Main Page

Welcome to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. 4,100,844 articles in English

Arts Biography Geography

History Mathematics Science

Society Technology All portals

From today's featured article HMS New Zealand was one of three Indefatigable-class battlecruisers built for the defence of the British Empire. The ship was funded by the government of New Zealand as a gift to Britain, and she was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1912. She had been intended for the China Station, but was released by the New Zealand government at the request of the Admiralty for service in British waters. After a tour of the British Dominions, with an emphasis on a visit to her namesake nation, she was back in British waters at the start of World War I, and operated as part of the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet, in opposition to the German High Seas Fleet. During the war, the battlecruiser participated in all three of the major North Sea battles—Heligoland Bight, Dogger Bank, and Jutland. New Zealand contributed to the destruction of two cruisers during her wartime service, but was hit by enemy fire only once and sustained no casualties; her status as a "lucky ship" was attributed by the crew to a Māori piupiu (warrior's skirt) and tiki (pendant) worn by the ship's captain during battle. After the war, New Zealand was broken up for scrap in 1922 in compliance with Britain's tonnage limit in the disarmament provisions of the Washington Naval Treaty. (Full article...) Recently featured: Luke P. Blackburn – Metroid Prime – Hoodwinked! Did you know... From Wikipedia's newest content: ... that Little Raven (pictured), a principal chief of the Southern Arapaho Indians, learned to smoke cigars and eat meat with utensils while he lived in Denver with white people? ... that an artillery blockhouse was built in 1481 to protect Dartmouth Harbour? ... that Allan Singleton-Wood hosted the first radio performance in Wales of Dusty Springfield's early band, The Springfields? ... that Tom Hedden's work is featured in both the NFL and NASCAR hall of fames? ... that despite being found over an area of 10,000 square kilometres (3,900 sq mi), Petter's Chameleon is a Vulnerable species? ... that former American Idol contestant Diana DeGarmo co-wrote a song entitled "Good Goodbye", which she performed as her character Angelina Veneziano on The Young and the Restless?

In the news At least 50 schoolchildren are killed in an accident at a railway crossing near Manfalut, Egypt. Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač are acquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Xi Jinping becomes General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and a new Politburo Standing Committee is inaugurated. Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari is killed in an Israeli military operation. A total solar eclipse occurs in parts of Australia and the South Pacific. Justin Welby is announced as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury. Recent deaths: Bal Thackeray On this day... November 19: International Men's Day; Liberation Day in Mali 1816 – The University of Warsaw, currently the largest university in Poland, was established as Congress Poland found itself a territory without a university. 1942 – World War II: Soviet troops launched Operation Uranus at the Battle of Stalingrad, with the goal of encircling Axis forces, turning the tide of the battle in the Soviet Union's favour. 1969 – Playing for Santos against Vasco da Gama in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian footballer Pelé (pictured) scored his 1000th goal. 1985 – Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan held the first of five summit meetings between them in Geneva. 2010 – The first of four explosions took place at the Pike River Mine in the West Coast Region of New Zealand in the nation's worst mining disaster in nearly a century. More anniversaries: November 18 – November 19 – November 20 It is now November 19, 2012 (UTC) – Refresh this page

From today's featured list The cast members of the Harry Potter film series are some of the most renowned actors of the United Kingdom and Ireland. The Harry Potter films are based on a series of novels by the British author J. K. Rowling. Daniel Radcliffe (pictured), Rupert Grint and Emma Watson played Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger in all the films. When they cast, only Radcliffe had previously acted in a film. Thirteen actors appeared as the same character in all eight films of the franchise. With the exception of Chris Columbus, each director had a cameo appearance in their respective film: Alfonso Cuarón appears as a wizard holding a candle during a scene at The Three Broomsticks in Prisoner of Azkaban; Mike Newell is heard briefly as the radio presenter in Frank Bryce's house in Goblet of Fire; and David Yates features as a wizard within a magical moving portrait in Order of the Phoenix. (Full list...)

Today's featured picture Knut Steen (1924–2011) was a Norwegian sculptor based in Italy. Born in Oslo, Steen is best known for his work on the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts with the Danish sculptor Per Palle Storm. There is a museum dedicated to his work located in Sandefjord. Photo: Nina Aldin Thune Recently featured: Near-elegant frog shell – DNA structural diagram – Nictitating membrane

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

Wikipedia languages

This Wikipedia is written in English. Started in 2001 (2001), it currently contains 4,100,844 articles. Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below.

• More than 750,000 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 · lietuvių · 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 · English (simple) · euskara · galego · עברית · hrvatski · norsk (nynorsk)‎ · slovenščina · srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски · ไทย

Complete list of Wikipedias