Main Page

Welcome to Wikipedia,

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

5,706,225 articles in English

• Arts
• Biography
• Geography
• History
• Mathematics
• Science
• Society
• Technology
• All portals

From today's featured article

Trey Parker and Matt Stone

"Volcano" is the second episode of the animated television series South Park. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States in August 1997. In the episode, Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny go on a hunting trip with Stan's uncle Jimbo and his war buddy Ned, unaware that a nearby volcano is about to erupt. Written by series co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone (pictured), the episode was inspired by the 1997 disaster films Volcano and Dante's Peak, both of which Parker and Stone strongly disliked. "Volcano" received generally positive reviews and was nominated for a 1997 Environmental Media Award. Over one million viewers watched the original broadcast. The episode marked the first of two appearances for Scuzzlebutt, who became a popular minor character and appeared in the video games South Park 10: The Game and South Park Rally. The episode parodied the Duck and Cover films from the 1950s and 1960s that advised people to hide under tables in the event of a nuclear attack. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

• Ralph Vaughan Williams
• Tales of Wonder (magazine)
• Phantasmagoria (video game)

Did you know...

Geyser cone in El Tatio

• ... that El Tatio (pictured) is the largest geyser field in the southern hemisphere and one of two worldwide with the highest elevation?
• ... that during Governor Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, political aide Carol Rasco took over Arkansas's "daily business"?
• ... that the British TV series Aap Kaa Hak answered health, social and legal questions in Hindi and Urdu?
• ... that the 1810 Catholic hymnal by Christoph Bernhard Verspoell, with his melodies and organ settings, contains a song included in the Catholic hymnal Gotteslob in 2013?
• ... that during World War II, future Oregon state senator Gordon W. McKay participated in the Battle of Tarawa as a Seabee?
• ... that the diet of the skeleton shrimp Caprella equilibra consists mainly of detritus, but it also feeds on the hydroids to which it clings?
• ... that the Carpenters received hate mail because they combined a soft ballad with a loud electric guitar?
• ... that Mormon studies scholars have the sense that they are being watched, following previous excommunications of Mormon historians in the field?

In the news

Scott Morrison

• Scott Morrison (pictured) replaces Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister of Australia, after a change of Liberal party leadership.
• N. K. Jemisin wins the Hugo Award for Best Novel for a third consecutive time for The Stone Sky.
• Former UN Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kofi Annan dies at the age of 80.
• The Asian Games open in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia.
• Former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee dies at the age of 93.

Ongoing:

• Kerala floods

Recent deaths:

• John McCain
• Trudy Stevenson
• Robin Leach
• Kuldip Nayar

On this day

August 27: National Heroes' Day in the Philippines (2018)

Stevie Ray Vaughan

• 1776 – British forces led by William Howe defeated the American Continental Army under George Washington at the Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the American Revolutionary War.
• 1810 – Napoleonic Wars: The French Navy defeated the Royal Navy, preventing them from taking the harbour of Grand Port on Mauritius.
• 1928 – The first three of over sixty nations signed the Kellogg–Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of national policy.
• 1990 – American musician Stevie Ray Vaughan (pictured), one of the most influential guitarists in the revival of blues in the 1980s, was killed in a helicopter crash.
• 2003 – Mars made its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing within approximately 55,758,000 kilometres (34,650,000 mi).

Josquin des Prez (d. 1521) · Rebecca Clarke (b. 1886) · Shi Jianqiao (d. 1979)

More anniversaries:

• August 26
• August 27
• August 28

From today's featured list

Map of Sullivan County, Pennsylvania

There are 13 municipalities in Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Pennsylvania law defines the two kinds of incorporated municipalities in Sullivan County: four boroughs and nine townships. In the 2010 census, the population of Sullivan County was 6,428, making it an "Eighth Class County", defined by Pennsylvania law as "having a population of less than 20,000 inhabitants". Its county seat is Laporte, which was the smallest county seat in Pennsylvania by population as of 2001. Sullivan County (map pictured) is located in north-central Pennsylvania, about 123 miles (198 km) northwest of Philadelphia and 195 miles (314 km) east-northeast of Pittsburgh. Its municipalities range in size from the borough of Dushore with 0.9 square miles (2.3 km²) to Davidson Township with 78.2 square miles (203 km²). Cherry Township has the highest population of any municipality (1,705, or 26.5% of the county total as of 2010). (Full list...)

Recently featured:

• Mesopotamian deities
• Amy Adams performances
• Madonna albums discography

Today's featured picture

The Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa is a Benedictine abbey located in Codalet, France. Founded at its present site in 878, it survived as a monastery for over 900 years, but was closed and sold by the government following the French Revolution of 1789, and fell into disrepair. It was refounded in 1919 and subsequently restored by the Cistercians—an order which had originated as a reformist offshoot of the Benedictines—before being returned to the latter in 1965. Parts of the original building are incorporated in The Cloisters museum in New York City.

Photograph: Cancre

Recently featured:

• Madame Moitessier
• Mexican peso
• Nembrotha cristata

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 5,706,225 articles. Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below.

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

Complete list of Wikipedias