Photo of the Day: August 2020
On snow-frosted plains near Green Grass, South Dakota, Chief Arvol Looking Horse imparts the moral teachings of the Lakota Sioux to his relatives. When this photo was published in August 2000, he was the 19th in a succession of keepers of the sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe, a talisman that confers the honour of spiritual leader.
A cluster of Panellus stipticus, or bitter oyster mushrooms, glow on a tree trunk.
Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson looks down on Earth while serving as the flight engineer on Expedition 24 to the International Space Station.
A man practices his tango moves at a dance studio in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Enslaved Africans originated tango in the ports between Argentina and Uruguay in the 1880s, merging traditional African dances with traditional South American ones.
An African jacana rests on the head of a hippo in the Zambezi River. From this perch, the jacana will pick insects off the river's floating vegetation.
Thousands of women gathered to march for the right to vote in Washington, D.C., on March 3, 1913. More than a hundred of them ended up in the hospital as the watching crowd grew violent, and police stood by. The 19th Amendment wouldn't pass for seven more years.
Ariaal women sing together on their way to a wedding in northern Kenya. The Ariaal were one group featured in a story about vanishing cultures in the August 1999 issue.
A 79-year-old woman does a handstand with the Sun City Poms, a dance team from a retirement community outside Phoenix, Arizona.
Mist lingers at dawn over a lake in China's Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve, home to many colorful lakes and dramatic waterfalls.
A plastic dome shields a Navy weatherman from the unforgiving Antarctic climate. In the September 1957 issue, National Geographic documented a scientific expedition staffed by citizens of a dozen countries.
In the early 2000s, Jacques Chiron drove an Astroturf-covered Volkswagen, powered by vegetable oil. At the time, Chiron got the oil from a nearby potato chip shop, and spent about £6 per month to fuel his car.
On a hot summer day, boys jump into the Mulwala Canal near Deniliquin, Australia. The irrigation canal transports water more than 100 miles into the heart of New South Wales farm country.
National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore gets up close and personal to photograph a baby caiman in Madidi National Park, Bolivia. The March 2000 story about the park drew enough international attention that plans for a hydroelectric dam in the area were shut down.
Members of the United Farm Workers attend a candlelight vigil in Calexico, California, in February 1979, and listen to Cesar Chavez eulogize Rufino Contreras. Contreras was a 28-year-old migrant worker who was shot and killed during a strike.
Bottlenose dolphins frolic in Doubtful Sound, a 25-mile long fjord in New Zealand. Dolphins will sometimes spend their entire lives in one fjord.
Amelia Earhart climbs out of her plane after completing her solo transatlantic flight in 1932. This picture appeared in the March issue of that year, noting that Earhart was also the first woman to receive the National Geographic Society's Special Gold Medal.
A woman works the land that has been in her family for more than 150 years. This village in the Italian Alps is so remote, residents speak a little-known language called Ladin.
Trumpeter Kid Thomas Valentine and a jazz band put on a show in the early 1970s at Preservation Hall in New Orleans. Kid Thomas spent two decades playing in shows on the dance hall's stage.
A five-year-old girl wanders through her family's rice field in Dimen, China. Once a rural farming community, Dimen has grown enough to possess a store selling the girl's frilly scrunchies—a sign of the times.
Young baseball players shake hands after a game in Keshena, Wisconsin, in the early 1970s. Keshena is a large community on the Menominee Indian Reservation.
Carmine bee-eaters emerge from their nests, which are holes burrowed in a cliff along the Tinga River in Chad. During the day, the colourful birds feast on—you guessed it—bees, along with wasps and other flying insects.
Canoes belonging to miners float over a spot where gold was found in Venezuela's Caroní River. Even when this image was published in the March 1963 issue, the diving equipment was old, causing each man to risk his life in the pursuit.
Women in Papeete, French Polynesia, get through a sweltering church service with the help of handheld fans. Men and women don't sit together in these services, but still sing hymns in Tahitian.
Aspiring astronauts experience 30-second intervals of weightlessness in a NASA training aircraft. To create the effect, the plane flies in parabolas—and thus earns the nickname "The Vomit Comet."
Women brave choppy waters for a swim on a stormy day in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. The small town is roughly one square mile, with half of that being made up of water.
Visitors ride camels across China's Taklimakan Desert, just as Marco Polo did in 1273. The desert is nearly as big as the country of Germany.
Women socialise at a country club in São Paulo, Brazil. In the 1980s, when this photo was published, 50 percent of the country's wealth was held by just 10 percent of the population.
Nha Trang, Vietnam, is famous for its beaches. In the early mornings, locals gather to socialise, play badminton, and relax.
Two aspiring rap artists bump fists near their homes in the Bronx, where hip-hop was born in the 1970s. In an April 2007 story, writer James McBride traveled the world to trace the origins of the genre.
Seniors celebrate their graduation from J. E. B. Stuart High School in Falls Church, Virginia. This story from the September 2001 issue examined immigration to the United States. At the time, some 70 countries were represented in the student body at the school, which has since been renamed Justice High School.
Mont Blanc stands on the border of Italy and France, the second tallest mountain in Europe. In this photo of the summit from the August 1913 issue, climbers make their descent in single file.
