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August 13

The national flag of Japan is a white rectangular flag with a large red disc (representing the Sun) in the center. It is officially called Nisshōki in Japanese, but more commonly known as the Hinomaru. Although considered the de facto flag, it was designated as Japan's national flag on 13 August 1999. In early Japanese history, the Hinomaru motif was used on flags of daimyos and samurai. During the Meiji Restoration both the Sun disc and the Rising Sun Ensign were symbols in the Japanese Empire. Use of the Hinomaru was restricted during the American occupation after World War II, but this was later relaxed. The flag is not frequently displayed due to its association with extreme nationalism. For nations occupied by Japan, the flag is considered to be a symbol of aggression and imperialism. Despite negative connotations, Western and Japanese sources claim that the flag is an enduring symbol to the Japanese. (Full article...)

August 13

Damage caused by Hurricane Charley

• 1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: The Duke of Marlborough led Allied forces to a crucial victory at the Battle of Blenheim.
• 1724 – Bach led the Thomanerchor in Leipzig in the first performance of the chorale cantata, Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott, BWV 101.
• 1999 – The Act on National Flag and Anthem was adopted, formally establishing the Hinomaru and "Kimigayo" as the Japanese national flag and anthem, respectively.
• 2004 – Merely 22 hours after Tropical Storm Bonnie struck the U.S. state of Florida, Hurricane Charley inflicted further damage to the region (example pictured).

August 13

The royal angelfish (Pygoplites diacanthus) is a fish in the marine angelfish family, Pomacanthidae. It is found in tropical seas, including the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean around East Africa and the Maldives, the Tuamotus, New Caledonia, and the Great Barrier Reef. It is also found around Taiwan and islands off the coast of Japan. The royal angelfish has a maximum length of 25.0 centimetres (9.8 inches), with coloration varying by region. A commonality is that the body is edged in narrow blue-white and orange stripes that are narrow and angle backward. It is a carnivorous species, feeding on sponges and tunicates, and resides in coral-rich areas of lagoons and reefs as well as in the vicinity of caves. This royal angelfish was photographed in Ras Muhammad National Park on the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Photograph credit: Diego Delso Recently featured: Ages Ago Victorious Youth Chestnut-headed bee-eater Archive More featured pictures

August 14

Hudson Volcano is a volcano in the rugged mountains of southern Chile. Lying in the Southern Volcanic Zone of the Andes, it was formed by the subduction of the oceanic Nazca Plate under the continental South American Plate. Hudson has the form of a 10-kilometre-wide (6-mile) volcanic caldera filled with ice. The volcano has erupted numerous times in the past 2.5 million years forming widespread tephra deposits, and is the most active volcano in the region. Four large eruptions have taken place in the past 20,000 years: 17,300–17,440 before present (BP), 7,750 BP, 4,200 BP, and in 1991. The 7,750 BP eruption was among the most intense volcanic eruptions in South America during the Holocene, devastated the local ecosystem and may have caused substantial shifts in human settlement and lifestyle. During the 1991 eruption, volcanic ash covered a large area in Chile and Argentina, and was deposited as far as Antarctica. The last eruption was in 2011. (Full article...)

August 14: Independence Day in Pakistan (1947)

Roosevelt and Churchill

• 1264 – War of Saint Sabas: A Genoese fleet captured or sank most of the ships of a Venetian trade convoy off the Albanian coast.
• 1816 – The United Kingdom formally annexes the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, administering the islands from the Cape Colony in South Africa.
• 1941 – After a secret meeting in Newfoundland, British prime minister Winston Churchill and U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt (both pictured) issued the Atlantic Charter, establishing a vision for a post–World War II world.
• 2007 – Four coordinated suicide bomb attacks detonated in the Yazidi communities of Qahtaniya and Jazeera, Iraq, killing a 796 people and wounding 1,562 others.
• 2021 – A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck in Haiti , killing at least 2,248 people and $1.5 billion in damages and economic loss.

August 14

The mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree Mangifera indica. It originated from the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India, and is now cultivated across the world, having been introduced to East Africa by Arab and Persian traders in the 9th to 10th centuries and spread further into other areas around the world during the European colonial era. Ripe mangoes vary according to cultivar in size, shape, color, and sweetness. They have a waxy, smooth, and fragrant skin, which is variously yellow, orange, red, or green, and feature a single flat, oblong pit that can be fibrous or hairy on the surface. The fruits may be somewhat round, oval, or kidney-shaped, ranging from 5 to 25 centimetres (2 to 10 inches) in length and from 140 grams (5 ounces) to 2 kilograms (5 pounds) in weight. It is used in culinary products around the world. The mango is the national fruit of India and M. indica is the national tree of Bangladesh. This photograph shows two mangoes grown in Brazil, one whole and one halved. The picture was focus-stacked from 12 separate images. Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus Recently featured: Royal angelfish Ages Ago Victorious Youth Archive More featured pictures

August 15

Original "Bondi blue" iMac

The iMac G3, originally released as the iMac, is a series of personal computers sold by Apple Computer from 1998 to 2003. Following Steve Jobs's return to the financially troubled company that he co-founded, he aggressively restructured its offerings. The iMac was envisioned as Apple's new inexpensive and consumer-friendly desktop product, focused on easy connection to the Internet. Apple's head of design Jony Ive and his team created a striking teardrop-shaped all-in-one design based around a cathode-ray tube display, shrouded in translucent colored plastic. The iMac eschewed legacy technologies like serial ports and floppy-disk drives in favor of CD-ROMs and USB ports. Selling more than six million units, the iMac was a commercial success for Apple, helped save it from bankruptcy, and influenced the look of other computers and consumer products. The original model was revised several times and was succeeded by the iMac G4 and eMac. (Full article...)

August 15: Independence Day in India (1947); National Liberation Day of Korea (1945)

Depiction of Peter, King of Hungary

• 718 – Forces of the Umayyad Caliphate abandoned their year-long siege of Constantinople, ending the Umayyad goal of conquering the Byzantine Empire.
• 1038 – Upon the death of his uncle Stephen I, Peter (depicted) became the second king of Hungary.
• 1909 – A military coup against the government of Dimitrios Rallis began in the neighbourhood of Goudi in Athens, Greece.
• 1944 – World War II: Allied forces began their invasion of southern France.
• 1998 – The Troubles: A car bomb attack carried out by the Real Irish Republican Army killed 29 people and injured approximately 220 others in Omagh, Northern Ireland.

August 15

The Kefermarkt altarpiece is a richly decorated wooden altarpiece in the Late Gothic style in the parish church of Kefermarkt in Upper Austria. Commissioned by the knight Christoph von Zelking, it was completed around 1497. Saints Peter, Wolfgang and Christopher are depicted in the central section. The wing panels depict scenes from the life of Mary, and the altarpiece also has an intricate superstructure and two side figures of Saints George and Florian. The identity of its maker, known by the notname Master of the Kefermarkt Altarpiece, is unknown, but at least two skilled sculptors appear to have created the main statuary. Throughout the centuries, it has been altered and lost its original paint and gilding; a major restoration was undertaken in the 19th century under the direction of Adalbert Stifter. The altarpiece has been described as "one of the greatest achievements in late-medieval sculpture in the German-speaking area". This image shows the lower-left wing panel of the Kefermarkt altarpiece, depicting the death of Mary. She is peacefully lying in her deathbed, while a diminutive angel holds the curtain apart so that the viewer can see Mary better. The twelve apostles are all present, each one depicted with individual traits. Above the head of Saint Peter, Christ appears in a cloud, receiving the soul of his mother in the form of a small figure. Sculpture credit: Master of the Kefermarkt Altarpiece; photographed by Uoaei1 Recently featured: Mango Royal angelfish Ages Ago Archive More featured pictures

August 16

Complete set of snooker balls

Snooker is a cue sport played on a rectangular billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets. First played by British Army officers stationed in India circa 1875, the game uses twenty-two balls (pictured) – a white cue ball, fifteen red balls, and six other balls collectively called "the colours". Using a snooker cue, individual players (or teams) take turns to strike the cue ball to pot the other balls in a predefined sequence, accumulating points for each successful pot and for each foul committed by the opposing player/team. An individual frame of snooker is won by the player or team that has scored the most points. A snooker match ends when a player/team has won a predetermined number of frames. The standard rules of snooker were first established in 1919. As a professional sport, snooker is governed by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Top players of many nationalities compete in regular tournaments around the world, earning millions of pounds on the World Snooker Tour. (Full article...)

August 16

San Sebastian Church in Manila

• 1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces routed British and German troops at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York.
• 1819 – Around 15 people were killed and 400 to 700 others injured when cavalry charged into a crowd demanding the reform of parliamentary representation in Manchester, England.
• 1891 – San Sebastian Church (pictured) in Manila, the only all-steel church in Asia, was officially consecrated.
• 1920 – Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians was hit by a pitch and died the following day, becoming the only Major League Baseball player to die directly as a result of injuries sustained during a game.
• 1929 – A long-running dispute between Muslims and Jews over access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem escalated into a week-long period of violent riots throughout Palestine.

August 16

Ulrich Salchow

World Figure Skating Championships medals are awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. The championships are an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union. Generally held in March, the World Championships are considered the most prestigious of the ISU Figure Skating Championships. With the exception of the Olympic title, a world title is considered to be the highest competitive achievement in figure skating. Ulrich Salchow of Sweden (pictured) currently holds the record for the most gold medals won in men's singles (at ten), while Sonja Henie of Norway holds the record for the most gold medals won in women's singles (also at ten). Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev of the Soviet Union hold the record for the most gold medals won by a pairs team (at six). (Full list...)

August 16

Ceramica pisi, the broom moth, is a species of moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in a range covering the whole of Europe from the Arctic Circle to northern Spain, and across to the Russian Far East. It lives at heights of up to 2,000 metres. This photograph shows a broom moth caterpillar in Estonia. Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus Recently featured: Kefermarkt altarpiece Mango Royal angelfish Archive More featured pictures

August 17

Pan Am Boeing 707-121, similar to the one destroyed in the accident

On December 8, 1963, Pan Am Flight 214 crashed near Elkton, Maryland, killing all 81 crew and passengers. Flight 214 had originated at Isla Verde International Airport in San Juan, flying to Friendship Airport near Baltimore, and then took off for Philadelphia. The crash was Pan Am's first fatal accident with the Boeing 707-121, which it had introduced to its fleet five years earlier. An investigation by the Civil Aeronautics Board concluded that the probable cause of the crash was a lightning strike that had ignited fuel vapors in one of the aircraft's fuel tanks, causing an explosion that destroyed the left wing. The exact manner of ignition was never determined, but the investigation increased awareness of how lightning can damage aircraft, leading to new regulations. The crash also led to research into the safety of several types of aviation fuel and into ways of changing the design of aircraft fuel systems to make them safer in the event of lightning strikes. (Full article...)

August 17

Richard Wagner

• 1668 – An earthquake struck the North Antolia region, killing over 7,000 people.
• 1876 – Götterdämmerung premiered, the last opera in the Ring cycle by Richard Wagner (pictured).
• 1907 – Pike Place Market, one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers' markets in the U.S. and a popular tourist attraction, opened in Seattle, Washington.
• 1914 – World War I: Ignoring orders to retreat, Hermann von François led a successful counterattack defending East Prussia at the Battle of Stallupönen and scored the first German victory in the Eastern Front.
• 1943 – World War II: The Royal Air Force began a strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany's V-weapon programme by attacking the Peenemünde Army Research Center.

August 17

NGC 3324 is an open cluster in the southern constellation Carina, located northwest of the Carina Nebula at a distance of 9,100 ly (2,800 pc) from Earth. The two are often confused as a single object, and together have been nicknamed the "Gabriela Mistral Nebula" due to its resemblance to the Chilean poet. NGC 3324 was first catalogued by James Dunlop in 1826. This infrared photograph by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows a young, star-forming region in the western section of NGC 3324 known as the "Cosmic Cliffs". Photograph credit: NASA Recently featured: Ceramica pisi Kefermarkt altarpiece Mango Archive More featured pictures

August 18

One of Kes's costumes with wig and ear prosthetics

Kes is a fictional character in the science fiction television show Star Trek: Voyager, played by Jennifer Lien. Kes joins the crew of the starship USS Voyager in the pilot episode, opening an aeroponics garden and working as a medical assistant. She is a member of a telepathic alien species with a life span of only nine years. She leaves the ship in the fourth season after her powers threaten to destroy it. She reappears in an episode in the sixth season and features in Star Trek: Voyager novels and short stories. Voyager's creators intended Kes to provide audiences with a different perspective on time. Although Kes is portrayed as fragile and innocent, she is also shown as having hidden strength and maturity. Voyager's producers reluctantly fired Lien after her personal issues affected her reliability on set. Kes was a fan favorite character while Voyager was airing, although critics reacted more negatively, finding her boring and without a clear purpose. Lien was praised for her performance. (Full article...)

August 18: Ghost Festival in China (2024)

White's discovery of the abandoned Roanoke Colony

• 1590 – John White, governor of the Roanoke Colony, the first English settlement in North America (located in present-day North Carolina), returned after a three-year absence to find it deserted (depicted).
• 1877 – American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Phobos, the larger of Mars's two moons, six days after discovering Deimos, the smaller one.
• 1919 – Russian Civil War: British motor torpedo boats raided the Bolshevik Baltic Fleet's home base of Kronstadt, sinking a depot ship and damaging a battleship.
• 1920 – The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage in the country.
• 1964 – East German Communist Party member Hildegard Trabant was killed while attempting to cross the Berlin Wall.

August 18

W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) was an American sociologist, historian and civil rights activist. The first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard, he became a professor of history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University. He rose to national prominence as the leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of African-American activists who wanted equal rights for blacks, and was one of the co-founders of the NAACP in 1909. He wrote one of the first scientific treatises in the field of American sociology, and published three autobiographies. Black Reconstruction in America (1935) challenged the prevailing orthodoxy that blacks were responsible for the failures of the Reconstruction era. On August 28, 1963, a day after his death, his book The Souls of Black Folk was highlighted by Roy Wilkins at the March on Washington, and hundreds of thousands of marchers honored him with a moment of silence. A year later, the US Civil Rights Act, embodying many of the reforms for which he had campaigned his entire life, was enacted. This gelatin silver print of Du Bois was taken in 1907 by photographer James E. Purdy, and is now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. Photograph credit: James E. Purdy; restored by Adam Cuerden Recently featured: NGC 3324 Ceramica pisi Kefermarkt altarpiece Archive More featured pictures

August 19

St Oswald's Church, Winwick

The Battle of Winwick was fought on 19 August 1648 between a Scottish Royalist army and a Parliamentarian army during the Second English Civil War. The Scottish army invaded north-west England and was attacked and defeated at Preston on 17 August. The surviving Royalists fled south, closely pursued. Two days later, hungry, cold, soaking wet, exhausted and short of dry powder, they turned to fight at Winwick. Parliamentarian infantry launched a full-scale assault which resulted in more than three hours of furious but indecisive close-quarters fighting. The Parliamentarians fell back, pinned the Scots in place with their cavalry and sent their infantry on a circuitous flank march. When the Scots saw this force appear on their right flank they broke and fled. Parliamentarian cavalry pursued, killing many. The surviving Scottish infantry surrendered either at Winwick church (pictured) or in nearby Warrington; their cavalry on 24 August at Uttoxeter. Winwick was the last battle of the war. (Full article...)

August 19

Painting of the Battle of Lagos

• 1759 – Seven Years' War: Having damaged several French vessels, British ships pursued the remainder of the fleet to Lagos, Portugal, and continued the battle there (depicted) in violation of Portuguese neutrality.
• 1897 – The Bersey Electric Cab entered service as the first electric taxi in London.
• 1950 – The 766th Independent Infantry Regiment of North Korea was disbanded after fighting for less than two months in the Korean War.
• 2003 – A Hamas suicide bomber killed 23 people and wounded more than 130 others, including many Orthodox Jewish children, on a crowded public bus in Shmuel HaNavi, Jerusalem.

August 19

Ryusuke Hamaguchi

Drive My Car, a 2021 Japanese drama film directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi (pictured) and written by Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe, won 91 awards from 160 nominations, with particular recognition for Hamaguchi's direction, Hidetoshi Nishijima's performance, and the screenplay. At the 94th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, and won Best International Feature Film. It was the first Japanese film to receive a Best Picture nomination. The film won nine awards at the 45th Japan Academy Film Prize, including Picture of the Year, Director of the Year, and Screenplay of the Year. (Full list...)

August 19

The dusky seaside sparrow (Ammospiza maritima nigrescens) was a non-migratory subspecies of the seaside sparrow, found in Florida in the natural salt marshes of Merritt Island and along the St. Johns River. Discovered in 1872 by Charles Johnson Maynard, it was distinguished from other seaside sparrows by its dark coloration and distinct song. From the 1940s onwards, the dusky seaside sparrow population declined and eventually went extinct. This was the result of human activity in the area including pesticides and flooding applied to reduce mosquito populations, industrial expansion, and highway construction. The last definite known individual died on Discovery Island in Walt Disney World in 1987, and the species was declared extinct in 1990. Photograph credit: P. W. Sykes, United States Fish and Wildlife Service Recently featured: W. E. B. Du Bois NGC 3324 Ceramica pisi Archive More featured pictures

August 20

Alex Beachum, creative director of Outer Wilds

Outer Wilds is a 2019 action-adventure video game developed by Mobius Digital and published by Annapurna Interactive. The game follows the player character as they explore a planetary system stuck in a 22-minute time loop that resets after the sun goes supernova and destroys the system. Through repeated attempts they investigate alien ruins to discover their history and the cause of the time loop. The game began development in 2012 as director Alex Beachum's master's thesis, and became a commercial project in 2015. It was released for Windows, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 in 2019, for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2022, and for Nintendo Switch in 2023. It was positively received, with most critics acclaiming its design and some criticising the uneven difficulty of gameplay and pursuing the game's mysteries. An expansion, Echoes of the Eye, was released in 2021. Outer Wilds won in multiple categories at award shows, including the Best Game award at the 16th British Academy Games Awards. (Full article...)

August 20

Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory

• 1707 – The first Siege of Pensacola came to an end with the British and Creek abandoning their attempt to capture Pensacola in Spanish Florida.
• 1910 – Hurricane-force winds combined hundreds of small fires in the U.S. states of Washington and Idaho into the Devil's Broom fire, which burned about 4,700 square miles (12,100 km²), the largest fire in recorded U.S. history.
• 1920 – The American Professional Football Association, a predecessor of the National Football League, was founded.
• 1998 – The Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory (pictured) in Sudan was destroyed by a missile attack launched by the United States in retaliation for the August 7 U.S. embassy bombings.
• 2008 – Spanair Flight 5022 crashed just after take-off from Madrid's Barajas Airport, killing 154 people.

August 20

The Hoher Göll is a 2,522 m (8,274 ft) mountain in the Berchtesgaden Alps. It is the highest peak of the Göll massif, which straddles the border between the German state of Bavaria and the Austrian state of Salzburg. This photograph shows the Hoher Göll (left) and Hohes Brett (right) from the west side. Photograph credit: Jörg Braukmamm Recently featured: Dusky seaside sparrow W. E. B. Du Bois NGC 3324 Archive More featured pictures