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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.

123,575 active editors
6,975,983 articles in English

From today's featured article

Willow Lake, in the Big Butte Creek watershed, and Mount McLoughlin

Big Butte Creek is a 12-mile-long (19 km) tributary of the Rogue River located in the U.S. state of Oregon. It drains approximately 245 square miles (630 km²) of Jackson County. The north fork of the creek begins on Rustler Peak and the south fork's headwaters are near Mount McLoughlin (pictured). They meet near Butte Falls, and Big Butte Creek flows generally northwest until it empties into the Rogue River about 1 mile (1.6 km) southwest of Lost Creek Dam (William L. Jess Dam). Big Butte Creek's watershed was originally settled more than 8,000 years ago by the Klamath, Upper Umpqua, and Takelma tribes of Native Americans. In the Rogue River Wars of the 1850s, most of the Native Americans were either killed or forced into Indian reservations. The first non-indigenous settlers arrived in the 1860s, and the area was quickly developed. The creek was named after Snowy Butte, an early name for Mount McLoughlin. The small city of Butte Falls was incorporated in 1911. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Cover of the sheet music for Burlesque

... that Burlesque (sheet music pictured) was a hit play of the 1927–28 Broadway season that was marked by its "depiction of seedy glamour and jazzy lingo"?
... that the themes of Somuk's artwork range from the bombing of his island during World War II to the origin of trees and plants?
... that a sprinter and a judoka representing Kiribati at the 2024 Summer Olympics were the youngest participants in their respective sports at the games?
... that Joe Biden ran for president twice before being elected in 2020?
... that Baabda residents collectively purchased the Seraglio of Baabda for 1,000 gold Ottoman liras in the late 19th century to gift to the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate government?
... that Herman Brown's estate and most of the proceeds from the sale of Brown & Root were donated after his death to his charitable foundation, which has given more than $2 billion in grants in Texas?
... that more than a quarter of the population of Germany is of migration background?
... that Sammy Powers was the only member of the original 1919 Green Bay Packers team who was not a local player?
... that Laurence Sterne was told to burn all copies of his pamphlet that depicts his patron's rival with a toilet on his head?

In the news

Marine Le Pen

Marine Le Pen (pictured), the runner-up in the 2017 and 2022 French presidential elections, is convicted of embezzlement and banned from standing in elections for five years.
A magnitude-7.7 earthquake leaves more than 4,300 people dead in Myanmar and Thailand.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition unilaterally voids the 2018 peace agreement after the arrest of South Sudanese vice president Riek Machar and his wife, interior minister Angelina Teny.
The Sudanese Armed Forces recapture Khartoum from the Rapid Support Forces after almost two years of fighting.

On this day

April 3

Rakesh Sharma

1043 – Edward the Confessor, usually considered to be the last king of the House of Wessex, was crowned King of England.
1984 – Aboard Soyuz T-11, Rakesh Sharma (pictured) became the first Indian to be launched into space.
1996 – A U.S. Air Force CT-43 crashed into a mountainside while attempting an instrument approach to Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia, killing all 35 people on board, including Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.
2009 – A gunman opened fire at the American Civic Association in Binghamton, New York, U.S., killing thirteen and wounding four before committing suicide.
2013 – The northeastern section of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, experienced several flash floods that killed at least 100 people.

Mukhtar al-Thaqafi (d. 687)
Mary Carpenter (b. 1807)
Reginald Heber (d. 1826)
Gus Grissom (b. 1926)

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Today's featured picture

Ford Strikers Riot is a 1941 photograph that shows an American strikebreaker getting beaten by United Auto Workers (UAW) strikers who were picketing at the Ford Motor Company's Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan. Milton Brooks, a photographer for The Detroit News, captured the image on April 3, 1941, and it won the inaugural Pulitzer Prize for Photography in 1942. The photograph has been called a portrayal of the struggle in America between capital and labor. During the incident, a peaceful picketing of the Ford Motor Company was interrupted when a single man clashed with the UAW strikers. The man ignored the advice of the Michigan State Police and crossed the picket lines. Brooks, who was waiting with other photojournalists outside the Ford factory gates, took only one photograph and said: "I took the picture quickly, hid the camera ... ducked into the crowd ... a lot of people would have liked to wreck that picture."

Photograph credit: Milton Brooks; restored by Yann Forget

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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: