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Nov 28, 2024Happy Thanksgiving!

Today, many Americans will spend time with friends and family, giving thanks and enjoying what some consider to be the best meal of the year. The tradition dates back to English colonists who celebrated the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1621. Their treacherous journey from England the year before and their first winter claimed half of the colonists, and the rest might have died too if not for the generosity of the Wampanoag people. To celebrate their first corn harvest and thank the Native Americans who helped them, the colonists held a three-day feast.Desktop Version

Aug 22, 2023Amphitheatre of El Jem, Tunisia

This impressive structure is the Amphitheatre of El Jem, in the Tunisian town of the same name. Made entirely from stone blocks, it was built in the 3rd century CE, when this area was Thysdrus, a city of ancient Rome. Once capable of seating up to 35,000 spectators, it is the largest colosseum in North Africa and one of the largest in the world. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, it is one of the best-preserved Roman amphitheatres, almost equal in grandeur to the Colosseum in Rome.Desktop Version

Feb 15, 2022Lantern Festival

Lunar New Year festivities last 15 days, culminating with a good party known as the Lantern Festival. Here in Chengdu, the capital of southwest China"s Sichuan province, it"s said that residents have been hosting Lantern Festival celebrations since the year 711, though the origins of the festival are believed to be more than 2,000 years old. This year"s festivities take place on February 15, with homes and businesses draped in lanterns of all shapes and sizes, often in the traditional red silk with gold trim as you see here.Desktop Version

Dec 23, 2024Celebrating Festivus

"A Festivus for the rest of us!" This is the unofficial motto of a non-commercial alternative to Christmas. Celebrated on December 23, Festivus was popularized by the TV show "Seinfeld," although it was actually invented by the family of one of the series" writers. The celebration centers around the unadorned aluminum Festivus pole. After dinner, the traditional Festivus "airing of grievances" gets underway. This consists of telling friends and family the ways they"ve disappointed you over the year. This can provide some much-needed catharsis at what can be a stressful time of year. The day traditionally concludes with feats of strength. Once the head of the household has been pinned, Festivus is officially over. Those who embrace this farcical holiday welcome the opportunity to let off some steam amid the Christmas build-up chaos—much like these red-crowned cranes in Hokkaido, Japan.Desktop Version

Oct 15, 2023European hedgehog

Brown, round, tiny, and spiny—say hello to the European hedgehog. Our image was taken in Sussex, England, but you"ll find these prickly creatures in gardens, parks, and woodland throughout Europe. Mostly nocturnal, they are welcomed by gardeners as they snack on snails and slugs. With leaves turning gold and the air getting chilly, our homepage hedgehog is all set to gain some weight for the winter.Desktop Version

Dec 18, 2024English National Ballet performing The Nutcracker

Every holiday season, as snow begins to fall and Christmas lights twinkle in the night, the story of "The Nutcracker" comes to life on stages around the world. Written by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1892, this beloved ballet is based on E.T.A. Hoffmann"s fairy tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King." Set on Christmas Eve, it follows a young girl named Clara, who goes on an adventure with the Nutcracker Prince as they battle the evil Mouse King. Many renowned ballet companies present their rendition of this classic every year, including the New York City Ballet, the Boston Ballet, and the English National Ballet, pictured here.Desktop Version

Nov 1, 2023Native American Heritage Month

November is National Native American Heritage Month, a commemoration that invites us to delve into Native peoples" traditions, languages, and art forms. There are millions of Native Americans across the US, with hundreds of tribes and groups, each with their own culture. In Arizona, Canyon de Chelly National Monument preserves the ruins of Indigenous tribes that have lived here over the past 5,000 years, including Ancestral Puebloans, who built the ancient village in our homepage image, and the Navajo, who arrived here around 1700. Carved by the relentless forces of nature, the canyon is owned by the Navajo people who manage it in cooperation with the National Park Service. Some Navajo families still live here, keeping traditions alive in one of North America"s longest continuously inhabited landscapes.Desktop Version

Dec 25, 2024Merry Christmas!

Deck the halls, it"s Christmas time! Christmas Day is a holiday packed with joy, warmth, and cherished traditions. For many, it"s a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, bringing family and friends together to exchange gifts, share meals, and enjoy festive décor. Beyond its spiritual roots, Christmas also lights up the season with beloved customs—decorating trees, caroling, and eagerly awaiting Santa"s arrival. These traditions, blending both old and new, make the holiday a magical experience filled with connection and cheer.Desktop Version

Jun 23, 2023Pollinator Week

It"s lunch time for these beautiful monarch butterflies, which like to feed on clusters of colorful wildflowers. While they dine out on nectar, they get a light dusting of pollen, which is then spread to other flowers they land on. This process is pollination, transferring pollen from the male part of a flower to the female part, and is crucial for growing many of our fruits and vegetables. It improves the quality and quantity of crops and increases harvest yields. Nearly $20 billion of goods are produced in the US alone each year, because of pollination.Desktop Version

Aug 5, 2024Lavender field, Hertfordshire, England

This lavender landscape stretching over fields in the English county of Hertfordshire is the quintessential summer scene. A member of the mint family, lavender has been popular through various civilizations. It was used by the Egyptians for mummification; traces of lavender were discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamun. It was also treasured by the Romans for its healing and cleansing properties.Desktop Version

Sep 1, 2024Totally Thames Festival, London

Welcome to the Totally Thames Festival in London, England. Each year, it brings together communities, artists, and nature enthusiasts in a month-long tribute to the river. Highlights for 2024 include the annual boat marathon, Great River Race, and the Clean Thames Challenge.Desktop Version

Jun 5, 2023World Environment Day

"To damage the Earth is to damage your children," as the writer and environmentalist Wendell Berry put it. Today is World Environment Day, which marks its 50th year of raising awareness and encouraging action to protect the natural world. This year"s theme is about finding solutions to plastic pollution, which brings us to our homepage image.Desktop Version

Apr 17, 2023International Haiku Poetry Day

Get out your pen and paper—it"s International Haiku Poetry Day! Haikus originated in Japan as the opening segment of a larger poem called a renga. Eventually they became individual poems of their own. A traditional haiku consists of 17 phonetic units—similar to a syllable—in a 5, 7, 5 formation. Though simple, a great haiku creates a sense of beauty and a connection to nature. That connection was captured in the artwork seen here, "One Thousand Springs," an installation of 5,000 haikus suspended within a web of red threads by artist Chiharu Shiota. It was part of the 2021 Japan Festival at Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in London. Here"s some inspiration for you to write a haiku yourself:Desktop Version

Aug 19, 2022National Aviation Day

In the summer of 2016, an experimental solar-powered airplane called Solar Impulse 2 completed a 26,000-mile multi-stage trip around the world without using a single drop of jet fuel. The remarkable feat took longer than a year and made the slow-flying plane part of aviation history. We are remembering this seminal flight today to mark National Aviation Day, established in 1939 by President Franklin Roosevelt as a day to celebrate the advancement of flight. August 19 was chosen because it is the birthdate of Orville Wright, who in 1903, with his brother Wilbur Wright, became the first to achieve powered, controlled flight on the hills of Kitty Hawk on North Carolina"s Outer Banks.Desktop Version

Feb 6, 2025Waitangi Day in New Zealand

What do you get when you bring together more than 500 Māori chiefs, representatives of the British Crown, and a treaty signed in 1840? A day that New Zealanders still commemorate: Waitangi Day. On this date, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, establishing the principles for how the two cultures would coexist. Ceremonies are held at Waitangi Treaty Grounds—where the document was signed—featuring traditional Māori performances, speeches, and the ever-dramatic waka (canoe) races. From festivals and concerts in cities like Auckland and Wellington to low-key community gatherings, the spirit of the day is about connection and culture.Desktop Version

Jan 28, 2024Channel Country, Australia

Narrow waterways run like veins through the Australian Outback"s Channel Country, a sprawling, ancient flood plain named after its crisscrossing river channels. The huge flat area is transformed from a parched desert canvas to a vibrant tapestry of wildflowers when rainfall is abundant. Indigenous Australians have lived off this land for tens of thousands of years and some offer tours and classes about how to survive in the Outback. This unspoiled region is also home to a bonanza of wildlife—kangaroos that bounce along the plains, strutting emus, and preening purple-crowned fairywrens. If you"re lucky, you might even spot a bilby—a nocturnal marsupial with rabbit-like ears. So, are you ready to "channel" your inner explorer?Desktop Version

Mar 3, 2024World Wildlife Day

It"s time to step into the wild! This year"s World Wildlife Day focuses on how advances in digital technology can help to preserve wildlife, for example through research, communication, and DNA analysis. Digital platforms can also be a way to get younger people involved in protecting our planet"s animals and plants.Desktop Version

Jul 23, 2024Methoni Castle, Messenia, Greece

Perched on a rocky headland is Methoni Castle, a symbol of medieval might on the shores of the Ionian Sea. The fortress, on the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece, was built by the Venetians in the early 13th century as a trading post and defensive bastion, protecting the coastline from invaders. Its Bourtzi tower, an extension of the fortress standing on a small islet, was once connected to the main castle by a stone bridge.Desktop Version

Nov 23, 2022Fibonacci Day

The sunflower is an eye-catcher, growing to the sky and brightly singing of summer no matter the time of year. Helianthus annuus is native to the Americas, and its flowering head is actually made up of more tiny flowers that mature into seeds (and, of course, get eaten around the world). But did you know that sunflowers also bring one of nature"s mathematical wonders to life?Desktop Version

Nov 3, 2023World Jellyfish Day

Drifting along our shores and into our calendar, it"s World Jellyfish Day! Jellyfish can be found in all the world"s oceans, in all shapes and sizes. There are about 2,000 species, all lacking hearts, bones, and brains. Pacific sea nettle jellyfish, seen here, have vibrant golden-brown coloring and long tentacles and inhabit the coastal waters of California and Oregon. Moon jellyfish are pale with short tentacles, and, in an appropriate twist, went into orbit aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 1991, to help scientists study their unique biology. Jellyfish play a vital role in the ocean"s food chain, as the main food source for many animals, including sea turtles. Their numbers are impacted by climate change, marine pollution, and overfishing, and in turn have reverberating effects on sea life around them.Desktop Version

Oct 20, 2023International Sloth Day

Let"s all slow down to celebrate International Sloth Day, the perfect time to take things easy. With that friendly smile, you might think this pygmy three-toed sloth is inviting you to hang out, but these animals are not easy to find. Also known as the monk sloth or dwarf sloth, the species lives exclusively on a small island off Panama"s coast, Isla Escudo de Veraguas. Pygmy three-toed sloths are much smaller than other kinds of sloths, at about 20 inches long, and they weigh less than 8 pounds. Sadly, this species is classified as critically endangered. International Sloth Day aims to raise awareness of the planet"s slowest mammal and help them to survive and thrive in the wild, at their own pace.Desktop Version

Sep 16, 2022Puma in Patagonia

Odds are this very focused puma has its eyes locked on a guanaco, a relative of the llama that"s firmly at the top of its daily menu. In this case, dinner will be served in Torres del Paine National Park in the Patagonia region of Chile, the sprawling park recognized as one of the most famous places in the world to watch and photograph wild pumas. While tourists will sometimes see the big cats on their own, trained guides take visitors on hikes or all-terrain vehicle tours to look for the stealthy pumas. The wild cats have been officially protected for the last few years, bolstering their population, and there are abundant guanacos in the Patagonian steppes, which also helps.Desktop Version

Sep 19, 2022State funeral of Queen Elizabeth II

Britain bids farewell to Queen Elizabeth II today, as her state funeral takes place in London"s historic Westminster Abbey. Crowds are lining the streets to pay their final respects to the queen, who died peacefully at her Scottish residence, Balmoral, at age 96 on September 8, after more than 70 years on the throne. The royal family, world leaders, and senior UK politicians are attending the funeral, which is being broadcast across the world. After the service, the queen will be laid to rest in St. George"s Chapel in the grounds of Windsor Castle, alongside Prince Philip, her beloved husband of 73 years, whom she described as her "strength and stay."Desktop Version

Dec 22, 2023Ljubljana, Slovenia

What a lovely city! The Slavic word "ljub" means "to love," and it"s right there in the name of Slovenia"s capital city, Ljubljana, and the Ljubljanica River that runs through it. This relatively small capital, with a population of just under 300,000, grew up on a trade route connecting the northern Adriatic Sea and the Danube region. While modern buildings skirt the city"s periphery, its core preserves historic structures, some of which date back to ancient Rome. The Ljubljana Castle, pictured in the center of today"s homepage image, has towered over the city for 900 years. Other sights include the Triple Bridge, the Dragon Bridge, and the historic Old Town. Keep an eye out while you stroll around; you might encounter the city"s symbol, the Ljubljana Dragon.Desktop Version

Dec 26, 2022Boxing Day in East Yorkshire, England

The sledders in our photo are enjoying Boxing Day in England, bundled up and hurtling down a hill at Beverley Westwood Common near Black Mill in East Yorkshire. Traditionally, Boxing Day is a day off to relax after the excitement of Christmas. What"s behind the name? There are a few theories, but the most widely accepted one is that the name derives from the giving of "boxes" (of gifts) to the poor the day after Christmas. Perhaps we should all follow that example today, as we eat Christmas leftovers and listen to lingering carols. How can we give a little Christmas to those who are less fortunate?Desktop Version

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