Welcome to Wikipedia

,

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

Thomas Percy was a member of the failed Gunpowder Plot. Following King James's accession to the English throne in 1603, Percy became disenchanted with the new king, who he supposed had reneged on his promises of toleration for English Catholics. He joined Robert Catesby's conspiracy to kill the King and his ministers by blowing up the House of Lords with gunpowder. Percy helped fund the group and secured the leases to properties in London, including the undercroft beneath the House of Lords where the gunpowder was placed. When the plot was exposed on 5 November 1605, Percy fled to the Midlands, catching up with other conspirators travelling to Dunchurch. At the border of Staffordshire, they were besieged by the Sheriff of Worcester and his men. Percy was reportedly killed by the same musket ball as Catesby and was buried nearby. His body was later exhumed, and his head exhibited outside Parliament. (This article is part of a featured topic: Gunpowder Plot.)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

"Neuron screen" at the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences

... that a screen based on the circuitry of a rat brain (pictured) is displayed on the façade of the Jerusalem-based Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences?
... that the Korean War allowed Don Bragg to set a UCLA basketball record for the most rebounds by a varsity freshman, which stood for almost 40 years?
... that the Indonesian pulp and paper industry collectively controls over 10 million hectares of land?
... that Tore Skeie's first book, written while he faced severe financial hardship, won him a prize of NOK 100,000?
... that 1977's Typhoon Thelma was the most destructive event in Taiwan since World War II?
... that Sammy Basso was the oldest known person with progeria?
... that the 2024 psychological horror game Mouthwashing utilises non-diegetic scene transitions that mimic glitches and crashes?
... that John W. Keogh killed an attorney to encourage redistricting?
... that Methuselah likes belly rubs?

In the news

Maia Sandu

Maia Sandu (pictured) is re-elected President of Moldova.
In baseball, the Yokohama DeNA BayStars defeat the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks to win the Japan Series.
A canopy collapse at Serbia's Novi Sad railway station kills fourteen people.
The ruins of a Maya city, dubbed Valeriana, are discovered in Campeche, Mexico.

On this day

November 5: Guy Fawkes Night in Great Britain and some Commonwealth countries

Aline Chrétien

1138 – Lý Anh Tông was enthroned as the emperor of Đại Việt at the age of two, beginning a 37-year reign.
1943 – World War II: An unknown aircraft dropped four bombs on Vatican City, which maintained neutrality during the war.
1995 – Aline Chrétien (pictured) thwarted André Dallaire's attempt to assassinate her husband, Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien, by locking the bedroom door in 24 Sussex Drive, their official residence in Ottawa.
2003 – American serial killer Gary Ridgway pleaded guilty to 48 counts of first-degree murder.
2013 – The Indian Space Research Organisation launched the Mars Orbiter Mission, India's first interplanetary probe.

Louis Bertrand Castel (b. 1688)
Edwin Flack (b. 1873)
James Robert Baker (d. 1997)
Habibollah Asgaroladi (d. 2013)

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

The tentacled flathead (Papilloculiceps longiceps) is a species of marine fish belonging to the flathead family, Platycephalidae. It is found in the western Indian Ocean, including the Red Sea, and also in the Mediterranean Sea, probably as a result of migration through the Suez Canal. The tentacled flathead is a well-camouflaged, ambush predator of fish and crustaceans, living near coral reefs on sand or rubble substrates at depths of up to 15 metres (49 feet). The species has an elongate body, with a maximum published length of 70 centimetres (28 inches), although 50 centimetres (20 inches) is more typical. It has a depressed head with five prominent nuchal spines, ridges on its operculum and preoperculum, a spine on the rear of the suborbital ridge, and smaller spines elsewhere. The body is mottled brownish or greenish dorsally, and whitish ventrally. There are three or four dark bands on the caudal fin, and the other fins are marked with large, dark blotches. This tentacled flathead was photographed in the Red Sea in Ras Muhammad National Park, off the southern coast of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.

Photograph credit: Diego Delso

Recently featured:

Other areas of Wikipedia

Community portal – The central hub for editors, with resources, links, tasks, and announcements.
Village pump – Forum for discussions about Wikipedia itself, including policies and technical issues.
Site news – Sources of news about Wikipedia and the broader Wikimedia movement.
Teahouse – Ask basic questions about using or editing Wikipedia.
Help desk – Ask questions about using or editing Wikipedia.
Reference desk – Ask research questions about encyclopedic topics.
Content portals – A unique way to navigate the encyclopedia.

Wikipedia's 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: