Welcome to Wikipedia

,

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

Male black-breasted buttonquail

The black-breasted buttonquail (Turnix melanogaster) is a buttonquail endemic to eastern Australia. It is a plump quail-shaped bird with white eyes and predominantly marbled black, rufous and pale brown plumage, marked prominently with white spots and stripes. Like other buttonquails, it is unrelated to the true quails, and the female is larger and more boldly coloured than the male, with a distinctive black head and neck sprinkled with fine white markings. The usual sex roles are reversed, as the female mates with multiple male partners and leaves them to incubate the eggs. It is usually found in rainforest and forages in large areas of thick leaf litter. Most of its original habitat has been cleared, and the remaining populations are fragmented. The black-breasted buttonquail is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List and under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. A three-year conservation project has been under way since 2021. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

William Nicholas

... that during the bloody siege of Badajoz, William Nicholas (pictured) was wounded by musket-ball and bayonet, but continued to give orders and was carried up the breach, only to be shot again?
... that David Bowie frequently updated the lyrics for his song "Young Americans" to keep them contemporary?
... that in 1991, Juan López Mella was the first Spanish rider to achieve a podium place in the Superbike World Championship?
... that after complaints of A Pickle for the Knowing Ones lacking punctuation, the author published a second edition with full pages of punctuation in the appendix?
... that in 1998, the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR received the Guinness World Record for the most expensive production car?
... that the 1995 dedication ceremony for the Faces of War Memorial included missing-man flyovers?
... that fossils are included in Polystoechotites due to being poorly fossilized, rather than due to relation?
... that politician Kalervo Kummola introduced karaoke to Finland?

In the news

Petr Pavel

A suicide bombing in a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan, kills 61 people and injures more than 170 others.
Petr Pavel (pictured) is elected as president of the Czech Republic.
Cyclone Cheneso leaves at least 25 people dead in Madagascar.
An armed attack on the Azerbaijani Embassy in Iran leaves one person dead and two others injured.
Chris Hipkins succeeds Jacinda Ardern as prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party after her resignation.
Brahim Ghali is re-elected as secretary general of the Polisario Front and president of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

On this day

January 30: Martyrs' Day in India (1948)

Attempted assassination of Andrew Jackson

1607 – Low-lying places around the coasts of the Bristol Channel of Britain were flooded, resulting in an estimated 2,000 deaths.
1835 – Richard Lawrence became the first person to attempt to assassinate a sitting US president when he failed to kill Andrew Jackson at the US Capitol (assassination attempt pictured) and was subdued by the crowd.
1939 – In a speech to the Reichstag, Adolf Hitler threatened the "annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe".
1972 – The Troubles: On Bloody Sunday, members of the British Parachute Regiment shot 26 civil-rights protesters in Derry, Northern Ireland, killing at least 13 people.

William More (b. 1520)
Angela of the Cross (b. 1846)
Abdullah II of Jordan (b. 1962)

More anniversaries:

From today's featured list

Stanley Tucci, Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series winner

The 59th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards honored the best in artistic and technical achievement in American prime time television programming from June 1, 2006, until May 31, 2007, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The awards were presented on September 8, 2007, in a ceremony hosted by Carlos Mencia at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee received five wins from 11 nominations, leading all programs in both wins and nominations. Planet Earth and Tony Bennett: An American Classic tied for the second-most awards with four each, followed by Jane Eyre, Rome, and When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts with three each. HBO was the most-recognized network, receiving 15 awards from 53 nominations. (Full list...)

Recently featured:

Today's featured picture

Frontonia is a genus of free-living unicellular ciliate protists, belonging to the order Peniculida. As Peniculids, the Frontonia are closely related to members of the genus Paramecium. However, whereas Paramecia are mainly bacterivores, Frontonia are capable of ingesting large prey such as diatoms, filamentous algae, testate amoebas, and even, in some circumstances, members of their own species.

Photograph credit: Wiedehopf20

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: