Wikipedia:Picture of the day/June 2026

Three Beauties of the Present Day is a nishiki-e colour woodblock print produced circa 1792–93 by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Kitagawa Utamaro. The triangular composition depicts the busts of three celebrity beauties of the time: geisha Tomimoto Toyohina (middle), and teahouse waitresses Takashima Hisa (left) and Naniwa Kita (right), each adorned with an identifying family crest (mon). Subtle differences can be detected in the subjects' faces – a level of individualized realism at the time unusual in ukiyo-e, and a contrast with the stereotyped beauties in earlier masters such as Harunobu and Kiyonaga. The triangular positioning became a vogue in the 1790s. Utamaro produced several other pictures with this arrangement of the same three beauties, and each appeared in numerous other portraits by Utamaro and other artists. Utamaro was the leading ukiyo-e artist in the 1790s in the bijin-ga genre of pictures of female beauties, and was known in particular for his ōkubi-e prints, a style of ukiyo-e that focuses on the heads. The luxurious print was published by Tsutaya Jūzaburō and made with multiple woodblocks—one for each colour—and the background was dusted with muscovite to produce a glimmering effect. This copy of Three Beauties of the Present Day is in the collection of the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio.

Painting credit: Kitagawa Utamaro

The black kite (Milvus migrans) is a medium-sized bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which occurs widely across Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, inhabiting both temperate and tropical regions. It is an opportunistic feeder, hunting small animals but also scavenging on carrion, household refuse and fish. Black kites are highly adaptable and often thrive in urban environments, especially in South Asia, where they frequently live close to humans. The bird has an average weight of 735 grams (26 oz) and features a forked tail and a distinctive shrill whistle followed by a rapid whinnying call. It is a skilled soarer, commonly using thermal currents to search for food and migrate. Several subspecies are recognised, including the Indian govinda and the Australian affinis. This black kite of the subspecies M. m. affinis was photographed in flight by the Adelaide River, east of Darwin in the Northern Territory, Australia.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) was an American and French dancer, singer, and actress. She was the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 French silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant. During her early career, Baker was among the most celebrated performers to headline the revues of the Folies Bergère in Paris, and the most successful American entertainer in France. During World War II, Baker aided the French Resistance, and after the war, she was awarded the Resistance Medal by the French Committee of National Liberation, the Croix de Guerre by the French Armed Forces, and was named a chevalier of the Legion of Honour by General Charles de Gaulle. After the war, Baker supported the American civil rights movement, working with the NAACP and refusing to perform for segregated audiences. This 1931 lithographic poster, featuring a stylized depiction of Baker, was illustrated by Jean Chassaing; this copy is in the collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Poster credit: Jean Chassaing

The Beaufort Gyre is a large wind-driven ocean circulation in the western Arctic Ocean, north of Alaska and Canada. Together with the Transpolar Drift, it is one of the Arctic's two major sea-ice circulation systems. Within the gyre, free-floating sea ice is very mobile and susceptible to winds, drifting in a clockwise direction due to a high-pressure system that fosters anti-cyclonic winds. This allows Arctic sea ice to survive multiple summers and develop into long-lasting multi-year ice. This animation, produced by NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio, shows the variation in the age of ice in the Arctic at weekly intervals from 1984 to 2019, with darker colours representing younger ice and white indicating ice at least four years old. It illustrates the dramatic decline of older sea ice and its retreat toward the Canadian Arctic, a trend largely attributed to climate change. The Beaufort Gyre also stores vast quantities of freshwater whose release could influence the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and the global climate.

Animation credit: NASA

The adder (Vipera berus), also known as the common adder and the common European viper, is a species of venomous snake in the viper family, Viperidae. It occurs across much of Europe (where it is the most widespread snake species) and northern Asia, including Great Britain, Scandinavia, and parts of Russia and China. In several European countries, the adder is the only extant venomous snake. Usually growing to around 60 cm (24 in) in length, it has a dark zigzag stripe along the back, though colour varies considerably, including completely black melanistic forms. The adder inhabits a wide range of environments such as heathland, woodland edges, moors, and wetlands. It feeds mainly on small mammals, amphibians, and lizards, and is ovoviviparous, giving birth to live young. Although its bite can be painful, fatalities are extremely rare. The species is protected in several countries because of habitat loss and population declines. This female adder was photographed south of the Grajcarek river in Slovakia.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

A jewellery chain is a metal chain used in jewellery to encircle parts of the body or to support decorative charms and pendants. Jewellery chains are typically made from precious metals such as gold and silver, and have been worn since antiquity, with examples known from ancient Babylonia, Egypt, Greece and Rome. This gold chain, dating from the late 16th century and now in the collection of Livrustkammaren (the Swedish royal armoury), comprises 48 oval links alternating between garnet-set and rock-crystal-set designs, decorated with blue and white enamel. It may be a smaller version of King Charles IX's chain for the Order of Jehova, created in 1607, although another theory suggests that it was made by the goldsmith Ruprecht Miller and worn by King Gustavus Adolphus at his declaration of authority in 1611.

Artefact credit: possibly Ruprecht Miller; photographed by Erik Lernestål

The Astronomer is an oil painting on canvas by the Dutch Golden Age artist Johannes Vermeer, completed in 1668. The work depicts an astronomer studying a celestial globe beside a copy of Adriaan Metius's Institutiones Astronomicae Geographicae. Closely related to Vermeer's The Geographer, it is thought to portray the same sitter, possibly Antonie van Leeuwenhoek; a 2017 study showed that both paintings were made from canvas cut from the same bolt. The painting was seized by the Nazis from the Rothschild family during the Second World War, returned to them when the war concluded, and acquired by the French state in 1983. It is now in the collection of the Louvre in Paris.

Painting credit: Johannes Vermeer

The blue-billed white tern (Gygis candida) is a small tropical seabird in the family Laridae, occurring across the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. Formerly treated as a subspecies within the white tern complex, conspecific with the the Atlantic white tern (G. alba) and the little white tern (G. microrhyncha), it is now generally recognised as a distinct species. First described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1789, it is an all-white tern with dark eyes, a black bill with a blue base, and slaty-blue legs. Two subspecies are recognised, ranging from the Seychelles and Maldives to Hawaii and the Pitcairn Islands. Unusually, chicks occasionally fall prey to Aldabra giant tortoises in the Seychelles. This blue-billed white tern of the subspecies G. c. candida was photographed in flight at Muri Lagoon, on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

Westward Ho! is an 1855 British historical novel by Charles Kingsley, set in the Elizabethan era and written in a mock Elizabethan tone. It follows the adventures of Amyas Leigh, who sets sail with Francis Drake and other privateers to the Caribbean, where they battle with the Spanish. Originally targeted at adults, Westward Ho! was deemed suitable for children due to its mixture of patriotism, sentiment and romance, and became a firm favourite of children's literature during the 19th century. Its popularity has reduced in the 21st century because of its anti-Catholicism and its racist attitudes towards indigenous peoples. This photograph shows the cover of an 1899 edition of Westward Ho! published by Frederick Warne & Co., with an illustration of two characters engaging in a sword fight.

Illustration credit: possibly Walter Sydney Stacey; restored by Adam Cuerden

Camp Camp is an American adult animated web series created by Jordan Cwierz and Miles Luna for Rooster Teeth. It revolves around the misadventures of attendees and counselors of Camp Campbell, a dysfunctional summer camp, in particular protagonist Max and camp counselor David. The series premiered on June 10, 2016 with the episode "Escape from Camp Campbell", featured here.

Episode credit: Rooster Teeth

The moor frog (Rana arvalis) is a reddish-brown, yellow, grey or olive frog in the family Ranidae, found in Europe and Asia. Usually 5.5 to 6.0 centimetres (2.2 to 2.4 in) long, it has horizontal pupils, partly webbed feet and, in males, nuptial pads and paired vocal sacs. The species inhabits varied wetlands, meadows, forests, steppes, bogs and farmland, from lowlands to high elevations, and tolerates acidic breeding pools. It feeds opportunistically on small invertebrates, with prey size broadly matching frog size. Breeding follows hibernation; males form choruses and may turn bright blue for a few days during mating. Although listed as a least-concern species, it is threatened in some areas by habitat loss, drainage, pollution, acidification and fragmentation. This moor frog was photographed in Uckermark Lakes Nature Park, Germany.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

Charles Nettleton (1826–1902) was an English-born Australian photographer who documented the rapid development of Melbourne and the state of Victoria during the nineteenth century. After emigrating to Australia in 1854, he photographed the first steam train journey in Australia and was later commissioned to record major public works, railways, buildings, waterways and shipping. Working mainly with the wet plate process, he produced extensive views of Melbourne and published some of Australia's earliest photographic souvenir albums. Nettleton also served as a police photographer, his work including an 1880 portrait of notorious outlaw Ned Kelly on the eve of his execution. He exhibited internationally, including in London and Paris, before retiring in 1890 after the rise of dry plate photography. This photograph of Nettleton was taken in the mid-to-late-1890s by a photographer from the Talma & Co. studio.

Photograph credit: Talma & Co.; restored by Adam Cuerden

Corpus Christi College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1517 by Richard Foxe, Bishop of Winchester, it is located on Merton Street, between Merton College and Christ Church. One of Oxford's smaller colleges, Corpus Christi is noted for its historic library, its role in the translation of the King James Version of the Bible, and its gardens overlooking Christ Church Meadow. Former students and fellows include Reginald Pole, John Keble, Isaiah Berlin, Vikram Seth, and politicians David and Ed Miliband. This photograph shows the college's main quadrangle, including the Pelican Sundial, which was erected in 1581 by Charles Turnbull.

Photograph: Andrew Shiva

The American woodcock (Scolopax minor) is a small shorebird in the sandpiper family, Scolopacidae. It is found mainly in the eastern half of North America, where it is the most common sandpiper, although unlike most other species it lives primarily in upland woods, thickets, and brushy wetlands. Its plumage is a mottled mix of brown, gray and black that provides effective camouflage against leaves and soil. The American woodcock has a plump body, short legs, large eyes set high on the head, and a long prehensile bill used to probe moist soil for earthworms and other invertebrates. Males are known for their spring courtship displays, giving a buzzy peent call before spiraling into the air. The species is considered of least concern globally, but its population has declined because of habitat loss and forest maturation. This American woodcock was photographed in Bryant Park, New York City, United States.

Photograph credit: Rhododendrites

Virgin and Child with Four Angels is a small oil painting on panel by the Early Netherlandish artist Gerard David, probably completed around 1510 to 1515. It shows the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child, while two angels crown her as Queen of Heaven and two others play musical instruments at her sides. Set in a walled garden before a view of Bruges, the work was created for private devotion. It was influenced by Jan van Eyck's Virgin and Child at a Fountain, but presents Mary and Jesus in a more human manner rather than as remote iconic deities. The work has been in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York since 1977.

Painting credit: Gerard David

Hurricane Bob was a Category 3 Atlantic hurricane which made landfall in the New England region of the United States in 1991. The second named storm and first hurricane of the Atlantic hurricane season, it formed near The Bahamas on August 16 and moved northward, brushing the Outer Banks of North Carolina before strengthening. Bob made landfall twice in Rhode Island on August 19, first on Block Island and then near Newport, before weakening over Maine and becoming extratropical in New Brunswick, Canada. The storm caused 18 deaths, left millions without power, and was one of the costliest tropical cyclones in New England history, causing around $1.5 billion in damage. The name Bob was later retired. This satellite photograph shows Bob approaching New England near peak intensity on August 19.

Photograph credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration / Satellite and Information Service

Graphium colonna, the black swordtail or mamba swordtail, is a species in the family Papilionidae, the swallowtail butterflies. It is found widely across sub-Saharan Africa, from West Africa to eastern and southern Africa. The butterfly is predominantly black with green markings and the characteristic "tail" on the hindwing. The species breeds throughout the warmer months, and its caterpillars feed on plants in the genera Artabotrys, Uvaria and Annona. Graphium colonna belongs to the clade antheus of the genus Graphium and was first described by Christopher Ward in 1873. This G. colonna butterfly was photographed in Maputo National Park, Mozambique.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

Ravished Armenia, also known as Auction of Souls, is a 1919 American silent film directed by Oscar Apfel and based on the autobiographical book Ravished Armenia by Aurora Mardiganian, a survivor of the Armenian genocide. Mardiganian portrayed herself in the film, which depicts her experiences of deportation, persecution and enslavement during the genocide. Filmed in California, it used thousands of Armenians as extras, many of whom had survived similar events. The film was exhibited internationally and helped raise funds for Armenian and Syrian relief efforts. Long thought lost, it survives only in a 14- to 15-minute fragment rediscovered in Yerevan in 1994. This theatrical poster was produced at the time of Ravished Armenia's release in 1919. The poster features an illustration of a young woman being carried forcefully by a soldier, with a bloodied sword in his other hand.

Poster credit: Guenther, after Dan Smith

Eva Nogales is a Spanish physicist and structural biologist known for pioneering studies of cellular molecular machinery. After earning a PhD at the University of Keele, she carried out postdoctoral research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where she determined the first atomic structure of tubulin and identified the binding site of the anti-cancer drug taxol using electron crystallography. At the University of California, Berkeley and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, she has helped advance the use of cryo-electron microscopy to study microtubules, transcription and translation complexes, PRC2, and telomerase.

Photograph credit: Christopher Michel

The Eurasian chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) is a species of bird in the family Fringillidae, the finches. It is found across Europe and temperate Asia, with introduced populations elsewhere. The adult male has a blue-grey head, rust-red underparts, and contrasting white wing bars and tail markings; the female is much duller, being mainly grey-brown. The species breeds in wooded areas, where the female builds a cup-shaped nest in a tree or bush and lays around four to five eggs. The Eurasian chaffinch mainly eats seeds outside the breeding season, and feeds its young on invertebrates such as caterpillars. It has two or three different song types, with some regional song dialects, and is classified as a least-concern species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This male Eurasian chaffinch was photographed in Scotland.

Photograph credit: Caroline Legg

Phagocytosis is the process in cell biology in which a cell engulfs a large particle, such as a bacterium, by extending its plasma membrane around it to form an internal phagosome. It is a type of endocytosis and is used both for feeding, especially by many protists, and for defence in multicellular organisms. The phagosome may fuse with lysosomes to form a phagolysosome, where enzymes and antimicrobial chemicals break down the engulfed material. In the immune system, phagocytosis is carried out by cells such as neutrophils, macrophages and dendritic cells, which remove pathogens, dead cells and debris. These cells are classed as phagocytes. This video, captured through a optical microscope and played back at eight times speed, shows a neutrophil in a drop of human blood engulfing a bacterium through phagocytosis.

Video credit: Andrei Savitsky

Lysimachia maritima, the sea milkwort, is a flowering plant in the family Primulaceae. It has a circumpolar distribution across the Northern Hemisphere and is native to Europe, Central Asia and North America. The species grows mainly in coastal habitats in Europe, but can also occur inland in mesic habitats in Asia and North America, up to elevations of 2,600 m (8,500 ft). Formerly classified as the sole species in the genus Glaux, it is distinguished from other members of Primulaceae by its lack of petals; its flowers instead have a pink or white petaloid calyx. The fleshy leaves are arranged in opposite pairs. This focus-stacked photograph shows a L. maritima plant flowering on a beach on the island of Norderney, part of the Lower Saxon Wadden Sea National Park in Germany.

Photograph credit: Stephan Sprinz

Arctocephalus pusillus, the Cape fur seal, is a species in the family Otariidae, the eared seals. The species is found along the coasts of southern Africa and southeastern Australia and is the largest of the fur seals, with adult males growing up to 2.3 metres (7.5 ft) in length and females somewhat smaller. Males are dark grey to brown with a darker mane, while females are lighter in colour and pups are born black. The species breeds in large colonies on rocky islands, reefs and coastal outcrops, where females give birth to a single pup. Cape fur seals feed mainly on fish, squid and other marine animals, and are preyed upon mainly by great white sharks and orcas. It is classified as a least-concern species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This Cape fur seal was photographed hauling out at the Hippolyte Rocks off the coast of Tasmania, Australia.

Photograph credit: JJ Harrison

HMCS St. John's is a Halifax-class frigate of the Royal Canadian Navy. She was commissioned on 24 June 1996 and is the first ship named after the city of St. John's in Newfoundland and Labrador. She is part of a class designed as a general-purpose warship, with a particular focus on anti-submarine warfare. Over her career, St. John's has served with NATO forces, supported operations in Afghanistan, participated in counter-narcotics missions in the Caribbean, provided disaster relief after hurricanes and other emergencies, and undergone modernization to keep pace with evolving maritime threats. This photograph shows St. John's in the harbour of Gdynia, Poland, in 2007.

Photograph credit: Łukasz Golowanow and Maciek Hypś; retouched by Papa Lima Whiskey and Julia W

Paro Taktsang is a Buddhist monastery located in the upper Paro valley of Bhutan. Also known as the Taktsang Palphug Monastery and the Tiger's Nest, it is located in the cliffside of a mountain, around a cave where Guru Padmasambhava is believed to have meditated and practiced Vajrayana Buddhism in the early 9th century. The monastery was built in 1692 by 4th Druk Desi Tenzin Rabgey.

Photograph credit: Nina R; edited by UnpetitproleX

The red-necked grebe (Podiceps grisegena) is a species of water bird in the grebe family, Podicipedidae, found across the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. It breeds on shallow freshwater lakes, marshes and ponds, and winters mainly along sheltered coasts and other large bodies of water. In breeding plumage, adults have a black cap, pale grey face and throat, and a rusty-red neck, while winter birds are duller grey. The species is a strong swimmer and diver, feeding on fish, aquatic insects and other invertebrates. Red-necked grebes build floating nests among emergent vegetation, and newly hatched chicks often ride on their parents' backs. It is classified as a least-concern species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This red-necked grebe of the subspecies P. g. grisegena in breeding plumage was photographed in Amager Common, a park and nature reserve in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

Hip, Hip, Hurrah! is an oil-on-canvas painting from 1888 by the Danish painter Peder Severin Krøyer. The work shows various members of the Skagen Painters, a group of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish artists who formed a loose community in Skagen, at the northern tip of Jutland, in the 1880s and early 1890s. Krøyer began the painting in 1884 after a party at Michael Ancher's house, with the composition inspired by photographs taken at the celebration by the German artist Fritz Stoltenberg, although the individuals featured are not all the same. A dispute arose between Krøyer and Ancher the following day when the former returned uninvited to continue work on the piece, and although they reconciled Krøyer was not permitted to use Ancher's garden as the setting. The Swedish art collector Pontus Fürstenberg bought the painting before it was completed, and it was displayed at Charlottenborg in 1888. He later donated the work to the Gothenburg Museum of Art, where it has hung since.

Painting credit: Peder Severin Krøyer; photographed by Hossein Sehatlou

Genevieve Clark Thomson (1894–1981) was an American suffragist, journalist and political candidate. The daughter of Champ Clark, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, she was educated in Washington, DC, and worked as a reporter from 1913. In 1915 she married publisher James M. Thomson, whom she had met while campaigning for her father's presidential nomination. A supporter of temperance and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Thomson was active in the women's suffrage movement. In 1924 she ran unsuccessfully for Louisiana's 2nd congressional district seat in Congress, losing to J. Zach Spearing. This photograph shows Thomson using a candlestick telephone in around 1910–1915.

Photograph credit: unknown photographer for Bain News Service; restored by Adam Cuerden

The parti-coloured bat (Vespertilio murinus), also known as the rearmouse, is a species in the vesper bat family, Vespertilionidae. It is found across temperate Eurasia, from western and southern Europe through the Caucasus, Iran, Mongolia, northern China, Korea, Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. It measures 4.8–6.4 cm (1.9–2.5 in) in body length, weighs 11–24 grams (0.39–0.85 oz), and has a 26–33 cm (10–13 in) wingspan. Much of the parti-coloured bat's behaviour remains poorly understood because the species is relatively rare. It hunts insects such as mosquitoes, caddis flies and moths using ultrasonic calls, often over water and forests and around street lights. Females form maternity roosts and usually bear twins, while the species migrates long distances and hibernates alone through winter. Its distinctive twittering call is especially noticeable during the autumn mating season. This parti-coloured bat was photographed in Rochovce, Slovakia.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

Crater Lake is a volcanic crater lake in southern Oregon, formed around 7,700 years ago after the collapse of Mount Mazama. It is the deepest lake in the United States, with a maximum depth of 1,949 feet (594 m). Sacred to the Klamath people, who call it Giiwas, Crater Lake is the centerpiece of Crater Lake National Park and has a deep blue color and exceptional water clarity. It has no inflow or outflow, the waters being replaced every 150 years through evaporation, rain and snowfall. Its best-known landmarks include Wizard Island and Phantom Ship, while the surrounding park offers hiking, fishing and winter recreation. This photograph shows a panoramic view of Crater Lake in winter, as seen from Rim Village, with Wizard Island visible in the background.

Photograph credit: WolfmanSF