Welcome to Wikipedia

,

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From yesterday's featured article

Edward the Martyr (c. 962 – 18 March 978) was King of the English from 8 July 975 until he was killed in 978. His father, King Edgar, had been a strong and overbearing monarch who had forced the nobility to surrender land to the monasteries. Edward's reign is remembered as a time of lawlessness, because of the efforts of the nobles to get their land back, sometimes by force, and because of disputes between the leading magnates, although these never led to warfare. His short reign ended in his murder in unclear circumstances. Medieval kings were believed to be sacrosanct, and Edward's violent death deeply troubled contemporaries. He soon came to be regarded as a saint, and his feast of 18 March is still listed by the Church of England. Edward was known in his own time for his violent temper, and the historian Tom Watson comments: "For an obnoxious teenager who showed no evidence of sanctity or kingly attributes and who should have been barely a footnote, his cult has endured mightily well." (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

Cat at the Forbidden City

... that around 200 cats (example pictured) are tasked, as "security officers", with keeping mice out of the Forbidden City?
... that the lyrics in Conan Gray's song "People Watching" were based on things he heard while eavesdropping on couples?
... that Lydie Pongault was appointed to the Congolese government to fill the roles of two other ministers?
... that the gray stonecrop was little known in the 1970s but became so popular by the 1990s that demand exceeded supply?
... that using samples provided by Johann Jacob Ferber, it was demonstrated that mosaics at Pompeii were made with glass paste, not stone?
... that seven U.S. prosecutors resigned in protest over the Eric Adams corruption case?
... that Abbess Ruothild wrapped the body of Saint Fara in a silk covered with bare-breasted Amazons?
... that Ethan Hawke and Devery Jacobs smoked CBD while filming the Reservation Dogs episode "Elora's Dad"?
... that when someone accused George Chapman of basing his translation of the Odyssey on a Latin translation, he called them an "envious Windfucker" in the preface?

Emperor Jahangir Triumphing over Poverty

... that a 17th-century painting (pictured) depicts an Indian emperor shooting arrows at a personification of poverty?
... that people in the 1980s expressed interest in buying Chicago's James Charnley House only because they wanted to see the interior?
... that most sports fans are male, and class distinctions also influence which sports people follow?
... that a diamond named after Sienna Spiro sold for $3.4 million in June 2021?
... that David D. Demarest was the first professor of pastoral theology and sacred rhetoric at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary?
... that Nachi Gordon was one of the youngest agents to sign an NBA player?
... that Jim Photoglo wrote the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Fishin' in the Dark" and joined the band – almost 30 years later?
... that scholar Axinte Frunză wanted Romania to join the Central Powers in 1916, espousing "a vision that was profoundly anti-statist (with hints of anarchism), populist, and virulently anti-Russian"?
... that an effort to ban one German political party revealed that it was so heavily infiltrated that the German government partially controlled it?

In the news (For today)

Nightclub fire damage

Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip kill more than 400 people, ending the Gaza war ceasefire.
A nightclub fire (damage pictured) in Kočani, North Macedonia, kills at least 59 people and injures more than 155 others.
In Yemen, 53 people are killed after the United States launches air and naval strikes.
At least 42 people are killed as a result of storms and tornadoes in the Midwestern and Southern United States.
The People's United Party, led by Johnny Briceño, wins the Belizean general election.

On the previous day

March 18: Feast day of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (Christianity)

Traian Vuia's monoplane

363 – A fire began in Rome that resulted in the destruction of the Temple of Apollo Palatinus.
1277 – Charles I of Anjou acquired a claim on the Kingdom of Jerusalem in exchange for a significant sum of money.
1906 – Romanian inventor Traian Vuia became the first person to fly a heavier-than-air monoplane (pictured) with an unassisted takeoff.
1925 – The deadliest tornado in U.S. history spawned in Missouri and traveled more than 219 miles (352 km) across Illinois and Indiana, leaving one of the longest continuous tornado tracks ever recorded.
1977 – The punk group the Clash released their first single, "White Riot", described as their "most controversial song" due to its lyrics about class economics and race.
2019 – Syrian civil war: The U.S. Air Force carried out an airstrike in al-Baghuz Fawqani, killing as many as 80, a disputed number of whom were civilians.

Matthew III Csák (d. 1321)
Clem Hill (b. 1877)
Johnny Papalia (b. 1924)
Wali Mohammad Itoo (d. 1994)

More anniversaries:

Yesterday's featured picture

The sword-billed hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera), also known as the swordbill, is a neotropical species of hummingbird from the Andean regions of South America. Among the largest species of hummingbird, it is characterized by its unusually long beak, being the only bird to have a beak longer than the rest of its body, excluding the tail. It uses its bill to drink nectar from flowers with long corollas, and has coevolved with the species Passiflora mixta. While most hummingbirds preen using their bills, the sword-billed hummingbird uses its feet to scratch and preen due to its beak being so long. This sword-billed hummingbird was photographed perching on a branch at Hacienda El Bosque in Manizales, Colombia.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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:

Commons
Free media repository
MediaWiki
Wiki software development
Meta-Wiki
Wikimedia project coordination
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals
Wikidata
Free knowledge base
Wikinews
Free-content news
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations
Wikisource
Free-content library
Wikispecies
Directory of species
Wikiversity
Free learning tools
Wikivoyage
Free travel guide
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus

Wikipedia languages

This Wikipedia is written in English. Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below.

1,000,000+ articles
- العربية
- Deutsch
- Español
- فارسی‎
- Français
- Italiano
- Nederlands
- 日本語
- Polski
- Português
- Русский
- Svenska
- Українська
- Tiếng Việt
- 中文
250,000+ articles
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Bahasa Melayu
- Bân-lâm-gú
- Български
- Català
- Čeština
- Dansk
- Esperanto
- Euskara
- עברית
- Հայերեն
- 한국어
- Magyar
- Norsk bokmål
- Română
- Simple English
- Slovenčina
- Srpski
- Srpskohrvatski
- Suomi
- Türkçe
- Oʻzbekcha
50,000+ articles