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Welcome to the Wikipedia tour. My name is Denis, and I will be your guide. This trip will show you the diversity of the content on Wikipedia, some of its most unusual articles, the inner workings of the project, its policies and debates, and everything you need to know to become a contributor. Don't worry about getting lost - I will be with you during the whole trip.

What you see below is the Main Page of Wikipedia. You've probably seen it before, but pay a closer look. Much of the content below is updated daily by our open community of editors. The featured article, for example, is picked from the list of featured articles. These are pages which have undergone a community review process. The Did you know section in the lower right comes exclusively from our latest article additions. Also take a look at all the other languages Wikipedia is available in!

Welcome to Wikipedia

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the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

6,910,290 articles in English

From today's featured article

Costello's, c. 1940

Costello's (also known as Tim's) was a bar and restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, from 1929 to 1992. The bar operated at several locations near the intersection of East 44th Street and Third Avenue. Costello's was known as a drinking spot for journalists with the New York Daily News, writers with The New Yorker, novelists, and cartoonists, including the author Ernest Hemingway, the cartoonist James Thurber, the journalist John McNulty, the poet Brendan Behan, the short-story writer John O'Hara, and the writers Maeve Brennan and A. J. Liebling. The bar is also known for having been home to a wall where Thurber drew a cartoon depiction of the "Battle of the Sexes" at some point between 1934 and 1935; the cartoon was destroyed, illustrated again, and then lost in the 1990s. A wall illustrated in 1976 by several cartoonists, including Bill Gallo, Stan Lee, Mort Walker, Al Jaffee, Sergio Aragonés, and Dik Browne, is still on display at the bar's final location. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Cannonball in Milwaukee, 1966

... that despite being an ordinary commuter train, the Cannonball (pictured) was known for its Friday-night parties?
... that Jeya Wilson invited New Zealand prime minister David Lange to debate the moral indefensibility of nuclear weapons at the Oxford Union?
... that the music producer of Barney & Friends considered it ludicrous that its theme song was used in torture at Guantanamo Bay?
... that the Xinwen Bao was first published during the Lunar New Year to take advantage of its competitors being on hiatus?
... that psychologist Sonya Friedman recommends that women create a totem, a collection of objects that represent important turning points in their lives?
... that the FCC canceled a permit to build a Florida TV station, finding that "the most prominent facility completed within the studio building appears to be a toilet"?
... that a renovation of 240 Centre Street was delayed by several months because a street map was incorrect?
... that with the exception of one day in 1941, the Kaunas Carillon stopped playing music for sixteen years due to the Soviet and German occupations of Lithuania?

In the news

Justin Welby

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby (pictured) announces his resignation as a result of the John Smyth abuse scandal in the Church of England.
Alliance for Change, led by Navin Ramgoolam, wins the Mauritian general election.
A suicide bombing by the Balochistan Liberation Army at the Quetta railway station, Pakistan, kills 32 people.
The German ruling coalition collapses over disagreements on economic policies.
Donald Trump wins the United States presidential election.

On this day

November 14: World Diabetes Day; Dobruja Day in Romania

Apollo 12 launches from the Kennedy Space Center

1941 – Second World War: After suffering torpedo damage the previous day, the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sank as she was being towed to Gibraltar for repairs.
1969 – Apollo 12 (pictured) launched from the Kennedy Space Center, becoming the second crewed flight to land on the Moon.
1990 – Music producer Frank Farian admitted that the German R&B duo Milli Vanilli did not sing the vocals on their album Girl You Know It's True.
1992 – In poor conditions caused by Cyclone Forrest, Vietnam Airlines Flight 474 crashed near Nha Trang, killing 30 people.
2003 – Astronomers Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz discovered the trans-Neptunian object Sedna.

Mikayel Nalbandian (b. 1829)
John Abercrombie (d. 1844)
Franz Müller (d. 1864)
Bernard Hinault (b. 1954)

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Today's featured picture

Percy Grainger (1882–1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the early 20th century. Grainger left Australia in 1895 to study at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. Between 1901 and 1914 he was based in London, where he established himself first as a society pianist and later as a concert performer, composer and collector of original folk melodies. He met many of the significant figures in European music, forming friendships with Frederick Delius and Edvard Grieg, and became a champion of Nordic music and culture. In 1914, Grainger moved to the United States, where he took citizenship in 1918. He experimented with music machines that he hoped would supersede human interpretation. Although much of his work was experimental and unusual, the piece with which he is most generally associated is his piano arrangement of the folk-dance tune "Country Gardens". This glass negative of Grainger was taken at some point around 1915–1920.

Photograph credit: Bain News Service; restored by Adam Cuerden and MyCatIsAChonk

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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: