Welcome to Wikipedia

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit

Almanac · Categories · Glossaries · Lists · Overviews · Portals · Search · Questions · Site news · Index

	Art		Geography		History	File:Socrates blue.png	Philosophy		Society
	Culture		Health		People		Science		Technology

Today's featured article

The horned sungem (Heliactin bilophus) is a species of hummingbird native to Brazil, Bolivia and Suriname. It prefers open habitats such as savanna, grassland and garden, and expanded its range into southern Amazonas and Espírito Santo, probably due to deforestation. It is a small hummingbird with a long tail and a short, black bill. The sexes differ in appearance, with males having two shiny red, golden, and green feather "horns" above the eyes, a shiny blue head crest and a black throat with a pointed "beard". The female is plainer, with a brown or yellow–buff throat. It is a nomadic species, responding to the seasonal flowering of its food plants. If a flower's shape is unsuited to the bird's short bill, it may rob nectar through a hole at its base. It also eats small insects. Only the female builds the small cup nest, incubates the two white eggs, and rears the chicks. The species is currently classified as least concern, and its population is thought to be increasing. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

{{{Image text}}} Today's featured picture

{{{caption}}}

Wikipedia community

Every page on Wikipedia is a collaborative effort. But there are some special places reserved for specific types of discussion and assistance. Find what you're looking for here:

Help (contents) — Use this if you need help editing. There is also a comprehensive range of help articles available here. You can ask a question about using Wikipedia at the Help Desk.
Community bulletin board — Requests for help within the Wikipedia community.
The Village Pump — These are main discussion forums for Wikipedia.
The Signpost — This is Wikipedia's local newspaper.
The Community Portal — This is the center of community involvement. Learn about projects and activities you can join to help improve Wikipedia.

Collaborations — Weekly, monthly, and ongoing collaborative article improvement drives within specific subject areas.
Reference Desk — Help other Wikipedians who are looking for specific information by answering their subject-related questions at the reference desk (like a library's information desk).
Local Embassy — For Wikipedia-related communication in languages other than English.
Department of Fun — Dedicated to FUN on Wikipedia.
Clinic for Wikipediholics — Sign-in to Wikipedia!
Welcoming committee — Greet newcomers.
Wikipedia Boot Camp — Take a crash course about Wikipedia!

In the News

Flooding in Porto Alegre

Flooding (pictured) in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, leaves more than 100 people dead and at least 130 others missing.
Kyren Wilson wins the World Snooker Championship.
In horse racing, Mystik Dan wins the Kentucky Derby.
Following the Solomon Islands general election, Jeremiah Manele becomes the prime minister.
Acting prime minister of Haiti Ariel Henry resigns, and the Transitional Presidential Council is sworn in.

Did you know?

Prince Philip

... that Prince Philip (pictured) was the first member of the British royal family to fly in a helicopter?
... that the 1910–1916 publication Raḥamim was the first newspaper in the Judeo-Tajik language?
... that football player Dick Harris was selected in professional drafts four times, including twice as a first-round pick, but never played professionally?
... that Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker helped fundraise to save a Merseyside flat that has been called "the first example of outsider art to be nationally listed"?
... that in 1911 the Butterfly Theater featured a pipe organ worth $10,000 (equivalent to $327,000 in 2023)?
... that environmental economist V. Kerry Smith has been described as a "Renaissance Man of Economics"?
... that a year after objecting to the unauthorised use of his own AI-generated vocals, Drake used vocals of other rappers generated that way to respond to a diss against him?
... that in 1919 nurse Hilda Hope McMaugh became the first Australian woman to qualify as a pilot?
... that employees of a Florida TV station joked that their studio building would survive "as long as the termites don't stop holding hands"?

On this day...

May 9: Europe Day in the European Union; Liberation Day in the Channel Islands (1945)

Hotel Polen fire

1877 – An earthquake struck northern Chile, leading to the deaths of 2,385 people, mostly victims of the ensuing tsunami, as far away as Hawaii and Fiji.
1944 – World War II: The Japanese Take Ichi convoy arrived at Halmahera in the Dutch East Indies after losing many ships and thousands of troops to Allied attacks while attempting to carry two divisions of troops from China to New Guinea.
1977 – The Hotel Polen in Amsterdam was destroyed by fire (pictured), leaving 33 people dead.
1980 – Part of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida collapsed after a pier was struck by the MV Summit Venture, killing 35 people.
2001 – Police at the Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra, Ghana, fired tear gas to quell unrest at a football match, leading to a stampede that killed 126 people.

Al-Adid (b. 1151)
John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair (d. 1747)
Yukiya Amano (b. 1947)

More anniversaries:

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: