Picture of the day archives

2004: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2005: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2006: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2007: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2008: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2009: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2010: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2011: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2012: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2013: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2014: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2015: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2016: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2017: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2018: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2019: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2020: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2021: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2022: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2023: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2024: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2025: January February March April May June July August September October November December

These featured pictures, as scheduled below, appeared as the picture of the day (POTD) on the English Wikipedia's Main Page in May 2013. Individual sections for each day on this page can be linked to with the day number as the anchor name (e.g. [[Wikipedia:Picture of the day/May 2013#1]] for May 1).

You can add an automatically updating POTD template to your user page using {{Pic of the day}} (version with blurb) or {{POTD}} (version without blurb). For instructions on how to make custom POTD layouts, see Wikipedia:Picture of the day.Purge server cache


May 1

Varosha quarter of Veliko Tarnovo

The Varosha quarter of Veliko Tarnovo, a city in Bulgaria. Commonly known simply as Tarnovo, the city was capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire between the 12th and 14th centuries.

Photo: Plamen Agov

Recently featured:

May 2

Chloralkali membrane cell

A diagram showing the chloralkali process, a major industry expected to be worth over $80 billion globally by 2017. At the anode (A), chloride (Cl-) is oxidized to chlorine. The ion-selective membrane (B) allows the counterion sodium (Na+) to freely flow across, but prevents anions such as hydroxide (OH-) and chloride from diffusing across. At the cathode (C), water is reduced to hydroxide and hydrogen gas. The net process is the electrolysis of an aqueous solution of NaCl into industrially useful products sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and chlorine gas.

Illustration: John C


May 3

Asian Openbill

The Asian Openbill (Anastomus oscitans) is a large stork found mostly in South and South-East Asia. They hunt in wetlands and prey on snails, water snakes, frogs, and insects.

Photo: JJ Harrison


May 4

Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993), in a promotional still for Love in the Afternoon (1957). Hepburn made her Hollywood debut with Roman Holiday in 1953, after shooting several films in Britain. She is one of only eleven people to win an Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.

Photo: Allied Artists


May 5

Pachira aquatica fruit

Pachira aquatica is a tropical wetland tree found in the swamps of Central and South America. The fruit, a nut, is edible and can measure up to 12 inches (300 mm) in length and 2.5 inches (64 mm) in diameter.

Photo: Lycaon


May 6

Srinagar

A panoramic view of Srinagar, the largest city of Jammu and Kashmir, India. Built on both the sides of the Jhelum River, Srinagar is home to over 1.2 million people. It serves as the state's summer capital.

Photo: KennyOMG


May 7

Impala

Several female black-faced impala drinking at a waterhole. Impalas are sexually dimorphic. Females can weigh 10 to 25 kilograms (22 to 55 lb) less than males and do not have horns.

Photo: Alchemist-hp


May 8

St Kilda Town Hall

The St Kilda Town Hall in St Kilda, Victoria, Australia, was designed by William Pitt and built in 1890. Owing to a lack of funds, Pitt was unable to complete his design. The building is now a secondary office of the Port Phillip City Council.

John O'Neill


May 9

Red-necked Stint

The Red-necked Stint (Calidris ruficollis) is a small migratory wader. It breeds in the tundra of Siberia and Alaska but winters in Southeast Asia and Oceania. The pictured specimen is in its winter plumage.

JJ Harrison

Recently featured:

May 10

Kiril Lazarov

Kiril Lazarov (b. 10 May 1980) is a Macedonian handball player active since 1991. He currently plays for HBC Nantes and is also the captain of the North Macedonia men's national handball team.

Photo: Armin Kübelbeck


May 11

Plan 9 from Outer Space

Plan 9 from Outer Space is a 1956 American science fiction thriller film written and directed by Ed Wood and following a crew of aliens intent on resurrecting Earth's dead as "ghouls". The film has been dubbed the "worst ever made": it features numerous continuity errors, visible crew and equipment, and footage of a recently deceased Bela Lugosi from earlier projects.

Poster: Tom Jung; Restoration: Otto Jula


May 12

Parque del Este

Southern Lake in Parque del Este, a recreational park in Caracas, Venezuela. The park was designed by Roberto Burle Marx and opened in 1961. It has had various official names since then. In 2010, it was visited by an average of 270,000 people every month.

Photo: Paolo Costa Baldi


May 13

Lina Rafn

Lina Rafn (b. 1976) is a Danish singer, songwriter and producer active with the band Infernal. She had previously been a VJ on the show The Voice TV Danmark.

Photo: Jepsen


May 14

Mark Satin counseling draft evaders

U.S. citizen Mark Satin (far left), director of the Toronto Anti-Draft Programme, counseling draft-age Americans at the Programme's offices in Toronto, August 1967. The Toronto Anti-Draft Programme was Canada's largest organization providing pre-emigration counseling and post-emigration services to American Vietnam War resisters.

Photo: Laura Jones


May 15

The Starry Night

The Starry Night is an 1889 painting by the Dutch post-impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh. One of the artist's best known works, it was painted from memory and depicts the view outside van Gogh's sanitarium room window at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. Van Gogh, however, was reportedly unhappy with it; he wrote that the "lines are warped as that of old wood".

Painting: Vincent van Gogh


May 16

Treskilling Yellow

The Treskilling Yellow is a rare 1855 postage stamp from Sweden. Meant to be in a blue-green colour, it was mistakenly printed orangish-yellow. In 1996 the stamp sold for $US 2.3 million at auction; it was sold again, for at least that sum, in 2010.

Design: P.A. Sparre


May 17

Lansing Car Assembly

The Olds Motor Works (pictured between 1905 and 1920) was an automobile factory in Lansing, Michigan, US. Established by Ransom E. Olds of Olds Motor Works, it came under the ownership of General Motors in 1908. The plant was demolished in 2006–07.

Photo: Detroit Publishing Co.; Restoration: Jbarta


May 18

Purple Swamphen

The Purple Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio) is a rail native to Eurasia and Africa. The species, thought to consist of numerous subspecies, prefers wet climates. They generally nest on a mass of floating debris or amongst matted reeds slightly above water level in swamps.

Photo: JJ Harrison


May 19

Rembrandt

Rembrandt (1606–69) was a Dutch painter and etcher generally considered one of the greatest in European art history. The artist attained fame as a portrait painter, although he later painted numerous Bible scenes. In this 1659 self-portrait, known as Self-Portrait with Beret and Turned-Up Collar, he depicts himself in a way which shows "the stresses and strains of a life compounded of creative triumphs and personal and financial reverses".

Painting: Rembrandt


May 20

Machinery Hall

Machinery Hall, one of numerous buildings found in the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. The Hall, built in 1901, was declared a Chicago Landmark in 2004.

Photo: Joe Ravi


May 21

Messier 82

A mosaic image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of Messier 82, a starburst galaxy located about 12 million light years away, in the constellation Ursa Major. The galaxy is five times as bright as our own Milky Way.

Photo: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team


May 22

USS Arizona (BB-39)

USS Arizona was a Pennsylvania-class battleship built for the United States in the mid-1910s. Before being modernized between 1929 and 1930, she spent most of her time in training exercises; this photograph dates from that period. Arizona was later sunk during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, resulting in the deaths of 1,177 of the 1,512 crewmen on board.

Photo: Unknown; Restoration: Mmxx

Recently featured:

May 23

Girls' Generation

Girls' Generation is a South Korean girl group formed by S.M. Entertainment in 2007. They found popularity beginning with their 2009 single "Gee", and in 2011 Forbes described them as Korea's most powerful entertainers. Left to right: Kim Tae-yeon, Kim Hyo-yeon, Seohyun, Choi Soo-young, Im Yoona, Jessica Jung, Tiffany, Sunny, Kwon Yuri.

Photo: LG Corp



May 24

Sukhoi Su-25 diagram

Layout scheme of a Sukhoi Su-25 (details), a jet aircraft designed to provide close air support for the Soviet Ground Forces and used by various countries. Since production began in 1978, the Su-25 has seen combat in several conflicts, including the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the Iran–Iraq War, and the Russia–Georgia War.

Diagram: Altoing


May 25

Mountain Bulbul

The Mountain Bulbul (Ixos mcclellandii) is a songbird species in the bulbul family which ranges across the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

Photo: JJ Harrison


May 26

Australian Senate

The meeting place of the Australian Senate, the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, in Parliament House, Canberra. Established in the Australian Constitution, the 76-seat senate has 12 representatives from each of Australia's six states and two from each of the country's internal territories.

Photo: JJ Harrison


May 27

Saint-Jacques Tower

Saint-Jacques Tower is a monument in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, France. Measuring 52 metres (171 ft) in height, the Gothic tower is all that remains of a 16th-century church which was demolished shortly after the French Revolution.

Photo: Charles Soulier


May 28

Human heart

Structure diagram of the human heart, an organ that provides a continuous blood circulation through the cardiac cycle, from an anterior view. Blue components indicate de-oxygenated blood pathways and red components indicate oxygenated pathways.

Diagram: ZooFari


May 29

Watercolor painting

A watercolor painter working in Dolceacqua, Liguria, Italy, using a round brush. Watercolor is a painting method in which paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle. The traditional and most common support for watercolor paintings is paper.

Photograph: Dongio


May 30

Paul Simonon

Paul Simonon (b. 1955) is an English musician and artist best known as the bass guitarist for punk rock band The Clash. Since the band dissolved in 1986 Simonon has been a member of several acts. In 2011 he was working with Mick Jones to create a film based on the recording of The Clash's album London Calling.

Photo: Rama


May 31

Deutsche Bank Twin Towers

The Deutsche Bank Twin Towers is a twin tower skyscraper complex in Frankfurt, Germany, which serves as the headquarters of Deutsche Bank. Each rising to 155 metres (509 ft) in height, the towers began construction in 1979.

Photo: Jürgen Matern


Picture of the day archives and future dates

2004: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2005: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2006: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2007: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2008: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2009: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2010: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2011: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2012: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2013: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2014: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2015: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2016: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2017: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2018: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2019: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2020: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2021: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2022: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2023: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2024: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2025: January February March April May June July August September October November December