G'day

The bellman is a character from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll. I live in the Blue Mountains, Australia.

Today's featured article

Blair Peach

Blair Peach died on 24 April 1979 after an anti-racism demonstration in Southall, London, England. Peach, a New Zealand teacher and activist born in 1946, had taken part in an Anti-Nazi League demonstration against a National Front election meeting in Southall Town Hall. An investigation by Commander John Cass of the Metropolitan Police Service concluded that Peach had been fatally hit on the head by an officer of the service's Special Patrol Group, and that other officers had obstructed the investigation. Excerpts from a leaked copy of the report were published in early 1980. In 1988 the Metropolitan Police paid £75,000 compensation to Peach's family. The full report was not released to the public until 2009, after a newspaper vendor died from being struck from behind by a member of the Territorial Support Group, the Special Patrol Group's successor organisation. An award in Peach's honour was set up by the National Union of Teachers, and a school in Southall is named after him. (Full article...)

Selected anniversaries

April 24: Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day (1915); Administrative Professionals Day in various countries (2024)

Hubble Space Telescope

• 1837 – A fire broke out in Surat, India, which went on to destroy about three-fourths of the city.
• 1916 – Irish republicans led by Patrick Pearse began the Easter Rising against British rule in Ireland, and proclaimed the Irish Republic an independent state.
• 1990 – The Hubble Space Telescope (pictured) was launched aboard STS-31 by Space Shuttle Discovery.
• 1993 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a truck bomb in London's financial district in Bishopsgate, killing one person, injuring forty-four others, and causing damage that cost £350 million to repair.

Community and policy references

• Wikipedia:Tutorial/Glossary abbreviated glossary—the ten most likely words you'll encounter.
• Wikipedia:Glossary explains the words you'll hear other editors use.
• Wikipedia:Community Portal provides links to community resources—this page is always available in the navigation sidebar.
• Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines

Directories

• Wikipedia:FAQ is an index of FAQ pages on all aspects of Wikipedia.
• Wikipedia:Utilities — a bigger directory of project pages than the community portal.
• Wikipedia:Topical index — if you want a really complete index.

New pages

All New: 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Orphaned: 500 1001 1501

Donate

If you find this encyclopedia or its sister projects useful, please consider making a donation.

In the news

Ichthyotitan severnensis compared to a human

• Ich­thy­o­titan, the largest known marine reptile (size com­par­ison shown), is formally described.
• Flooding in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Peninsula leaves more than thirty people dead.
• The historic Børsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, is severely damaged by a fire.
• A knife attack in Sydney, Australia, leaves seven people dead.
• In retaliation for an Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Iran conducts missile and drone strikes against Israel.

Celestial globe by Åkerman

• ... that Anders Åkerman started the production of terrestrial and celestial globes (example pictured) in Sweden?
• ... that the West Georgia Wolves football team won 13 games in 13 years before folding, but upon returning two decades later compiled consecutive undefeated regular seasons and became national champions?
• ... that Fūka Izumi became a voice actress despite initially doubting that she could be one?
• ... that seven countries competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 1994 for the first time, the largest single expansion of participating countries since the contest's first edition?
• ... that the young Turkish open water swimmer Aysu Türkoğlu has completed three of the Oceans Seven series?
• ... that the Indianapolis African-American community raised $100,000 in just ten days in 1911 to establish the Senate Avenue YMCA?
• ... that Edgar Wright's pitch for an Ant-Man film in 2006 helped to shape the early films of Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
• ... that while touring for her album Wallsocket, Underscores handed out pizza before her sets?
• ... that The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 has been the first, second, and third volume of the Oxford History of the United States?

Advice and general information

• Wikipedia:Welcome, newcomers explains the site and what to do here.
• Faux pas avoidance helps you avoid some common mistakes.
• Know how to contribute, but not what to write about? See Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia for help.
• Looking for other ways to improve articles? See Wikipedia:Guide to improving articles.

Specialised tutorials

• Wikipedia:Picture tutorial is a tutorial on image formatting.
• Wikipedia:How to use tables is a tutorial on the use of tables.
• Wikipedia:NPOV tutorial is a tutorial on how to write from a neutral perspective.
• TeX markup is a list of the markup symbols we use.

Style and technique references

Directory: Wikipedia:Style and How-to Directory

• Wikipedia:How to edit a page gives lots of information on things like formatting, character sets, and variables.
• Wikipedia:How to start a page
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style

Technical references

• MediaWiki User's Guide — a user's guide for the MediaWiki software that Wikipedia runs on.