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August 23

Robert F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy in 1962

In 1993, about 350 documents were forged by Lawrence X. Cusack III. These papers were supposedly from, or related to, John F. Kennedy. Some of them alleged that Kennedy had a secret first marriage and dealings with organized crime, had bribed FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, and paid hush money to Marilyn Monroe. Cusack, son of a lawyer who had dealings with Monroe's family, claimed to have found the papers in the firm's files. He sold them for between six and seven million dollars. One of the buyers suggested showing them to Seymour Hersh, who was writing The Dark Side of Camelot (1997). Hersh began incorporating them into his book and proposed a television documentary. Checks by the networks uncovered flaws in the forgeries. These included the use of a ZIP Code in a paper dated two years before the ZIP Code was introduced, and the use of typeball that had not yet been invented. Cusack was convicted of fraud, sentenced to nearly ten years in prison and ordered to refund the money to the buyers. (Full article...)

August 23: Black Ribbon Day

Stalin and Ribbentrop shaking hands after signing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact

• 1898 – The Southern Cross Expedition, the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, departed London.
• 1914 – In their first major action of the First World War, the British Expeditionary Force engaged German troops in Mons, Belgium.
• 1939 – Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (pictured), a ten-year mutual non-aggression treaty, which also secretly divided northern and eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence.
• 1954 – The Cruise of the Kings, a royal cruise organised by the Queen Consort of Greece, Frederica of Hanover, departed from Marseille, France.
• 1989 – Singing Revolution: Approximately two million people joined hands to form a human chain spanning 675.5 kilometres (419.7 mi) across the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Soviet republics to demonstrate their desire for independence.

August 23

The Red Creek Fir

Canada's national forest inventory includes many native conifer species. All except the larches are evergreens. Most are in the pine family, except for yews (in the yew family) and junipers, Alaska cedars and thuja cedars (in the cypress family). Softwood from North American conifers has a variety of commercial uses. The sturdier timber is used for plywood, wood veneer and construction framing, including structural support beams and studs. Milled logs can be fashioned into posts, poles and railroad ties. Less sturdy timber is often ground and processed into pulpwood, principally for papermaking. Resins from sap yield wood tar, turpentine or other terpenes. (Full list...)

August 23

Portrait of Ambroise Vollard is an 1899 oil-on-canvas portrait by Paul Cézanne of his art dealer Ambroise Vollard. It was bequeathed by Vollard on his death to the Petit Palais in Paris, where it is still housed today. Like many of his portraits, the Portrait of Ambroise Vollard displays the significant role of the subject in Cézanne's life, and specifically, the artist's gratitude for promoting his work and establishing his reputation as an artist. Painting credit: Paul Cézanne Recently featured: Sailfin snapper Marie Curie Hoher Göll Archive More featured pictures

August 24

Anna Lee Fisher (born August 24, 1949) is an American chemist, emergency physician and former NASA astronaut who was the first mother to fly in space. Fisher became an astronaut candidate with NASA Astronaut Group 8 and joined the Astronaut Office for the development of the Canadarm and the testing of payload bay door contingency spacewalk procedures. She was assigned to the search and rescue helicopters for four Space Shuttle missions, then involved in the verification of flight software at the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory and supported vehicle integration and payload testing at Kennedy Space Center. She flew into space on Space Shuttle Discovery for the STS-51-A mission and used the Canadarm to retrieve two satellites in incorrect orbits. Fisher then worked on procedures and training issues for the International Space Station (ISS), was a capsule communicator (CAPCOM) and the lead CAPCOM for ISS Expedition 33, and was involved in developing the display for the Orion spacecraft. (Full article...)

August 24: Feast day of Saint Bartholomew (Western Christianity); Independence Day in Ukraine (1991)

Burning of Washington

• 1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: An Anglo-Dutch fleet engaged a French naval force at the Battle of Málaga in the Mediterranean Sea.
• 1814 – War of 1812: British forces invaded Washington, D.C., setting fire to various U.S. government buildings, including the White House (pictured).
• 1889 – The New Zealand Native football team, predominantly comprising Māori players, concluded their 107-game tour, the longest in rugby union history.
• 1914 – The Battle of Cer ended with the first Allied victory of World War I.
• 1954 – In the midst of a political crisis, Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas fatally shot himself in the Catete Palace in Rio de Janeiro.

August 24

Baryte is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate (BaSO4). Generally white or colorless, it is the main source of the element barium, an alkaline earth metal. It is found across the world and can be deposited through biogenic and hydrothermal processes or evaporation. Early records of baryte date to the 16th century, when a radiating form gained notoriety among alchemists for specimens found near Bologna, Italy. Carl Wilhelm Scheele determined that baryte contained a new element in 1774, but elemental barium was not isolated until 1808 by Humphry Davy, using electrolysis of molten barium salts. Modern uses of baryte include oil and gas drilling, oxygen and sulfur isotopic analysis, and radiometric dating. These crystals of baryte on a dolomite crystal matrix was found at Cerro Warihuyn in Miraflores District, Peru. This photograph was focus-stacked from 24 separate images. Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus Recently featured: Portrait of Ambroise Vollard Sailfin snapper Marie Curie Archive More featured pictures

August 25

Symbol of the 24th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS

The 24th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Karstjäger was a German mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS, the armed wing of the Nazi Party that served alongside, but was never formally part of, the German armed forces during World War II. Formed on 18 July 1944 from a battalion, it was understrength and was soon reduced to a brigade. Its main task was fighting partisans on the rugged frontiers of Yugoslavia, Italy, and Austria, and it consisted mainly of ethnic Germans from Yugoslavia and Italy. It also disarmed Italian troops and protected ethnic German communities in Italy in the wake of the Italian surrender. Members of the division were implicated in the 25 August 1944 murder of 33 people in the village of Torlano near Nimis in Italy, and 22 other major crimes. At the post-war Nuremberg trials, the Waffen-SS was declared to be a criminal organisation due to its major involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity. (Full article...)

August 25:

Aaliyah

• 1270 – Philip III became King of France following the death of his father Louis IX during the Eighth Crusade.
• 1537 – The Honourable Artillery Company, now the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, was granted a royal charter by Henry VIII.
• 1875 – Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English Channel, doing so in approximately 21 hours 40 minutes.
• 2001 – American singer Aaliyah (pictured) and several members of her record company were killed when their overloaded aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from Marsh Harbour Airport in the Bahamas.
• 2012 – The NASA space probe Voyager 1 became the first man-made object to enter interstellar space.

August 25

The splendid fairywren (Malurus splendens) is a passerine bird in the Australasian wren family, Maluridae. It is found across much of the Australian continent from central-western New South Wales and southwestern Queensland over to coastal Western Australia. It inhabits predominantly arid and semi-arid regions. Exhibiting a high degree of sexual dimorphism, the male in breeding plumage is a small, long-tailed bird of bright blue and black colouration. Non-breeding males, females and juveniles are grey-brown in colour; this gave the early impression that males were polygamous as all dull-coloured birds were taken for females. The species comprises several similar all-blue and black subspecies that were originally considered to be separate species. Like other fairywrens, the splendid fairywren is notable for several peculiar behavioural characteristics; birds are socially monogamous and sexually promiscuous, meaning that although they form pairs between one male and one female, each partner will mate with other individuals and even assist in raising the young from such pairings. Male wrens pluck pink or purple petals and display them to females as part of a courtship display. This male splendid fairywren was photographed in Cargelligo State Forest in New South Wales, Australia. Photograph credit: John Harrison Recently featured: Baryte Portrait of Ambroise Vollard Sailfin snapper Archive More featured pictures

August 26

The black-throated loon (Gavia arctica) is a migratory aquatic bird that primarily breeds in freshwater lakes in northern Europe and Asia. It winters along sheltered, ice-free coasts of the northern Atlantic and Pacific oceans. First described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, it is about 70 centimetres (28 in) long and can weigh from 1.3 to 3.4 kilograms (2.9 to 7.5 lb). In breeding plumage, it has mostly black upperparts, a grey head and hindneck, white and black sides, mostly white underparts and flanks, and a mostly black throat. The loon builds an oval-shaped nest about 23 centimetres (9.1 in) across, in vegetation on or near the breeding lake. It usually lays two eggs, brown-green with dark splotches. Chicks are fed a diet of small fish and invertebrates, contrasting with the mostly fish diet of the adult. Overall, the population of this loon is declining, but the species is not threatened. It is protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 and the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement. (Full article...)

August 26: Heroes' Day in Namibia; Women's Equality Day in the United States

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

• 1071 – Byzantine–Seljuk wars: Seljuk Turks led by Alp Arslan captured Byzantine emperor Romanos IV at the Battle of Manzikert.
• 1789 – French Revolution: The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (pictured), defining a set of individual and collective rights of the people, was approved by the National Constituent Assembly.
• 1940 – The 1940 New England hurricane formed over the Atlantic Ocean; it would go on to cause widespread damage despite never making landfall in the United States.
• 1968 – The Beatles released "Hey Jude", which became the then-longest single to top the UK charts.
• 1980 – A bomb was planted at Harvey's Resort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada, which the FBI later described as the most complex improvised explosive device ever created.

August 26

Basshunter

The discography of Basshunter, a Swedish singer, comprises five studio albums, two compilation albums, 30 singles, five promotional singles and seven remixes. The Bassmachine, Basshunter's debut studio album, was released by Alex Music on 25 August 2004. In April 2006, he signed his first contract with Extensive Music and Warner Music Sweden. His single "Boten Anna" charted at number one on the Danish singles chart, where it stayed for fourteen weeks; it was certified triple platinum by IFPI Danmark. "Boten Anna" also reached number one in the Swedish singles chart and was certified platinum by IFPI Sverige. His second studio album LOL, released on 28 August 2006, charted in the top five in Sweden, Denmark and Finland. The album was certified platinum by IFPI Finland and double platinum by IFPI Danmark. (Full list...)

August 26

George Roper was a four-masted iron barque that was built for service between England and Australia, launching from Liverpool in February 1883. On its maiden voyage, it carried 3,842 tons of cargo, including railway track for the Victorian Government, liquor, chemicals, drapery, and dynamite. It reached Australia in July, but got caught on the reef at Point Lonsdale while being towed into Port Melbourne. The ship sat there for nearly two months before breaking up and sinking on 26 August 1883. The wreck remains under 4–5 metres of water and is accessible to recreational divers. This photograph by the German-born photographer Fred Kruger shows George Roper's wreck at Port Lonsdale before it sank. Photograph credit: Fred Kruger; restored by Adam Cuerden Recently featured: Splendid fairywren Baryte Portrait of Ambroise Vollard Archive More featured pictures

August 27

Nadezhda Stasova (1822–1895) was an educator and one of the earliest leaders of the Russian women's movement. She was born into a noble and wealthy family; Tsar Alexander I of Russia was her godfather, and she received extensive private tutoring as a child. In adulthood, she dedicated herself to women's empowerment. Along with Anna Filosofova and Maria Trubnikova, she founded and led several organizations designed to promote women's cultural and economic independence, including a publishing cooperative. In a decades-long effort, they successfully pushed government officials to allow higher education for women, although continual opposition sometimes limited or even reversed their successes. Stasova eventually became the lead organizer of the Bestuzhev Courses for women in 1878, but a decade later was forced to resign under political pressure. She continued her work on women's issues right up until her death in 1895, mentoring and inspiring younger feminists. (Full article...)

August 27: Independence Day in Moldova (1991)

Destroyed buildings after the attack in the Anglo-Zanzibar War

• 410 – The sacking of Rome by the Visigoths ended after three days.
• 1896 – In the shortest recorded war in history (pictured), the Sultanate of Zanzibar surrendered to the United Kingdom after less than an hour of conflict.
• 1955 – The first edition of the Guinness Book of Records was published.
• 1964 – South Vietnamese junta leader Nguyễn Khánh entered into a triumvirate power-sharing arrangement with rival generals Trần Thiện Khiêm and Dương Văn Minh, both of whom had been involved in plots to unseat Khánh.
• 2003 – The planet Mars made its closest approach to Earth in almost 60,000 years.

August 27

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland, located on the Vistula in the east-central part of the country. It has an estimated population of 1.86 million, within a larger metropolitan area of 3.27 million residents, and it is a major cultural, political and economic hub. Warsaw originated as a small fishing town in Masovia, rising to prominence in the late 16th century when Sigismund III moved the Polish capital and his royal court from Kraków. It was the de facto capital of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1795 and then the seat of Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. The 19th century and its Industrial Revolution brought a demographic boom. Warsaw was bombed and besieged at the start of World War II in 1939, and its infrastructure and population suffered during the systematic razing which followed the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. The modern city features many historic monuments, including the reconstructed Old Town, designated a World Heritage Site. This 2022 photograph shows an elevated view of Warsaw's Constitution Square, looking northwards down Marszałkowska Street. Photograph credit: Emptywords Recently featured: George Roper Splendid fairywren Baryte Archive More featured pictures

August 28

Bäckadräkten worn by Clue

Bäckadräkten is Sweden's first unisex folk costume, designed in 2022 by musician Fredy Clue (pictured) and textile designer Ida Björs. Their mission was to encourage wider participation in folk traditions by providing an outfit that is not restricted to any gender or geographic region. The design merges elements traditionally considered either male or female and borrows heavily from older folk costumes. The release generated international press attention and discussions on social media, much of the latter about the relationship between folk arts and gender. Many welcomed the design, saying it provides an opportunity for non-binary Swedes to be more involved in folk culture. Others reacted negatively, resisting the social change they see as associated with it. Clue released a sewing pattern in 2023 and started taking custom orders by 2024, encouraging users to modify as they see fit, saying: "The real work continues with us learning to listen to oneself and others." (Full article...)

August 28

Ryugyong Hotel

• 1619 – Ferdinand II, King of Bohemia and Hungary, was unanimously elected Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1789 – William Herschel discovered Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, during the first use of his new telescope which was then the largest in the world.
• 1909 – The 1909 Monterrey hurricane dissipated; one of the deadliest Atlantic tropical cyclones on record, it killed an estimated 4,000 people throughout Mexico.
• 1963 – American civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the speech "I Have a Dream" during the March on Washington, calling for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States.
• 1987 – Construction began on the Ryugyong Hotel (pictured) in Pyongyang, the tallest building in North Korea.

August 28

Danafungia scruposa is a species of coral found in the eastern and western Indian Ocean, the eastern central, northwestern and western central Pacific Ocean, Japan, the East China Sea, the Red Sea, and eastern Australia. It is around 25 centimetres (9.8 inches) in diameter and normally consumes a variety of food from bacteria to mesozooplankton measuring 1 mm (0.039 in) in diameter. During an algal bloom in 2009, researchers observed D. scruposa consuming the jellyfish Aurelia aurita, the first time such behaviour had been seen in the wild. This D. scruposa coral was photographed in the Red Sea off the Egyptian coast. Photograph credit: Diego Delso Recently featured: Warsaw George Roper Splendid fairywren Archive More featured pictures

August 29

Yuan-era stele in the ruins of the Cross Temple

The Cross Temple is a former place of worship in Fangshan, Beijing. Built as a Buddhist temple, it may have seen Christian use during the Tang dynasty (618–907). The temple was used by Buddhists during the Liao dynasty (916–1125) and by Christians during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), returned to Buddhist use during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), and was sold in 1911. Its first modern mention was in 1919. The Cross Temple was damaged during the Cultural Revolution but recognised as a national-level protected site in 2006. Some scholars consider it to be the only place of worship of the Church of the East (also known as Nestorian Christianity) discovered in China. In the early 20th century, two stone blocks carved with crosses were discovered, one of which had an inscription in Syriac; they are presently on display at Nanjing Museum. Today, the site features two ancient steles (one pictured) dating to the Liao and Yuan dynasties, some groundwork and the bases of several pillars. (Full article...)

August 29: Feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist (Catholicism, Anglicanism)

Michael Faraday

• 1350 – Hundred Years' War: Led by King Edward III, a fleet of 50 English ships captured at least 14 Castilian vessels and sank several more at the Battle of Winchelsea.
• 1786 – Farmers in western Massachusetts angered by high tax burdens and disfranchisement began an armed uprising led by Daniel Shays against the U.S. federal government.
• 1831 – Michael Faraday (pictured) first experimentally demonstrated electromagnetic induction, leading to the formulation of the law of induction named after him.
• 1960 – Air France Flight 343 crashed while attempting to land at Yoff Airport, Dakar, killing all 63 occupants.
• 2016 – Chen Quanguo became the Chinese Communist Party secretary of Xinjiang, later overseeing the creation of the Xinjiang internment camps.

August 29

The featured picture for this day has not yet been chosen.

In general, pictures of the day are scheduled in order of promotion to featured status. See Wikipedia:Picture of the day/Guidelines for full guidelines.

August 30

Luis Miguel in 2008

Segundo Romance (Second Romance) is the tenth studio album by Mexican singer Luis Miguel (pictured), released on 30 August 1994 through WEA Latina. Like Miguel's 1991 album Romance, Segundo Romance comprises cover versions of boleros (Latin ballads). It was produced by Miguel with Juan Carlos Calderón, Kiko Cibrian and Armando Manzanero, and recorded in early 1994 at the Record Plant in Los Angeles. Miguel promoted the album with tours in the United States and Latin America from August to December 1994. Four singles were released: "El Día Que Me Quieras", "La Media Vuelta", "Todo y Nada", and "Delirio". The former two reached the top of the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart in the United States. Segundo Romance received positive reviews from music critics and it won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Performance. By 1995, Segundo Romance had sold more than 4.5 million copies, achieved multi-platinum status in many Latin American countries and Spain, and was certified platinum in the United States. (Full article...)

August 30: Victory Day in Turkey (1922)

Guru Ram Das

• AD 70 – First Jewish–Roman War: Roman forces led by Titus set fire to the Second Temple during the Siege of Jerusalem.
• 1574 – Guru Ram Das (pictured) became the fourth of the Sikh gurus, the spiritual masters of Sikhism.
• 1594 – James VI of Scotland held a masque at the baptism of Prince Henry, his first child.
• 1959 – South Vietnamese opposition figure Phan Quang Đán was elected to the National Assembly, despite soldiers being bussed in to vote multiple times for President Ngô Đình Diệm's candidate.
• 2007 – A heavy bomber plane that had been unintentionally loaded with nuclear missiles transported them from North Dakota to Louisiana before they were recognized.

August 30

2017 second-round selection Nicolas Hague

The Vegas Golden Knights are a professional ice hockey franchise located in Las Vegas, Nevada. Founded ahead of the 2017–18 season as an expansion team, they play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Hockey League (NHL). As of 2024, the Golden Knights have made 54 selections in eight NHL entry drafts. The Golden Knights first participated in the 2017 NHL entry draft, where they made Cody Glass their first-ever selection at sixth overall; they also selected Nick Suzuki and Erik Brannstrom later in the first round. 2017 second-round selection Nicolas Hague (pictured) has played the most games for the Golden Knights of any draft pick, with 296 games played as of the conclusion of the 2023–24 NHL season. Hague and 2018 fifth-round pick Paul Cotter were the only draft picks to be inscribed on the Stanley Cup after the Golden Knights' victory in the 2023 Stanley Cup Finals. (Full list...)

August 30

Oregano (Origanum vulgare) is a species of flowering plant in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It was native to the Mediterranean region, but widely naturalised elsewhere in the temperate Northern Hemisphere. A relative of the herb marjoram, oregqano has purple, pink or white flowers and spade-shaped, olive-green leaves. It is a perennial, although it is grown as an annual in colder climates, as it often does not survive the winter. Oregano leaves are widely used as a culinary herb, and its oil is often used as a dietary supplement, although there is no clinical evidence that it has any effect on human health. This photograph shows an oregano flower inflorescence, in Keila, Estonia. Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus Recently featured: Danafungia scruposa Warsaw Archive More featured pictures