Welcome toWikipedia

thefree encyclopedia thatanyone can edit.

118,315 active editors
6,993,507 articles inEnglish

From today's featured article

Marie Sophie Hingst (1987–2019) was a German historian and blogger who falsely claimed to be descended fromHolocaust survivors. Born into aProtestant family, she fabricated a Jewish background and sent documentation for 22 misrepresented or non-existent relatives, who she claimed wereHolocaust victims, to the official Holocaust memorialYad Vashem. She maintained a blog about her supposed Jewish background, identity and experiences as a Germanexpatriate in Ireland, where she moved in 2013. The blog received hundreds of thousands of views. Throughout her life, Hingst falsified much of her background, connections, and achievements. She used her fraudulent credentials to gain awards and recognition, and held positions of prestige in Jewish communities across Europe. A journalist exposed her claims as false in 2019. She was castigated in the German media, destroying her reputation. Hingst committed suicide at the age of 31. Her fraud and death attracted attention across Europe. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

Norman Lykes House

... that theNorman Lykes House(pictured) was the last house thatFrank Lloyd Wright ever designed?
... that Bosnian sitting volleyball playersSabahudin Delalić,Ismet Godinjak,Adnan Manko,Asim Medić, andDževad Hamzić have won medals at every Paralympics this century?
... thatmountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains ofLos Angeles are one of only two examples of wildbig cats living in amegacity?
... that Nigerian academicJames Nwoye Adichie was kidnapped in 2015?
... that around 80 percent of foreign tourists to the Indonesian province ofLampung in 2019 went to the town ofKrui?
... that inmates fromNew York state prisons can be involuntarily committed at theCentral New York Psychiatric Center?
... that theMarshal of France surrendered to theBlack Prince afterhis keep was set on fire?
... thatRachel Chinouriri has dreamed of having aLittle House with a partner since she was a child?
... thatJilly Cooper described her bonkbusterAppassionata as her "sex andChopin" novel?

In the news

José Mujica

Formerpresident of UruguayJosé Mujica(pictured) dies at the age of 89.
Robert Francis Prevostis elected asPope Leo XIV, becoming the first Catholicpope born in the United States.
Friedrich Merz is electedChancellor of Germany and sworn in alongsidehis coalition government.
Zhao Xintong defeatsMark Williams to winthe World Snooker Championship.

Ongoing:

Recent deaths:

Nominate an article

On this day

May 14:Feast day ofSaint Matthias (Catholicism)

Monument to the Battle of Lewes

1264 –Second Barons' War: KingHenry III was defeated at theBattle of Lewes(monument pictured) and forced to sign theMise of Lewes, makingSimon de Montfort thede facto ruler of England.
1857 –Mindon Min wascrowned as King of Burma.
1863 –American Civil War:Union troopscaptured Jackson, the capital ofMississippi.
1931 – Five people were killed inÅdalen, Sweden, assoldiers opened fire on an unarmed trade union demonstration.
1948 –David Ben-Gurion publicly read theIsraeli Declaration of Independence atIndependence Hall inTel Aviv.

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

Lysander Spooner (January 19, 1808 — May 14, 1887) was an Americanabolitionist, entrepreneur, lawyer, essayist,natural rights legal theorist,pamphleteer,political philosopher, and writer often associated with theBoston anarchist tradition. He is known for establishing theAmerican Letter Mail Company, which competed with theUnited States Postal Service. This undated photograph of Spooner was taken byAmory Nelson Hardy.

Photograph credit:Amory Nelson Hardy; restored byAdam Cuerden

Recently featured:

Archive
More featured pictures

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 theWikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other volunteerprojects: