Main Page

Welcome to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. 3,949,081 articles in English

Arts Biography Geography

History Mathematics Science

Society Technology All portals

Today's featured article Fanny Imlay (1794–1816) was the illegitimate daughter of the British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and the American commercial speculator Gilbert Imlay. Although Mary Wollstonecraft and Gilbert Imlay lived together happily for brief periods before and after the birth of Fanny, Imlay left Wollstonecraft in France in the midst of the French Revolution. In an attempt to revive their relationship, she travelled to Scandinavia on business for him, taking the one-year-old Fanny with her, but the affair never rekindled. After falling in love with and marrying the philosopher William Godwin, Wollstonecraft died in childbirth in 1797, leaving the three-year-old Fanny in the hands of Godwin, along with the newborn Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. Four years later, Godwin remarried and his new wife, Mary Jane Clairmont, brought children of her own into the marriage, most significantly from Fanny Imlay's and Mary Godwin's perspective, Claire Clairmont. Both girls resented the new Mrs Godwin and the attention she paid to her own daughter. The Godwin household became an increasingly uncomfortable place to live as tensions rose and debts mounted. Imlay became increasingly isolated from her family and committed suicide in 1816 at the age of 22. (more...) Recently featured: Limbo – Katharine Hepburn – FC Barcelona Did you know... From Wikipedia's newest content: ... that Cy Young (pictured) threw a perfect game in the midst of a Major League Baseball record streak of 25⅓ innings pitched without allowing a hit? ... that Eberhard Wolfgang Möller originally intended Adolf Hitler to be revealed as the supreme judge in his Thingspiel, the Frankenburger Würfelspiel? ... that by 1974 at the height of the Mexican barbasco trade, 125,000 mostly indigenous peasants depended on collecting wild yam in the jungle and selling it to the pharmaceutical industry? ... that jazz trio BADBADNOTGOOD had a crowd moshing at a J Dilla tribute show? ... that the main tourist attraction in Agkistro, northern Greece, its steam bath complex, dates from the 10th century Byzantine period? ... that Darrell Wallace, Jr. was the first African American to win a NASCAR Rookie of the Year award? ... that the Millennium episode "Lamentation" features a kidney sent to an investigator's wife, as a reference to Jack the Ripper's "From Hell" letter?

In the news At least 49 people are decapitated allegedly by Los Zetas and found on Mexican Federal Highway 40. In association football, the English Premier League season ends with Manchester City winning their first top-flight league championship since 1968. The National Liberation Front gains a plurality in the Algerian legislative election. Saudi Arabia begins to send US$2.7 billion in aid to Egypt after a recent diplomatic crisis. A Sukhoi Superjet 100 (pictured) crashes during a demonstration flight in Indonesia, killing all 45 people on board. Pioneering hairdresser Vidal Sassoon dies at the age of 84. On this day... May 14: Feast day of Saint Matthias and Saint Mo Chutu (Roman Catholic Church) 1787 – Delegates from the thirteen U.S. states convened the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with the intention of revising the Articles of Confederation. 1868 – Boshin War: Troops of the Tokugawa shogunate withdrew from the Battle of Utsunomiya Castle and retreated north towards Nikkō and Aizu. 1943 – Second World War: The Australian Hospital Ship Centaur (pictured) was attacked and sunk by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Queensland, killing 268 people aboard. 1948 – David Ben-Gurion publicly read the Israeli Declaration of Independence at the present-day Independence Hall in Tel Aviv, officially establishing a new Jewish state in parts of the former British Mandate of Palestine. 1955 – Cold War: Eight Eastern Bloc countries signed a mutual defense treaty to establish the Warsaw Pact. More anniversaries: May 13 – May 14 – May 15 It is now May 14, 2012 (UTC) – Refresh this page

Today's featured list The Aurealis Award for best young-adult novel is presented annually by the Australia-based Chimaera Publications and SpecFaction NSW to published works. Since their creation in 1995, Aurealis Awards have been given in various categories of speculative fiction. The continued sponsorship by publishers such as HarperCollins and Orbit has added weight to the honour of the award. The results are decided by a panel of judges from a list of submitted nominees; the long-list of nominees is reduced to a short-list of finalists. Ties can occur if the panel decides that both entries show equal merit, however they are encouraged to choose a single winner. Of the 20 winners in the best young-adult novel category, three people have won the award twice: Isobelle Carmody, Garth Nix (pictured) and Scott Westerfeld. Westerfeld holds the record for most nominations with seven, and Rory Barnes has the most nominations without winning, having been a losing finalist five times. (more...)

Today's featured picture The larva of tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta), a moth that is present throughout much of the Americas. The caterpillars feed on plants of the family Solanaceae, principally tobacco, tomatoes and members of the genus Datura. It is a common model organism, especially in neurobiology, due to its easily accessible nervous system and short life cycle. Photo: Daniel Schwen Recently featured: Ambondro mahabo jaw – Black-headed Bunting – Koppelpoort, Amersfoort, Netherlands

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 3,949,081 articles. Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below.

• More than 700,000 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 · Slovenčina · Српски / Srpski · 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)‬ · Slovenščina · Srpskohrvatski / Српскохрватски · ไทย

Complete list of Wikipedias