Welcome to Wikipedia

,

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

From today's featured article

Glyndwr Michael's grave

Glyndwr Michael was dressed as an officer of the Royal Marines, and items were placed on him identifying him as the fictitious Captain William Martin. Correspondence between two British generals suggesting that the Allies planned to invade Greece and Sardinia, with merely a feint at Sicily, was also planted. The body was taken by the submarine HMS Seraph to the southern coast of Spain and released close to shore, where it was picked up the following morning by a Spanish fisherman. The nominally neutral Spanish government shared copies of the documents with German military intelligence, before returning them to the British. Ultra decrypts of German messages showed that the Germans fell for the ruse. Reinforcements were shifted to Greece and Sardinia before and during the invasion of Sicily; Sicily received none. The body was buried with military honours in Spain (grave pictured). (Full article...

)

Recently featured:

The Yankee

It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School

Chagas disease

Archive

By email

More featured articles

Did you know ...

Alice Schwarzer

... that Peter Merseburger refused to host a 1974 edition of German political TV magazine Panorama after a report by Alice Schwarzer (pictured) on an abortion was cancelled by authorities?

... that Clement Crisp, a dance critic for the Financial Times from 1956 to 2020, authored or co-authored 17 books on dance and dance history?

... that the 7th Macho de Monte Infantry Company of the Panama Defense Forces was named after a tapir?

... that after his professional gridiron football career, Ed "Brick" Travis served as president of the Missouri Auto Dealers Association and as president of a local school board?

... that the Nuremberg trial verdict described aggression as "the supreme international crime" because "it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole"?

... that despite perceived sexist tropes in The West Wing's women, C. J. Cregg is widely considered to be one of the show's most complex and witty characters?

... that the rare Somali pigeon urgently needs a population survey?

... that in the early days of news at KPHO-TV in Phoenix, Arizona, one employee processed newsfilm in his bathtub?

Archive

Start a new article

Nominate an article

In the news

Denis Villeneuve

CODA wins Best Picture and Dune (director Denis Villeneuve pictured) wins in six categories at the Academy Awards.
The Labour Party, led by Robert Abela, wins the most seats in the Maltese general election.
Al-Shabaab kill at least 48 people in a series of attacks in Mogadishu and Beledweyne, Somalia.
Mathematician Dennis Sullivan is awarded the Abel Prize for his work in topology.

On this day

March 31: Cesar Chavez Day in various U.S. states (1927)

USS Missouri

1761 – Lisbon experienced its second major earthquake in six years, with effects felt as far north as Scotland.
1899 – Philippine–American War: Malolos, capital of the First Philippine Republic, was captured by American forces.
1942 – Second World War: Because of a mutiny by Indian soldiers against their British officers, Japanese troops captured Christmas Island without any resistance.
1992 – USS Missouri (pictured), the last active United States Navy battleship, was decommissioned in Long Beach, California.
2018 Armenian revolution
.

Pope Benedict XIV (b. 1675)
Edward FitzGerald (b. 1809)
Choor Singh (d. 2009)

More anniversaries:

Today's featured picture

Borbo cinnara, commonly known as the rice swift, Formosan swift or rice leaf folder, is a butterfly belonging to the family Hesperiidae, found in southern and southeastern Asia, and Australia. This photograph of a B. cinnara butterfly perching on a leaf, focus-stacked from eight images, was taken in Si Phan Don, Laos.

Photograph credit: Basile Morin

Recently featured: