Welcome to Wikipedia

,

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

Richard II of England

The Wonderful Parliament was a session of the English parliament held from October to November 1386 in Westminster Abbey. Called by King Richard II (depicted) to address his need for money, it attempted to reform his administration. Richard had become increasingly unpopular due to perceived extravagance towards his political favourites and the unsuccessful prosecution of war against France. Discontent climaxed when Richard requested a then-unprecedented sum to raise an army. The House of Lords and the House of Commons united against him and his unpopular chancellor, Michael de la Pole, demanding the latter's impeachment. Richard requested the Commons send a delegation to negotiate; Parliament, fearing an ambush, sent two lords instead. The lords threatened Richard with deposition until he agreed to do Parliament's bidding. He was forced to sack de la Pole and was restricted to advisers appointed by parliament. The King was incensed and left Westminster almost immediately. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

Cairo Citadel

... that Baha al-Din Qaraqush built the Cairo Citadel (pictured) on behalf of the sultan, Saladin?
... that the 2012 Olympic women's soccer semifinal between the Canadian and the American national teams was called "the greatest knockout match in major-tournament football" since 1982?
... that after he was stripped of his Cornish landholdings, Henry Fitzcount joined the Fifth Crusade, during which he died?
... that Svalbard Minute by Minute, a 221-hour-long television broadcast, is credited with increasing tourism in Svalbard by 25 percent?
... that Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction From Africa and the African Diaspora was partly inspired by The 1619 Project?
... that Balbuena metro station was flooded with sewage following a failure attributed to an unrelated fire?
... that Nathan Safir, general manager of Texas radio station KCOR for 44 years, was credited with being a pioneer in Spanish-language broadcasting in the United States?
... that squatters in Hamburg briefly occupied the former Erotic Art Museum?

In the news

Cooper Kupp

In American football, the Los Angeles Rams defeat the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl (MVP Cooper Kupp pictured).
Cyclone Batsirai makes landfall in Madagascar, displacing at least 112,000 people and leaving more than 100 others dead.
In association football, the Africa Cup of Nations concludes with Senegal defeating Egypt in the final.
Indian playback singer and composer Lata Mangeshkar dies at the age of 92.

On this day

February 18

Enterprise on top of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft

1766 – Malagasy captives on the VOC slave ship Meermin began a mutiny that led to the ship's destruction on Cape Agulhas in present-day South Africa and the recapture of the instigators.
1942 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army began the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among Chinese Singaporeans.
1977 – NASA's first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, made its first test flight on top of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (both pictured).
2007 – Terrorist bombs exploded on a Samjhauta Express train in Panipat, India, killing 68 people.

Michelangelo (d. 1564)
George Henschel (b. 1850)
Sergo Ordzhonikidze (d. 1937)

More anniversaries:

From today's featured list

All Saints' Church, Daresbury

There are 27 listed buildings in the rural area of Runcorn, a small industrial town in the borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a building or other structure officially designated as being of special architectural, historical, or cultural significance. Three of the buildings in the area are classified as Grade II*, and the others are at Grade II; there are no buildings in Grade I. The ages of the structures on the list range from the ruin of Clifton Hall, built in 1565, to the telephone kiosk in Daresbury, which dates from the 1930s. The three Grade II* listed buildings include the only church in the list (pictured) and two former mansion houses. The church and one of the mansion houses are in Daresbury, and the other mansion house is in Moore. Daresbury also contains a former sessions house. (Full list...)

Recently featured:

Today's featured picture

The northern giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is native to North Africa. The northern giraffe has two horn-like protuberances known as ossicones on their foreheads. These are longer and larger than those of the southern giraffes, although bull northern giraffes have a third cylindrical ossicone in the center of the head just above the eyes which range in length between 3 inches (8 cm) and 5 inches (10 cm). This individual was photographed at Zoo d'Amnéville in northeastern France.

Photograph credit: Stefan Krause

Recently featured:

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.
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.
Teahouse – To ask your first basic questions about contributing to Wikipedia.
Village pump – For discussions about Wikipedia itself, including areas for technical issues and policies.

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
- 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
- فارسی‎
- עברית
- 한국어
- Magyar
- Norsk Bokmål
- Română
- Srpski
- Srpskohrvatski
- Suomi
- Türkçe
50,000+ articles