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), damage to the esophageal lining, bile acid, mechanical stimulation to the esophagus, and esophageal hypersensitivity. Heartburn affects 25% of the population at least once a month. Endoscopy and esophageal pH monitoring can be used to evaluate heartburn. Some causes of heartburn, such as GERD, may be diagnosed based on symptoms alone. Lifestyle changes, such as losing weight and avoiding fatty foods, can improve heartburn. Over-the-counter alginates or antacids can help with mild or occasional heartburn. Heartburn treatment primarily involves H2 receptor antagonists and proton-pump inhibitors. (Full article...)
Recently featured:July 14 Wikipedia featured article
William Hanna (July 14, 1910 – March 22, 2001) was an American animator, voice actor, and musician who co-created Tom and Jerry and provided the vocal effects for the series's title characters. Hanna joined the Harman and Ising animation studio in 1930 and gained prominence while working on cartoons such as The Captain and the Kids. In 1937, while working at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Hanna met Joseph Barbera. In 1957, they co-founded Hanna-Barbera, which became a successful television animation studio, creating or producing programs such as The Flintstones, The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, The Smurfs, and Yogi Bear. In 1967, Hanna-Barbera was sold to Taft Broadcasting for $12 million. Hanna and Barbera were nominated for two Academy Awards and won eight Emmys. Their cartoons have become cultural icons, and their cartoon characters have appeared in other media such as films, books, and toys. (Full article...)
Recently featured:July 15 Wikipedia featured article
Flag of Manitoba
Manitoba is a province of Canada. Indigenous peoples have inhabited what is now Manitoba for thousands of years. In the early 17th century, English and French fur traders arrived and established settlements in the area. The Kingdom of England secured control of the region in 1673 and created Rupert's Land, which included present-day Manitoba, under the administration of the Hudson's Bay Company. Negotiations for the creation of the province of Manitoba commenced in 1869 but disagreements over the right to self-determination led to the Red River Rebellion. The resolution of the conflict and further negotiations led to Manitoba becoming the fifth province to join Canadian Confederation on 15 July 1870. Manitoba is Canada's fifth-most populous province. It has a widely varied landscape, from Arctic tundra and the Hudson Bay coastline to dense boreal forest, large freshwater lakes, and prairie grassland. Manitoba's largest city and capital is Winnipeg. (Full article...)
Recently featured:July 16 Wikipedia featured article
Trinity detonation
Trinity was the code name given to the nuclear test that saw the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. The code name was assigned by J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, after a poem by John Donne. It was conducted on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project on the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range in the Jornada del Muerto desert. The test used a Fat Man bomb of the same design as that detonated over Nagasaki. The complex design of the implosion-type nuclear weapon required a major effort from the Los Alamos Laboratory, and testing was required to allay fears that it would not work. Its detonation (video featured) produced the explosive power of about 20 kilotons of TNT (84 terajoules). The test site is now part of the White Sands Missile Range. It was declared a National Historic Landmark District in 1965, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places the following year. (This article is part of a featured topic: History of the Manhattan Project.)
Recently featured:July 17 Wikipedia featured article
Claudette making landfall in Texas
Hurricane Claudette was the third tropical storm and first hurricane of the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season. A fairly long-lived July Atlantic hurricane, Claudette began as a tropical wave in the eastern Caribbean. It moved westward past the Yucatán Peninsula before moving northwestward through the Gulf of Mexico. Claudette remained a tropical storm until just before making landfall in Port O'Connor, Texas, on July 15, when it quickly strengthened to a strong Category 1 hurricane. Forecasting its path and intensity was uncertain, resulting in widespread and often unnecessary preparations. Claudette caused one death and moderate damage in Texas, mostly from strong winds, as well as extensive beach erosion. Because of the damage, President George W. Bush declared portions of South Texas as a Federal Disaster Area. Claudette also caused significant rainfall and minor damage in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, as well as minor damage on Saint Lucia. (This article is part of a featured topic: 2003 Atlantic hurricane season.)
Recently featured:Historical events on this day
On this day: July 8
Shinzō Abe
- 1776 – The United States Declaration of Independence received its first formal public reading, in Philadelphia.
- 1874 – Members of the North-West Mounted Police at Fort Dufferin began their March West, their first journey to the Canadian Prairies.
- 1947 – Following reports of the capture of a "flying disc" by U.S. Army Air Forces personnel near Roswell, New Mexico, the military stated that the crashed object was a conventional weather balloon.
- 1990 – West Germany won the FIFA World Cup final against defending champions Argentina, with Andreas Brehme scoring the game's only goal.
- 2022 – Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe (pictured) was shot and killed with an improvised firearm due to resentment against the Unification Church.
- Etta Lemon (d. 1953)
- Tzipi Livni (b. 1958)
- Virgil van Dijk (b. 1991)
- Kim Il Sung (d. 1994)
On this day: July 9
Italy players celebrating
- 1763 – The Mozart family grand tour began, presenting child prodigies Maria Anna and Wolfgang in Western Europe.
- 1877 – The inaugural Wimbledon Championship, the world's oldest tennis tournament, began in London.
- 1981 – Nintendo released the arcade game Donkey Kong, which featured the debut of Mario, one of the most famous characters in video-game history.
- 2006 – Italy won their fourth World Cup title, defeating France 5–3 on penalties following a 1–1 draw after extra time (players pictured).
- 2008 – Under the belief that Israel and the United States were planning to attack its nuclear program, Iran conducted the Great Prophet III missile test and war games exercise.
- Elizabeth of Austria (b. 1526)
- Courtney Love (b. 1964)
- Shin Jae-chul (d. 2012)
- Fernando de la Rúa (d. 2019)
On this day: July 10
July 10: Independence Day in the Bahamas (1973)
Depiction of the Isshi incident- 645 – In a plot to eliminate the Japanese Soga clan, Prince Naka no Ōe assassinated Soga no Iruka (depicted), beginning the Isshi incident.
- 1519 – Zhu Chenhao declared Ming emperor Zhengde to be a usurper, beginning the Prince of Ning rebellion.
- 1668 – Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660): Henry Morgan with an English privateer force landed at Porto Bello (in modern-day Panama) in an attempt to capture the Spanish city.
- 1925 – Indian mystic and spiritual master Meher Baba began his silence until his death in 1969, only communicating by means of an alphabet board or by unique hand gestures.
- 1978 – Moktar Ould Daddah, the first president of Mauritania, was ousted in a coup d'état led by Mustafa Ould Salek.
- Ladislaus IV of Hungary (d. 1290)
- Catherine Cornaro (d. 1510)
- Ed Lowe (b. 1920)
- Mahathir Mohamad (b. 1925)
On this day: July 11
July 11: Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Genocide in Poland
Spain squad celebrating- 1833 – Yagan, a Noongar warrior wanted for leading attacks on British colonists in Western Australia, was killed, becoming a symbol of the unjust and sometimes brutal treatment of indigenous Australians by colonial settlers.
- 1936 – New York City's Triborough Bridge, the "biggest traffic machine ever built", opened to traffic.
- 1982 – Italy defeated West Germany 3–1 to win their third FIFA World Cup title.
- 1991 – Shortly after taking off from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 caught fire and crashed, killing all 261 people on board.
- 2010 – Spain defeated the Netherlands 1–0 after extra time to win their first FIFA World Cup title (pictured lifting the trophy).
- Iskaq Tjokrohadisurjo (b. 1896)
- Giorgio Armani (b. 1934)
- Lady Bird Johnson (d. 2007)
- Satoru Iwata (d. 2015)
On this day: July 12
Saint Basil's Cathedral
- 1561 – Saint Basil's Cathedral (pictured), located in Red Square, Moscow, was consecrated.
- 1963 – Sixteen-year-old Pauline Reade, the first victim of serial killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, disappeared in Gorton, England.
- 1979 – Rowdy fans at Comiskey Park in Chicago stormed the field during a Major League Baseball promotional event at which a crate of disco records was blown up.
- 1998 – France defeated the defending champions Brazil 3–0 to win their first FIFA World Cup title.
- 2006 – Hezbollah forces crossed the Israel–Lebanon border and attacked Israeli military positions while firing rockets and mortars at Israeli towns, sparking a five-week war.
- Alexander Hamilton (d. 1804)
- Malala Yousafzai (b. 1997)
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (b. 1998)
- Mau Piailug (d. 2010)
On this day: July 13
July 13: Kashmir Martyrs' Day in Pakistan
Mario Götze scoring the winning goal- 1643 – English Civil War: Royalist forces defeated the Parliamentarians at the Battle of Roundway Down near Devizes, Wiltshire.
- 1794 – The Battle of Trippstadt between French forces and those of Prussia and Austria began.
- 1831 – Wallachian officials adopted the Regulamentul Organic, which engendered a period of reforms that provided for the westernization of the local society.
- 1962 – In an unprecedented reshuffle, British prime minister Harold Macmillan dismissed seven members of his cabinet.
- 2014 – Germany won the FIFA World Cup final against Argentina, with Mario Götze scoring the game's only goal (pictured) in the extra time.
- Afonso, Hereditary Prince of Portugal (d. 1491)
- Kate Sheppard (d. 1934)
- Ernő Rubik (b. 1944)
- Ken Jeong (b. 1969)
On this day: July 14
July 14: Bastille Day in France (1789); Festino di Santa Rosalia begins in Palermo, Italy
The seal of Louis VIII of France- 1223 – Louis VIII (seal pictured) became King of France and began a three-year reign.
- 1798 – The Sedition Act became law, making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the U.S. government.
- 1865 – A seven-man team made the first ascent of the Matterhorn, marking the end of the golden age of alpinism.
- 1960 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 1-11 ditched off Polillo Island in the Philippines, killing one person and injuring 44.
- 2014 – Lightning strikes started four fires in the Methow River in the American state of Washington, collectively known as the Carlton Complex Fire.
- Andreas Joseph Hofmann (b. 1752)
- Georgiana Hill (b. 1825)
- Harry Atwood (d. 1967)
- Ivana Trump (d. 2022)
On this day: July 15
July 15: Statehood Day in Ukraine (2022)
SG-1000- 1410 – The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald, the decisive engagement of the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War.
- 1815 – Aboard HMS Bellerophon, French emperor Napoleon surrendered to Royal Navy captain Frederick Lewis Maitland, concluding the Napoleonic Wars.
- 1983 – Sega's first home video game console, the SG-1000 (pictured), was released in Japan.
- 2009 – A Mw 7.8 earthquake struck a remote region of Fiordland, New Zealand, the country's largest earthquake magnitude since the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake.
- 2018 – Croatian Mario Mandžukić scored the first own goal in a FIFA World Cup final in their defeat to France.
- Rembrandt (b. 1606)
- Nina Bari (d. 1961)
- Cherry (b. 1975)
- Celeste Holm (d. 2012)
On this day: July 16
Phạm Ngọc Thảo
- 1790 – President George Washington signed the Residence Act, selecting a new permanent site along the Potomac River for the capital of the United States, which later became Washington, D.C.
- 1950 – Korean War: A Korean People's Army unit massacred 31 prisoners of war of the U.S. Army on a mountain near the village of Tuman.
- 1965 – South Vietnamese Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo (pictured)—an undetected communist spy—was reported dead due to injuries sustained during his capture, but it is generally assumed he was killed on the orders of military officials.
- 1990 – A 7.8 MS earthquake struck the densely populated Philippine island of Luzon, killing an estimated 1,621 people.
- 2008 – A tainted milk powder scandal broke in China which ultimately involved an estimated 300,000 victims, the vast majority infants, with 54,000 hospitalized with kidney problems and six deaths.
- Mary Todd Lincoln (d. 1882)
- Stan McCabe (b. 1910)
- Will Ferrell (b. 1967)
- Alcides Ghiggia (d. 2015)
On this day: July 17
July 17: Constitution Day in South Korea (1948); World Emoji Day
A vehicle on the Manchester Metrolink- 1453 – The Battle of Castillon, the last engagement of the Hundred Years' War, ended with the English losing all holdings in France except the Pale of Calais.
- 1918 – RMS Carpathia, which had rescued survivors of the 1912 Titanic sinking, was sunk by a German U-boat with the loss of five crew.
- 1948 – In Olympia, Greece, the Summer Olympics torch relay, nicknamed the "relay of peace", began.
- 1992 – The Manchester Metrolink (pictured), the first modern street-running light-rail system in the United Kingdom, was officially opened.
- 1996 – TWA Flight 800 exploded in mid-air and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York.
- Queen Camilla (b. 1947)
- Billie Holiday (d. 1959)
- Wonwoo (b. 1996)
- Edward Heath (d. 2005)
Some of the finest images on Wikipedia
Wikipedia picture of the day for July 8
The Gross Clinic is an 1875 oil-on-canvas painting by the American artist Thomas Eakins. It measures 8 ft by 6.5 ft (240 cm by 200 cm). The painting depicts Samuel D. Gross (July 8, 1805 – May 6, 1884), a seventy-year-old American medical professor, dressed in a black frock coat and lecturing a group of Jefferson Medical College students in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The painting is based on a surgery, witnessed by Eakins, in which Gross treated a young man for an infected femur. Gross is pictured here performing a conservative operation, as opposed to the amputation normally carried out at the time. Eakins included a self-portrait in the form of a student with a white cuffed sleeve sketching or writing, at the right-hand edge of the painting, next to the tunnel railing. The Gross Clinic has been restored three times, most recently in 2010, and is currently in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Painting credit: Thomas Eakins
Recently featured:Wikipedia picture of the day for July 9
The tamarind (Tamarindus indica) is a leguminous tree in the family Fabaceae, indigenous to tropical Africa and naturalized in Asia. The tamarind tree produces brown, pod-like edible fruits, 12 to 15 centimetres (4.5 to 6 inches) in length, which contain a sweet, tangy pulp. The pulp is also used in traditional medicine and as a metal polish. This photograph shows two tamarind fruits of the cultivar 'Si Thong', one whole and one opened, with three tamarind seeds in front. The picture was focus-stacked from 51 separate images.
Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus
Recently featured:Wikipedia picture of the day for July 10
The checkerboard wrasse (Halichoeres hortulanus) is a species of fish belonging to the wrasse family. It is native to the Indian Ocean and central Pacific Ocean. It is a small fish that can reach a maximum length of 27 centimetres (11 inches). Both its sex and appearance change during its life, and the colouring at each stage is variable based on location. Like many other wrasses, the checkerboard wrasse is a protogynous hermaphrodite, starting life as a female and later becoming a male, changing sex at maturity when it is about 12.8 centimetres (5.0 inches) long. This checkerboard wrasse was photographed in the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt.
Photograph credit: Diego Delso
Recently featured:Wikipedia picture of the day for July 11
Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world". After publishing his first book in 1959, Bloom wrote more than 50 books, including over 40 books of literary criticism, several books discussing religion, and one novel. He edited hundreds of anthologies concerning numerous literary and philosophical figures for the Chelsea House publishing firm. This photograph by Bernard Gotfryd shows Bloom in 1986.
Photograph credit: Bernard Gotfryd
Recently featured:Wikipedia picture of the day for July 12
Slime mold is an informal name given to a polyphyletic assemblage of unrelated eukaryotic organisms in the clades Stramenopiles, Rhizaria, Discoba, Amoebozoa and Holomycota. Most are near-microscopic; those in Myxogastria form larger plasmodial slime molds that are visible to the naked eye. Most slime molds are terrestrial and free-living, typically in damp shady habitats such as in or on the surface of rotting wood. Some myxogastrians and protostelians are aquatic or semi-aquatic. The phytomyxea are parasitic, living inside their plant hosts. Geographically, slime molds are cosmopolitan in distribution. A small number of species occur in regions as dry as the Atacama Desert and as cold as the Arctic; they are abundant in the tropics, especially in rainforests. This picture shows a group of sporangia of the slime mold Comatricha nigra, photographed in a garden in Berlin, Germany.
Photograph credit: Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas
Recently featured:Wikipedia picture of the day for July 13
The wood stork (Mycteria americana) is a large wading bird found in warmer parts of the Americas. North American birds may disperse to South America, where it is resident. Its bare head and neck are dark grey and the plumage is mostly white, with black on the tail and part of the wing. The sexes are similar, but the juvenile has a feathered head and a yellow, not black, bill. The wood stork nests colonially in wetlands, building its one-metre-diameter (3.3-foot) nest in trees; the breeding season starts when water levels drop. The clutch of three to five eggs is incubated for around 30 days, and the chicks fledge 60 to 65 days after hatching, although many die during their first two weeks. The chicks are fed fish while the adult also eats insects, frogs and crabs as available, foraging by touch in shallow water. This wood stork was photographed with a Yacare caiman in the Pantanal, Brazil.
Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp
Recently featured:Wikipedia picture of the day for July 14
The Blind Girl (1856) is a painting by John Everett Millais which depicts two itinerant beggars, presumed to be sisters, one of whom is a blind musician, her concertina on her lap. They are resting by the roadside after a rainstorm, before travelling to the town of Winchelsea, visible in the background. The painting has been interpreted as an allegory of the senses, contrasting the experiences of the blind and sighted sisters. The former feels the warmth of the sun on her face, and fondles a blade of grass, while the latter shields her eyes from the sun or rain and looks at a double rainbow that has just appeared. The painting is in the collection of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Painting credit: John Everett Millais
Recently featured:Wikipedia picture of the day for July 15
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is a short play by W. S. Gilbert that parodies William Shakespeare's Hamlet. The main characters in Gilbert's play are King Claudius and Queen Gertrude of Denmark, their son Prince Hamlet, the courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and Ophelia. The play first appeared in the magazine Fun in 1874 after having been rejected for production by several theatre companies. Its first professional performances were an 1891 benefit matinée and an 1892 run at the Court Theatre in London of around 77 performances, with Decima Moore as Ophelia, Brandon Thomas as Claudius, and Weedon Grossmith as Hamlet. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern was revived in London and New York over the next 20 years and occasionally thereafter. A review in The Times said: "There is more brilliance of merely verbal wit in this little play than in anything else of Mr. Gilbert's. ... It is really a very subtle piece of criticism, sometimes of Shakespeare’s play, sometimes of the commentators, sometimes of the actors who have played the great part." This ink drawing was created by Ralph Cleaver for a 1904 celebrity charity performance of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at the Garrick Theatre in London. The drawing depicts various characters in the play and identifies the actors who portrayed them, including Gilbert himself as Claudius.
Drawing credit: Ralph Cleaver; restored by Adam Cuerden
Recently featured:Wikipedia picture of the day for July 16
Anne of Cleves (German: Anna von Kleve; 28 June or 22 September 1515 – 16 July 1557) was Queen of England from 6 January to 12 July 1540 as the fourth wife of Henry VIII. Anne outlived the rest of Henry's wives.
Painting credit: Hans Holbein the Younger
Recently featured:Wikipedia picture of the day for July 17
The clouded Apollo (Parnassius mnemosyne) is a species in the swallowtail butterfly family, Papilionidae, which is found in the Palearctic realm. It is a large butterfly, which inhabits meadows and deciduous woodland clearings with plenty of flowering plants, but cannot survive in denser forest. The species has white wings, on which thin black veins are found, with blackish fringes. The forewing has two black spots. Its abdomen, antenna and legs are black. The female lays whitish conical eggs with a granular surface. This clouded Apollo male was photographed at the top of Slivnica, in the Dinaric Alps of Slovenia.
Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp
Recently featured: