Welcome to Wikipedia

,

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

John Neal

Logan is an 1822 Gothic novel by American writer John Neal (depicted). The book is inspired by the true story of Mingo leader Logan, but weaves a fictionalized story set just before the Revolutionary War. It depicts the genocide of Native Americans as the heart of the American story and follows a long cast of characters connected to each other in a complex web of overlapping love interests, family relations, rape, and (sometimes incestuous) sexual activity. Scholars criticize the story's profound excessiveness and incoherence, but praise its pioneering and successful experimentation with psychological horror, verisimilitude, sexual guilt in male characters, impacts of intergenerational violence, documentation of interracial relationships, and intersections between sex and violence on the American frontier. The novel is considered important by scholars studying the roles of Gothic literature and Indigenous identities in fashioning an American national identity. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

Letitia Tyler

... that Letitia Christian Tyler (depicted) was the first United States first lady to die in the role?
... that Nationalist China's own Northeastern Army captured Chiang Kai-shek to convince him to end the civil war against the Chinese Communist Party?
... that the 2018 book The Longevity Diet claims that a "fast-mimicking diet" increases lifespan and healthspan?
... that Rihanna and Dua Lipa participated in #BlueforSudan to bring attention to the 3 June 2019 Khartoum massacre?
... that the periodic comet 323P/SOHO approaches the Sun at a distance of 0.04 AU, nearer than any other numbered comet, every 4.15 years?
... that the Berlin embassy of the Italian Social Republic published the weekly La Voce della Patria from 1943 to 1944 for distribution among Italian Military Internees in Germany?
... that Francois Massaquoi, who studied economics at New York University, later led the Lofa Defense Force during the First Liberian Civil War?
... that The Noble Fisherman unusually places Robin Hood in the seaside town of Scarborough, and he ends up fighting French pirates?

In the news

JUICE's trajectory

Dominion Voting Systems agrees to a $787 million settlement in their lawsuit against Fox News over defamation claims from the 2020 United States presidential election.
In Sudan, at least 185 people die in clashes between rival factions of the military government.
Ghana becomes the first country to approve malaria vaccine R21/Matrix-M, the first to meet the WHO goal of at least 75% efficacy.
The European Space Agency launches the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) to study Ganymede, Europa and Callisto (trajectory pictured).

On this day

April 19: Feast day of Saint Alphege of Canterbury (Catholicism, Anglicanism)

Mae West

1773 – The Polish Partition Sejm met to discuss the First Partition of Poland, carried out the previous year by Russia, Prussia and Austria.
1809 – War of the Fifth Coalition: French general Louis-Nicolas Davout defeated an Austrian force in Lower Bavaria, allowing him to rejoin the main French army.
1927 – American actress Mae West (pictured) was sentenced to ten days in jail for "corrupting the morals of youth" for her play Sex.
1989 – A gun turret on board the United States Navy battleship Iowa exploded, killing 47 sailors.

Uesugi Kenshin (d. 1578)
Elizabeth Dilling (b. 1894)
Denis O'Brien (b. 1958)

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

The Balkan fritillary (Boloria graeca) is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in the southern central Alps and the mid- to high-altitude Balkans. This Balkan fritillary of the subspecies B. g. balcanica was photographed in Yastrebets, in the Rila Mountains of Bulgaria, in 2017.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

Recently featured:

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: