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Mar 31, 2022Happy Birthday, Eiffel Tower

Locally, it"s called "La dame de fer," which translates to English as "The Iron Lady." To the rest of the world, it"s the Eiffel Tower, a landmark nearly synonymous with all things Parisian. It"s one of the most recognizable structures in the world and the most visited monument with an entrance fee. The Eiffel Tower took 500 workers two years, two months, and five days to complete. Most of the structural work was finished by the end of March 1889 and to celebrate, the builders led a group of government officials and journalists to the top of the tower on March 31. It was, at the time, the highest man-made structure in the world. With the addition of a new radio antenna on March 15, 2022, the Eiffel Tower grew an additional 20 feet and is now 1,083 feet tall, just in time for its 133rd birthday.Desktop Version

Feb 11, 2020Celebrating women in science

For the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we"re visiting the Great Barrier Reef with oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle. This photo is from the 2014 documentary film "Mission Blue," which follows Earle, a legendary marine biologist, environmentalist, and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence. The film focuses on Earle"s campaign to create a global network of protected marine sanctuaries. Sometimes called Her Deepness, Earle has made immense contributions to science over her career. From leading groundbreaking research in deep ocean science to becoming the first female chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earle is recognized as one of the world"s preeminent oceanographers.Desktop Version

Aug 31, 2018Let’s have a ball

You know a game must be fun if it’s stuck around for eight centuries–and that’s how long folks have been playing lawn bowling (in some form or another). It was the invention of the lawn mower in 1830, allowing for smoothly cut bowling greens, that really popularized the sport. Our homepage features the balls called ‘woods,’ or ‘bowls,’ that competitors use during game play. The objective is to roll the grapefruit-sized balls toward a smaller ball called a ‘jack,’ and points are awarded to the players who come the closest. Fancy a game?Desktop Version

Nov 21, 2021The Great Glen

Was this photo taken in a peppermint forest? This rare and delicate hoarfrost may look like a confectioner"s coating, but it"s just the ice that forms when the Scottish Highlands" fog mixes perfectly with a sharp cold snap.Desktop Version

Jan 18, 2022Winnie-the-Pooh Day

Today we"re in England"s Ashdown Forest, a tranquil patch of woods 30 miles south of London in East Sussex. We"ve wandered here because this is the enchanted forest that inspired author A.A. Milne"s depiction of Winnie-the-Pooh"s neighborhood, the Hundred Acre Wood. It"s our way of celebrating Winnie-the-Pooh Day, observed each year by the Pooh faithful on January 18, Milne"s birthday. The author, along with help from illustrator E.H. Shepard, introduced the world to Pooh and his many forest friends with the beloved "Winnie-the-Pooh" books, first published in 1926.Desktop Version

Aug 15, 2023Piazza IX Aprile, Taormina, Sicily, Italy

Welcome to Taormina, an historic Italian resort built into a hillside high above the Ionian Sea on the coast of Sicily. From here you can take in panoramic views of the coast of Calabria, on the Italian mainland, the city of Syracuse, and Mount Etna, roughly 20 miles away.Desktop Version

Feb 18, 2022Great Backyard Bird Count

This colorful foursome resting on a tree limb during a winter in France is a group of great tits, one of the most common bird species seen across most of Europe and Asia and in parts of North Africa. Belonging to the same family as North American chickadees, great tits are beloved for their colorful plumage and acrobatic antics while feeding in backyards and in gardens, which makes them an ideal mascot for the Great Backyard Bird Count.Desktop Version

Oct 16, 2019Paleontology meets art

Though it looks like a fresco from ancient Greece, this is the fossilized remains of a fern found in Córdoba, Spain. The fossil dates back to the Carboniferous period, roughly 350 million years ago. This is a "compression fossil"—where a small amount of the original plant material was retained with the mineral deposits that helped form the impression. Why all the paleobotany talk? It"s National Fossil Day, and we’re excited! Whether you make a trip to your local natural history museum, trek off to a national park with a fossil exhibit, or just look at fossil photos on the web, we hope you find a fun way to celebrate National Fossil Day.Desktop Version

Dec 24, 2021Smoking nights in Austria

Behold the lovely Tannenbaum ("fir tree" for you non-German speakers). Here in Tyrol, Austria, Christmas Eve marks the first of three Rauchnächte, or "smoking nights." A long-standing Tyrolean tradition, people in this Alpine region burn frankincense and herbs in homes, barns, and stables to avert bad fortune. The custom is then repeated on the other two "smoking nights," New Year"s Eve and the night before Epiphany.Desktop Version

Jun 30, 2021An impactful day

We"ll be the ones to drop the news on you: It"s Asteroid Day! Today you"re invited to explore a realm of science usually encountered only through white-knuckle action flicks: asteroid impact avoidance, or the study of what the heck we do if we spot a big chunk of space junk hurtling right at Earth. That"s right, don"t worry: People somewhere are coming up with plans for this.Desktop Version

Feb 23, 2020An icy extravaganza

We’re just outside Brainerd, Minnesota, for the Ice Fishing Extravaganza on Gull Lake. Each year in late January, more than 10,000 people will come out to catch as many fish as they can—mostly walleye and northern pike, but all fish species are eligible. The contest is organized and run by volunteers exclusively, and 100 percent of the proceeds—around $150,000—goes to local charities.Desktop Version

Jan 18, 2023White Sands National Park turns 90

If today"s photo evokes some chilly feelings inside of you, surprise! That"s not snow, but part of the largest gypsum dune field on the planet. We"re at White Sands National Park in New Mexico, which was first established as a monument on this date in 1933 and then became a national park in 2019. Roughly 4.5 billion tons of gypsum sand has massed in the Tularosa Basin over the past 12,000 years, having worn off the surrounding mountains. Thousands of species live in the park, many of which have evolved to have white coloration, allowing them to blend into the environment.Desktop Version

Oct 10, 2021A shell of many colors

We could perhaps fool you and claim you"re viewing a long-lost Jackson Pollock canvas, but it was Mother Nature who painted this blackfoot paua (aka rainbow abalone) shell. And modern art it ain"t: Fossils from similar marine gastropods date back at least 65 million years.Desktop Version

Jan 9, 2022Rice processing in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, a nation that"s never recorded a freezing temperature, rice growing is a year-round affair. But growing an aquatic crop in the dry season—October through March—is complicated, requiring high-yield plant strains and additional irrigation.Desktop Version

Feb 24, 2020Wind horses carry wishes for a new year

For the first day of Losar, or the Tibetan New Year, we"re paying a visit to these Buddhist pilgrims at the Ganden Monastery in Lhasa, Tibet. Losar is celebrated for 15 days, but most events occur in the first three days. They include wishing family members a prosperous year, praying at monasteries or temples, exchanging gifts, burning incense, chanting, wrestling, horse racing, and more. Celebrations for the new year end with Chotrul Duchen, or the Butter Lamp Festival. The pilgrims in today"s image are releasing prayer flags called "wind horses" or lungtas, a ritual they perform for Losar and during the rest of the year as well. Upon releasing the prayer flags, the pilgrims ask the mountain deity to "increase their fortune like the galloping of a horse and expand their prosperity like the boiling over of milk."Desktop Version

Jan 17, 2022Martin Luther King Day

Sculptor William "Bill" Tarr created the large, untitled memorial that welcomes students to Martin Luther King Jr. Educational Campus in Manhattan. The steel block features quotations from King and famous phrases from the civil rights movement. It was designed to weather over time, changing in color and texture as it ages. The school was founded in 1975 and is now home to seven distinct high schools, each focusing on a different discipline, including law, technology, and the arts.Desktop Version

Oct 24, 2019Bridge of Hillsborough County

The Hancock-Greenfield Bridge (aka County Bridge) has offered a picturesque passage over the Contoocook River in southern New Hampshire since 1937. It was built to replace another covered bridge that had been destroyed in a flood. But why even build a covered bridge? In a word, longevity. The roof and walls help protect the timber supports from rot. For comparison, an uncovered wooden bridge lasts an average of 20 years, while the covered variety can reach 100 years or more.Desktop Version

Jan 14, 2023Feast of the Donkey

This fuzzy donkey feeding on the leaves of a cherry tree probably doesn"t know that today was once celebrated as the Feast of the Donkey. We think any day is a good day to celebrate donkeys. They"ve carried the load for humans for more than 7,000 years, so let"s give them some love. More than 40 million donkeys do the heavy lifting around the world today, with 11 million in China alone.Desktop Version

Jul 30, 2018Children at play for International Day of Friendship

Does this photo of kids at play in Kolkata, India, prompt memories of fun times you had as a child, when the world didn’t extend much further than you and your friends? If so, you’re in the right frame of mind to celebrate International Day of Friendship, or just Friendship Day. The idea began in a bid of crass commercialism: The holiday was invented and marketed by the founder of Hallmark Cards. But the public saw through that and it didn’t take. Decades later, a peace-promoting group called the World Friendship Crusade relaunched Friendship Day in Paraguay as a way to foster peace. It’s been gaining traction ever since.Desktop Version

Jul 18, 2018Celebrate Mandela Day

Today we’re in Howick, a town near the east coast of South Africa, where this monument honors the anti-apartheid activist and South African president Nelson Mandela, who would have turned 100 today. Like Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the US, Mandela Day—celebrated on Mandela’s birthday—is intended not as a holiday exactly but as a day to answer the ‘global call to action’ by finding ways to engage in service to your local community. The best part about Mandela Day? You don’t need to be from South Africa to observe the event.Desktop Version

Nov 7, 2022Lunar eclipse

If you missed the first full lunar eclipse of the year back in May, you"ll get another chance tonight as the second blood moon (as lunar eclipses are often called) of 2022 takes to the sky over the Pacific region. Tonight"s display can be seen from Asia, Australia, North America, and parts of northern Europe and South America. If you"re lucky enough to find yourself under a clear sky, the view might look something like this image, taken over Mount Crested Butte, Colorado, during the lunar eclipse of September 27, 2015.Desktop Version

Mar 16, 2020I ll call for pen and ink

"…and write my mind." It"s Shakespeare Week in schools across the UK, so we"re field-tripping to the British Library for a peek at the only surviving specimen of what"s thought to be playwright William Shakespeare"s handwriting (if you don"t count legal documents). The scratchy cursive is inked within the script of Anthony Munday"s "Sir Thomas More," a then-controversial play about a king-defying statesman. In 1603, the censorial Royal Office of the Revels brought in Shakespeare among a team of writers to retool the script. But if Shakespeare"s task was to tone things down, he may have had other ideas: His three-page addition includes an impassioned speech by the title character to a mob that"s rioting over immigration policy.Desktop Version

Jul 28, 2022Longs Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park

One of the 53 "fourteeners" in Colorado—mountains that exceed 14,000 feet—Longs Peak still manages to reach higher into the heavens than any other mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park at 14,259 feet. Thousands of climbers set off every year to attempt the summit. Some climbers will try to reach the peak of every fourteener in the US during their lifetimes—that"s 96 different mountains.Desktop Version

Jun 30, 2019San Francisco’s City Hall illuminated by the iconic colors of Pride

We’re celebrating Pride weekend with a view onto a Beaux-Arts gem that has a prominent place in the history of gay rights and culture. Even the city of San Francisco itself has played an outsized role in fostering gay pride, community, and visibility. It’s a legacy that can be traced along the timeline of the city’s many firsts. The San Francisco Bay Area held one of the first Pride parades after the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York, the event that sparked the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBTQI+ civil rights. This is just part of the heritage that will be celebrated at San Francisco’s Pride this weekend, where people will be marking the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. A big parade is planned with vibrant displays that will decorate Market Street, continuing all the way to the Golden Gate City’s Civic Center.Desktop Version

Jan 12, 2023Rumelihisarı in Istanbul, Türkiye

Though Türkiye usually lives up to expectations as a warm Mediterranean country, snow occasionally falls here. This winter dusting of Istanbul, Türkiye"s largest city, brings into sharper focus the lines of Rumelihisarı in the center of our image. The structure, also known as Rumeli Fortress, was built in the 15th century by an Ottoman sultan as a way to choke naval traffic through the narrow Bosporus Strait. The Bosporus connects the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea, separating Istanbul into what are often referred to as its "European side" and "Asian side." Today, the fortress isn"t used to fire upon ships but serves as a museum and concert venue. While the place has changed over the centuries, the killer view hasn"t.Desktop Version

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