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International Rock Day — Today is International Rock Day and we"re giving due respect to these geologic wonders. It might seem odd to sing the praises of rock, but think about it. Rocks have been with humankind since the beginning. From tools to housing to weapons, they"ve been key to our survival. A period of our history was so reliant on rocks that it will be forever known as the Stone Age. We would not be where we are today without the many minerals found on our planet, so rock on!Desktop Version

Aug 18, 2023Avatar Mountains, Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, China

These stunning stone spires, rising from the forest in China"s Hunan province, are said to have inspired the floating mountains of the movie "Avatar." There are more than 3,000 of these quartz-sandstone pillars in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, often swathed in mist, part of a spectacular landscape that has inspired generations of painters. These days, they are popularly known as the "Avatar Mountains" and one, the 3,544-foot-high Southern Sky Pillar, was officially renamed as "Avatar Hallelujah Mountain" in 2010, the year after the blockbuster movie was released.Desktop Version

Dalyan, Turkey — Among the remains of the ancient Anatolian port city of Kaunos are these carvings in the sheer rock walls above the Dalyan Çayı River. Overlooking the modern-day city of Dalyan, Turkey, what appear to be ornate cliff dwellings are really the weathered facades of tombs for the elite of a once-forgotten society.Desktop Version

Relationship status: It s complicated — By posing for us, are these red-billed oxpeckers imposing on the impala? Well, science hasn"t quite decided on this one. The relationship between parasite-eating birds and hoofed mammals was once considered a textbook example of mutualism, with oxpeckers cleaning up the ticks and fleas that bug the bigger beasts. Which is what we"d like to think is going on here.Desktop Version

White 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

World Theatre Day — What better place to celebrate World Theatre Day than the ancient theater of Taormina, Sicily, an amphitheater built in the Hellenistic style of the Greeks in the third century BCE. The venue was later expanded by the Romans and is one of the signature sights in Taormina. And if you look in the upper-right corner of the photo, that"s Mount Etna giving a performance of its own, spewing a little ash and smoke.Desktop Version

A castle fit for a count — Peeking out above the trees in the Făgăraș Mountains of Romania is Poenari Castle, a fortress steeped in history and legend. In the 15th century, this castle was occupied by the notorious ruler Vlad III, aka Vlad the Impaler, aka Vlad Dracula.Desktop Version

Are you older than this lake? — If you were born before summer 1991, the answer is yes. Sorry if you already felt a bit long in the tooth, but it"s true: Until 30 years ago, Lake Pinatubo was just a rumble in Mount Pinatubo"s magma-filled belly. It was a calamitous eruption on June 15, 1991—one of the 20th century"s most powerful—that blew off Pinatubo"s original summit and formed a vast crater, which gradually filled with water as greenery reclaimed the summit.Desktop Version

Málaga, Spain — Today we"re visiting a city with over 2,800 years of history—it"s one of the oldest in Europe. Málaga is said to have been founded by the Phoenicians in 770 BCE and today its year-round exceptional weather has made it a center of tourism in Spain. Situated perfectly along the Costa Del Sol, this culturally rich mecca is visited by around 6 million tourists in an average year. If you can pull yourself away from the beautiful beaches, you"ll find yourself in a city abounding in historical architecture, museums, and restaurants featuring outstanding local seafood.Desktop Version

Batten down the hatches — The athletes on these boats are jockeying for position at the start of the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac Island (pronounced ‘Mack-i-naw’). The ‘Mac,’ at 333 miles long, is the world’s oldest and longest annual freshwater boat race. It’s an amateur event, but make no mistake, these sailors know their stuff. Many go on to race in the America’s Cup. This year’s race is held this weekend. The boats set sail—smallest to largest—just off Chicago’s Navy Pier, passing by the city skyline as we see in our image. When crews pass under the span of the mighty Mackinac Bridge—connecting the Lower Peninsula to the Upper Peninsula—Lake Michigan becomes Lake Huron, and the island appears.Desktop Version

An octagonal architectural treasure — Built in the 1240s by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in southeast Italy, Castel del Monte (Castle of the Mount) features an unusual octagonal design. Eight stone walls stretch between eight octagonal towers and enclose an octagonal courtyard. Each of the two floors also has eight trapezoidal rooms. Acclaimed and protected as a World Heritage Site in 1996, the castle symbolically reflects a harmonious integration of classical Roman, Arabic, and medieval architecture and design—and to some, its octagonal symmetry suggests a connection between heaven and earth.Desktop Version

Women s History Month — To celebrate the start of Women"s History Month, our homepage photo features a candid shot of members of the US Army Nurse Corps in 1944. The women are shown in between training exercises while they await deployment to the South Pacific near the end of World War II. At the time, all who served in the Army Nurse Corps were women, and the units were all segregated. And though the need for nurses was urgent, the army had set a quota for just 160 Black nurses. By the end of the war, that number had increased to nearly 500.Desktop Version

Bathing in the light of Pride — In June 2020, Lincoln Center, New York City"s premier arts complex, lit its iconic plaza and fountain in the colors of the rainbow for the first time. It was as a tribute during Pride Month to Pride celebrations and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, a pivotal moment in the LGBTQI+ rights movement. The theme of this year"s NYC Pride celebrations is "The Fight Continues," in recognition of the advancements that have been made over the last 51 years and to highlight the ongoing struggle for equality.Desktop Version

Great 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

Piazza 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

A grotesque scene — "Goofy" might be a better descriptor, but these seabird statues lining an outer wall of an Ecuadorian cathedral are called "grotesques"—the architectural term for a statue ornamenting the side of a building. But hang on…don"t we call those "gargoyles"? Not exactly. Gargoyles are simply grotesques that boast a specific, practical feature: spouts that convey water from rain gutters away from the building.Desktop Version

Rice 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

Honoring some real heroes of World War II — In this photograph, likely taken in 1941, we see a group of cadets examining a map with their training instructor. They are (from left to right) Lieutenant John Daniels of Chicago, Cadet Clayborne Lockett of Los Angeles, Cadet Lawrence O"Clark of Chicago, Cadet William Melton of Los Angeles, and civilian instructor Milton Crenshaw of Little Rock. The pilots would later be known as the "Tuskegee Airmen," the first Black military aviators in the US Army Air Corps, a precursor of the US Air Force. During World War II, more than 1,000 Tuskegee pilots flew more than 15,000 individual sorties in Europe and North Africa, quickly becoming revered for their bravery and excellence.Desktop Version

Cosplay strongly encouraged — The first San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) was a single-day event for comic book fans on March 21, 1970. After that successful trial run, the organizers staged a three-day event featuring celebrity appearances later that year. Comic-Con grew quickly from a modest gathering of dedicated fans to the massive multimedia spectacle of SDCC that begins today. Each year, more than 100,000 Comic-Con attendees dress as their favorite characters from the books, television shows, and movies that they love.Desktop Version

Surf s always up in Paia — Old surfboards never die, at least not here, just outside the town of Paia, on Maui, Hawaii. Local resident Donald Dettloff constructed this fence beginning back in 1990 from over 600 discarded boards, most of which were either donated or salvaged from local junk and vintage stores. Dettloff originally wired some of his own boards to his fence to keep them from blowing away in a hurricane. Now the colorful display is a local landmark and even caught the attention of Guinness World Records for being the largest surfboard collection.Desktop Version

They’re grrrape! — When you hear wine experts talk of ‘Burgundies,’ they are referring to wines made in this French region. The most common varieties are Pinot noir and Chardonnay, but farmers here grow many different types of grapes. September and early October is grape harvest time in France, so the usually quiet rows of grape vines we see in this photo are probably very busy with workers gathering the fruit to be crushed and fermented. We’re thinking about putting together a bread and cheese plate right now…Desktop Version

Children 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

Rumelihisarı 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

Tennis in the park — Here at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, New York City, it’s the opening day of the US Open Tennis Championships. When it began back in 1881 as the US National Championship, it was one of the first tennis tournaments in the world and was limited to amateur players only. It’s been through many iterations since, but this year marks the 50th anniversary of the modern competition, now called an ‘open’ because both amateurs and pros can compete. The US Open completes the fourth and final tournament of the international tennis Grand Slam, the world’s most prestigious pro tournaments.Desktop Version

Gateway to America — We’re here at Ellis Island in honor of Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, an annual observance that recognizes both the adoption of the US Constitution and those who have become US citizens. For more than 60 years, Ellis Island served as a gateway for millions of immigrants arriving in the United States—and it’s easy to imagine them gazing at the Statue of Liberty from this very window, while contemplating their new lives in the United States. These days, Citizenship Day is a popular time for federal courts to hold naturalization ceremonies, when new American citizens are sworn in. These free, often celebratory events are open to the public, and are often attended by students learning about citizenship.Desktop Version

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