Welcome to Wikipedia,

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

6,860,882 articles in English

Introduction · Almanac · Categories · Glossaries · Lists · Overviews · Portals · Questions · Site news · Index

Today's featured article

Dionysus Cup, possibly referencing the seventh Homeric Hymn

The Homeric Hymns are a collection of thirty-three ancient Greek hymns and one epigram. They praise deities of the Greek pantheon and retell mythological stories, such as the abduction of Persephone and the seduction of Anchises by Aphrodite. In antiquity, the hymns were generally attributed to the poet Homer: modern scholarship has established that they vary widely in date. Performances of the hymns may have taken place at sympotic banquets, religious festivals and royal courts. They may originally have been performed by singers accompanying themselves on a lyre. The hymns influenced Alexandrian and Roman poets, and both pagan and early Christian literature. They were first published in print by Demetrios Chalkokondyles in 1488–1489, while George Chapman made the first English translation of them in 1624. They have since influenced, among others, Handel, Goethe, Shelley, Tennyson and Cavafy. Their influence has also been traced in the novels of James Joyce and Neil Gaiman, and in the films of Alfred Hitchcock. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Today's featured picture

{{{caption}}}

Did you know...

Matahi Brightwell

... that Matahi Brightwell (pictured) reintroduced the sport of waka ama to New Zealand?
... that during the First Bishops' War, the Duke of Hamilton's mother intended to shoot him with silver bullets if he landed in Scotland?
... that Warren Lawrence, the first Dominican swimmer at the Commonwealth Games, is the son of the first Dominican swimmer at the Olympics?
... that a high school evicted a Pennsylvania TV station?
... that the National Library of Korea is a no kid zone?
... that in its first appearance at the Olympics, Suriname was represented by a single athlete, who missed his event?
... that Myinsaing withstood a ten-week siege by the Mongols because its three brother leaders bribed the invaders to withdraw?
... that basketball player Marcedes Walker became an Olympian 16 years after her WNBA career ended?
... that "the old man was startled and a little shocked" when he was shown Walter Frere's revision of his book?

In the news...

Ismail Haniyeh

Ismail Haniyeh (pictured), the political leader of Hamas, is assassinated in Tehran, Iran.
Landslides in Wayanad, India, kill more than 180 people.
In Gaelic football, the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship concludes with Armagh defeating Galway in the final.
Typhoon Gaemi leaves more than 70 people dead in the Philippines, China, Taiwan, and Cambodia.

On this day...

August 1: Lughnasadh in the Northern Hemisphere; Buwan ng Wika begins in the Philippines; PLA Day in China (1927)

Joseph Priestley

30 BC – War of Actium: Octavian defeated the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra at Alexandria, establishing Roman Egypt.
902 – Arab–Byzantine wars: Led by Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya, Aghlabid forces captured the Byzantine stronghold of Taormina, concluding the Muslim conquest of Sicily.
1774 – British scientist Joseph Priestley (pictured) liberated oxygen gas, corroborating the discovery of the element by the German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
1892 – Jef Denyn hosted the world's first carillon concert at St. Rumbold's Cathedral in Mechelen, Belgium.
1911 – Harriet Quimby became the first woman to earn an Aero Club of America aviator certificate.

Elizabeth Randles (b. 1800)
Maria Mitchell (b. 1818)
Lydia Litvyak (d. 1943)
Abdalqadir as-Sufi (d. 2021)

More anniversaries:

Wikipedia community

Every page on Wikipedia is a collaborative effort. But there are some special places reserved for specific types of discussion and assistance. Find what you're looking for here:

The Community Portal — The center of community involvement. Learn about projects and activities you can join to help improve Wikipedia.
The Help Desk — Come here if you need help editing. You can ask a question about using Wikipedia. Alternatively, you can find what you need at Help:Contents.
The Reference Desk — For questions about any subject you're researching or curious about (not about Wikipedia itself), just like at a library's reference desk.
The Village Pump — The main discussion forums of Wikipedia.
The Signpost — Wikipedia's newspaper, where you can read and post news about what's happening on this website.
Donations — Wikipedia is funded entirely by its users. We appreciate all donations. Thank you!

Wikipedia's sister projects

Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that operates several other multilingual and free-content projects:

	Wiktionary Dictionary and thesaurus		Wikibooks Free textbooks and manuals		Wikiquote Collection of quotations	s:Main Page	Wikisource The free library
Wikispecies:Main Page	Wikispecies Directory of species		Wikinews Free content news source	commons:Main Page	Commons Shared media repository		Meta-Wiki Wikimedia project coordination