Main Page

Welcome to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. 3,772,672 articles in English

Arts Biography Geography

History Mathematics Science

Society Technology All portals

Today's featured article Henry Wood (1869–1944) was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. Wood started his career as an organist. During his studies at the Royal Academy of Music, he came under the influence of the voice teacher Manuel Garcia and became his accompanist. After similar work for Richard D'Oyly Carte's opera companies on the works of Arthur Sullivan and others, Wood became the conductor of a small operatic touring company. From the mid-1890s until his death, Wood focused on concert conducting. He was engaged by the impresario Robert Newman to conduct a series of promenade concerts at the Queen's Hall, offering a mixture of classical and popular music at low prices. By the 1920s, Wood had steered the repertoire entirely to classical music. In addition to the Proms, he conducted concerts and festivals throughout the country and also trained the student orchestra at the Royal Academy of Music. He had an enormous influence on the musical life of Britain over his long career: he and Newman greatly improved access to classical music, and Wood raised the standard of orchestral playing and nurtured the taste of the public, presenting a vast repertoire of music spanning four centuries. (more...) Recently featured: Abdul Karim – Royal National College for the Blind – Alexandre Banza Did you know... From Wikipedia's newest content: ... that, contrary to claims of a medieval origin for the term shite-hawk, it originated as British military slang for the Black Kite (pictured)? ... that Major League Baseball umpire Paul Sentell collapsed on the field during a game and died a few days later? ... that Captain Thomas Fortescue Kennedy was first-lieutenant of HMS Temeraire at Trafalgar in 1805, and her last commander at Sheerness in 1838? ... that Bach finished the opening chorus of his cantata Wer sich selbst erhöhet, der soll erniedriget werden, BWV 47, with a repeat of the ritornello, adding the complete text of Luke 14:11? ... that poet Antonio Machado was born at the Palacio de las Dueñas in Seville? ... that triathletes Chrissie Wellington and Emma Snowsill are among the World and Olympic champions who have been coached by Brett Sutton? ... that despite leaving school at age 14, Thomas Kirkman became one of 19th-century England's leading mathematicians and helped found combinatorial design theory?

In the news Basque separatist group ETA announces a cessation of armed activity. Ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi (pictured) is killed in Sirte, with National Transitional Council forces taking control of the city. After five years in captivity, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is freed in exchange for the release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. British writer Julian Barnes wins the Man Booker Prize for his novel The Sense of an Ending. British IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon dies after a crash at the IndyCar World Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The United States sends 100 military advisers to help defeat the Lord's Resistance Army in central Africa. On this day... October 21: Trafalgar Day in various Commonwealth countries 1096 – The Seljuk forces of Kilij Arslan destroyed the army of the People's Crusade as it marched toward Nicaea. 1520 – The islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon were discovered by Portuguese explorer João Álvares Fagundes, who named them "Islands of the 11,000 Virgins". 1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Lord Nelson signalled "England expects that every man will do his duty" to the rest of his Royal Navy forces before they defeated Pierre-Charles Villeneuve and his combined French and Spanish navy at the Battle of Trafalgar off the coast of Spain's Cape Trafalgar. 1959 – The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (pictured), designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, opened in New York City. 1978 – After reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft, Frederick Valentich disappeared in unexplained circumstances while piloting a Cessna 182L light aircraft over the Bass Strait to King Island, Australia. More anniversaries: October 20 – October 21 – October 22 It is now October 21, 2011 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured picture Crumbling scoria cliffs surround the rift at the summit of Mount Tarawera, a volcano near Rotorua in New Zealand's North Island. This 500 m (1,600 ft) wide rift was created in 1886 in the country's largest historical eruption. The famed Pink and White Terraces were lost during the eruption, and over one hundred people were killed. Photo: Avenue Recently featured: Big wave surfing – Heathland in Tasmania – Plectroctena sp. ants

Other areas of Wikipedia

• Community portal – Bulletin board, projects, resources and activities covering a wide range of Wikipedia areas.
• Help desk – Ask questions about using Wikipedia.
• Local embassy – For Wikipedia-related communication in languages other than English.
• Reference desk – Serving as virtual librarians, Wikipedia volunteers tackle your questions on a wide range of subjects.
• Site news – Announcements, updates, articles and press releases on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation.
• Village pump – For discussions about Wikipedia itself, including areas for technical issues and policies.

Wikipedia's sister projects

Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects:

	Commons Free media repository		Wikiquote Collection of quotations		Wikiversity Free learning materials and activities
	Wikibooks Free textbooks and manuals		Wikisource Free-content library		Wiktionary Dictionary and thesaurus
	Wikinews Free-content news		Wikispecies Directory of species		Meta-Wiki Wikimedia project coordination

Wikipedia languages

This Wikipedia is written in English. Started in 2001 (2001), it currently contains 3,772,672 articles. Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below.

• More than 650,000 articles: Deutsch · Español · Français · Italiano · Nederlands · 日本語 · Polski · Português · Русский
• More than 150,000 articles: العربية · Bahasa Indonesia · Català · Česky · Dansk · Esperanto · فارسی · 한국어 · Magyar · ‪Norsk (bokmål)‬ · Română · Suomi · Svenska · Tiếng Việt · Türkçe · Українська · 中文
• More than 50,000 articles: Bahasa Melayu · Български · Eesti · Ελληνικά · Simple English · Euskara · Galego · עברית · Hrvatski · Lietuvių · ‪Norsk (nynorsk)‬ · Slovenčina · Slovenščina · Српски / Srpski · ไทย

Complete list of Wikipedias