Welcome to Wikipedia

,

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

Ed Bradley (1941–2006) was an American broadcast journalist best known for reporting with 60 Minutes and CBS News. Bradley started his television news career in 1971 as a stringer for CBS at the Paris Peace Accords. He won Alfred I. duPont and George Polk awards for his coverage of the Vietnam War and the Cambodian Civil War. Returning to the United States, he became CBS's first Black White House correspondent. Bradley joined 60 Minutes in 1981 and reported on more than 500 stories with the program during his career, the most of any of his colleagues. Known for his fashion sense and disarming demeanor, Bradley won numerous journalism awards for his reporting, which has been credited with prompting federal investigations into psychiatric hospitals, lowering the cost of drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS, and ensuring that the accused in the Duke lacrosse case received a fair trial. He died of lymphocytic leukemia in 2006. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

Sage cultivation, 14th-century manuscript

... that much of what we know of medieval gardens comes from illuminated manuscripts (example pictured)?
... that Mark Hutton was the first Australian to be a starting pitcher in a Major League Baseball game?
... that two of three candidates in the 2018 mayoral race in Malang, Indonesia, were arrested for bribery before the election?
... that Gladys Stone Wright got started with a year of free piano lessons and a $5 clarinet?
... that "At the Name of Jesus" has been described as "the only completely objective theological hymn to come from the hand of a 19th-century woman writer"?
... that Liza Soberano's early acting roles include playing the third wheel in romance films?
... that Maryland state delegate C. T. Wilson compared negotiating with the Catholic Church on the Maryland Child Victims Act to making "a deal with the devil"?
... that educational writer Ștefan Tita gave Romanian students impractical advice on mending damaged bark with bandages of dirt?
... that Eminem promoted "Houdini" with a video in which David Blaine eats a wine glass?

In the news

Keir Starmer

The Labour Party (leader Keir Starmer pictured) wins the United Kingdom general election.
Hurricane Beryl, the earliest-recorded Category 5 Atlantic hurricane, leaves at least 22 people dead in the Caribbean and Venezuela.
In the Netherlands, a new cabinet is sworn in, with Dick Schoof serving as the prime minister.
A stampede during a religious event in Uttar Pradesh, India, leaves at least 120 people dead.

On this day

July 5: Fifth of July in New York

Artefacts from the Staffordshire Hoard

1841 – Thomas Cook, the founder of the British travel company Thomas Cook & Son, organised his first excursion, escorting about 500 people from Leicester to Loughborough.
1924 – Brazilian Army rebels launched an uprising in São Paulo against President Artur Bernardes, who authorized the bombing of the city in response.
1969 – Two days after the death of their founder Brian Jones, the Rolling Stones performed at a free festival in Hyde Park, London, in front of more than a quarter of a million fans.
2009 – The Staffordshire Hoard, the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered, consisting of more than 1,500 items (examples pictured), was found near Hammerwich in Staffordshire.

W. T. Stead (b. 1849)
Thomas Playford IV (b. 1896)
Kate Gynther (b. 1982)
Ted Williams (d. 2002)

More anniversaries:

From today's featured list

Twelve original video games, alongside several ports and other spin-offs, were released by Looking Glass Studios, an American video game developer, in its ten years of activity from 1990 to 2000. The first Looking Glass Studios video game was Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, which was released in 1992 and received widespread critical acclaim and sold nearly 500,000 units. The studio proceeded to develop titles in multiple genres, including role-playing, sports, flight-simulation, and stealth video games. These were primarily published by Origin Systems, Electronic Arts and Eidos Interactive, with three games self-published by Looking Glass Studios. Their products were praised for innovations in video game technology and design. Several of their successes, such as Flight Unlimited and Thief: The Dark Project, sold more than half a million copies each. Its final project, Jane's Attack Squadron, was completed by Mad Doc Software and released by Xicat Interactive in 2002. (Full list...)

Recently featured:

Today's featured picture

Cirsium palustre, the marsh thistle, is a herbaceous biennial (or often perennial) flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to Europe, where it is particularly common on damp ground such as marshes, wet fields, moorland and beside streams. In Canada and the northern United States it is an introduced species that has become invasive. It grows in dense thickets that can crowd out slower-growing native plants. Cirsium palustre can reach up to 2 metres (7 ft) in height. The strong stems have few branches and are covered in small spines. In its first year the plant grows as a dense rosette and in subsequent years a candelabra of dark purple or occasionally white flowers, 10–20 millimetres (0.4–0.8 in) with purple-tipped bracts. In the Northern Hemisphere these are produced from June to September. The plant provides an important source of nectar for pollinators. This C. palustre flower was photographed in Niitvälja, Estonia.

Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus

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: