Introduction · Almanac · Categories · Glossaries · Lists · Overviews · Portals · Questions · Site news · Index

Welcome to Wikipedia

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit

As of 07:39, Tuesday, September 17, 2024 (UTC), Wikipedia has 6,883,804 articles and 47,979,263 users. (Purge to refresh)

Today's featured article

Sir Frederick "Boy" Browning (1896–1965) was a British Army general who has been called the "father of the British airborne forces". He was also an Olympic bobsleigh competitor, and the husband of author Daphne du Maurier. Educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards in 1915 and served on the Western Front in the First World War. During the Second World War, Browning commanded the I Airborne Corps in Operation Market Garden in September 1944. During the planning for this operation, he was alleged to have said: "I think we might be going a bridge too far." In December 1944 he became chief of staff of Admiral Lord Mountbatten's South East Asia Command. After the war Browning was comptroller and treasurer to Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh. After she ascended to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, Browning became treasurer in the Office of the Duke of Edinburgh. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

In the news

Alberto Fujimori in 1991

Former president of Peru Alberto Fujimori (pictured) dies at the age of 86.
Flooding following a dam collapse in Borno State, Nigeria, leaves at least 30 people dead.
Typhoon Yagi leaves more than 900 people dead across six Asian countries.
Abdelmadjid Tebboune is declared the winner of the Algerian presidential election amid a dispute over the election's turnout.

On This Day

September 17: Mid-Autumn Festival in China (2024); Constitution Day in the United States

Emperor Norton

1176 – Byzantine–Seljuk wars: At the Battle of Myriokephalon in Phrygia, the Seljuq Turks prevented Byzantine forces from taking the interior of Anatolia.
1382 – Following Louis I's death without a male heir, his daughter Mary was crowned with the title of King of Hungary.
1859 – Disgruntled with the legal and political structures of the United States, Joshua Norton (pictured) distributed letters to various newspapers in San Francisco proclaiming himself to be Emperor Norton.
1894 – John Hyrum Koyle, a controversial Mormon bishop, began excavating the Dream Mine, which he believed would provide financial support to members of the LDS Church.
1914 – Andrew Fisher, who in his previous term as premier oversaw a period of reform unmatched in the Commonwealth until the 1940s, became Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.

Li Jingsui (d. 958)
Marguerite Louise d'Orléans (d. 1721)
Periyar (b. 1879)
Hank Williams (b. 1923)

More anniversaries:

Did you know...

State Publishing House of Ukraine symbol

... that 1920s belles-lettres books published by the State Publishing House of Ukraine (symbol pictured) sold out more rapidly than similar books published elsewhere in the Soviet Union, despite the higher average price?
... that Juan de Casas, the Spanish military governor of Venezuela, cried after the French demanded that he accept a Frenchman as king?
... that the Empire of Japan created a girl group as propaganda?
... that a bust of former Peruvian president Justiniano Borgoño was stolen from its pedestal by thieves?
... that the Republic Drug Store was formed from the consolidation of an estate and its competition?
... that a coconut tree meme drove sales of piña coladas in the Washington, D.C., area?
... that Nicole Chang-Leng has been described as a "daughter" of the Seychelles?
... that a former teacher in the Philippines became a Robin Hood–like outlaw?
... that the author of Sugar Dog Life ended up buying and raising a cactus after drawing one in the manga?

Featured Pictures

Commons picture of the day

Bridge at the heart pond in the wildlife park in Dülmen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Picture of the day

Ganymede is a moon of Jupiter and the largest and most massive satellite in the Solar System. It is the largest Solar System object without a substantial atmosphere and also the only moon in the Solar System with a substantial magnetic field. Like Titan, Saturn's largest moon, it is larger than the planet Mercury but, due to its lower density, has somewhat less surface gravity than Mercury, Io, or the Moon. Ganymede is composed of silicate rock and water in approximately equal proportions. It is a fully differentiated body, with an iron-rich liquid core and an internal ocean. Ganymede orbits Jupiter in roughly seven days and is in a 1:2:4 orbital resonance with Europa and Io. This image, a composite of three photographs taken by the NASA space probe Juno during a flyby in 2021, depicts the northern hemisphere of Ganymede roughly centered around the prime meridian.Photograph credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Kevin M. Gill

Archive – More featured pictures...

Todays featured list

Today's featured list is: September 17.

Wikipedia community

Every page on Wikipedia is a collaborative effort. But there are some special places reserved for specific types of discussion and assistance. Find what you're looking for here:

Help (contents) — Use this if you need help editing. There is also a comprehensive range of help articles available here. You can ask a question about using Wikipedia at the Help Desk.
Community bulletin board — Requests for help within the Wikipedia community.
The Village Pump — These are main discussion forums for Wikipedia.
The Signpost — This is Wikipedia's local newspaper.
The Community Portal — This is the center of community involvement. Learn about projects and activities you can join to help improve Wikipedia.

Collaborations — Weekly, monthly, and ongoing collaborative article improvement drives within specific subject areas.
Reference Desk — Help other Wikipedians who are looking for specific information by answering their subject-related questions at the reference desk (like a library's information desk).
Local Embassy — For Wikipedia-related communication in languages other than English.
Department of Fun — Dedicated to FUN on Wikipedia.
Clinic for Wikipediholics — Sign-in to Wikipedia!
Welcoming committee — Greet newcomers.
Wikipedia Boot Camp — Take a crash course about Wikipedia!

Wikipedia sister projects

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