First page

The Wikipedia Main Page

Welcome to the Wikipedia tour. My name is Denis, and I will be your guide. This trip will show you the diversity of the content on Wikipedia, some of its most unusual articles, the inner workings of the project, its policies and debates, and everything you need to know to become a contributor. Don't worry about getting lost - I will be with you during the whole trip.

What you see below is the Main Page of Wikipedia. You've probably seen it before, but pay a closer look. Much of the content below is updated daily by our open community of editors. The featured article, for example, is picked from the list of featured articles. These are pages which have undergone a community review process. The Did you know section in the lower right comes exclusively from our latest article additions. Also take a look at all the other languages Wikipedia is available in!

Welcome to Wikipedia

,

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

6,916,661 articles in English

From today's featured article

Susanna Lee Hoffs (born 1959) is an American singer-songwriter. With Debbi Peterson and Vicki Peterson, she founded the Bangles in 1981. Their second album, Different Light (1986), was warmly received by critics and was certified triple-platinum in 1994. The group's third album, Everything (1988), included the US-top-ten-charting "In Your Room" and number-one "Eternal Flame", both written by Hoffs with Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. Following tensions including resentment at Hoffs's perceived leadership of the band and the stress of touring, the band split in 1989, re-forming in 1999. Hoffs's first solo album, When You're a Boy (1991), was followed by Susanna Hoffs (1996). Neither of the releases proved to be as popular as the Bangles's albums, although they yielded two US-charting singles. Her most recent solo album is The Deep End (2023), and her first novel, This Bird Has Flown, a romantic comedy about a struggling musician, was published in the same year. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

Light Vessel 95

... that Light Vessel 95 (pictured) is now a recording studio?
... that Soviet academic Lily Golden researched "officially disapproved" genres of contemporary Black music?
... that the opening scene of Yen and Ai-Lee was rewritten as a long take due to rain during filming?
... that anime singer Rei Nakashima was named after Ray Charles?
... that the Miracle in Motown was the first of three successful Hail Mary passes thrown by Aaron Rodgers in a span of 13 months?
... that in high school Anne Marie Armstrong won three state titles in volleyball, three in basketball, and four in track and field?
... that when French secret police raided Deng Xiaoping's hotel room in Billancourt, they encountered copies of the Moscow newspaper Qian Jin Bao?
... that Victoria Espinosa directed the first performance of The Public, almost 50 years after it was written?
... that aerospace engineering firm Helliwells Ltd began as a maker of fireplace accessories?

In the news

Max Verstappen

In motorsport, Max Verstappen (pictured) wins the Formula One World Championship.
Following parliamentary elections, the Seimas elects Gintautas Paluckas as the prime minister of Lithuania.
The International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif in its investigation of war crimes in Palestine.

On this day

November 27

William III

1835 – James Pratt and John Smith became the last people to be executed in England for sodomy.
1856 – William III (pictured) unilaterally revised the constitution of Luxembourg, greatly expanding his powers as grand duke.
1963 – President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered the "Let Us Continue" speech, in which he advocated for civil-rights legislation and national cohesion, to a joint session of the U.S. Congress five days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
2009 – Lady Gaga performed the first concert of The Monster Ball Tour, which became the highest-grossing tour in history for a debut headlining artist.

Jacopo Mazzoni (b. 1548)
Katherine Sleeper Walden (b. 1862)
Harvey Milk (d. 1978)
Harrie Massey (d. 1983)

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

Mary Jackson (1921–2005) was an American mathematician and aerospace engineer at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and its successor, NASA. She worked at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, for most of her career. She started as a computer at the segregated West Area Computing division in 1951. In 1958, after taking engineering classes, she became NASA's first black female engineer. Jackson had earned the most senior engineering title available by 1979 and realized she could not earn further promotions without becoming a supervisor. She accepted a demotion to become a manager of both NASA's federal women's program and the affirmative action program. Her work sought to influence the career paths of women in science, engineering, and mathematics positions at NASA. Jackson is one of the leading characters in the 2016 book Hidden Figures and one of the three protagonists in the book's film adaptation, released the same year. This NASA photograph of Jackson was taken in 1979.

Photograph credit: NASA; restored by Adam Cuerden

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: