Welcome to Wikipedia

,

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

Katrina Kaif (born 16 July 1983) is a British actress who works in Hindi-language films. Born in British Hong Kong, Kaif lived in several countries before moving to India, where she modelled but had difficulty finding film roles. Bollywood success came with the romantic comedies Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya? (2005) and Namastey London (2007). Kaif's performances in the thriller New York (2009) and the romantic comedy Mere Brother Ki Dulhan (2011) earned her nominations for the Filmfare Award for Best Actress. She appeared in the action thrillers Ek Tha Tiger (2012), Dhoom 3 (2013), and Bang Bang! (2014), all of which rank among the highest-grossing Indian films. These were followed by a series of commercial failures, but her portrayal of an alcoholic actress in the romantic drama Zero (2018) earned her a Zee Cine Award for Best Supporting Actress. She participates in stage shows and is involved with her mother's charity, which works in furthering the cause of underprivileged children in India. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

Lil Uzi Vert

... that Lil Uzi Vert (pictured) told the crowd at one of their concerts that they were all "going to hell"?
... that OnPoint NYC's safe injection sites treated 672 overdoses in their first year of operation, with no resulting deaths?
... that when Ralph Sazio, a Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductee, visited Boston University to scout a player, he became so impressed by Dave Viti that he signed him instead?
... that when it opened in 1968, the Beth Yaacov Synagogue in Madrid was the first new synagogue built in Spain since Jews were expelled from the country by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492?
... that Peter Read coined the term "Stolen Generations" to refer to Aboriginal children who were forcibly separated from their families by Australian governments?
... that Jean Sibelius likely wrote his first composition, Water Droplets, as a schoolboy?
... that the Benz and Phats & Small singer Tony Thompson is a former cage fighter?
... that Kraft Heinz was "intrigued" by the fake product image of Mayoreo that became an Internet meme in June 2021?

In the news

Fran Drescher

In the United States, actors in the SAG-AFTRA trade union (president Fran Drescher pictured) go on strike, joining writers in the Writers Guild of America strike.
Flooding and landslides in northern India leave at least 100 people dead.
Czech-French writer Milan Kundera dies at the age of 94.
In the Netherlands, the governing coalition collapses and Prime Minister Mark Rutte announces his upcoming resignation.

On this day

July 16

Muhammad I of Granada (red shield)

1232 – Muhammad ibn Yusuf (pictured), who later established the Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim state in Spain, was elected the ruler of Arjona.
1790 – President George Washington signed the Residence Act, selecting a new permanent site along the Potomac River for the capital of the United States, which later became Washington, D.C.
1931 – Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie promulgated the nation's first modern constitution.
1983 – A Sikorsky S-61 helicopter operated by British Airways crashed in thick fog in the Celtic Sea, killing 20 of the 26 people on board.
2013 – At least 23 students died and dozens more fell ill at a primary school in the Indian state of Bihar after consuming a Midday Meal that was contaminated with pesticide.

Philip Wodehouse (b. 1773)
Agnes Weinrich (b. 1873)
Évariste Kimba (b. 1926)
Vecihi Hürkuş (d. 1969)

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

A snowflake is a single ice crystal that has achieved a sufficient size and may have amalgamated with others, and that falls through the Earth's atmosphere as snow. Each flake nucleates around a dust particle in supersaturated air masses by attracting supercooled cloud water droplets, which freeze and accrete in crystal form. Complex shapes emerge as the flake moves through differing temperature and humidity zones in the atmosphere, such that individual snowflakes differ in detail from one another, but may be categorized in eight broad classifications and at least eighty individual variants. The main constituent shapes for ice crystals, from which combinations may occur, are needle, column, plate, and rime. Snow appears white in color despite being made of clear ice. This is due to diffuse reflection of the whole spectrum of light by the small crystal facets of the snowflakes. This macro photograph of a relatively large snowflake, 4 to 5 mm (0.16 to 0.20 in) in width, was captured with a backlit glass background.

Photograph credit: Alexey Kljatov

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: