Main Page

Welcome to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. 3,893,182 articles in English

Arts Biography Geography

History Mathematics Science

Society Technology All portals

Today's featured article The Baker Street and Waterloo Railway (BS&WR) was a British railway company established in 1893 that bored an underground "tube" railway deep below the streets of London. Construction began in 1898, but was delayed by funding problems that included the collapse of its parent company through the massive fraud of its main shareholder Whitaker Wright. In 1902, the BS&WR came under the control of American financier Charles Yerkes who quickly raised the funds to enable the line to be completed. When opened on 10 March 1906, the BS&WR's line served nine stations and ran completely underground in a pair of tunnels for 5.81 kilometres (3.61 mi) between Baker Street and its southern terminus at Elephant and Castle. Extensions took the northern end of the line to the Great Western Railway's Paddington terminus by 1913 and to Watford by 1917, with services covering a total distance of 33.34 kilometres (20.72 mi). In 1933, the B&SWR and its parent company, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, were taken into public ownership and, today, the railway's tunnels and stations form the London Underground's Bakerloo line. (more...) Recently featured: 1910 London to Manchester air race – Martha Layne Collins – Cyclone Elita Did you know... From Wikipedia's newest content: ... that as a 12-year-old, Australian water polo player Holly Lincoln-Smith (pictured) saved the life of another swimmer in the middle of a race, then went on to finish 27th out of 40? ... that Kairuku grebneffi, an extinct species of penguin, was nearly 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) long and weighed 50% more than modern Emperor Penguins? ... that John Blackadder was outlawed and later arrested for unlawful preaching at conventicles, and died in prison? ... that Kapil Dev is the only player in the history of Test cricket to have taken more than 400 wickets and scored more than 5,000 runs? ... that a student witness to the Chardon High School shooting said her math teacher had a bulletproof vest in his classroom that he wore during the crisis? ... that a review for the 2000 gay pornographic video A Young Man's World said its portrayal of fictional middle-aged men was demeaning to actual middle-aged men?

In the news The United Democratic Party, led by Prime Minister Dean Barrow (pictured), wins a narrow majority in the Belizean general election. Businessman Allen Stanford is convicted of running a US$7 billion Ponzi scheme. Avalanches in Afghanistan's Badakhshan province kill at least 50 people. Vladimir Putin is elected President of Russia for a third term. Explosions at an arms dump in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, kill at least 250 people and injure more than 2,000 others. A tornado outbreak in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States causes at least 41 fatalities. On this day... March 10 1607 – Susenyos defeated the combined armies of Yaqob and Abuna Petros II at the Battle of Gol in Gojjam, making him Emperor of Ethiopia. 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell made his first successful bi-directional telephone call, saying, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." 1975 – Ho Chi Minh Campaign: North Vietnam began its final push for victory over South Vietnam with an attack on Ban Me Thuot. 1977 – Astronomers using NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory, an observatory aboard a highly modified jet aircraft, discovered a faint planetary ring system (pictured) around Uranus. 2005 – Tung Chee Hwa, the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong, announced his resignation following widespread dissatisfaction with his leadership. 2008 – The New York Times revealed that Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer had patronized a prostitution service. More anniversaries: March 9 – March 10 – March 11 It is now March 10, 2012 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture The Peacock butterfly (Inachis io) is a widespread butterfly species, found in Europe and temperate Asia, as far east as Japan. It has a wingspan of 50–55 mm (2.0–2.2 in). The base-colour of the wings is a rusty red, and at each wingtip it bears a distinctive eyespot, which has been much studied for its role as an anti-predator mechanism. Photo: Korall Recently featured: Ferry Collaroy – Heterochromia iridum – Laughing Kookaburra

Other areas of Wikipedia

• Community portal – Bulletin board, projects, resources and activities covering a wide range of Wikipedia areas.
• Help desk – Ask questions about using Wikipedia.
• Local embassy – For Wikipedia-related communication in languages other than English.
• Reference desk – Serving as virtual librarians, Wikipedia volunteers tackle your questions on a wide range of subjects.
• Site news – Announcements, updates, articles and press releases on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation.
• Village pump – For discussions about Wikipedia itself, including areas for technical issues and policies.

Wikipedia's sister projects

Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects:

	Commons Free media repository		Wikiquote Collection of quotations		Wikiversity Free learning materials and activities
	Wikibooks Free textbooks and manuals		Wikisource Free-content library		Wiktionary Dictionary and thesaurus
	Wikinews Free-content news		Wikispecies Directory of species		Meta-Wiki Wikimedia project coordination

Wikipedia languages

This Wikipedia is written in English. Started in 2001 (2001), it currently contains 3,893,182 articles. Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below.

• More than 700,000 articles: Deutsch · Español · Français · Italiano · Nederlands · 日本語 · Polski · Português · Русский
• More than 150,000 articles: العربية · Bahasa Indonesia · Català · Česky · Dansk · Esperanto · فارسی · 한국어 · Magyar · ‪Norsk (bokmål)‬ · Română · Српски / Srpski · Suomi · Svenska · Tiếng Việt · Türkçe · Українська · 中文
• More than 50,000 articles: Bahasa Melayu · Български · Eesti · Ελληνικά · Simple English · Euskara · Galego · עברית · Hrvatski · Lietuvių · ‪Norsk (nynorsk)‬ · Slovenčina · Slovenščina · Srpskohrvatski / Српскохрватски · ไทย

Complete list of Wikipedias