A saddled horse stands in the tiny town of Mentone, Texas. Seat of Loving County, the least populated county in the lower 48 states, Mentone sits smack in the middle of furnace-hot desert with oceans of oil belowground and not much to speak of above.
Dec 17, 2008
Tidal Pools, West Gouldsboro, Maine, 1984
Photograph by Bruce Dale
Tidal pools gleam in twilight near West Gouldsboro, in Maine’s Hancock County. Commercial fishing and tourism dominate the county, which is home to Acadia National Park.
Dec 18, 2008
Victim of Mount Vesuvius, Herculaneum, Italy, 1994
Photograph by O. Louis Mazzatenta
A reddish-brown skeleton, belonging to a victim of the infamous Mount Vesuvius eruption, lies partially uncovered in the ancient city of Herculaneum. The lesser-known sister city of Pompeii, Herculaneum was quickly buried by a glowing avalanche—consisting of fast-moving gases, pumice, and rocks—on that fateful August day in A.D. 79.
Dec 19, 2008
Sand Island, Midway Atoll, Pacific Ocean, 1998
Photograph by David Doubilet
Site of a famed World War II battle, the U.S. naval base on Midway is now a peaceful refuge for albatrosses and other wildlife. On June 4, 1942, six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, U.S. forces defended Sand Island and smaller Eastern Island from Japanese bombers.
Dec 20, 2008
Flooded Street, Multan, Pakistan, 1981
Photograph by James L. Stanfield
Prone to flooding, the central Pakistani city of Multan comes to a virtual halt after a deluge, but a ubiquitous horse-drawn tonga taxi pushes on, past a less fortunate pedestrian.
Dec 21, 2008
Cable Cars in Glacial Valley, France, 1960
Photograph by Walter Meayers Edwards
Cable cars swing across the Vallée Blanche in the French Alps. Beyond tower the saw-toothed peaks of the Grandes Jorasses.
Dec 22, 2008
Tuareg Cavalryman, Algeria, 1960
Photograph by Robert F. Sisson
A Tuareg cavalryman seldom reveals his face, even to a blood brother. Though nominally Muslim, the tribe's women go unveiled. Hard-riding Tuareg riders ruled the Algerian desert in the days before French rule.
Dec 23, 2008
Worshipers in Temple, Tay Ninh, Vietnam, 1961
Photograph by W.E. Garrett
Massed at midnight amid dragon pillars and beneath the Eye of God, praying Caodaists at Tay Ninh, Vietnam, mark the Day of the Creator.
Dec 24, 2008
San Francisco Xavier del Bac Mission, Arizona, 1964
Photograph by James P. Blair
Stark-white San Francisco Xavier del Bac Mission, south of Tucson, Arizona, lacks a right cupola. One legend, among many, tells that it was left unfinished as a memorial to the 18th-century Spanish architect, who fell to his death from the tower.
Dec 25, 2008
Subway Santa, Broadway, New York City, 1987
Photograph by Jodi Cobb
Though Macy's in New York City takes credit for inventing the department store Santa, most historians give the honor to a store owner in Massachusetts. Scottish immigrant James Edgar first impersonated Saint Nick in 1890 for customers at his dry goods shop in Brockton, south of Boston. Here, a crew of off-duty Santas makes its way down the steps of a subway station on Broadway in New York.
Dec 26, 2008
Sailplane Pilot, Innsbruck, Austria, 1961
Photograph by Volkmar K. Wentzel
A sailplane pilot over Innsbruck, Austria, glides above the Inn River between cloud-topped ranges. Warm winds that flow in from the south make the mountain valley ideal for soaring.
Dec 27, 2008
Iguazu Falls, Brazil, 1962
Photograph by Winfield Parks
One of the world's greatest cataracts shatters the Iguazu River between Argentina (near bank) and Brazil. Excursion steamers from Buenos Aires reach the falls in six days. Brazil maintains the elevator and observation tower at left. Rainbows often paint the entire gorge.
Dec 28, 2008
Beetle's Light Tracks, Jamaica, 1962
Photograph by Paul A. Zahl
Dual tracks of light from luminous spots, one on each side of the thorax, chronicle the movements of a click beetle on a leaf in Jamaica. Unlike the hovering, twinkling firefly, Pyrophorus beetles glow for several seconds then fly like a comet. To make this image, the photographer followed a time exposure with a flash.
Dec 29, 2008
Fisherman, Mocha, Yemen, 1964
Photograph by Thomas J. Abercrombie
Once-thriving Mocha, Yemen, grew rich exporting coffee, cultivated in the mountains nearby, and its name became synonymous with the drink. Decline set in when 18th-century planters successfully grew the bean in Java and the New World. Today blowing sand dusts the town and silts its harbor.
Dec 30, 2008
Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, 1964
Photograph by James P. Blair
Hikers walk through the steaming vents and hot springs of Norris Geyser Basin in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park. The area, named after an early Yellowstone superintendent, is considered the park's hottest thermal region.
Dec 31, 2008
Butterfly Tongue, Pleasant Valley, Maryland, 1968
Photograph by Paul A. Zahl
A bewhiskered face, here magnified 15 times, belies the beauty of a nymphalid butterfly. Hornlike antennae serve as taste, touch, hearing, and smell sensors. Blotchy eyes with hundreds of minute lenses guide the butterfly to nectar-bearing flowers whose colors give off ultraviolet rays visible to the insect but not to humans. To reach nectar buried deeply in blossoms, it uncoils its long, hollow tongue, now tucked between its eyes.