Situation Room is a photograph taken by White House photographer Pete Souza in its namesake, the White House Situation Room, at 4:06 pm on May 1, 2011. It depicts U.S. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with members of the national security team, watching live drone feed of Operation Neptune Spear. A Navy SEAL team assaulted the compound of Osama bin Laden, the founder and head of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, in Abbottabad, Pakistan. This concluded an almost decade-long hunt for bin Laden following the September 11 attacks in 2001.

Photo: Pete Souza

The Brown Thornbill (Acanthiza pusilla) is a passerine bird usually found in eastern and south-eastern Australia. It can grow up to 10 centimetres (3.9 in) long. These thornbills are predominantly insectivores, though they may also eat seeds, fruit, or nectar.

Photo: JJ Harrison

The Third of May 1808 is a painting completed in 1814 by the Spanish master Francisco Goya, now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. Along with its companion piece of the same size, The Second of May 1808 (or The Charge of the Mamelukes), it was commissioned by the provisional government of Spain at Goya's suggestion. Goya sought to commemorate Spanish resistance to Napoleon's armies during the Peninsular War.

Painting: Francisco Goya

The lar gibbon (Hylobates lar) is a primate found in South-East Asia. This endangered gibbon species is primarily a frugivore, but may also feed on leaves, flowers, and insects.

This specimen was photographed in Kaeng Krachan National Park, Phetchaburi, Thailand.

Photograph: JJ Harrison

The Hammer retroazimuthal projection is a modified azimuthal proposed by Ernst Hermann Heinrich Hammer in 1910. As a retroazimuthal projection, azimuths (directions) are correct from any point to the designated center point. In whole-world presentation, the back and front hemispheres overlap, making the projection a surjective function. Here, the frontside and backside hemispheres, both with a 15° graticule and center point of 45°N, 90°W, are presented side-by-side.

Map: Strebe, using Geocart

"St Simeon Stylites" is a poem written by Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, in 1833 and published in his 1842 collection of poetry. The poem describes the actions of Simeon Stylites, the first pillar saint (a mediaeval Christian movement in which hermits, in the hopes of becoming closer to God, would perch atop tall columns for years, as a form of asceticism), who counts his various physical acts and hopes that he has earned his place in heaven. It captures Tennyson's feelings following the death of a close friend, Arthur Hallam, and contains feelings of self-loathing and regret. The work has ironic overtones that give it the appearance of a satirical work.

This illustration, from a 1901 edition, illustrates the following lines:

Illustration: W.E.F. Britten; restoration: Adam Cuerden

A panoramic view of the northwest façade of Château de Chambord. Built between 1519 and 1547 by King Francis I as a hunting lodge, it was heavily extended afterwards. The château is an example of Renaissance architecture, which blends traditional French medieval forms with classical Renaissance structures. This château is the largest of the Loire Valley, measuring 156 metres (512 ft) long and topping 56 metres (184 ft) in height. Chambord has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981.

Photograph: Benh Lieu Song

The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House was the second major battle in Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Overland Campaign of the American Civil War. Following the Battle of the Wilderness, Grant's forces disengaged from Robert E. Lee's Confederate army and moved to the southeast. Elements of Lee's army beat the Union army to the critical crossroads of Spotsylvania Court House and began entrenching. Fighting occurred on and off from May 8 through May 21; ultimately the battle was tactically inconclusive, but with a total of almost 32,000 casualties, it was the costliest battle of the campaign.

This chromolithograph was published by L. Prang & Co. in 1887, based on the work by Thure de Thulstrup.

Illustration: Thure de Thulstrup; restoration: Adam Cuerden

The nave of the parish church of Urtijëi, Italy; the church, dedicated to the Epiphany and to Saint Ulrich, was constructed in the 1790s and features painted domes and sculptures.

Photograph: Wolfgang Moroder

The Horsehead Nebula is a dark nebula in the constellation Orion. It is located just to the south of the star Alnitak, which is farthest east on Orion's Belt, and is part of the much larger Orion molecular cloud complex. The nebula is approximately 1500 light-years from Earth and was first recorded in 1888 by Scottish astronomer Williamina Fleming.

Photographer: Ken Crawford

The Visible Pinball Machine, a machine for playing pinball created by the Pacific Pinball Museum with transparent surfaces to show the normally concealed mechanisms. In pinball, players manipulate one or more steel balls on a playing field to score as many points as possible; a game ends after all the balls fall into the drain located at the bottom of the slanted playing field.

Photograph: Kevin Tiell/Pacific Pinball Museum