January 1, 2004

    
  Earth's moon
  1972
  Unknown (NASA)

"An Apollo 17 astronaut examines enormous lunar boulders resting in a crater at the Taurus-Littrow landing site."

January 2, 2004

    
  Adirondack State Park, New York
  1997
  Maria Stenzel

A hardy cross-country skier and his dog cross frozen Lake Colden, accessible only by hiking trail even in warmer months.

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Adirondack High," June 1998, National Geographic magazine)

January 3, 2004
Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam
  1998
  Michael S. Yamashita

"Women swaddled against the sun paddle ocean water into ponds where it will evaporate, leaving salt behind. Plans call for increasing such production by half, so Vietnam can have a new export."

—From "South China Sea: Crossroads of Asia," December 1998, National Geographic magazine

January 4, 2004
Yar Sale, Yamal Peninsula, Siberia, Russia
  1996
  Maria Stenzel

"At the annual spring festival at Yar Sale the Nenets test their reindeer's mettle with team racing. Soon the animals' homing instincts will be tested, as the deer follow ancient migration routes to the pastures of the far north—there to fatten until fall snows prompt them to return south."

—From "Nenets: Surviving on the Siberian Tundra," March 1998, National Geographic magazine

January 5, 2004

    
  Washington State, United States
  Early 1900s
  Edward S. Curtis

"'A great mark of buty,' the flattened foreheads [as shown on this Wisham Indian] of the Pacific Northwest and other tribes west of the Rockies earned them the collective name Flatheads. The effect was achieved, [19th-century explorer Meriwether] Lewis explained, .?.?.?'by compressing the head between two boards while in a State of infancy. .?.?.?#039"

—Text from the National Geographic book Lewis and Clark: Voyage of Discovery, 1998

January 6, 2004

    
  Littleton Island, near Greenland
  1925
  Donald B. MacMillan

"Eight exposures on the same photographic plate, made at 20-minute intervals, capture the midnight sun over Littleton Island near Greenland."

January 7, 2004

    
  In Earth's orbit
  1973
  Unknown (NASA)

"Skylab, the United States' first manned orbiting laboratory, amassed a wealth of information about the universe."

January 8, 2004
Bovanenkovo, Siberia, Russia
  1996
  Maria Stenzel

This young Nenets man has come into Bovanenkovo to trade with Russian workers. Bovanenkovo sits atop a huge natural gas field. Employees of the Russian energy conglomerate Gazprom have settled here, adjacent to the Nenets' summer pastureland.

(Text adapted from "Nenets: Surviving on the Siberian Tundra," March 1998, National Geographic magazine)

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Nenets: Surviving on the Siberian Tundra," March 1998, National Geographic magazine)

January 9, 2004
Adirondack Mountains, New York
  1996
  Maria Stenzel

Water mirrors a fiery twilight sky above an Adirondack lake.

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Adirondack High," June 1998, National Geographic magazine)

January 10, 2004
Near Chicago, Illinois
  1907
  Gilbert H. Grosvenor

"Octave Chanute, a 19th-century American aviation pioneer, designed the multiwinged Katydid glider."

January 11, 2004
Bombay (Mumbai), India
  1997
  Robb Kendrick

"A pipeline carrying water to a wealthier suburb of Bombay stretches through a part of town where poor residents must share public spigots."

January 12, 2004
Kaikoura Canyon, New Zealand
  1997
  Maria Stenzel

"Gliding through luminous seas, a dusky dolphin patrols the top layer of New Zealand's teeming Kaikoura Canyon. "

—From "Deep Mysteries of Kaikoura Canyon," June 1998, National Geographic magazine

January 13, 2004

In orbit of Earth's moon
  1972
  Unknown (NASA)

"Apollo 17 astronauts, in orbit around the moon, photographed a crescent Earth rising in the lunar sky."

—From the National Geographic book Through the Lens: National Geographic's Greatest Photographs, 2003

January 14, 2004
South Georgia island, Falkland Islands
  1998
  Maria Stenzel

Leopard seals' unusually long foreflippers, slender bodies, and large powerful jaws help make them perhaps the top Antarctic predator.

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Shackleton: Epic of Survival," November 1998, National Geographic magazine)

January 15, 2004
Kaikoura Peninsula, New Zealand
  1997
  Maria Stenzel

Sheep farming, though on the decline across New Zealand, still has a stronghold along the Kaikoura Peninsula's majestic coastline.

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Deep Mysteries of Kaikoura Canyon," June 1998, National Geographic magazine)

January 16, 2004
South Georgia island, Falkland Islands
  1998
  Maria Stenzel

Juvenile king penguins preen on the shore. They'll stay with their parents for just over a year, and then they will fatten, molt, and leave the colony.

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Shackleton: Epic of Survival," November 1998, National Geographic magazine)

January 17, 2004
Bovanenkovo, Siberia, Russia
  1996
  Maria Stenzel

"The Yamal Peninsula holds what may be the largest natural gas reserves in the world—about 300 trillion cubic feet [8.5 million cubic meters]. (United States reserves are estimated at just over half that.) Working out of Bovanenkovo and other settlements, more than a thousand shift workers are laying the groundwork of a new industry: the towering derricks of exploratory wells, clusters of prefabricated buildings, roads crisscrossing the snowy landscape, and a railroad.
"Large-scale production is expected to begin early in [the 21st] century, and some Nenets [people] worry that they'll be left with a despoiled tundra, shrunken grazing lands, and a minimal share of the huge profits expected from gas production."

(Text from "Nenets: Surviving on the Siberian Tundra," March 1998, National Geographic magazine)

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Nenets: Surviving on the Siberian Tundra," March 1998, National Geographic magazine)

January 18, 2004
Shoalwater Bay, Washington State
  Early 1900s
  Edward S. Curtis

A Chinook Indian woman holds a clam basket. The Chinook prospered from the riches of the Pacific Northwest's waters and forests until a malaria epidemic devastated them in 1825. Today the handful of Chinook survivors live on the Quinault Reservation in Washington State.

—Text adapted from the National Geographic book Lewis and Clark: Voyage of Discovery, 1998

January 19, 2004
Gunung Mulu National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia
  1998
  Maria Stenzel

"Shouldering his burden, Lakei Padeng gathers poles to build a shelter deep in Gunung Mulu National Park, a protected swath of rain forest in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. Of the some 7,000 people of the Penan tribe, Lakei Padeng is one of 300 or fewer who still live in the rain forest. As for the rest, three decades of government-sanctioned logging has nearly destroyed their homeland, forcing them to live in dreary resettlement camps—an even heavier burden to bear."

—From "Vanishing Cultures," August 1999, National Geographic magazine

January 20, 2004
Off Kaikoura Peninsula, New Zealand
  1997
  Maria Stenzel

A whale's vanishing tail is a reminder of the Kaikoura Peninsula's past life as a whaling center. Just off the coast, the continental shelf plunges, forming an underwater canyon. Upwelling nutrients from the canyon form the base of an offshore food chain—with whales at the top.

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Deep Mysteries of Kaikoura Canyon," June 1998, National Geographic magazine)

January 21, 2004
Australia
  1989
  Sam Abell

"Song and dance of the original Australians—called a corroboree—invoke the ancient Dreamtime in the Aboriginal community of Kalumburu."

—From the National Geographic book Wild Shores of Australia, 1996

January 22, 2004
Hudson Bay, Canada
  1996
  Flip Nicklin

Alert but probably unperturbed, a polar bear stares down the camera. Thousands of ecotourists come to the Hudson Bay area to glimpse the bears, and the bears in turn have habituated to the human presence.

(Text adapted from "Polar Bears, Stalkers of the High Arctic," January 1998, National Geographic magazine)

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Polar Bears, Stalkers of the High Arctic," January 1998, National Geographic magazine)

January 23, 2004
030 Unknown location, United States
  1992
  Maria Stenzel

"Getting hands on a queen bee is mail-order easy. Bee breeders send them in a cage to beekeepers, who place the captive in a queenless hive. During the two days it takes the hive's residents to eat through the cage's candy plug, they grow accustomed to the scent of their new leader. Upon liberation, the queen begins laying eggs in the hive's hexagonal cells. Three weeks later, worker bees emerge."

—From "America抯 Beekeepers: Hives for Hire," May 1993, National Geographic magazine

January 24, 2004

     
  Adirondack State Park, New York
  1996
  Maria Stenzel

"The aesthetic pleasures of the High Peaks and other Adirondack wilderness may offer to the modern mind a compelling case for preservation. But in the late 1800s, when 'green' was just a color, advocates for a park stressed utilitarian concerns: One day the region's resources might be needed."

—From "Adirondack High," June 1998, National Geographic magazine

January 25, 2004
Victoria Land, Antarctica
  1997
  Maria Stenzel

A geologist hikes above a lake covered by some 19 meters [62 feet] of ice. Despite Antarctica's extreme temperatures, the lake is perpetually liquid, its freezing point lowered because of its high salinity—seven times that of sea water.

Scientists have found 2,800-year-old microbes in the ice above the lake. They came to life when thawed. Studying this lake's ecosystem could yield clues about life on Mars, where frozen surface water is speculated to hold life-forms.

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Timeless Valleys of the Antarctic Desert," October 1998, National Geographic magazine)

January 26, 2004
Kaikoura Canyon, New Zealand
  1997
  Maria Stenzel

The Maori people named their fishing ground here for the abundant crustaceans hiding in the shallow waters—kaikoura means "feast of crayfish." Other hunters, like this octopus, are also attracted to the crustacean feast.

(Text adapted from "Deep Mysteries of Kaikoura Canyon," June 1998, National Geographic magazine)

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Deep Mysteries of Kaikoura Canyon," June 1998, National Geographic magazine)

January 27, 2004
Australia
  1989
  Sam Abell

"A species of kingfisher, the blue-winged kookaburra delivers a shrieking cackle reminiscent of manic laughter; two types of kookaburras inhabit Australia."

—From the National Geographic book Wild Shores of Australia, 1996

January 28, 2004
Yar Sale, Yamal Peninsula, Siberia, Russia
  1996
  Maria Stenzel

Nenets women wear their finest coats at the annual spring festival in Yar Sale. A woman's coat pattern identifies her as a member of a certain clan.

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Nenets: Surviving on the Siberian Tundra," March 1998, National Geographic magazine)

January 29, 2004
Marsabit District, Kenya
  1998
  Maria Stenzel

An Ariaal girl lugs well water back home in the Marsabit District, which lies within the driest region of East Africa.

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Vanishing Cultures," August 1999, National Geographic magazine)

January 30, 2004
Near Perth, Australia
    
  Sam Abell

"The lights of the world's loneliest city shimmer to life as the last of the sun's rays recede over the Indian Ocean. Separated by 2,000 miles [3,219 kilometers] of desert and mountains from Australia's eastern cities, Perth evokes a frontier feeling—a sense that the bush is never far away—that belies its modernistic skyline and air of prosperity."

—From the National Geographic book Australia: Journey Through a Timeless Land, 1999