Welcome to Wikipedia

,

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

Roberta Williams (born 1953) is an American video game designer and writer who co-founded Sierra On-Line with her game developer husband, Ken Williams. Her first game, Mystery House, was released in 1980, became a modest commercial success, and is credited as the first graphic adventure game. She is also known for creating and maintaining the King's Quest series, as well as designing the 1995 full motion video game Phantasmagoria. After Sierra was acquired by CUC International in 1996, she grew increasingly frustrated with CUC's creative and business decisions. She left the game industry and focused on her travels and historical fiction writing. In 2021, she released the historical novel Farewell to Tara. Several publications have named Roberta Williams as one of the best or most influential creators in the video game industry. She has received the Industry Icon Award from The Game Awards, and the Pioneer Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Did you know ...

Richard Mather, engraved by John Foster

... that John Foster, a Boston printer, made an engraving (pictured) of Richard Mather around 1670, the first produced in colonial America?
... that the collier Franz Fischer was claimed to have become, in 1916, the first merchant vessel to be sunk by aerial attack but is now thought to have been sunk by a submarine?
... that the territories of Old Dartmouth contained five modern Massachusetts towns and cities, and parts of two others?
... that Luis Alegre Salazar led the translation of the constitution of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo into Maya?
... that the most valuable player of MLS Cup 2022, John McCarthy, only played once in the regular season?
... that German general Hans von Guretzky-Cornitz was awarded the Pour le Mérite in 1916 after mistakenly announcing the capture of Fort Vaux?
... that Chicago's Marshfield station had four tracks and three platforms, and involved three branch lines and an interurban?
... that the Guinness World Record for the most consecutive pull-ups is 651 in 87 minutes?

In the news

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Texas Raiders

In the United States, six people are killed in a mid-air collision (one aircraft pictured) at an air show in Dallas.
Amid a socioeconomic and political crisis in Haiti, gang leader Jimmy Chérizier announces the end to a blockade of the country's largest fuel terminal.
In motorcycle racing, Francesco Bagnaia wins the MotoGP World Championship.
Precision Air Flight 494 crashes into Lake Victoria in Tanzania, killing 19 of the 43 people onboard.

On this day

November 14: World Diabetes Day; Dobruja Day in Romania

Artist's impression of Sedna

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.
1992 – In poor conditions caused by Cyclone Forrest, Vietnam Airlines Flight 474 crashed near Nha Trang, killing 30 people.
1995 – As a result of budget conflicts between President Bill Clinton and the United States Congress led by Newt Gingrich, the federal government was forced to shut down non-essential services.
2003 – Astronomers Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz discovered the trans-Neptunian object Sedna (artist's impression pictured).
2010 – Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel won the Drivers' Championship after winning the final race of the season, becoming the youngest Formula One champion.

Mikayel Nalbandian (b. 1829)
Claude Monet (b. 1840)
Bernard Hinault (b. 1954)

More anniversaries:

From today's featured list

James Cameron

The 1997 American epic romance and disaster film Titanic won 111 awards from 162 nominations. At the 55th Golden Globe Awards, Titanic won in the categories of Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song. Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and Gloria Stuart were also nominated for their acting performances. At the 70th Academy Awards, the film garnered fourteen nominations, tying the record set in 1950 by Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve, with eleven wins, including Best Picture and Best Director for James Cameron (pictured). It was the second film to win eleven Academy Awards, after Ben-Hur (1959). After winning the Golden Globe and the Oscar for Best Original Song, "My Heart Will Go On" won all the awards that were nominated at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Song Written for a Motion Picture or for Television. (Full list...)

Recently featured:

Today's featured picture

La Esmeralda is a grand opera in four acts composed by Louise Bertin, with a French-language libretto written by Victor Hugo, who adapted it from his 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. The opera premiered at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique in Paris on 14 November 1836, with Cornélie Falcon in the title role. There was some disruption at the premiere, as members of the audience who disliked the Bertin family shouted out that the work had been written by Berlioz, an accusation which Berlioz himself denied. La Esmeralda proved to be the last opera composed by Bertin although she lived for another 40 years. This drawing is Charles-Antoine Cambon's set design for act 3, scene 1, of La Esmeralda, in which Phoebus meets with Esmeralda, and Frollo spies on them and eventually stabs Phoebus with his sword.

Illustration credit: Charles-Antoine Cambon; restored by Adam Cuerden

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: