Plenty of Nothing

Olga Alexandrovna's House

From 1952 to 1960 this bungalow at 2130 Camilla Road, Cooksville, Mississauga was home to Olga Alexandrovna, the younger sister of Tsar Nicholas II.

A Milkmaid

Source.

Bridal Couple

A plate from the State Porcelain Factory, now in the National Gallery of Australia. Source.

Progress 1

Tomorrow marks the 40th anniversary of the launch of Progress 1, the first automated space station supply ship. These things are still flying and have reached orbit 156 times, with three failures. Despite operating Skylab from 1973 to 1979 and maintaining the International Space Station since 1998, NASA has never launched its own uncrewed supply ship, relying instead on the Space Shuttle, Progress, ferries launched by the ESA and Japan, as well as private industry. Source.

Dom Knigi

Art Nouveau figures over the entrance to the Dom Knigi bookstore on Nevsky Prospekt in Saint Petersburg. Source.

Feast of Saint Olga

Saint Olga is commemorated today for her involvement in the spread of Christianity through tenth-century Russia -- involvement that included some arson. From the Radziwiłł Chronicle.

At the Telephone

Alexsandr Rodchenko, At the Telephone (1928).

Space 1959: Luna 1

On this date in 1959 the USSR launched Luna 1, the first attempt by humans to crash something into the moon. It missed, and is now in orbit around the Sun between Earth and Mars. Luna 2 achieved the desired impact on September 14, 1959, a little east of Mare Imbrium. Source.

Space 1959: Luna 3

On October 7, 1959, the Soviet space probe Luna 3 took the first pictures of the far side of the moon. This view is actually of the east side of the moon. That's Mare Moscoviense in the upper right. Compare.

Putin

Source.