Wikipedia:Main Page alternatives/(simple layout)
Almanac · Categories · Glossaries · Lists · Overviews · Portals · Questions · Site news · Index
Art | Geography | History | Mathematics | People | Philosophy | Science | Society | Technology
We are building an open-content encyclopedia in many languages. We started in January 2001 and are now working on 6,835,068 articles in the English version. Learn how to edit pages, experiment in the sandbox, and visit our Community Portal to find out how you can contribute to Wikipedia. This page is also available without pictures. More main page alternatives
Today's featured article
The Battle of Villers-Bocage took place in Normandy, France, on 13 June 1944 during World War II. Following the D-Day landings on 6 June, the Germans established defences in front of Caen. The British attacked to attempt to exploit a gap in the German defences west of the city. They reached Villers-Bocage without incident in the morning but were ambushed by Tiger I tanks as they left the town and numerous tanks, anti-tank guns and transport vehicles were destroyed. The Germans then attacked the town but were repulsed. The British withdrew west of Villers-Bocage that evening and repulsed another attack the next day. The British conduct in the battle was controversial because their withdrawal marked the end of the post–D-Day "scramble for ground" and the start of an attritional battle for Caen. Some historians wrote that the British attack was a failure caused by a lack of conviction among some senior commanders; others judged the British force to be insufficiently strong for the task. (Full article...)
Did you know...
- ... that sisters Talia and Tori DellaPeruta (both pictured), college teammates at North Carolina, play soccer professionally for Sampdoria?
- ... that, as minister, Simon de Graaff would receive daily shipments of documents by bicycle?
- ... that the Byzantine Empire's weak defenses around the Lycus valley played a pivotal role in the fall of Constantinople?
- ... that a graphic novel for teens was among the 10 most challenged books in the United States in 2023?
- ... that the American band Grupo Frontera collaborated with the media franchise Transformers on a trailer to promote their second studio album?
- ... that if the Devizes Plot had been successful, 7,000 German prisoners of war would have escaped and attacked RAF Yatesbury?
- ... that Fredrick Wangabo Mwenengabo, a Congolese-Canadian anthropologist and human rights activist, survived being kidnapped and held for ransom in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
- ... that when actress Joanna Lumley spent nine days on an uninhabited island for the 1994 TV show Girl Friday, she made a pair of shoes out of her bra?
- ... that John Wilson was expelled from the Arkansas House of Representatives for killing another representative in a knife fight, but was then re-elected two years later?
In the news
- A plane crash in Mzimba, Malawi, kills nine people, including Vice President Saulos Chilima (pictured).
- In tennis, Iga Świątek wins the women's singles and Carlos Alcaraz wins the men's singles titles at the French Open.
- In the Indian general election, the National Democratic Alliance, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is re-elected with a reduced majority.
- The Boeing Starliner spacecraft's first crewed flight carries two astronauts to the International Space Station.
On this day
- 1525 – Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora, beginning the practice of clerical marriage in Protestantism.
- 1881 – The Jeannette expedition to reach the North Pole from the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait came to an end when the USS Jeannette (pictured) was finally crushed and sank after having been trapped in ice for almost two years.
- 1952 – Soviet aircraft shot down a Swedish military plane carrying out signals-intelligence gathering operations, followed three days later by the shootdown of a second plane searching for the first one.
- 1969 – Preston Smith, Governor of Texas, signed a law converting a research arm of Texas Instruments into the University of Texas at Dallas.
- 2013 – Some of the closest advisors and collaborators of Czech prime minister Petr Nečas were arrested for corruption.
- Henry Middleton (d. 1784)
- Manuel Marques de Sousa, Count of Porto Alegre (b. 1804)
- Charles Algernon Parsons (b. 1854)
- Fran Allison (d. 1989)
Today's featured picture
The Heart Nebula is an emission nebula, 7500 light years from Earth, located in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was discovered by William Herschel on 3 November 1787. Spanning almost 2 degrees in the sky, its shape is driven by stellar winds from the hot stars in its core. The nebula displays glowing ionized hydrogen gas and darker dust lanes, and is also made up of ionised oxygen and sulfur gasses, which cause rich blue and orange colours to be seen in narrowband images. This photograph of the Heart Nebula, with the Fish Head Nebula also visible in the top right corner, is a narrowband image captured on a 70mm scope with a capture period of around 44 hours. Photograph credit: Ram Samudrala
Recently featured:
|
Portals
Categories
Arts – Culture by region – Languages – Literature – Mass media – Movements – Mythology – Popular culture – Religion – Sports – Traditions – Travel
Animation – Celebrities – Dance – Entertainers – Festivals – Games – Hobbies – Humour – Music – Parties – Radio – Television – Toys
Africa –
Antarctica –
Asia –
Australia –
Europe –
North America –
Oceania –
South America
Cities –
Climate –
Countries –
Landforms –
Maps –
Parks –
Subterranea –
Towns
Algebra – Analysis – Arithmetic – Computer science – Economics – Equations – Geometry – Logic – Measurement – Numbers – Proofs – Philosophy – Theorems – Trigonometry – Statistics
Astronomy – Biology – Chemistry – Earth sciences – Ecology – Information science – Natural hazards – Neuroscience – Physics – Space
Anthropology – Archaeology – Business – Communication – Demographics – Economics – Finance – Government – History – Law – Linguistics – Philosophy – Politics – Psychology – Sociology – Sexology
Sister Projects
Wikipedia is run by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Wikimedia operates several other multilingual and open-content wiki projects:
Meta-Wiki — Coordination of all Wikimedia projects
Wiktionary — A multilingual dictionary and thesaurus
Wikibooks — Free textbooks and manuals
Wikiquote — A collection of quotations
Wikisource — Free source documents
Wikinews — Free content news source
Wikipedia in other languages
This Wikipedia is written in English. Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below.
-
1,000,000+ articles
-
250,000+ articles
-
50,000+ articles
If you find this encyclopedia or its sister projects useful, please consider making a donation.