Main Page

Welcome to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. 4,997,849 articles in English

Arts Biography Geography

History Mathematics Science

Society Technology All portals

From today's featured article Telescopium is a minor constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere, one of twelve created in the 18th century by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille and one of several depicting scientific instruments. Its name is a Latinized form of the Greek word for telescope. Telescopium was later much reduced in size by Francis Baily and Benjamin Gould. The brightest star in the constellation is Alpha Telescopii, a blue-white subgiant with an apparent magnitude of 3.5, followed by the orange giant star Zeta Telescopii at magnitude 4.1. Eta and PZ Telescopii are two young star systems with debris disks and brown dwarf companions. Telescopium hosts two unusual stars with very little hydrogen that are likely to be the result of merged white dwarfs: HD 168476, also known as PV Telescopii, is a hot blue extreme helium star, while RS Telescopii is an R Coronae Borealis variable. RR Telescopii is a cataclysmic variable that brightened to magnitude 6 in 1948 as a nova. (Full article...) Recently featured: Battle of Concepción Oerip Soemohardjo Arthur Sifton Did you know... Protopone primigena fossil ... that the extinct ant genus Protopone is known from both amber (pictured) and compression fossils? ... that Ayrton Senna's victory at the 1986 Spanish Grand Prix was one of the closest ever? ... that contrary to what its interpretive plaque says, the Fireweed Studio log cabin in Yellowknife was never used as a blacksmith's shop? ... that Montignac is the main centre for visiting Lascaux and other prehistoric sites in the Vézère valley in France? ... that Dutch architect Tonny Zwollo was featured in Life magazine for building 35 schools in Oaxaca, Mexico, and convincing the community members to help build them for free? ... that the romantic comedy film Obvious Child was praised for its portrayal of abortion? ... that Rosamind Julius and her husband were the entrepreneurs behind the world's most commercially successful chair? ... that Dana Records switched back from vinyl to shellac for its 78-rpm records because dealers complained their product was too durable?

In the news Beata Szydło A 7.5-magnitude earthquake strikes Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing at least 380 people and injuring more than 2,400 others. The Law and Justice party (prime minister designate Beata Szydło pictured) wins a majority in the Polish Sejm. In motorsport, Lewis Hamilton wins the Formula One World Drivers' Championship after his team, Mercedes, secured the Constructors' Championship. Jimmy Morales is elected President of Guatemala. Hurricane Patricia, the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere, makes landfall in Mexico. Ongoing events: European migrant crisis Recent deaths: Maureen O'Hara On this day... October 29: Republic Day in Turkey (1923) Sir Walter Raleigh 1618 – English courtier and explorer Walter Raleigh (pictured) was executed in London after King James I reinstated a fifteen-year-old death sentence against him. 1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Wauhatchie, one of the few night battles of the war, concluded with the Union Army opening a supply line to troops in Chattanooga, Tennessee. 1917 – The Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, in charge of preparing for and carrying out the Russian Revolution, was established. 1969 – A student at UCLA sent the first message on the ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet, to a computer at Stanford Research Institute. 2013 – The first phase of the Marmaray project opened with an undersea rail tunnel across the Bosphorus strait. More anniversaries: October 28 October 29 October 30

Today's featured picture The common redshank (Tringa totanus) is a Eurasian wader in the large family Scolopacidae. This migratory species feeds predominantly on invertebrates. Photograph: Andreas Trepte Recently featured: $10,000 gold certificate Cordwainer Sainte-Geneviève Library

Other areas of Wikipedia

• Community portal – Bulletin board, projects, resources and activities covering a wide range of Wikipedia areas.
• Help desk – Ask questions about using Wikipedia.
• Local embassy – For Wikipedia-related communication in languages other than English.
• Reference desk – Serving as virtual librarians, Wikipedia volunteers tackle your questions on a wide range of subjects.
• Site news – Announcements, updates, articles and press releases on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation.
• Village pump – For discussions about Wikipedia itself, including areas for technical issues and policies.

Wikipedia's sister projects

Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects:

	Commons Free media repository		MediaWiki Wiki software development		Meta-Wiki Wikimedia project coordination
	Wikibooks Free textbooks and manuals		Wikidata Free knowledge base		Wikinews Free-content news
	Wikiquote Collection of quotations		Wikisource Free-content library		Wikispecies Directory of species
	Wikiversity Free learning materials and activities		Wikivoyage Free travel guide		Wiktionary Dictionary and thesaurus

Wikipedia languages

This Wikipedia is written in English. Started in 2001 (2001), it currently contains 4,997,849 articles. Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below.

• More than 1,000,000 articles:
  • Deutsch
  • Español
  • Français
  • Italiano
  • Nederlands
  • Polski
  • Русский
  • Svenska
  • Tiếng Việt
• More than 250,000 articles:
  • العربية
  • Bahasa Indonesia
  • Bahasa Melayu
  • Català
  • Čeština
  • فارسی
  • 한국어
  • Magyar
  • 日本語
  • Norsk bokmål
  • Português
  • Română
  • Srpski / српски
  • Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
  • Suomi
  • Türkçe
  • Українська
  • 中文
• More than 50,000 articles:
  • Bosanski
  • Български
  • Dansk
  • Eesti
  • Ελληνικά
  • English (simple)
  • Esperanto
  • Euskara
  • Galego
  • עברית
  • Hrvatski
  • Latviešu
  • Lietuvių
  • Norsk nynorsk
  • Slovenčina
  • Slovenščina
  • ไทย

Complete list of Wikipedias