Welcome to Wikipedia

,

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

296,102 active editors
7,137,090 articles in English

From today's featured article

Reverse of a 1967 brass threepence

The brass threepence, a twelve-sided coin dated between 1937 and 1970, was the first British coin that was not round. By the mid-1930s, the weight of the bronze penny and its fractions had become an issue for firms that dealt with them in bulk. The silver threepence was unpopular in England due to its small size. The Royal Mint chose a brass twelve-sided threepence readily distinguishable from other coins due to its size, shape and colour. The initial reverse design by Frances Madge Kitchener of a thrift plant was altered at the direction of the Royal Mint by Percy Metcalfe without Kitchener's knowledge. The new coin was slow to circulate when released to the public in 1937, but gained the public's liking, and the silver threepence was discontinued in 1945. A new design, with a crowned portcullis (pictured), was instituted for Elizabeth II in 1953. After the decimalisation of the pound in 1971, it rapidly vanished from circulation and lost its status as legal tender after 31 August 1971. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

The Dance of Anitra

... that The Dance of Anitra (pictured) is one of the few sculptures by Edith Maryon known to have survived in private ownership?
... that a building in New York City had to be classified as a hospital despite containing classrooms and a dormitory?
... that sulfur mollies create rhythmic waves to avoid ending up in birds' beaks?
... that physical copies of Chama come with a short story about the premise of the album?
... that the Armenian politician Aram Piruzyan said the USSR's head of state asked for copies of his cookbook to give to Fidel Castro?
... that a U.S. Army veteran was claimed to be suffering from erotomania when he carried out a mass shooting at a Ford Motor Plant in Michigan?
... that Dawn Hope's first episode on Hollyoaks featured an entirely Black cast?
... that a bridge over the Schuylkill River does not actually cross the river?
... that Inugami Korone's catchphrase "yubi yubi" calls for her fans to cut off their fingers and give them to her?

In the news

António José Seguro

Shootings at a residence and a school in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Canada, leave nine people dead.
António José Seguro (pictured) is elected president of Portugal.
In American football, the Seattle Seahawks defeat the New England Patriots to win the Super Bowl.
In the Thai general election, the Bhumjaithai Party, led by Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, wins the most seats in the House of Representatives.

On this day

February 15: National Flag of Canada Day; Statehood Day in Serbia; Susan B. Anthony Day in some parts of the United States

Intelsat 708 veering off course

1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: The invasion of Ceylon ended with Johan van Angelbeek, the Batavian governor of the island, surrendering Colombo to British forces.
1906 – A team of Italian archaeologists led by Ernesto Schiaparelli discovered the tomb of Kha and Merit, an ancient Egyptian foreman and his wife, in the workmen's village of Deir el-Medina.
1961 – All 72 people on board Sabena Flight 548, including the entire U.S. figure-skating team, and one person on the ground were killed when the aircraft crashed on approach to Brussels Airport.
1976 – The current Constitution of Cuba, providing for a system of government and law based on those of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries, was adopted by a national referendum.
1996 – A Long March 3B rocket carrying the communications satellite Intelsat 708 (pictured) crashed immediately after launch from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China, destroying a nearby town and killing an unknown number of inhabitants.

John Caesar (d. 1776)
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (b. 1811)
Sophie Bryant (b. 1850)
Norman C. Deno (b. 1921)

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

The Young Companion, known as Liángyǒu in Chinese, was a pictorial magazine with captions in both Chinese and English, published in Shanghai, China, between 1926 and 1945. It is regarded as one of the most influential large-scale comprehensive Asian pictorials in the 1920s, and has proven useful to historians in modern times in examining the glamorous side of colonial-era Shanghai. It ran for 174 issues, including two special issues not given monthly issue numbers – the "Sun Yat-sen Memorial Special" and the "Eighth Anniversary". This is the cover of the first issue of The Young Companion, dated 15 February 1926, and featuring a photograph of the Chinese actress Hu Die.

Cover credit: Hujiang Photo Studio; retouched by Chris Woodrich

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: