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 6,952,453 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 siege of Baghdad took place in early 1258 when a large army under Hulegu, a prince of the Mongol Empire, attacked Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. Hulegu had been sent by his brother, the Mongol khan Möngke, to conquer Persia. He expected Baghdad's ruler, Caliph al-Musta'sim, to reinforce his army, but this did not happen. Provoked by al-Musta'sim's arrogance, Hulegu decided to overthrow him. The Mongol army routed a sortie by flooding their camp, and besieged the city. After Mongol siege engines breached Baghdad's walls, al-Musta'sim surrendered on 10 February, and was later executed. The Mongol army pillaged the city for a week. The number of deaths was inflated by epidemics of disease, but Hulegu estimated his soldiers killed 200,000. The siege, often seen as the end of the Islamic Golden Age, was in reality not era-defining: Baghdad later prospered under Hulegu's Ilkhanate. (Full article...)
Did you know...
- ... that Metropolitan Opera director Maurice Grau (pictured) was "important in the growth of popular musical theatre in America"?
- ... that televangelist Gene Scott went 65 hours without sleep when he barricaded himself in the studios of his Connecticut TV station to protest an order to pay taxes?
- ... that a train station in Singapore repeatedly had issues with the design of its stairs?
- ... that the Olympic shooter Ho Chung Kin translated more than 150 Tang-dynasty and Song-dynasty poems, maintaining a rhyme structure that mirrors the original classical Chinese texts?
- ... that most or all of the inhabitants of Moneka, Kansas, were abolitionists?
- ... that David of Sassoun has been called the most recognized symbol of Armenia, along with Mount Ararat?
- ... that the deaths of five teenagers in Poland in the ToNiePokój escape room fire led to inspections of escape rooms in Lithuania and Czechia?
- ... that Thomas M. Robins was responsible for the construction of the Bonneville Dam?
- ... that according to one school of epistemology, nobody knows anything?
In the news
- In American football, the Philadelphia Eagles defeat the Kansas City Chiefs to win the Super Bowl (MVP Jalen Hurts pictured).
- The 49th imam of Nizari Isma'ilism, Aga Khan IV, dies at the age of 88 and is succeeded by his son, Aga Khan V.
- Eleven people are killed in a mass shooting at an adult education centre in Örebro, Sweden.
- At the Grammy Awards, "Not Like Us" by Kendrick Lamar wins Record of the Year and Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter wins Album of the Year.
On this day
February 10: Feast day of Saint Scholastica (Christianity); National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe in Italy
- 1355 – A tavern dispute between students of the University of Oxford and townspeople in Oxford became a riot that left about 90 people dead.
- 1919 – The Inter-Allied Women's Conference (delegates pictured) opened as a counterpart to the Paris Peace Conference, marking the first time that women were allowed formal participation in an international treaty negotiation.
- 1939 – Spanish Civil War: The Nationalists concluded their conquest of Catalonia and sealed the border with France.
- 2009 – The satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251 destroyed each other in the first accidental hypervelocity collision between two intact satellites in low Earth orbit.
- Ira Remsen (b. 1846)
- Edith Clarke (b. 1883)
- Joseph Lister (d. 1912)
- Joan Curran (d. 1999)
Today's featured picture
|
The Alpine ibex (Capra ibex), also known as the steinbock, is a species of goat that lives in the Alps of Europe. Its closest living relative is the Iberian ibex. Alpine ibex have brownish-grey coats and sharp hooves adapted to steep, rough terrain. Found at elevations as high as 3,300 metres (10,800 feet), they are active throughout the year, primarily feeding on grass in open alpine meadows. Adult males, which are larger than females, segregate from them for most of the year, coming together only during the breeding season, when they fight for access to the females using their long horns. The Alpine ibex has been successfully reintroduced to parts of its historical range, but all individuals living today descend from a population bottleneck of fewer than 100 individuals from Gran Paradiso National Park in Italy. The species has few predators and is not threatened, but it has very low genetic diversity. These Alpine ibex, a male in winter and a female in summer, were photographed at Creux du Van in Switzerland. Photograph credit: Giles Laurent
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.