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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

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the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

117,932 active editors
6,989,254 articles in English

From today's featured article

De Kuip, venue of the 2015 KNVB Cup final

The 2015 KNVB Cup final was an association football match between PEC Zwolle and FC Groningen for the 97th KNVB Cup final, the Dutch Cup competition, played on 3 May 2015 at De Kuip in Rotterdam. PEC, the defending champions after their 5–1 victory over Ajax the previous year, were appearing in their fourth final. Groningen had reached the final once before, losing to PSV Eindhoven in 1989. PEC and Groningen entered the competition in the second round and progressed through five rounds to reach the final. Groningen scored 22 goals en route, the most of any team during the qualifying rounds. In front of more than 46,000 spectators, the first half ended goalless. The Slovak Albert Rusnák scored twice halfway through the second half, leading Groningen to a 2–0 victory and their first major honour. By winning the KNVB Cup, Groningen qualified for the 2015 Johan Cruyff Shield and the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League group stage. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

Example of a tree trunk

... that people in parts of India, North America, and Africa marry tree trunks (example pictured)?
... that some insects drink the tears of their predators?
... that the Vatican's website was first made available in Latin under Pope Benedict XVI?
... that Blue Origin NS-31 recently became the first all-female spaceflight in 62 years?
... that a disused industrial pier was incorporated into a city park?
... that a cultivar of Aquilegia flabellata has been called "as beautiful as a columbine needs to be"?
... that George R. Dale was sent to prison by a judge whom he accused of being in the Ku Klux Klan?
... that the sled dog race Ivakkak features two mushers riding on the dog sled?
... that Major League Baseball's first Pride Night came about after a lesbian couple were removed from a Los Angeles Dodgers game for kissing?

In the news

Mark Carney

In Canada, the Liberal Party, led by Prime Minister Mark Carney (pictured), wins the most seats in the federal election.
A power outage affects most of the Iberian Peninsula.
An explosion and fire at the Port of Shahid Rajaee, Iran, kills at least 70 people and injures more than 1,200 others.
At least 11 people are killed in a car-ramming attack at a street festival in Vancouver, Canada.
Militants attack a group of tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir, killing 26 people.

On this day

May 3: World Press Freedom Day; Constitution Memorial Day in Japan (1947); Constitution Day in Poland (1791)

Benty Grange helmet

1481 – The largest of a series of earthquakes struck the island of Rhodes, causing an estimated 30,000 casualties.
1848 – The Benty Grange helmet (pictured), a boar-crested Anglo-Saxon helmet similar to those mentioned in the contemporary epic poem Beowulf, was discovered in Derbyshire, England.
1939 – Subhas Chandra Bose formed the All India Forward Bloc, a faction within the Indian National Congress, in opposition to Gandhi's tactics of nonviolence.
1999 – A Doppler on Wheels team measured the fastest winds recorded on Earth, at 135 m/s (302 mph; 486 km/h), in a tornado near Bridge Creek, Oklahoma.

Elizabeth Bacon (d. 1621)
Jacob Riis (b. 1849)
Bob McCallister (b. 1934)
Ron Hextall (b. 1964)

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Today's featured picture

The eastern grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus) is a marsupial found in the eastern third of Australia, with a population of several million. The eastern grey kangaroo is the second largest living marsupial and native land mammal in Australia, with adult males weighing around 50 to 66 kg (110 to 146 lb) and females weighing around 17 to 40 kg (37 to 88 lb). Like all kangaroos, it is mainly nocturnal and crepuscular, and is mostly seen early in the morning, or as the light starts to fade in the evening. In the middle of the day, kangaroos rest in the cover of the woodlands and graze there. Kangaroos are the only large mammals to hop on two legs as their primary means of locomotion. This multiple exposure photograph shows an eastern grey kangaroo hopping in Mount Annan, New South Wales.

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: