Wikipedia:Main Page alternatives/(simple layout)
Almanac · Categories · Glossaries · Lists · Overviews · Portals · Questions · Site news · Index
Art | Geography | History | Mathematics | People | Philosophy | Science | Society | Technology
We are building an open-content encyclopedia in many languages. We started in January 2001 and are now working on 6,900,899 articles in the English version. Learn how to edit pages, experiment in the sandbox, and visit our Community Portal to find out how you can contribute to Wikipedia. This page is also available without pictures. More main page alternatives
Today's featured article
The Fusō-class battleships were a pair of dreadnoughts built for the Imperial Japanese Navy before and during World War I: Fusō was launched in 1914, and Yamashiro (pictured) in 1915. During the 1930s, both ships underwent a series of modernizations and reconstructions. This increased their armor, replaced and upgraded their machinery, and rebuilt their superstructures into a distinctive pagoda-mast style. Despite the expensive reconstructions, both vessels were considered obsolescent by the eve of World War II, and neither saw significant action in the early years of the war. In 1944 both underwent upgrades to their anti-aircraft suite before transferring to Singapore. Fusō and Yamashiro were the only two Japanese battleships at the Battle of Surigao Strait, the southernmost action of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and both were lost in the early hours of 25 October 1944 to torpedoes and naval gunfire. Only ten crewmembers from each ship survived. (This article is part of a featured topic: Battleships of Japan.)
Did you know...
- ... that cartoonist Anna Haifisch (pictured) has been "bend[ing] the rules of comics"?
- ... that MyRadar uses a custom satellite constellation to help forecast the weather?
- ... that the early woman explorer Adèle de Dombasle travelled to Polynesia in 1847 and worked as an illustrator, drawing people such as Queen Pōmare IV?
- ... that song lyrics were allowed as evidence in the YSL Records racketeering trial?
- ... that imprisoned Afghan politician Abdur Rahman Mahmudi wrote poems using onion juice as ink in his prison cell?
- ... that part of the site of Granville Colliery is now used as a dry ski slope?
- ... that the parents of Mathias Nkwenti, the second Cameroonian ever to play in the NFL, initially opposed his football career?
- ... that a small golden bell found at the site of the Mount Gerizim Temple is believed to have been part of the ephod of a high priest, as described in Exodus 28?
- ... that because the lord chancellor of England did not freeze assets before trial in 1789, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1999 that U.S. courts cannot either?
In the news
- Peruvian Catholic theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez (pictured), a founder of Latin American liberation theology, dies at the age of 96.
- Moldova votes to amend its constitution to include the aim of becoming a European Union member state.
- Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, is killed in a firefight with Israeli forces in Gaza.
- The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences is awarded to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson for their comparative studies of prosperity between nations.
On this day
- 1616 – Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog left a plate on an island in Shark Bay, the oldest-known artefact of European exploration in Australia still in existence.
- 1854 – Crimean War: The ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade (pictured) was decisively repelled by Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava.
- 1950 – The People's Volunteer Army ambushed the South Korean II Corps at the Battle of Onjong, and elsewhere engaged the 1st Infantry Division at the Battle of Unsan, marking China's entry into the Korean War.
- 2001 – Windows XP, one of the most popular and widely used versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system, was released for retail sale.
- 2022 – At 49 days, Liz Truss concluded the shortest tenure as prime minister of the United Kingdom.
- Catherine of Bosnia (d. 1478)
- Évariste Galois (b. 1811)
- Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (b. 1900)
- Katy Perry (b. 1984)
Today's featured picture
USS Johnston was a Fletcher-class destroyer built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was named after Lieutenant John V. Johnston, a navy officer during the American Civil War. The ship was laid down in May 1942 and was launched in March 1943, entering active duty later that year as part of the US Pacific Fleet. Johnston provided naval gunfire support for American ground forces during the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign in 1944 and again, after three months of patrol and escort duty in the Solomon Islands, during the recapture of Guam in July. Thereafter, Johnston was tasked with escorting escort carriers during the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign and the liberation of the Philippines. On 25 October 1944, Johnston and various other ships were engaged by a large Imperial Japanese Navy flotilla, in what became known as the Battle off Samar. After engaging several Japanese capital ships and a destroyer squadron, Johnston was sunk with 187 dead. Johnston's wreck was discovered in 2019, and at a depth of more than 20,000 feet (6,100 m) below the surface, is one of the deepest shipwrecks ever surveyed. This photograph shows Johnston in Seattle in October 1943. Photograph credit: unidentified US Navy photographer; restored by Adam Cuerden and Cobatfor
Recently featured:
|
Portals
Categories
Arts – Culture by region – Languages – Literature – Mass media – Movements – Mythology – Popular culture – Religion – Sports – Traditions – Travel
Animation – Celebrities – Dance – Entertainers – Festivals – Games – Hobbies – Humour – Music – Parties – Radio – Television – Toys
Africa –
Antarctica –
Asia –
Australia –
Europe –
North America –
Oceania –
South America
Cities –
Climate –
Countries –
Landforms –
Maps –
Parks –
Subterranea –
Towns
Algebra – Analysis – Arithmetic – Computer science – Economics – Equations – Geometry – Logic – Measurement – Numbers – Proofs – Philosophy – Theorems – Trigonometry – Statistics
Astronomy – Biology – Chemistry – Earth sciences – Ecology – Information science – Natural hazards – Neuroscience – Physics – Space
Anthropology – Archaeology – Business – Communication – Demographics – Economics – Finance – Government – History – Law – Linguistics – Philosophy – Politics – Psychology – Sociology – Sexology
Sister Projects
Wikipedia is run by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Wikimedia operates several other multilingual and open-content wiki projects:
Meta-Wiki — Coordination of all Wikimedia projects
Wiktionary — A multilingual dictionary and thesaurus
Wikibooks — Free textbooks and manuals
Wikiquote — A collection of quotations
Wikisource — Free source documents
Wikinews — Free content news source
Wikipedia in other languages
This Wikipedia is written in English. Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below.
-
1,000,000+ articles
-
250,000+ articles
-
50,000+ articles
If you find this encyclopedia or its sister projects useful, please consider making a donation.