Welcome to Wikipedia

,

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

1 Wall Street is a skyscraper in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York. Designed in the Art Deco style, the building is 654 feet (199 m) tall and consists of two sections. The original 50-story building was constructed between 1929 and 1931 for Irving Trust. A 28-story annex to the south (later expanded to 36 stories) was built between 1963 and 1965. The building occupies a full city block between Broadway, Wall Street, New Street, and Exchange Place. At the time of its construction, 1 Wall Street occupied what was considered one of the most valuable plots in the city. The building is one of New York City's Art Deco landmarks, although architectural critics initially ignored it in favor of such buildings as the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building. The original portion of the building is designated as a New York City landmark. It is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, a National Register of Historic Places district created in 2007. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

1991 Andover tornado

... that the 1991 Andover tornado (pictured) narrowly avoided hitting two warplanes equipped with nuclear warheads?
... that Murad Al-Katib provided 700 million meals of Saskatchewan-grown chickpeas, lentils and wheat to a United Nations program for Syrian refugees?
... that insurers paid out about NZ$171 million in damages caused by a 10-minute hailstorm in New Zealand?
... that Scottish bricklayer Brian Higgins was unable to find work for 25 years after appearing on a construction-industry blacklist?
... that the dragonfly Antiquiala was described from a single wing found in the state of Washington?
... that Edward W. Gantt was a Confederate soldier who defected to the Union during the American Civil War?
... that bored soldiers during the siege of Ak-Mechet began stealing watermelons from gardens outside the enemy fortress?
... that Shō Sen'i was overthrown in favor of his thirteen-year-old nephew?
... that the titular songstress in Sing-Song Girl Red Peony, a contender for China's first sound film, was overdubbed by a man?

In the news

Jimmy Carter

Former president of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jimmy Carter (pictured) dies at the age of 100.
Jeju Air Flight 2216 crashes at Muan International Airport, South Korea, killing 179 people.
Acting president and prime minister of South Korea Han Duck-soo is impeached by the National Assembly.
Former prime minister of India Manmohan Singh dies at the age of 92.

On this day

January 1: Public Domain Day; Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (Roman Rite Catholicism)

Lachlan Macquarie

1725 – J. S. Bach led the first performance of his chorale cantata Jesu, nun sei gepreiset, which features trumpet fanfares at the start and end.
1801 – Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the dwarf planet Ceres, naming it after the Roman goddess of agriculture and of motherly love.
1810 – Lachlan Macquarie (pictured) became Governor of New South Wales, eventually playing a major role in the shaping of the social, economic and architectural development of the colony in Australia.
1960 – Three men were killed and two wounded in a mass shooting at a public house in Sheffield, England.
1994 – The revolutionary leftist Zapatista Army of National Liberation initiated twelve days of armed conflict in the Mexican state of Chiapas.

Betsy Ross (b. 1752)
Alfred Ely Beach (d. 1896)
Gary Johnson (b. 1953)
Lhasa de Sela (d. 2010)

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest and most massive of its four rocky planets. About 29 percent of Earth's surface is land, with the remaining 71 percent covered with water and much of Earth's polar regions covered in ice. Earth's interior is active with a solid-iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates Earth's magnetic field, and a convective mantle that drives plate tectonics. Earth formed more than 4.5 billion years ago. Within the first billion years of Earth's history, life appeared in the oceans and began to affect Earth's atmosphere and surface. Since then, the combination of Earth's distance from the Sun, its physical properties and its geological history have allowed life to evolve and thrive, including more than 8 billion humans as of 2024. Earth is orbited by one permanent natural satellite, the Moon, which orbits Earth at a radius of 384,400 km (238,900 mi) and is roughly a quarter as wide as Earth. This photograph of Earth straddling the lunar horizon was taken in 2015 by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter while located 134 km (83 mi) above the crater Compton, visible in the foreground. To capture the image, the spacecraft had to be rolled 67 degrees to its side, and slewed with the direction of travel to maximize the width of the lunar horizon, while traveling more than 1600 m/s (3600 mph) relative to the surface.

Photograph credit: NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center / Arizona State University; edited by Bammesk

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: