Difference between revisions of "Timeline of Wikipedia"

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! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 
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| 1857 || November 5 || Speech || Richard Chenevix Trench delivers a speech at the London Library on Guy Fawkes Day, proposing the creation of a new grand dictionary of every word in the English language. He emphasizes the need for a large, unpaid volunteer team to compile this work, a concept that parallels Wikipedia's reliance on volunteer contributors.
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| 1857 || November 5 || Speech || Richard Chenevix Trench delivers a speech at the London Library on Guy Fawkes Day, proposing the creation of a new grand dictionary of every word in the English language. He emphasizes the need for a large, unpaid volunteer team to compile this work, a concept that parallels Wikipedia's reliance on volunteer contributors.<ref>Winchester, Simon (1998). ''The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary''. Harpers, p. 106.</ref>
 
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| 1910 || – || Institution Establishment || Paul Otlet founds the Mundaneum, an institution dedicated to indexing the world's knowledge. This marks a significant step towards creating a global repository of information, paving the way for future encyclopedic efforts like Wikipedia.
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| 1910 || – || Institution Establishment || Paul Otlet founds the Mundaneum, an institution dedicated to indexing the world's knowledge. This marks a significant step towards creating a global repository of information, paving the way for future encyclopedic efforts like Wikipedia.<ref name="reaglechap2">Reagle, Joseph (2010). ''Good Faith Collaboration.  The Culture of Wikipedia''. MIT Press. {{ISBN|978-0262014472}}. Chapter 2: "The Pursuit of the Universal Encyclopedia".</ref>
 
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| 1928 || – || Project Completion || After nearly 70 years of collaborative effort, the *Oxford English Dictionary* is completed. This massive project, driven by volunteers, demonstrates that large-scale, volunteer-driven knowledge projects were possible long before the advent of the internet.
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| 1928 || – || Project Completion || After nearly 70 years of collaborative effort, the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' is completed. This massive project, driven by volunteers, demonstrates that large-scale, volunteer-driven knowledge projects were possible long before the advent of the internet.<ref>Winchester, Simon (1998). ''The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary''. Harpers, p. 106.</ref>
 
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| 1934 || – || Publication || Paul Otlet publishes *Traité de Documentation*, in which he explores the idea of using automated technology beyond the printing press to build a more useful, machine-assisted encyclopedia. This concept would influence later digital knowledge projects.
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| 1934 || – || Publication || Paul Otlet publishes ''Traité de Documentation'', in which he explores the idea of using automated technology beyond the printing press to build a more useful, machine-assisted encyclopedia. This concept would influence later digital knowledge projects.<ref name="reaglechap2"/>
 
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| 1938 || – || Concept Proposal || H. G. Wells expands on Otlet's ideas in his book of essays *World Brain*, proposing the creation of a global encyclopedia that could serve as a repository for human knowledge and wisdom, an idea that anticipates the collaborative nature of Wikipedia.
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| 1938 || – || Concept Proposal || H. G. Wells expands on Otlet's ideas in his book of essays ''World Brain'', proposing the creation of a global encyclopedia that could serve as a repository for human knowledge and wisdom, an idea that anticipates the collaborative nature of Wikipedia.<ref name="reaglechap2"/>
 
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| 1945 || – || Essay Publication || Vannevar Bush publishes his influential essay *As We May Think*, in which he envisions the "Memex," a microfilm-based system that would allow users to store and retrieve vast amounts of information. This concept of a knowledge machine would later inspire developments in digital information storage, such as hypertext.
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| 1945 || – || Essay Publication || Vannevar Bush publishes his influential essay ''As We May Think'', in which he envisions the "Memex," a microfilm-based system that would allow users to store and retrieve vast amounts of information. This concept of a knowledge machine would later inspire developments in digital information storage, such as hypertext.<ref name="reaglechap2"/>
 
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| 1960 || – || Project Launch || Ted Nelson begins *Project Xanadu*, a pioneering hypertext design aimed at creating a global, interconnected library of information. This project is a precursor to the development of the internet and collaborative knowledge systems like Wikipedia.
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| 1960 || – || Project Launch || Ted Nelson begins ''Project Xanadu'', a pioneering hypertext design aimed at creating a global, interconnected library of information. This project is a precursor to the development of the internet and collaborative knowledge systems like Wikipedia.<ref name=reaglechap2/>
 
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| 1993 || – || Concept Proposal || Rick Gates, a computer scientist and advocate for online information sharing, makes the earliest known proposal for an online encyclopedia. This proposal outlines the concept of a collaborative, digital resource where users can freely contribute and access knowledge, laying the foundation for later initiatives like Wikipedia.
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| 1993 || – || Concept Proposal || Rick Gates, a computer scientist and advocate for online information sharing, makes the earliest known proposal for an online encyclopedia. This proposal outlines the concept of a collaborative, digital resource where users can freely contribute and access knowledge, laying the foundation for later initiatives like Wikipedia.<ref name="listserv.uh.edu" />
 
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| 1993 || – || Encyclopedia Launch || Microsoft's *Encarta*, a CD-ROM-based encyclopedia, is published. It introduces hyperlinked articles, a significant departure from traditional book-based encyclopedias like the *Encyclopædia Britannica*.
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| 1993 || – || Encyclopedia Launch || Microsoft's ''{{w|Encarta}}'', a CD-ROM-based encyclopedia, is published. It introduces hyperlinked articles, a significant departure from traditional book-based encyclopedias like the ''{{w|Encyclopædia Britannica}}''.<ref name="listserv.uh.edu" />
 
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| 1998 || – || Concept Proposal || {{w|Richard Stallman}}, founder of the Free Software Foundation, proposes the idea of a "free-as-in-freedom" online encyclopedia. His vision includes the principle that no central authority should control editing or access, directly opposing the proprietary models of contemporaneous encyclopedias like Microsoft Encarta or Encyclopædia Britannica.
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| 1998 || – || Concept Proposal || {{w|Richard Stallman}}, founder of the Free Software Foundation, proposes the idea of a "free-as-in-freedom" online encyclopedia. His vision includes the principle that no central authority should control editing or access, directly opposing the proprietary models of contemporaneous encyclopedias like Microsoft Encarta or Encyclopædia Britannica.<ref name="stallmanencyclopedia">{{Cite web |last=Stallman |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Stallman |year=1998 |title=The Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource (1998 Draft) |url=https://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/free-encyclopedia-1998-draft.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124065108/https://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia/free-encyclopedia-1998-draft.html |archive-date=24 January 2021 |access-date=29 October 2021 |publisher=GNU}}</ref>
 
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| 1998 || – || Concept Proposal || Free software advocate Richard Stallman outlines the idea of a "Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource." He stresses the importance of creating a free, universally accessible encyclopedia to ensure continuous progress toward this ideal.
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| 1998 || – || Concept Proposal || Free software advocate Richard Stallman outlines the idea of a "Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource." He stresses the importance of creating a free, universally accessible encyclopedia to ensure continuous progress toward this ideal.<ref name="stallmanencyclopedia"/>
 
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| Late 1990s || – || Concept Development || Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales is inspired by the open-source movement and Richard Stallman's *Emacs Manifesto*. As a graduate student at Indiana University, Wales is intrigued by the idea of volunteer-driven collaboration, which will later influence Wikipedia’s model.
 
| Late 1990s || – || Concept Development || Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales is inspired by the open-source movement and Richard Stallman's *Emacs Manifesto*. As a graduate student at Indiana University, Wales is intrigued by the idea of volunteer-driven collaboration, which will later influence Wikipedia’s model.
 
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| 2000 || March || Encyclopedia Launch || {{w|Nupedia}} is launched by Jimmy Wales, Tim Shell, and Michael E. Davis under their web-advertising company, Bomis. The project aims to create a free online encyclopedia using qualified volunteers and a peer-reviewed multi-step editorial process. Despite having a mailing list of over 2,000 interested editors and Larry Sanger serving as full-time editor-in-chief, *Nupedia* struggles to produce content, with only 12 articles written during its first year.
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| 2000 || March || Encyclopedia Launch || {{w|Nupedia}} is launched by Jimmy Wales, Tim Shell, and Michael E. Davis under their web-advertising company, Bomis. The project aims to create a free online encyclopedia using qualified volunteers and a peer-reviewed multi-step editorial process. Despite having a mailing list of over 2,000 interested editors and Larry Sanger serving as full-time editor-in-chief, *Nupedia* struggles to produce content, with only 12 articles written during its first year.<ref name="hive">{{Cite magazine |last=Poe |first=Marshall |date=September 2006 |title=The Hive |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/wikipedia/ |url-status=live |magazine={{w|The Atlantic}} |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061223004004/http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200609/wikipedia |archive-date=23 December 2006 |access-date=1 January 2007}}</ref>
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| 2000 || March || Founding || The Nupedia project is started by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, with the intention to publish articles written by experts and licensed as free content. The project is funded by Bomis.
 
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| 2001 || January 2 || Key Conversation || Larry Sanger learns about wikis during a dinner with Ben Kovitz, a programmer and regular on Ward Cunningham's WikiWikiWeb. Kovitz introduces Sanger to the concept of using wikis to organize knowledge, an idea that would soon shape the future of Wikipedia.
 
 
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| 2001 || January 10 || Proposal || Larry Sanger suggests on the *Nupedia* mailing list that a wiki-based platform be created as a feeder project to complement *Nupedia*. He proposes the use of the UseModWiki platform under the subject "Let's make a wiki."
 
| 2001 || January 10 || Proposal || Larry Sanger suggests on the *Nupedia* mailing list that a wiki-based platform be created as a feeder project to complement *Nupedia*. He proposes the use of the UseModWiki platform under the subject "Let's make a wiki."
 
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| 2001 || January 10 || Wiki Setup || Jimmy Wales sets up a wiki under the *nupedia.com* domain as a test project for rapid content creation. This marks the beginning of the wiki approach to encyclopedic content for *Nupedia*.
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| 2001 || January 10 || Wiki Setup || Jimmy Wales sets up a wiki under the <code>nupedia.com</code> domain as a test project for rapid content creation. This marks the beginning of the wiki approach to encyclopedic content for ''{{w|Nupedia}}''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2003-04-25 |title=[Nupedia-l] Nupedia's wiki: try it out |url=http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000678.html |access-date=2023-08-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030425173342/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000678.html |archive-date=25 April 2003 }}</ref>
 
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| 2001 || January 11 || Naming || Larry Sanger suggests the name "Wikipedia" as a portmanteau of "wiki" and "encyclopedia."
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| 2001 || January 11 || Naming || Larry Sanger suggests the name "Wikipedia" as a portmanteau of "wiki" and "encyclopedia."<ref>{{Cite web |title=[Nupedia-l] Re: [Advisory-l] The wiki... |url=http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000680.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030414021138/http://www.nupedia.com/pipermail/nupedia-l/2001-January/000680.html |archive-date=14 April 2003 |website=nupedia.com}}</ref>
 
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| 2001 || January 12 || Domain Registration || The domain name wikipedia.com is registered.
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| 2001 || January 12-13 || Domain Registration || The domain name wikipedia.com is registered.<ref>[[Network Solutions]] (2007) ''[http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=wikipedia.com WHOIS domain registration information results for wikipedia.com from Network Solutions] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927193149/http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=wikipedia.com |date=27 September 2007 }}''. Retrieved 27 July 2007.</ref>
 
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| 2001 || January 13 || Domain Registration || The domain <code>wikipedia.org</code> is officially registered, signaling the creation of a new free-content encyclopedia. This event marks the beginning of what would become one of the most significant and widely-used knowledge repositories on the internet.
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| 2001 || January 13 || Domain Registration || The domain <code>wikipedia.org</code> is officially registered, signaling the creation of a new free-content encyclopedia. This event marks the beginning of what would become one of the most significant and widely-used knowledge repositories on the internet.<ref>[[Network Solutions]] (2007). [http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=wikipedia.org "WHOIS domain registration information results for wikipedia.org from Network Solutions] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927194913/http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=wikipedia.org |date=27 September 2007 }}". Retrieved 27 July 2007.</ref> respectively, with ''wikipedia.org'' being brought online on the same day.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia.org Site Info |url=http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101006010812/http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page |archive-date=6 October 2010 |access-date=6 September 2010 |publisher=[[Alexa Internet]]}}</ref>
 
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| 2001 || January 15 || First Edit || Wikipedia’s first edit is made, marking the platform's launch as a live site. Just two days after the domain registration, Wikipedia begins its journey as a space where volunteers from around the world can collaborate to create and edit articles, significantly lowering the barriers to contribution compared to Nupedia.
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| 2001 || January 15 || First Edit || Wikipedia’s first edit is made, marking the platform's launch as a live site. Just two days after the domain registration, Wikipedia begins its journey as a space where volunteers from around the world can collaborate to create and edit articles, significantly lowering the barriers to contribution compared to Nupedia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia.org WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info – DomainTools |url=http://whois.domaintools.com/wikipedia.org |access-date=24 October 2016 |website=[[WHOIS]] |archive-date=17 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170417083509/http://whois.domaintools.com/wikipedia.org |url-status=live }}</ref>
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| 2001 || January 15 || Wikipedia Launch || Wikipedia is launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger as a companion project to *Nupedia*. It allows for faster content creation by enabling volunteers to edit articles freely, using wiki software. This project rapidly overtakes *Nupedia* in content and activity.
 
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| 2001 || January 15 || Wikipedia Launch || Wikipedia is officially launched under the <code>wikipedia.com</code> domain as an independent project, separate from {{w|Nupedia}}, with the goal of allowing volunteers to edit articles more freely.
 
 
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| 2001 || January 15 || Launch || Wikipedia officially opens to the public, with the creation of the first international editions, including French, German, Catalan, Swedish, and Italian.
 
| 2001 || January 15 || Launch || Wikipedia officially opens to the public, with the creation of the first international editions, including French, German, Catalan, Swedish, and Italian.
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| 2001 || February 12 || Milestone || Wikipedia reaches its 1,000th article. This demonstrates the rapid content growth compared to *Nupedia*, which had struggled to produce articles at a faster rate.
 
| 2001 || February 12 || Milestone || Wikipedia reaches its 1,000th article. This demonstrates the rapid content growth compared to *Nupedia*, which had struggled to produce articles at a faster rate.
 
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| 2001 || March 16 || New Subdomains || The first non-English Wikipedia, the German Wikipedia (*deutsche.wikipedia.com*), is created at 01:38 UTC. This is followed a few hours later by the Catalan Wikipedia (*catalan.wikipedia.com*) at 13:07 UTC.
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| 2001 || March 16 || New Subdomains || The first non-English Wikipedia, the German Wikipedia (*deutsche.wikipedia.com*), is created at 01:38 UTC. This is followed a few hours later by the Catalan Wikipedia (*catalan.wikipedia.com*) at 13:07 UTC.<ref>{{Cite web |date=15 March 2001 |title=Alternative language Wikipedias |url=http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-March/000049.html |access-date=13 April 2010 |website=Lists |publisher=Wikimedia |archive-date=20 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140620120726/http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-March/000049.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
 
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| 2001 || March || New Subdomain || The Japanese Wikipedia (*nihongo.wikipedia.com*) is created, initially using Romanized Japanese.
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| 2001 || March || New Subdomain || The Japanese Wikipedia (*nihongo.wikipedia.com*) is created, initially using Romanized Japanese.<ref>{{Cite web |date=20 April 2001 |title=Nihongo No Wikipedia: HomePage |url=http://nihongo.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?action=browse&id=HomePage&revision=3 |access-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010420120143/http://nihongo.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?action=browse&id=HomePage&revision=3 |archive-date=20 April 2001 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=31 March 2001 |title=Wikipedia: HomePage |url=http://www.wikipedia.com/ |access-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010331173908/http://www.wikipedia.com/ |archive-date=31 March 2001 }}</ref>
 
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| 2001 || March || Expansion || The first international Wikipedias are created, including the French, German, Catalan, Swedish, and Italian editions.
 
| 2001 || March || Expansion || The first international Wikipedias are created, including the French, German, Catalan, Swedish, and Italian editions.
 
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| 2001 || May 11 || New Subdomain || The French Wikipedia is created, followed by the introduction of other languages such as Chinese, Dutch, Esperanto, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.
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| 2001 || May 11 || New Subdomain || The French Wikipedia is created, followed by the introduction of other languages such as Chinese, Dutch, Esperanto, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.<ref>The [http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikip%C3%A9dia:Historique_de_Wikip%C3%A9dia_en_fran%C3%A7ais&oldid=34816819 Documentation on the French Wikipedia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608194149/https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikip%C3%A9dia:Historique_de_Wikip%C3%A9dia_en_fran%C3%A7ais&oldid=34816819 |date=8 June 2021 }} mentions the date of 23 March 2001, but this date is not supported by Wikipedia snapshots on the [[Internet Archive]], nor by Jason Richey's letter, which was dated 11 May 2001 (see below).</ref><ref>[http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-May/000116.html  Letter of Jason Richey to wikipedia-l mailing list] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140620081721/http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-May/000116.html |date=20 June 2014 }} 11 May 2001</ref>
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| 2001 || July 25 || Traffic Increase || Wikipedia receives a large influx of traffic after being mentioned on the technology website *Slashdot*. This is followed by further exposure from *Kuro5hin*, which brings more participants and attention to the project.
 
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| 2001 || July 26 || Media Attention || Wikipedia experiences a surge in traffic due to the first "slashdotter" wave.
 
 
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| 2001 || – || Licensing Change || The license for Wikipedia’s predecessor, Nupedia, is changed to the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL), which allows content to be freely used, modified, and shared. This open license becomes a cornerstone for Wikipedia’s ethos of free knowledge, encouraging broad participation and redistribution.
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| 2001 || July 26 || Media Attention || Wikipedia experiences a surge in traffic due to the first "slashdotter" wave.<ref name="slashdot26july">{{Cite web |date=26 July 2001 |title=Britannica and Free Content |url=http://slashdot.org/articles/01/07/26/0312258.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114204227/http://slashdot.org/articles/01/07/26/0312258.shtml |archive-date=14 January 2009 |publisher=Slashdot}}</ref>
 
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| 2001 || August || Media Report || The first media report about Wikipedia appears in Wales on Sunday.
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| 2001 || August || Media Report || The first media report about Wikipedia appears in Wales on Sunday.<ref>[[Western Mail (Wales)|Wales on Sunday]] (26 August 2001) ''Knowledge at your fingertips. Game On: Internet Chat.''(writing, "Both Encarta and Britannica are official publications with well-deserved reputations. But there are other options, such as homemade encyclopaedias. One is Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com) which uses clever software to build an encyclopaedia from scratch. Wiki is software installed on a web server that allows anyone to edit any of the pages. On Wikipedia, anyone can write about any subject they know about. The idea is that over time, enough experts will offer their knowledge for free and build up the world's ultimate hand-built database of knowledge. The disadvantage is that it's still an ongoing project. So far about 8,000 articles have been written and the editors are aiming for 100,000.")</ref>
 
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| 2001 || September 7 || Milestone || Wikipedia reaches 10,000 articles, highlighting the continued success and growth of the project in just eight months.
 
| 2001 || September 7 || Milestone || Wikipedia reaches 10,000 articles, highlighting the continued success and growth of the project in just eight months.
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| 2001 || September || Announcement || Wikipedia commits to providing multilingual versions, aiming to roll out Wikipedias for all major languages, set core standards, and translate core pages for the new wikis.
 
| 2001 || September || Announcement || Wikipedia commits to providing multilingual versions, aiming to roll out Wikipedias for all major languages, set core standards, and translate core pages for the new wikis.
 
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| 2001 || September 11 || Traffic Spike || A link to the Wikipedia article on the September 11 attacks appears on Yahoo!'s home page, resulting in a significant increase in traffic.
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| 2001 || September 11 || Traffic Spike || A link to the Wikipedia article on the September 11 attacks appears on Yahoo!'s home page, resulting in a significant increase in traffic.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20011010233257/http://www.wikipedia.com/ October 2001 homepage screenshot] shows the "Breaking News" header up top, as well as 11 September 2001 block of articles under "Current events"; the [https://web.archive.org/web/20011010230439/http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/September_11%2C_2001_Terrorist_Attack 9/11 page] shows the activist nature of the page, as well as the large number of subtopics created to cover the event.</ref>
 
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| 2001 || September || Breaking News || Following the September 11 attacks, Wikipedia begins featuring breaking news stories on its homepage and linking related articles. Approximately 100 articles related to 9/11 are created.
 
| 2001 || September || Breaking News || Following the September 11 attacks, Wikipedia begins featuring breaking news stories on its homepage and linking related articles. Approximately 100 articles related to 9/11 are created.
 
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| 2001 || December || New Subdomains || Afrikaans, Norwegian, and Serbian Wikipedia versions are announced as international statistics begin to be logged.
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| 2001 || December || New Subdomains || Afrikaans, Norwegian, and Serbian Wikipedia versions are announced as international statistics begin to be logged.<ref>{{Cite web |title=International Wikipedias statistics |url=http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:International_wikipedias_statistics |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030305012547/http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:International_wikipedias_statistics |archive-date=5 March 2003 |access-date=13 April 2010 |publisher=Wikipedia}}</ref>
 
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| 2002 || January || Milestone || 90% of all Wikipedia articles are in English.
 
| 2002 || January || Milestone || 90% of all Wikipedia articles are in English.
 
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| 2002 || March || Departure || Larry Sanger leaves both Nupedia and Wikipedia after Bomis withdraws funding during the dot-com bust.
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| 2002 || January 25 || Software Release || The first portable MediaWiki software goes live.
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| 2002 || March || Departure || Larry Sanger leaves both Nupedia and Wikipedia after {{w|Bomis}} withdraws funding during the dot-com bust.<ref name="Stacy Schiff">{{Cite magazine |last=Schiff |first=Stacy |date=31 July 2006 |title=Know It All |url=https://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060731fa_fact |url-status=live |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081122125817/http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060731fa_fact |archive-date=22 November 2008 |access-date=25 April 2009}}</ref>
 
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| 2002 || August 30 || Milestone || Wikipedia reaches 40,000 articles, having grown at a rate of over 1,500 articles per month during its first year of existence.
 
| 2002 || August 30 || Milestone || Wikipedia reaches 40,000 articles, having grown at a rate of over 1,500 articles per month during its first year of existence.
 
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| 2002 || || Philosophical Disagreement || Sanger and Wales differ on how to manage open encyclopedias, particularly concerning disruptive editors, roles for experts, and project management.
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| 2002 || || Fork || A fork of the Spanish Wikipedia results in the creation of Enciclopedia Libre.
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| 2002 || || Policy || Jimmy Wales confirms that Wikipedia will never run commercial advertising.
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| 2002 || || Bots || Bots are introduced to Wikipedia.
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| 2002 || || Launch || The first sister project, Wiktionary, and the first formal Manual of Style are launched.
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| 2002 || || Participation || Close to 200 contributors are editing Wikipedia daily.
 
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| 2002 || || Growth || Wikipedia continues to expand internationally, with new language versions and increasing article counts.
 
| 2002 || || Growth || Wikipedia continues to expand internationally, with new language versions and increasing article counts.
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| 2003 || October 28|| Social Meeting || The first Wikipedian social meeting takes place in Munich, Germany.<ref name="springer">{{cite journal |title=A Decade of Wikipedia Research: Insights on Participation, Content, and Quality |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42001-023-00225-8 |journal=Social Network Analysis and Mining |publisher=Springer |accessdate=17 September 2024}}</ref>
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| 2003 || November 24 || Project Creation || Wikisource is created as a separate project to host free textual sources in multiple languages.
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| 2003 || || Milestone || The English Wikipedia passes 100,000 articles, while the German Wikipedia surpasses 10,000.
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| 2003 || June 20 || Foundation || The Wikimedia Foundation is established.<ref>{{cite web |title=Our Work |url=https://wikimediafoundation.org/our-work/#:~:text=The%20Wikimedia%20Foundation%20was%20established,of%20structured%20data%2C%20and%20more. |website=wikimediafoundation.org |accessdate=17 September 2024}}</ref>
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| 2003 || || Logo || Wikipedia adopts its jigsaw world logo.
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| 2003 || || Feature || Mathematical formulae using TeX are reintroduced to the website.
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| 2003 || || System Development || The basic principles of the English Wikipedia's Arbitration system and committee ("ArbCom") are developed.
 
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| 2003 || || Growth || Wikipedia reaches significant milestones in article counts and international editions.
 
| 2003 || || Growth || Wikipedia reaches significant milestones in article counts and international editions.
 
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| 2004 || January || Milestone || The percentage of English articles falls below 50%, as non-English language versions continue to grow.
 
| 2004 || January || Milestone || The percentage of English articles falls below 50%, as non-English language versions continue to grow.
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| 2004 || June || Block || Wikipedia is blocked in China for two weeks.<ref>{{cite web |title=Wikipedia Is Now Banned in China in All Languages |url=https://slate.com/technology/2019/05/wikipedia-china-block-censorship-tiananmen-square.html |website=slate.com |accessdate=17 September 2024}}</ref>
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| 2004 || July || Social Meeting || The first social meeting in the United States takes place in Boston.
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| 2004 || September 7 || Project Creation || Wikimedia Commons is created to host media files for Wikipedia in all languages.
 
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| 2004 || || Growth || Wikipedia sees further growth in content and user participation.
 
| 2004 || || Growth || Wikipedia sees further growth in content and user participation.
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 +
| 2004 || || Content Growth || Wikipedia's article pool doubles in size from under 500,000 to over 1 million articles by the end of the year, with content in over 100 languages. The English Wikipedia accounts for just under half of these articles.
 +
|-
 +
| 2004 || February 12 || Server Relocation || Wikipedia's server farms are moved from California to Florida.
 +
|-
 +
| 2004 || || Features || Categories and CSS style configuration sheets are introduced.
 +
|-
 +
| 2004 || || Governance || Formal elections begin for a board for the Wikimedia Foundation and an Arbitration Committee on English Wikipedia.
 +
|-
 +
| 2004 || || Chapter || Wikimedia Deutschland is recognized as the first national chapter of the Foundation.
 +
|-
 +
| 2004 || || Legal Reference || Bourgeois v. Peters, a court case, becomes one of the earliest to cite and quote Wikipedia.
 
|-
 
|-
 
| 2005 || || Expansion || Wikipedia's international editions continue to grow, and the site gains widespread recognition.
 
| 2005 || || Expansion || Wikipedia's international editions continue to grow, and the site gains widespread recognition.
 
|-
 
|-
−
| 2006 || || New Project || Larry Sanger founds Citizendium, an open encyclopedia requiring contributors to use real names to minimize disruptive editing. Citizendium aims to include "gentle expert guidance" and family-friendly content.
+
| 2006 || || New Project || Larry Sanger founds Citizendium, an open encyclopedia requiring contributors to use real names to minimize disruptive editing. Citizendium aims to include "gentle expert guidance" and family-friendly content.<ref name="Jason Z Cohen">{{Cite news |last=Cohen |first=Jason Z |date=3 March 2008 |title=Citizendium's Larry Sanger: Experts Make It Better |work=LinuxInsider |publisher=ECT News Network |url=http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/61983.html?welcome=1205003304&welcome=1205003861&wlc=1234584689&wlc=1235641480 |url-status=live |access-date=8 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110517112405/http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/61983.html?welcome=1205003304&welcome=1205003861&wlc=1234584689&wlc=1235641480 |archive-date=17 May 2011}}</ref>
 
|-
 
|-
 
| 2006 || || Milestone || Wikipedia reaches major milestones in article counts and global reach.
 
| 2006 || || Milestone || Wikipedia reaches major milestones in article counts and global reach.
Line 154: Line 184:
 
| 2023 || || Preservation || The ZIM File Archive at the Internet Archive continues to store past full snapshots and article selections from Wikipedia in multiple languages, accessible with Kiwix software.
 
| 2023 || || Preservation || The ZIM File Archive at the Internet Archive continues to store past full snapshots and article selections from Wikipedia in multiple languages, accessible with Kiwix software.
 
|-
 
|-
 +
|}
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2005 || || Popularity || Wikipedia becomes the most popular reference website on the Internet according to Hitwise. English Wikipedia alone exceeds 750,000 articles.
 +
|-
 +
| 2005 || || Portals || The first multilingual and subject portals are established.
 +
|-
 +
| 2005 || Q1 || Fundraiser || A formal fundraiser raises almost US$100,000 for system upgrades to handle growing demand.
 +
|-
 +
| 2005 || October || Block || China blocks Wikipedia again.<ref>{{cite web |title=Wikipedia Blocked Again in China |url=https://rsf.org/en/wikipedia-blocked-again |website=rsf.org |accessdate=17 September 2024}}</ref>
 +
|-
 +
| 2005 || || Scandal || The Seigenthaler incident, Wikipedia's first major scandal, occurs when a well-known figure’s vandalized biography goes unnoticed for months. This leads to the implementation of new policies to counter such abuse.<ref name="Brandt">[[Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons|WP:BLP]] was started on 17 December 2005, with the narrative "I started this due to the Daniel Brandt situation". [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons&oldid=31753956 Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210609020908/https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons&oldid=31753956 |date=9 June 2021 }}</ref>
 +
|-
 +
| 2005 || || || Checkuser privilege policy update to assist in sock puppetry investigations.
 +
|-
 +
| 2005 || || || Semi-protection against anonymous vandalism, introduced in 2005, proved more popular than expected, with over 1,000 pages being semi-protected at any given time in 2006.
 +
|-
 +
| 2005 || || || Stricter policy on biographies of living people with tagging for stricter review.
 +
|-
 +
| 2005 || December || Restriction || New article creation is restricted to registered users only.
 +
|-
 +
| 2005 || August 4–8 || Event || Wikimania 2005, the first Wikimania conference, is held at the Haus der Jugend in Frankfurt, attracting about 380 attendees.
 +
|}
 +
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || March 1 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia gains its one-millionth article, "Jordanhill railway station".
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || || Feature || The first approved Wikipedia article selection is made freely available for download.
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || || Trademark || "Wikipedia" becomes registered as a trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation.
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || || Scandal || The congressional aides biography scandals come to public attention, involving congressional staffers and a campaign manager attempting to covertly alter Wikipedia biographies. The campaign manager resigns as a result.
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || || Recognition || Wikipedia is rated as one of the top five global brands of 2006.
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || || Call for Quality || At Wikimania 2006, Jimmy Wales calls for an emphasis on quality, with a goal of achieving 100,000 feature-quality articles.
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || || Privilege || A new privilege, "oversight," is created to allow specific versions of archived pages with unacceptable content to be marked as non-viewable.
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || || Semi-Protection || The semi-protection feature against anonymous vandalism, introduced in 2005, proves highly popular with over 1,000 pages being semi-protected at any given time.
 +
|}
 +
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2007 || August 13 || Milestone || Wikipedia reaches over 5 million registered editor accounts.
 +
|-
 +
| 2007 || August 13 || Milestone || The 250 language editions of Wikipedia contain a combined total of 7.5 million articles and 1.74 billion words.
 +
|-
 +
| 2007 || || Growth || The English Wikipedia gains articles at a rate of 1,700 per day.
 +
|-
 +
| 2007 || || Traffic || The wikipedia.org domain is ranked the 10th-busiest website in the world.
 +
|-
 +
| 2007 || || Controversy || The Essjay controversy arises when a prominent Wikipedia member is found to have lied about his credentials.
 +
|-
 +
| 2007 || September 9 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia gains its two-millionth article, "El Hormiguero".
 +
|-
 +
| 2007 || || Trend || A new trend emerges where Wikipedia addresses people whose notability stems from being part of a news story by redirecting their name to the larger story, rather than creating a distinct biographical article.
 +
|-
 +
| 2007 || || Automated Content || The Volapük Wikipedia briefly becomes the 15th-largest Wikipedia edition due to automated stub generation, jumping from 797 to over 112,000 articles.
 +
|-
 +
| 2007 || April || Release || Wikipedia Version 0.5 article selection release is published.<ref>{{cite web |title=Wikimedia Announces the Release of Wikipedia Version 0.5 - A CD Collection of Articles from the English Wikipedia |url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_press_releases/Wikimedia_Announces_the_Release_of_Wikipedia_Version_0.5_-_A_CD_Collection_of_Articles_from_the_English_Wikipedia |website=meta.wikimedia.org |accessdate=17 September 2024}}</ref>
 +
|-
 +
| 2007 || || Editor Decline || According to the MIT Technology Review, the number of regularly active editors on the English-language Wikipedia peaks at more than 51,000 but begins to decline.
 +
|}
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2008 || April || Milestone || The 10-millionth Wikipedia article is created.
 +
|-
 +
| 2008 || || Growth || The English Wikipedia exceeds 2.5 million articles by the end of the year.
 +
|-
 +
| 2009 || June 25 || Traffic || The Wikipedia website crashes temporarily following the death of Michael Jackson, with nearly a million visitors to his biography within one hour.
 +
|-
 +
| 2009 || August 17 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia reaches its three-millionth article, "Beate Eriksen," created at 04:05 UTC.
 +
|-
 +
| 2009 || December 27 || Milestone || The German Wikipedia exceeds one million articles, becoming the second Wikipedia edition to do so after the English Wikipedia.
 +
|-
 +
| 2009 || || Recognition || Wikipedia is listed among TIME magazine's best websites of 2009.
 +
|-
 +
| 2009 || || Licensing || Wikipedia content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.
 +
|}
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2010 || March 24 || Technical Issue || European Wikipedia servers go offline due to overheating, with DNS resolution failing worldwide. The issue is resolved quickly but access recovery is uneven due to DNS caching.
 +
|-
 +
| 2010 || April 16 || Milestone || The 1-billionth edit across Wikimedia projects is performed.
 +
|-
 +
| 2010 || May 13 || Update || Wikipedia releases a new interface with an updated logo, new navigation tools, and a link wizard, while retaining the classic interface for those who prefer it.
 +
|-
 +
| 2010 || September 21 || Milestone || The French Wikipedia reaches its millionth article.
 +
|-
 +
| 2010 || December 12 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia surpasses 3.5 million articles.
 +
|-
 +
| 2010 || || Release || Wikipedia Version 0.7 article selection is published.
 +
|}
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2011 || January 15 || Anniversary || Wikipedia celebrates its 10th anniversary with worldwide events.
 +
|-
 +
| 2011 || March 3 || Release || Wikipedia Version 0.8 article selection is published.
 +
|-
 +
| 2011 || April 2 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia surpasses 3.6 million articles.
 +
|-
 +
| 2011 || November 7 || Milestone || The German Wikipedia exceeds 100 million page edits.
 +
|-
 +
| 2011 || November 18 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia reaches 3.8 million articles.
 +
|-
 +
| 2011 || December 17 || Milestone || The Dutch Wikipedia exceeds 1 million articles.
 +
|-
 +
| 2011 || August 2 || Stamp Release || Israel Post issues the "Wikimania 2011 – Haifa, Israel" stamp, the first-ever stamp dedicated to a Wikimedia project.
 +
|-
 +
| 2011 || October 4–6 || Protest || The Italian Wikipedia becomes intentionally inaccessible to protest against the proposed DDL intercettazioni law.
 +
|-
 +
| 2011 || October || Initiative || Wikimedia announces the launch of Wikipedia Zero, an initiative to enable free mobile access to Wikipedia in developing countries through partnerships with mobile operators.
 +
|}
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2012 || January 16 || Announcement || Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales announces that the English Wikipedia will shut down for 24 hours on January 18. This protest aims to draw attention to the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act, which are under debate in the United States Congress. The decision for the blackout is described as a "community decision," reflecting concerns over potential threats to free speech and online innovation.
 +
|-
 +
| 2012 || January 18 || Event || The English Wikipedia blackout takes place, with the site being taken offline for 24 hours. This action is intended to oppose the SOPA and PROTECT IP Act. Additionally, on July 10, the Russian Wikipedia conducts a similar blackout in protest against a proposed Russian internet regulation law.
 +
|-
 +
| 2012 || Late March || Announcement || Wikimedia Deutschland announces the Wikidata project, a universal platform designed to facilitate data sharing across all Wikipedia language editions. The US$1.7-million project receives funding from Google, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Wikimedia Deutschland is responsible for the first phase of Wikidata, with initial plans to make the platform available to editors by December 2012. The first phase of Wikidata becomes fully operational in March 2013.
 +
|}
 +
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2012 || January 16 || Announcement || Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales announces that the English Wikipedia will shut down for 24 hours on January 18. This protest aims to draw attention to the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act, which are under debate in the United States Congress. The decision for the blackout is described as a "community decision," reflecting concerns over potential threats to free speech and online innovation.
 +
|-
 +
| 2012 || January 18 || Event || The English Wikipedia blackout takes place, with the site being taken offline for 24 hours. This action is intended to oppose the SOPA and PROTECT IP Act. Additionally, on July 10, the Russian Wikipedia conducts a similar blackout in protest against a proposed Russian internet regulation law.
 +
|-
 +
| 2012 || April || Achievement || Justin Knapp becomes the first single contributor to make over one million edits to Wikipedia. Jimmy Wales congratulates Knapp with the Special Barnstar medal and the Golden Wiki award. April 20 is declared "Justin Knapp Day" in recognition of his contribution.
 +
|-
 +
| 2012 || July 13 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia reaches its 4-millionth article, "Izbat al-Burj," marking a significant achievement in the encyclopedia's growth.
 +
|-
 +
| 2012 || Late March || Announcement || Wikimedia Deutschland announces the Wikidata project, a universal platform designed to facilitate data sharing across all Wikipedia language editions. The US$1.7-million project receives funding from Google, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Wikimedia Deutschland is responsible for the first phase of Wikidata, with initial plans to make the platform available to editors by December 2012. The first phase of Wikidata becomes fully operational in March 2013.
 +
|-
 +
| 2012 || October || Commentary || Historian and Wikipedia editor Richard J. Jensen comments that the English Wikipedia is "nearing completion," despite the encyclopedia's rapid growth in article count and readership. This observation highlights a significant decline in the number of regularly active editors since 2007.
 +
|-
 +
| 2012 || November || Ranking || According to Alexa Internet, Wikipedia is ranked as the world's sixth-most-popular website.
 +
|-
 +
| 2012 || December || Ranking || Dow Jones ranks Wikipedia as the fifth-most-popular website worldwide.
 +
|}
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2013 || January 22 || Milestone || The Italian Wikipedia becomes the fifth language edition of Wikipedia to reach 1 million articles. This milestone reflects the continued expansion and global reach of Wikipedia, highlighting the growth of non-English language editions.
 +
|-
 +
| 2013 || January 27 || Naming || The main belt asteroid 274301 is officially renamed "Wikipedia" by the Committee for Small Body Nomenclature. This name change honors Wikipedia's significant impact on global knowledge dissemination and recognition in the scientific community.
 +
|-
 +
| 2013 || March || Release || The first phase of the Wikidata database is made available to all language editions of Wikipedia. Wikidata provides a centralized repository for structured data and automatically generates interlanguage links, improving data consistency and accessibility across Wikipedia's multiple language editions.
 +
|-
 +
| 2013 || April || Controversy || The French secret service is accused of attempting to censor Wikipedia by allegedly threatening a Wikipedia volunteer with arrest unless "classified information" about a military radio station was removed. This incident raises concerns about government attempts to influence or suppress open information on Wikipedia.
 +
|-
 +
| 2013 || July || Launch || The VisualEditor editing system is officially launched, introducing a user-friendly, word processor-like interface for editing Wikipedia articles. This development aims to make editing more accessible to users unfamiliar with wiki markup. Additionally, a new editor designed for smartphones and other mobile devices is introduced to enhance mobile editing capabilities.
 +
|-
 +
| 2013 || May 11 || Milestone || The Russian Wikipedia reaches its one-millionth article. This achievement marks the Russian Wikipedia as a major contributor to the global knowledge base and reflects its growth and prominence in the Wikipedia community.
 +
|-
 +
| 2013 || May 16 || Milestone || The Spanish Wikipedia reaches its one-millionth article. This milestone demonstrates the Spanish Wikipedia's significant expansion and its role in providing comprehensive content in Spanish.
 +
|-
 +
| 2013 || July 15 || Milestone || The Swedish Wikipedia becomes the eighth Wikipedia edition to surpass 1 million articles. This achievement signifies the continued growth and development of Wikipedia's Swedish language edition.
 +
|-
 +
| 2013 || September 24 || Milestone || The Polish Wikipedia becomes the ninth Wikipedia edition to exceed 1 million articles. This milestone underscores the Polish Wikipedia's extensive content creation and its contributions to the global knowledge repository.
 +
|}
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2014 || February || Project Launch || German Wikipedia contributors initiate a project to produce a print edition of the English Wikipedia. This ambitious project aims to produce 1,000 volumes and over 1,100,000 pages, showcasing the extensive content of Wikipedia in a physical format. Funded through Indiegogo, the project is intended to honor the contributions of Wikipedia's editors.
 +
|-
 +
| 2014 || June 8 || Milestone || The Waray Wikipedia surpasses one million articles, becoming the tenth Wikipedia edition to reach this milestone. The significant growth is attributed to a high number of articles generated by bots, despite having relatively few active contributors.
 +
|-
 +
| 2014 || June 15 || Milestone || The Vietnamese Wikipedia reaches the one-million-article mark, marking it as the eleventh Wikipedia edition to achieve this milestone. The rapid growth is indicative of the expanding reach and influence of Wikipedia in the Vietnamese language.
 +
|-
 +
| 2014 || July 16 || Milestone || The Cebuano Wikipedia exceeds one million articles, becoming the twelfth Wikipedia edition to reach this milestone. Similar to other editions with high bot activity, the Cebuano Wikipedia's growth reflects the use of automated processes to increase article count.
 +
|-
 +
| 2014 || October 22 || Monument Unveiling || The first monument dedicated to Wikipedia is unveiled in Slubice, Poland. This monument celebrates Wikipedia's impact and contributions to global knowledge, highlighting the project's significance and the appreciation for the Wikipedia community.
 +
|}
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2015 || Mid-Year || Popularity Ranking || Wikipedia is ranked as the seventh-most-popular website globally according to Alexa Internet. This represents a slight decline from its position as the sixth-most-popular site in November 2012. Despite this, Wikipedia remains the largest general-knowledge encyclopedia online.
 +
|-
 +
| 2015 || January 1 || Pageviews and Visitors || Wikipedia continues to be a major online resource with over 36 million mainspace articles across 291 language editions. It attracts approximately 10 billion global pageviews monthly from around 495 million unique visitors, including 85 million from the United States, where it is the sixth-most-popular site.
 +
|-
 +
| 2015 || April 7 || Art Project || Michael Mandiberg's "Print Wikipedia" project is launched, aiming to create a physical representation of Wikipedia. The project produces 7,473 volumes of Wikipedia as it existed on April 7, 2015. Each volume contains 700 pages, although only 110 volumes are printed by the artist. This art project underscores the breadth of Wikipedia's content and its transformation into physical form.
 +
|-
 +
| 2015 || November 1 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia achieves a major milestone by reaching 5,000,000 articles with the addition of an article on Persoonia terminalis, a type of shrub. This significant achievement highlights the continued growth and expansion of Wikipedia's content.
 +
|}
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2016 || January 19 || Milestone || The Japanese Wikipedia surpasses the one million article mark, becoming the thirteenth Wikipedia edition to achieve this milestone. The millionth article is about Wave 224, a World War II submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
 +
|-
 +
| 2016 || Mid-Year || Popularity Ranking || Wikipedia regains its position as the sixth-most-popular website globally according to Alexa Internet, moving up from the seventh place it held the previous year. This reflects continued strong global usage and prominence.
 +
|-
 +
| 2017 || Mid-Year || Popularity Ranking || Wikipedia is ranked as the fifth-most-popular website globally by Alexa Internet, marking an improvement from its sixth-place position the previous year. This indicates a further rise in global usage and recognition.
 +
|-
 +
| 2017 || April 29 || Access Restriction || Wikipedia access is blocked across all language editions in Turkey by Turkish authorities. This restriction remains in place until January 15, 2020, when a Turkish court rules that the block violated human rights.
 +
|-
 +
| 2017 || December 28 || Access Restriction || The encrypted version of the Japanese Wikipedia is blocked in China. This block continues to affect access to Wikipedia in China, reflecting ongoing issues related to internet censorship.
 +
|-
 +
| 2017 || Various Dates || Availability Expansion || Wikipedia Zero, an initiative to provide free mobile access to Wikipedia, is made available in Iraq and Afghanistan, expanding access to Wikipedia's resources in these regions.
 +
|}
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2018 || April 13 || Milestone || The Chinese Wikipedia surpasses 1 million articles, becoming the fourteenth Wikipedia edition to achieve this milestone. Despite this achievement, the Chinese Wikipedia has been blocked in Mainland China since May 2015.
 +
|-
 +
| 2018 || June 26 || Milestone || The Portuguese Wikipedia exceeds 1 million articles, becoming the fifteenth Wikipedia edition to reach this milestone. The one-millionth article is titled "Perdão de Richard Nixon" (the Pardon of Richard Nixon).
 +
|-
 +
| 2018 || Throughout the Year || Popularity Ranking || Wikipedia maintains its position as the fifth-most-popular website globally according to Alexa Internet, reflecting its continued strong global presence.
 +
|-
 +
| 2018 || Throughout the Year || Technological Development || Wikipedia begins utilizing Artificial Intelligence to create draft articles on overlooked topics, representing a significant development in how content is generated and managed.
 +
|-
 +
| 2019 || April 23 || Access Restriction || Chinese authorities expand the block on Wikipedia to include all language versions. This expansion coincides with significant anniversaries, including the 30th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre and the 100th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement, leading to tighter internet censorship in China.<ref>{{cite web |title=China Blocks Wikipedia Across All Language Editions |url=https://ooni.org/post/2019-china-wikipedia-blocking/ |website=ooni.org |accessdate=17 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Wikipedia Currently Down in China |url=https://www.thatsmags.com/beijing/post/27660/wikipedia-currently-down-in-china |website=thatsmags.com |accessdate=17 September 2024}}</ref>
 +
|-
 +
| 2019 || August || Popularity Ranking || According to Alexa.com, Wikipedia's global ranking falls from fifth to seventh place in terms of internet engagement, indicating a decline in its relative position among global websites.
 +
|}
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2020 || 23 January || Milestone || The English Wikipedia added its six millionth article, a biography of Maria Elise Turner Lauder. Despite this significant growth in articles, Wikipedia's global internet engagement, as measured by Alexa, continued to decline. By February 2020, Wikipedia fell to the eleventh position in the global internet engagement rankings. Wikipedia's role in covering the COVID-19 pandemic, including edits, discussions, and deletions, was deemed valuable for future historians. The World Health Organization collaborated with Wikipedia to disseminate COVID-19-related information and combat misinformation.
 +
|-
 +
| 2021 || January || Anniversary || Wikipedia's 20th anniversary was noted in the media. On 13 January 2021, the English Wikipedia reached one billion edits, with the billionth edit made by Steven Pruitt. MIT Press published "Wikipedia @ 20: Stories of an Unfinished Revolution," a collection of essays edited by Joseph Reagle and Jackie Koerner, featuring contributions from notable Wikipedians and experts. By November 2021, Wikipedia had fallen to the thirteenth position in global internet engagement rankings.
 +
|-
 +
| 2022 || 6 December || Controversy || Wikipedian Richard Knipel created the article "Artwork title," which included a draft generated by ChatGPT, with minor edits to conform to Wikipedia standards. This was believed to be the first instance of ChatGPT being used to compose a Wikipedia article. The use of ChatGPT sparked controversy within the Wikipedia community, leading to a debate about the appropriateness of using AI models in Wikipedia content creation.
 +
|-
 +
| 2023 || January || Interface Update || The default Wikipedia desktop interface was updated for the first time since 2010, introducing the Vector 2022 design. Additionally, after consultation and a contest, Wikimedia adopted its first sound logo, which applies to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.
 +
|}
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2001 || January || Software || Wikipedia ran on UseModWiki, a wiki software written in Perl by Clifford Adams. The server utilized Linux, and the original text was stored in files rather than in a database. Articles were named using the CamelCase convention.
 +
|-
 +
| 2002 || January || Software || "Phase II" of the wiki software was introduced, replacing UseModWiki. This version, developed by Magnus Manske, included a PHP wiki engine specifically for Wikipedia.
 +
|-
 +
| 2002 || July || Software || The major rewrite of the wiki software, known as "Phase III," was launched, which became MediaWiki. Written by Lee Daniel Crocker, this version was developed in response to the increasing demands of Wikipedia.
 +
|-
 +
| 2002 || October || Automation || Derek Ramsey created Rambot, an automated program to add articles about United States towns based on U.S. census data. This bot increased the number of Wikipedia articles by 33,832 and is considered one of the most controversial moves in Wikipedia's history.
 +
|-
 +
| 2003 || January || Feature || Support for mathematical formulas using TeX was added, contributed by Tomasz Wegrzanowski.
 +
|-
 +
| 2003 || June 9 || Feature || The ISBN interface was updated to link ISBNs in articles to Special:Booksources, which fetches content from Wikipedia:Book sources, improving the linking of ISBNs.
 +
|-
 +
| 2003 || December 6 || System || System messages shown to Wikipedia users were made editable, allowing administrators to modify parts of MediaWiki's interface, such as messages shown to blocked users.
 +
|-
 +
| 2004 || February 12 || Server || Server operations were moved from San Diego, California to Tampa, Florida.
 +
|-
 +
| 2004 || May 29 || Software || The MediaWiki software was updated across all Wikipedia websites to a new version.
 +
|-
 +
| 2004 || May 30 || Feature || The first instances of "categorization" entries appeared. This marked the beginning of a systematic categorization effort for articles, distinct from previous schemes which were viewed as lists.
 +
|-
 +
| 2004 || June 3 || System || Administrators gained the ability to edit the style of the interface by modifying the CSS in the monobook stylesheet at MediaWiki:Monobook.css.
 +
|-
 +
| 2004 || May 30 || Feature || The Template namespace was created with MediaWiki 1.3, allowing the transclusion of standard texts.
 +
|-
 +
| 2005 || June 7 || Server || At 3:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, the bulk of Wikimedia's servers were moved to a new facility across the street. All Wikimedia projects experienced downtime during this transition.
 +
|-
 +
| 2013 || March || Feature || The first phase of the Wikidata interwiki database became available across Wikipedia's language editions.
 +
|-
 +
| 2013 || July || Feature || The VisualEditor editing interface was inaugurated, allowing users to edit Wikipedia using a WYSIWYG text editor, along with an interface optimized for mobile devices.
 +
|}
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2002 || April 4 || Feature || The "BrilliantProse" feature, which was later renamed "Featured Articles," was moved from the article namespace to the Wikipedia namespace.
 +
|-
 +
| 2003 || October 15 || Branding || A new Wikipedia logo was installed. The logo concept was selected through a voting process and later revised. The final design was created by David Friedland, based on a concept by Paul Stansifer.
 +
|-
 +
| 2004 || February 22 || Feature || The "Did You Know" (DYK) section made its first appearance on the Main Page of Wikipedia.
 +
|-
 +
| 2004 || February 23 || Design || A coordinated new look for the Main Page was introduced at 19:46 UTC. This update featured hand-chosen entries for the Daily Featured Article, Anniversaries, In the News, and Did You Know sections.
 +
|-
 +
| 2005 || January 10 || Feature || The multilingual portal at www.wikipedia.org was established, replacing the previous redirect to the English-language Wikipedia.
 +
|-
 +
| 2005 || February 5 || Feature || The first thematic "portal," Portal:Biology, was created on the English Wikipedia. The concept had been pioneered on the German Wikipedia with the creation of Portal:Recht (law studies) in October 2003.
 +
|-
 +
| 2005 || July 16 || Feature || The English Wikipedia began featuring "featured pictures" on the Main Page, showcasing notable images each day.
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || March 19 || Design || The Main Page of the English-language Wikipedia underwent its first redesign in nearly two years, following a community vote.
 +
|-
 +
| 2010 || May 13 || Interface || A new interface was released, including an updated logo, new navigation tools, and a link wizard. The "classic" Wikipedia interface remained available as an option for users.
 +
|}
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2020 || September || Announcement || Wikipedia's new skin, Vector 2022, is announced. Initially planned for debut in 2021, it is aimed at modernizing the user interface of Wikipedia and improving user experience.
 +
|-
 +
| 2020 || Various || Testing || Early versions of Vector 2022 are rolled out for testing on the French-, Hebrew-, and Portuguese-language Wikipedia sites. This gradual rollout allows for feedback and adjustments before the full release.
 +
|-
 +
| 2023 || January 18 || Full Deployment || Vector 2022 is officially launched as the default skin for readers on 300 out of 318 language editions of Wikimedia sites. The update includes changes such as a revised user interface, a collapsible sidebar, and an improved search function.
 +
|-
 +
| 2023 || January 18 || Availability || The update is made available as the default for Arabic and Greek Wikipedia versions. Users can still opt to use the previous skin, Vector 2010, by registering and setting their preferences.
 +
|-
 +
| 2023 || January 18 || Community Reaction || The Wikipedia community is divided on the new skin. Despite criticism, including concerns about increased white space, the discussion closes in favor of Vector 2022. Some adjustments are made based on user feedback, such as a toggle to expand article content width.
 +
|-
 +
| 2023 || January 18 || Media Response || Journalists view Vector 2022 as a useful but minor update. Critics note that while the new features are beneficial, the overall change does not drastically alter the reading experience. Discussions highlight similarities to past resistances to visual changes on other platforms.
 +
|-
 +
| 2023 || January 18 || User Options || Users can still access older skins like Monobook and Timeless. To revert to Vector 2010, users must register for a Wikipedia account and adjust their preferences accordingly.
 +
|-
 +
| 2023 || January 18 || Feature Adjustments || Developers respond to community feedback by implementing changes such as an option to fill the entire screen with article content. However, some language editions, like Swahili, express unanimous disapproval of the new skin.
 +
|} 
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2001 || April || Policy || Jimmy Wales formally defines the "neutral point of view" as Wikipedia's core non-negotiable editorial policy. This was a reformulation of the "Lack of Bias" policy outlined by Larry Sanger for Nupedia in spring or summer 2000.
 +
|-
 +
| 2001 || September || Policy || The concept of collaboration by subject matter through WikiProjects is introduced, allowing users to work together on specific topics or themes.
 +
|-
 +
| 2002 || February || Policy || Due to concerns over potential censorship and commercialization by Bomis Inc., the Spanish Wikipedia community breaks away to establish Enciclopedia Libre. Despite later clarification of Wikipedia's non-commercial nature, re-merger talks with Enciclopedia Libre did not reach a conclusion, and both projects continue to exist separately.
 +
|-
 +
| 2002 || Throughout || Policy || The Manual of Style, along with various other policies and guidelines, is created to clarify policy and style issues within Wikipedia.
 +
|-
 +
| 2002 || November || Communication || New mailing lists, including WikiEN and Announce, as well as other language-specific lists (e.g., Polish), are established to manage traffic and improve communication among Wikipedia contributors.
 +
|-
 +
| 2003 || July || Policy || A rule against editing one's own autobiography is introduced to prevent conflicts of interest and ensure neutrality in personal articles.
 +
|-
 +
| 2003 || October 28 || Community || The first "real" meeting of Wikipedians occurs in Munich, marking the beginning of organized Wikipedian gatherings. This leads to the establishment of regular meetups around the world and the creation of related online communities.
 +
|-
 +
| 2004 || July 10 – August 30 || Feature || The Wikipedia:Browse and Wikipedia:Browse by overview sections on the Main Page are replaced by links to overviews. The Community Portal is introduced on August 27 to serve as a central hub for community efforts.
 +
|-
 +
| 2005 || September – December || Policy || Several anti-abuse features and policies are introduced, including:
 +
- The "Checkuser" policy to detect abuse through sock-puppetry.
 +
- Restriction of new page creation to registered users.
 +
- Introduction of the Wikipedia:Biographies of living people policy for stricter quality control of biographical articles.
 +
- The "semi-protection" policy to restrict editing to registered users on certain pages.
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || May || Feature || The "oversight" feature is introduced on the English Wikipedia, allowing trusted users to permanently erase revisions containing copyright violations or libelous information.
 +
|-
 +
| 2007 || January 1 || Community || The Esperanza subcommunity is disbanded by communal consent. Founded in September 2005 to promote "wikilove" and support, it had developed its own subculture and structures.
 +
|-
 +
| 2007 || April || Policy || Results of a four-month policy review seeking to merge Wikipedia's core policies are polled. The proposal to create a single core policy does not gain consensus, with many users preferring the existing structure of separate focused policies.
 +
|-
 +
| 2012 || January 18 || Protest || Wikipedia participates in a one-day blackout, called by Jimmy Wales, to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) under consideration by the United States Congress. This action is part of a broader protest involving over 7,000 websites.
 +
|}
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2002 || August || URL Change || The URL of Wikipedia was changed from wikipedia.com to wikipedia.org following Jimmy Wales' announcement that Wikipedia would never run commercial advertisements. This change marked a shift in the project's focus towards a non-commercial, community-driven model.
 +
|-
 +
| 2003 || June 20 || Founding || The Wikimedia Foundation was founded to support the Wikimedia projects and ensure their continued operation and growth.
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || January || Committee Formation || The Communications Committee was formed to manage media inquiries and handle emails received for the foundation and Wikipedia via the newly implemented OTRS (a ticket handling system).
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || January || Board Election || Angela Beesley and Florence Nibart-Devouard were elected to the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation. During this period, Angela Beesley was actively involved in editing content and setting policies, including the privacy policy.
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || January 10 || Trademark || Wikipedia was officially registered as a trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, formalizing the protection of the name and brand of the project.
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || July || Board Resignation || Angela Beesley resigned from the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation.
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || October || Board Leadership || Florence Nibart-Devouard was appointed chair of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, taking on a leadership role in guiding the foundation's activities and policies.
 +
|}
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2001 || January 15 || First Edit || The first recorded edit of Wikipedia was performed, marking the inception of what would become one of the largest collaborative knowledge bases on the internet.
 +
|-
 +
| 2002 || December || Sister Project || The first sister project, Wiktionary, was created. It aimed to produce a dictionary and thesaurus for words in all languages, utilizing the same software as Wikipedia.
 +
|-
 +
| 2003 || January 22 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia reached the 100,000 article milestone with the article on Hastings. This achievement was notable as it garnered attention from Slashdot.
 +
|-
 +
| 2003 || June 20 || Sister Project || On the same day the Wikimedia Foundation was founded, "Wikiquote" was created. Later in the year, "Wikibooks" was launched, followed by the establishment of "Wikisource" towards the end of the year.
 +
|-
 +
| 2004 || January || Milestone || Wikipedia reached the 200,000-article milestone in English with the article on Neil Warnock. The total article count for both English and non-English Wikipedias reached 450,000, and by the following month, it surpassed 500,000.
 +
|-
 +
| 2004 || April 20 || Milestone || The article count of the English Wikipedia reached 250,000.
 +
|-
 +
| 2004 || July 7 || Milestone || The article count of the English Wikipedia reached 300,000.
 +
|-
 +
| 2004 || September 20 || Milestone || Wikipedia's total article count exceeded 1,000,000 articles in over 105 languages. The one millionth article was published in the Hebrew Wikipedia, discussing the flag of Kazakhstan.
 +
|-
 +
| 2004 || November 20 || Milestone || The article count of the English Wikipedia reached 400,000.
 +
|-
 +
| 2005 || March 18 || Milestone || Wikipedia surpassed the 500,000-article milestone in English, with "Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union" being announced as the landmark article.
 +
|-
 +
| 2005 || May || Achievement || Wikipedia became the most popular reference website on the Internet, according to Hitwise, surpassing Dictionary.com.
 +
|-
 +
| 2005 || September 29 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia passed the 750,000-article mark.
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || March 1 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia reached the 1,000,000-article mark, with "Jordanhill railway station" being recognized as the milestone article.
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || June 8 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia surpassed the 1,000-featured-article mark, with "Iranian peoples" as the notable article.
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || August 15 || New Project || The Wikimedia Foundation launched Wikiversity, a project aimed at creating a free educational platform.
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || September 1 || Milestone || Wikipedia exceeded 5,000,000 articles across all 229 language editions.
 +
|-
 +
| 2006 || November 24 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia surpassed the 1,500,000-article mark, with "Kanab ambersnail" being highlighted as the milestone article.
 +
|-
 +
| 2007 || April 4 || Publication || The first Wikipedia CD selection in English was published as a free download, making a curated selection of Wikipedia content available offline.
 +
|-
 +
| 2007 || April 22 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia reached the 1,750,000-article mark, with "RAF raid on La Caine HQ" being recognized as the milestone article.
 +
|-
 +
| 2007 || September 9 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia surpassed the 2,000,000-article mark. "El Hormiguero" was accepted as the 2,000,000th article by consensus.
 +
|-
 +
| 2008 || March 28 || Milestone || Wikipedia exceeded 10 million articles across all 251 language editions, reflecting the extensive growth of the project.
 +
|-
 +
| 2008 || October 11 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia surpassed the 2,500,000-article mark. Although no official identification was made, "Joe Connor (baseball)" was suggested as a candidate for the 2,500,000th article.
 +
|-
 +
| 2009 || August 17 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia surpassed the 3,000,000-article mark, with "Beate Eriksen" being announced as the milestone article on the Main Page.
 +
|}
 +
 +
 +
{| class="sortable wikitable"
 +
! Year !! Month and date !! Event type !! Details
 +
|-
 +
| 2009 || December 27 || Milestone || The German Wikipedia exceeded 1,000,000 articles, becoming the second Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2010 || September 21 || Milestone || The French Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the third Wikipedia language edition to reach this milestone.
 +
|-
 +
| 2010 || December 12 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia surpassed the 3,500,000-article mark.
 +
|-
 +
| 2011 || November 22 || Milestone || Wikipedia exceeded 20 million articles across all 282 language editions.
 +
|-
 +
| 2011 || November 7 || Milestone || The German Wikipedia surpassed 100 million page edits.
 +
|-
 +
| 2011 || November 24 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia surpassed 500 million page edits.
 +
|-
 +
| 2011 || December 17 || Milestone || The Dutch Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the fourth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2012 || July 13 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia surpassed 4,000,000 articles, with "Izbat al-Burj" as the milestone article.
 +
|-
 +
| 2013 || January 22 || Milestone || The Italian Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the fifth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2013 || May 11 || Milestone || The Russian Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the sixth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2013 || May 16 || Milestone || The Spanish Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the seventh Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2013 || June 15 || Milestone || The Swedish Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the eighth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2013 || September 25 || Milestone || The Polish Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the ninth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2013 || October 21 || Milestone || Wikipedia exceeded 30 million articles across all 287 language editions.
 +
|-
 +
| 2013 || December 17 || Milestone || The French Wikipedia surpassed 100 million page edits.
 +
|-
 +
| 2014 || April 25 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia surpassed the 4,500,000-article mark.
 +
|-
 +
| 2014 || June 8 || Milestone || The Waray Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the tenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2014 || June 15 || Milestone || The Vietnamese Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the eleventh Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2014 || July 17 || Milestone || The Cebuano Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the twelfth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2015 || September 6 || Milestone || The Swedish Wikipedia surpassed 2,000,000 articles, becoming the second Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2015 || November 1 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia surpassed 5,000,000 articles, with "Persoonia terminalis" as the milestone article. The English Wikipedia also had over 125,000 active editors.
 +
|-
 +
| 2016 || February 1 || Milestone || The Japanese Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the thirteenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2016 || February 14 || Milestone || The Cebuano Wikipedia surpassed 2,000,000 articles, becoming the third Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2016 || April 29 || Milestone || The Swedish Wikipedia surpassed 3,000,000 articles, becoming the third Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2016 || May 26 || Milestone || Wikipedia exceeded 40 million articles across all 293 language editions.
 +
|-
 +
| 2016 || September 26 || Milestone || The Cebuano Wikipedia surpassed 3,000,000 articles, becoming the fourth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2016 || November 19 || Milestone || The German Wikipedia surpassed 2,000,000 articles, becoming the fifth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2017 || March 3 || Milestone || The Cebuano Wikipedia surpassed 4,000,000 articles, becoming the second Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2017 || July 6 || Milestone || The Spanish Wikipedia surpassed 100 million page edits.
 +
|-
 +
| 2017 || September 15 || Milestone || The Russian Wikipedia surpassed 100 million page edits.
 +
|-
 +
| 2017 || October 27 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia surpassed 5,500,000 articles.
 +
|-
 +
| 2018 || April 13 || Milestone || The Chinese Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the fourteenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2018 || June 27 || Milestone || The Portuguese Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the fifteenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2018 || July 8 || Milestone || The French Wikipedia surpassed 2,000,000 articles, becoming the fifth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2018 || October 14 || Milestone || The Arabic Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the sixteenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2019 || January 20 || Milestone || The Spanish Wikipedia surpassed 1,500,000 articles, becoming the seventh Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2019 || February 1 || Milestone || The Italian Wikipedia surpassed 1,500,000 articles, becoming the eighth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2019 || March 9 || Milestone || Wikipedia exceeded 50 million articles across all 309 language editions.
 +
|-
 +
| 2019 || August 2 || Milestone || The South Azerbaijani Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 page edits.
 +
|-
 +
| 2019 || November 17 || Milestone || The Arabic Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the eighteenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2020 || January 23 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia surpassed 6,000,000 articles, with "Maria Elise Turner Lauder" as the milestone article.
 +
|-
 +
| 2020 || March 9 || Milestone || The Dutch Wikipedia surpassed 2,000,000 articles, becoming the sixth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2020 || March 23 || Milestone || The Ukrainian Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the seventeenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2020 || July 1 || Milestone || The Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the eighteenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2020 || December 25 || Milestone || The Bengali Wikipedia surpassed 100,000 articles.
 +
|-
 +
| 2021 || February 3 || Milestone || The Malagasy Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 page edits.
 +
|-
 +
| 2021 || February 4 || Milestone || The English Wikipedia surpassed 1 billion page edits.
 +
|-
 +
| 2021 || October 14 || Milestone || The Cebuano Wikipedia surpassed 6,000,000 articles, becoming the second Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2021 || December 14 || Milestone || The Polish Wikipedia surpassed 1,500,000 articles, becoming the twelfth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
 +
|-
 +
| 2021 || December 26 || Milestone || The Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia surpassed 1,500,000 articles.
 +
|-
 +
| 2022 || January 19 || Milestone || The Indonesian Wikipedia surpassed 20 million page edits.
 +
|-
 +
| 2022 || October 17 || Milestone || The Norwegian Wikipedia surpassed 600,000 articles.
 +
|-
 +
| 2022 || November 27 || Milestone || Wikipedia exceeded 60 million articles across all 329 language editions.
 
|}
 
|}
  
Line 173: Line 741:
 
===What the timeline is still missing===
 
===What the timeline is still missing===
  
 +
* Fundraising
 
* feature/update
 
* feature/update
 
* language versions
 
* language versions

Latest revision as of 20:58, 17 September 2024

This is a timeline of Wikipedia, a free, web-based encyclopedia that is collaboratively written by volunteers from around the world.

Sample questions

The following are some interesting questions that can be answered by reading this timeline:

Big picture

Time period Development summary More details
1990s Technological Context The development of the World Wide Web leads to several attempts at creating online encyclopedias, setting the stage for the eventual success of Wikipedia.

Full timeline

  • We do not include:
Year Month and date Event type Details
1857 November 5 Speech Richard Chenevix Trench delivers a speech at the London Library on Guy Fawkes Day, proposing the creation of a new grand dictionary of every word in the English language. He emphasizes the need for a large, unpaid volunteer team to compile this work, a concept that parallels Wikipedia's reliance on volunteer contributors.[1]
1910 – Institution Establishment Paul Otlet founds the Mundaneum, an institution dedicated to indexing the world's knowledge. This marks a significant step towards creating a global repository of information, paving the way for future encyclopedic efforts like Wikipedia.[2]
1928 – Project Completion After nearly 70 years of collaborative effort, the Oxford English Dictionary is completed. This massive project, driven by volunteers, demonstrates that large-scale, volunteer-driven knowledge projects were possible long before the advent of the internet.[3]
1934 – Publication Paul Otlet publishes Traité de Documentation, in which he explores the idea of using automated technology beyond the printing press to build a more useful, machine-assisted encyclopedia. This concept would influence later digital knowledge projects.[2]
1938 – Concept Proposal H. G. Wells expands on Otlet's ideas in his book of essays World Brain, proposing the creation of a global encyclopedia that could serve as a repository for human knowledge and wisdom, an idea that anticipates the collaborative nature of Wikipedia.[2]
1945 – Essay Publication Vannevar Bush publishes his influential essay As We May Think, in which he envisions the "Memex," a microfilm-based system that would allow users to store and retrieve vast amounts of information. This concept of a knowledge machine would later inspire developments in digital information storage, such as hypertext.[2]
1960 – Project Launch Ted Nelson begins Project Xanadu, a pioneering hypertext design aimed at creating a global, interconnected library of information. This project is a precursor to the development of the internet and collaborative knowledge systems like Wikipedia.[2]
1993 – Concept Proposal Rick Gates, a computer scientist and advocate for online information sharing, makes the earliest known proposal for an online encyclopedia. This proposal outlines the concept of a collaborative, digital resource where users can freely contribute and access knowledge, laying the foundation for later initiatives like Wikipedia.[4]
1993 – Encyclopedia Launch Microsoft's Encarta, a CD-ROM-based encyclopedia, is published. It introduces hyperlinked articles, a significant departure from traditional book-based encyclopedias like the Encyclopædia Britannica.[4]
1998 – Concept Proposal Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, proposes the idea of a "free-as-in-freedom" online encyclopedia. His vision includes the principle that no central authority should control editing or access, directly opposing the proprietary models of contemporaneous encyclopedias like Microsoft Encarta or Encyclopædia Britannica.[5]
1998 – Concept Proposal Free software advocate Richard Stallman outlines the idea of a "Free Universal Encyclopedia and Learning Resource." He stresses the importance of creating a free, universally accessible encyclopedia to ensure continuous progress toward this ideal.[5]
Late 1990s – Concept Development Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales is inspired by the open-source movement and Richard Stallman's *Emacs Manifesto*. As a graduate student at Indiana University, Wales is intrigued by the idea of volunteer-driven collaboration, which will later influence Wikipedia’s model.
2000 March Encyclopedia Launch Nupedia is launched by Jimmy Wales, Tim Shell, and Michael E. Davis under their web-advertising company, Bomis. The project aims to create a free online encyclopedia using qualified volunteers and a peer-reviewed multi-step editorial process. Despite having a mailing list of over 2,000 interested editors and Larry Sanger serving as full-time editor-in-chief, *Nupedia* struggles to produce content, with only 12 articles written during its first year.[6]
2001 January 10 Proposal Larry Sanger suggests on the *Nupedia* mailing list that a wiki-based platform be created as a feeder project to complement *Nupedia*. He proposes the use of the UseModWiki platform under the subject "Let's make a wiki."
2001 January 10 Wiki Setup Jimmy Wales sets up a wiki under the nupedia.com domain as a test project for rapid content creation. This marks the beginning of the wiki approach to encyclopedic content for Nupedia.[7]
2001 January 11 Naming Larry Sanger suggests the name "Wikipedia" as a portmanteau of "wiki" and "encyclopedia."[8]
2001 January 12-13 Domain Registration The domain name wikipedia.com is registered.[9]
2001 January 13 Domain Registration The domain wikipedia.org is officially registered, signaling the creation of a new free-content encyclopedia. This event marks the beginning of what would become one of the most significant and widely-used knowledge repositories on the internet.[10] respectively, with wikipedia.org being brought online on the same day.[11]
2001 January 15 First Edit Wikipedia’s first edit is made, marking the platform's launch as a live site. Just two days after the domain registration, Wikipedia begins its journey as a space where volunteers from around the world can collaborate to create and edit articles, significantly lowering the barriers to contribution compared to Nupedia.[12]
2001 January 15 Launch Wikipedia officially opens to the public, with the creation of the first international editions, including French, German, Catalan, Swedish, and Italian.
2001 January 17 GNUPedia Launch The Free Software Foundation's GNUPedia project goes online as a potential competitor to *Nupedia* and Wikipedia. Within a few years, the FSF encourages people to contribute to Wikipedia instead.
2001 February 12 Milestone Wikipedia reaches its 1,000th article. This demonstrates the rapid content growth compared to *Nupedia*, which had struggled to produce articles at a faster rate.
2001 March 16 New Subdomains The first non-English Wikipedia, the German Wikipedia (*deutsche.wikipedia.com*), is created at 01:38 UTC. This is followed a few hours later by the Catalan Wikipedia (*catalan.wikipedia.com*) at 13:07 UTC.[13]
2001 March New Subdomain The Japanese Wikipedia (*nihongo.wikipedia.com*) is created, initially using Romanized Japanese.[14][15]
2001 March Expansion The first international Wikipedias are created, including the French, German, Catalan, Swedish, and Italian editions.
2001 May 11 New Subdomain The French Wikipedia is created, followed by the introduction of other languages such as Chinese, Dutch, Esperanto, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.[16][17]
2001 July 26 Media Attention Wikipedia experiences a surge in traffic due to the first "slashdotter" wave.[18]
2001 August Media Report The first media report about Wikipedia appears in Wales on Sunday.[19]
2001 September 7 Milestone Wikipedia reaches 10,000 articles, highlighting the continued success and growth of the project in just eight months.
2001 September 20 Media Coverage *The New York Times* covers Wikipedia, marking its first major mainstream media recognition. This coverage increases its visibility and legitimacy.
2001 September Announcement Wikipedia commits to providing multilingual versions, aiming to roll out Wikipedias for all major languages, set core standards, and translate core pages for the new wikis.
2001 September 11 Traffic Spike A link to the Wikipedia article on the September 11 attacks appears on Yahoo!'s home page, resulting in a significant increase in traffic.[20]
2001 September Breaking News Following the September 11 attacks, Wikipedia begins featuring breaking news stories on its homepage and linking related articles. Approximately 100 articles related to 9/11 are created.
2001 December New Subdomains Afrikaans, Norwegian, and Serbian Wikipedia versions are announced as international statistics begin to be logged.[21]
2002 January Milestone 90% of all Wikipedia articles are in English.
2002 January 25 Software Release The first portable MediaWiki software goes live.
2002 March Departure Larry Sanger leaves both Nupedia and Wikipedia after Bomis withdraws funding during the dot-com bust.[22]
2002 August 30 Milestone Wikipedia reaches 40,000 articles, having grown at a rate of over 1,500 articles per month during its first year of existence.
2002 Fork A fork of the Spanish Wikipedia results in the creation of Enciclopedia Libre.
2002 Policy Jimmy Wales confirms that Wikipedia will never run commercial advertising.
2002 Bots Bots are introduced to Wikipedia.
2002 Launch The first sister project, Wiktionary, and the first formal Manual of Style are launched.
2002 Participation Close to 200 contributors are editing Wikipedia daily.
2002 Growth Wikipedia continues to expand internationally, with new language versions and increasing article counts.
2003 October 28 Social Meeting The first Wikipedian social meeting takes place in Munich, Germany.[23]
2003 November 24 Project Creation Wikisource is created as a separate project to host free textual sources in multiple languages.
2003 Milestone The English Wikipedia passes 100,000 articles, while the German Wikipedia surpasses 10,000.
2003 June 20 Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation is established.[24]
2003 Logo Wikipedia adopts its jigsaw world logo.
2003 Feature Mathematical formulae using TeX are reintroduced to the website.
2003 System Development The basic principles of the English Wikipedia's Arbitration system and committee ("ArbCom") are developed.
2003 Growth Wikipedia reaches significant milestones in article counts and international editions.
2004 January Milestone The percentage of English articles falls below 50%, as non-English language versions continue to grow.
2004 June Block Wikipedia is blocked in China for two weeks.[25]
2004 July Social Meeting The first social meeting in the United States takes place in Boston.
2004 September 7 Project Creation Wikimedia Commons is created to host media files for Wikipedia in all languages.
2004 Growth Wikipedia sees further growth in content and user participation.
2004 Content Growth Wikipedia's article pool doubles in size from under 500,000 to over 1 million articles by the end of the year, with content in over 100 languages. The English Wikipedia accounts for just under half of these articles.
2004 February 12 Server Relocation Wikipedia's server farms are moved from California to Florida.
2004 Features Categories and CSS style configuration sheets are introduced.
2004 Governance Formal elections begin for a board for the Wikimedia Foundation and an Arbitration Committee on English Wikipedia.
2004 Chapter Wikimedia Deutschland is recognized as the first national chapter of the Foundation.
2004 Legal Reference Bourgeois v. Peters, a court case, becomes one of the earliest to cite and quote Wikipedia.
2005 Expansion Wikipedia's international editions continue to grow, and the site gains widespread recognition.
2006 New Project Larry Sanger founds Citizendium, an open encyclopedia requiring contributors to use real names to minimize disruptive editing. Citizendium aims to include "gentle expert guidance" and family-friendly content.[26]
2006 Milestone Wikipedia reaches major milestones in article counts and global reach.
2007 Governance Jimmy Wales continues to establish self-governance on Wikipedia, with editors managing the community and content development, while he provides occasional input on serious matters.
2007 Release Wikipedia Version 0.5, a CD/DVD containing a selection of English Wikipedia articles, is released.
2007 Recognition Wikipedia's impact and influence become more prominent as it continues to expand.
2007–2011 Availability Kiwix ZIM files for Wikipedia versions from 2007 to 2011 are made available for download, providing offline access to selected Wikipedia articles.
2008 Release Wikipedia Version 0.7, a CD/DVD with updated selections of English Wikipedia articles, is released.
2008 Milestone Wikipedia celebrates significant achievements and milestones in content and community.
2009 Release Wikipedia Version 0.8, the final CD/DVD in the series with selections of English Wikipedia articles, is released.
2009 Growth Wikipedia remains a leading source of free knowledge, with continued growth and international expansion.
2014 – Reader Statistics By this year, Wikipedia attracts approximately 495 million monthly readers worldwide, reflecting its status as a major source of free information on the web. This level of readership showcases its vast reach and the growing public reliance on the site for accurate, up-to-date knowledge.
2014 Milestone About 85% of all Wikipedia articles are in non-English versions, marking the significant internationalization of the project.
2015 – Visitor Statistics According to comScore, Wikipedia achieves over 115 million monthly unique visitors from the United States alone in 2015. This figure highlights the platform’s popularity in one of the largest internet markets and its role as a key player in digital education and information dissemination.
2018 September Page Views Wikipedia and its associated projects receive 15.5 billion monthly page views. This surge in traffic illustrates the platform’s enduring significance and widespread use across various languages and regions, underscoring its role as one of the world’s most important online resources.
2023 Milestone Roughly 90% of all Wikipedia articles are in non-English Wikipedias, though the English and Simple English versions together have 7 million articles.
2023 Preservation The ZIM File Archive at the Internet Archive continues to store past full snapshots and article selections from Wikipedia in multiple languages, accessible with Kiwix software.
Year Month and date Event type Details
2005 Popularity Wikipedia becomes the most popular reference website on the Internet according to Hitwise. English Wikipedia alone exceeds 750,000 articles.
2005 Portals The first multilingual and subject portals are established.
2005 Q1 Fundraiser A formal fundraiser raises almost US$100,000 for system upgrades to handle growing demand.
2005 October Block China blocks Wikipedia again.[27]
2005 Scandal The Seigenthaler incident, Wikipedia's first major scandal, occurs when a well-known figure’s vandalized biography goes unnoticed for months. This leads to the implementation of new policies to counter such abuse.[28]
2005 Checkuser privilege policy update to assist in sock puppetry investigations.
2005 Semi-protection against anonymous vandalism, introduced in 2005, proved more popular than expected, with over 1,000 pages being semi-protected at any given time in 2006.
2005 Stricter policy on biographies of living people with tagging for stricter review.
2005 December Restriction New article creation is restricted to registered users only.
2005 August 4–8 Event Wikimania 2005, the first Wikimania conference, is held at the Haus der Jugend in Frankfurt, attracting about 380 attendees.


Year Month and date Event type Details
2006 March 1 Milestone The English Wikipedia gains its one-millionth article, "Jordanhill railway station".
2006 Feature The first approved Wikipedia article selection is made freely available for download.
2006 Trademark "Wikipedia" becomes registered as a trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation.
2006 Scandal The congressional aides biography scandals come to public attention, involving congressional staffers and a campaign manager attempting to covertly alter Wikipedia biographies. The campaign manager resigns as a result.
2006 Recognition Wikipedia is rated as one of the top five global brands of 2006.
2006 Call for Quality At Wikimania 2006, Jimmy Wales calls for an emphasis on quality, with a goal of achieving 100,000 feature-quality articles.
2006 Privilege A new privilege, "oversight," is created to allow specific versions of archived pages with unacceptable content to be marked as non-viewable.
2006 Semi-Protection The semi-protection feature against anonymous vandalism, introduced in 2005, proves highly popular with over 1,000 pages being semi-protected at any given time.


Year Month and date Event type Details
2007 August 13 Milestone Wikipedia reaches over 5 million registered editor accounts.
2007 August 13 Milestone The 250 language editions of Wikipedia contain a combined total of 7.5 million articles and 1.74 billion words.
2007 Growth The English Wikipedia gains articles at a rate of 1,700 per day.
2007 Traffic The wikipedia.org domain is ranked the 10th-busiest website in the world.
2007 Controversy The Essjay controversy arises when a prominent Wikipedia member is found to have lied about his credentials.
2007 September 9 Milestone The English Wikipedia gains its two-millionth article, "El Hormiguero".
2007 Trend A new trend emerges where Wikipedia addresses people whose notability stems from being part of a news story by redirecting their name to the larger story, rather than creating a distinct biographical article.
2007 Automated Content The Volapük Wikipedia briefly becomes the 15th-largest Wikipedia edition due to automated stub generation, jumping from 797 to over 112,000 articles.
2007 April Release Wikipedia Version 0.5 article selection release is published.[29]
2007 Editor Decline According to the MIT Technology Review, the number of regularly active editors on the English-language Wikipedia peaks at more than 51,000 but begins to decline.
Year Month and date Event type Details
2008 April Milestone The 10-millionth Wikipedia article is created.
2008 Growth The English Wikipedia exceeds 2.5 million articles by the end of the year.
2009 June 25 Traffic The Wikipedia website crashes temporarily following the death of Michael Jackson, with nearly a million visitors to his biography within one hour.
2009 August 17 Milestone The English Wikipedia reaches its three-millionth article, "Beate Eriksen," created at 04:05 UTC.
2009 December 27 Milestone The German Wikipedia exceeds one million articles, becoming the second Wikipedia edition to do so after the English Wikipedia.
2009 Recognition Wikipedia is listed among TIME magazine's best websites of 2009.
2009 Licensing Wikipedia content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.
Year Month and date Event type Details
2010 March 24 Technical Issue European Wikipedia servers go offline due to overheating, with DNS resolution failing worldwide. The issue is resolved quickly but access recovery is uneven due to DNS caching.
2010 April 16 Milestone The 1-billionth edit across Wikimedia projects is performed.
2010 May 13 Update Wikipedia releases a new interface with an updated logo, new navigation tools, and a link wizard, while retaining the classic interface for those who prefer it.
2010 September 21 Milestone The French Wikipedia reaches its millionth article.
2010 December 12 Milestone The English Wikipedia surpasses 3.5 million articles.
2010 Release Wikipedia Version 0.7 article selection is published.
Year Month and date Event type Details
2011 January 15 Anniversary Wikipedia celebrates its 10th anniversary with worldwide events.
2011 March 3 Release Wikipedia Version 0.8 article selection is published.
2011 April 2 Milestone The English Wikipedia surpasses 3.6 million articles.
2011 November 7 Milestone The German Wikipedia exceeds 100 million page edits.
2011 November 18 Milestone The English Wikipedia reaches 3.8 million articles.
2011 December 17 Milestone The Dutch Wikipedia exceeds 1 million articles.
2011 August 2 Stamp Release Israel Post issues the "Wikimania 2011 – Haifa, Israel" stamp, the first-ever stamp dedicated to a Wikimedia project.
2011 October 4–6 Protest The Italian Wikipedia becomes intentionally inaccessible to protest against the proposed DDL intercettazioni law.
2011 October Initiative Wikimedia announces the launch of Wikipedia Zero, an initiative to enable free mobile access to Wikipedia in developing countries through partnerships with mobile operators.
Year Month and date Event type Details
2012 January 16 Announcement Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales announces that the English Wikipedia will shut down for 24 hours on January 18. This protest aims to draw attention to the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act, which are under debate in the United States Congress. The decision for the blackout is described as a "community decision," reflecting concerns over potential threats to free speech and online innovation.
2012 January 18 Event The English Wikipedia blackout takes place, with the site being taken offline for 24 hours. This action is intended to oppose the SOPA and PROTECT IP Act. Additionally, on July 10, the Russian Wikipedia conducts a similar blackout in protest against a proposed Russian internet regulation law.
2012 Late March Announcement Wikimedia Deutschland announces the Wikidata project, a universal platform designed to facilitate data sharing across all Wikipedia language editions. The US$1.7-million project receives funding from Google, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Wikimedia Deutschland is responsible for the first phase of Wikidata, with initial plans to make the platform available to editors by December 2012. The first phase of Wikidata becomes fully operational in March 2013.


Year Month and date Event type Details
2012 January 16 Announcement Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales announces that the English Wikipedia will shut down for 24 hours on January 18. This protest aims to draw attention to the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act, which are under debate in the United States Congress. The decision for the blackout is described as a "community decision," reflecting concerns over potential threats to free speech and online innovation.
2012 January 18 Event The English Wikipedia blackout takes place, with the site being taken offline for 24 hours. This action is intended to oppose the SOPA and PROTECT IP Act. Additionally, on July 10, the Russian Wikipedia conducts a similar blackout in protest against a proposed Russian internet regulation law.
2012 April Achievement Justin Knapp becomes the first single contributor to make over one million edits to Wikipedia. Jimmy Wales congratulates Knapp with the Special Barnstar medal and the Golden Wiki award. April 20 is declared "Justin Knapp Day" in recognition of his contribution.
2012 July 13 Milestone The English Wikipedia reaches its 4-millionth article, "Izbat al-Burj," marking a significant achievement in the encyclopedia's growth.
2012 Late March Announcement Wikimedia Deutschland announces the Wikidata project, a universal platform designed to facilitate data sharing across all Wikipedia language editions. The US$1.7-million project receives funding from Google, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Wikimedia Deutschland is responsible for the first phase of Wikidata, with initial plans to make the platform available to editors by December 2012. The first phase of Wikidata becomes fully operational in March 2013.
2012 October Commentary Historian and Wikipedia editor Richard J. Jensen comments that the English Wikipedia is "nearing completion," despite the encyclopedia's rapid growth in article count and readership. This observation highlights a significant decline in the number of regularly active editors since 2007.
2012 November Ranking According to Alexa Internet, Wikipedia is ranked as the world's sixth-most-popular website.
2012 December Ranking Dow Jones ranks Wikipedia as the fifth-most-popular website worldwide.
Year Month and date Event type Details
2013 January 22 Milestone The Italian Wikipedia becomes the fifth language edition of Wikipedia to reach 1 million articles. This milestone reflects the continued expansion and global reach of Wikipedia, highlighting the growth of non-English language editions.
2013 January 27 Naming The main belt asteroid 274301 is officially renamed "Wikipedia" by the Committee for Small Body Nomenclature. This name change honors Wikipedia's significant impact on global knowledge dissemination and recognition in the scientific community.
2013 March Release The first phase of the Wikidata database is made available to all language editions of Wikipedia. Wikidata provides a centralized repository for structured data and automatically generates interlanguage links, improving data consistency and accessibility across Wikipedia's multiple language editions.
2013 April Controversy The French secret service is accused of attempting to censor Wikipedia by allegedly threatening a Wikipedia volunteer with arrest unless "classified information" about a military radio station was removed. This incident raises concerns about government attempts to influence or suppress open information on Wikipedia.
2013 July Launch The VisualEditor editing system is officially launched, introducing a user-friendly, word processor-like interface for editing Wikipedia articles. This development aims to make editing more accessible to users unfamiliar with wiki markup. Additionally, a new editor designed for smartphones and other mobile devices is introduced to enhance mobile editing capabilities.
2013 May 11 Milestone The Russian Wikipedia reaches its one-millionth article. This achievement marks the Russian Wikipedia as a major contributor to the global knowledge base and reflects its growth and prominence in the Wikipedia community.
2013 May 16 Milestone The Spanish Wikipedia reaches its one-millionth article. This milestone demonstrates the Spanish Wikipedia's significant expansion and its role in providing comprehensive content in Spanish.
2013 July 15 Milestone The Swedish Wikipedia becomes the eighth Wikipedia edition to surpass 1 million articles. This achievement signifies the continued growth and development of Wikipedia's Swedish language edition.
2013 September 24 Milestone The Polish Wikipedia becomes the ninth Wikipedia edition to exceed 1 million articles. This milestone underscores the Polish Wikipedia's extensive content creation and its contributions to the global knowledge repository.
Year Month and date Event type Details
2014 February Project Launch German Wikipedia contributors initiate a project to produce a print edition of the English Wikipedia. This ambitious project aims to produce 1,000 volumes and over 1,100,000 pages, showcasing the extensive content of Wikipedia in a physical format. Funded through Indiegogo, the project is intended to honor the contributions of Wikipedia's editors.
2014 June 8 Milestone The Waray Wikipedia surpasses one million articles, becoming the tenth Wikipedia edition to reach this milestone. The significant growth is attributed to a high number of articles generated by bots, despite having relatively few active contributors.
2014 June 15 Milestone The Vietnamese Wikipedia reaches the one-million-article mark, marking it as the eleventh Wikipedia edition to achieve this milestone. The rapid growth is indicative of the expanding reach and influence of Wikipedia in the Vietnamese language.
2014 July 16 Milestone The Cebuano Wikipedia exceeds one million articles, becoming the twelfth Wikipedia edition to reach this milestone. Similar to other editions with high bot activity, the Cebuano Wikipedia's growth reflects the use of automated processes to increase article count.
2014 October 22 Monument Unveiling The first monument dedicated to Wikipedia is unveiled in Slubice, Poland. This monument celebrates Wikipedia's impact and contributions to global knowledge, highlighting the project's significance and the appreciation for the Wikipedia community.
Year Month and date Event type Details
2015 Mid-Year Popularity Ranking Wikipedia is ranked as the seventh-most-popular website globally according to Alexa Internet. This represents a slight decline from its position as the sixth-most-popular site in November 2012. Despite this, Wikipedia remains the largest general-knowledge encyclopedia online.
2015 January 1 Pageviews and Visitors Wikipedia continues to be a major online resource with over 36 million mainspace articles across 291 language editions. It attracts approximately 10 billion global pageviews monthly from around 495 million unique visitors, including 85 million from the United States, where it is the sixth-most-popular site.
2015 April 7 Art Project Michael Mandiberg's "Print Wikipedia" project is launched, aiming to create a physical representation of Wikipedia. The project produces 7,473 volumes of Wikipedia as it existed on April 7, 2015. Each volume contains 700 pages, although only 110 volumes are printed by the artist. This art project underscores the breadth of Wikipedia's content and its transformation into physical form.
2015 November 1 Milestone The English Wikipedia achieves a major milestone by reaching 5,000,000 articles with the addition of an article on Persoonia terminalis, a type of shrub. This significant achievement highlights the continued growth and expansion of Wikipedia's content.
Year Month and date Event type Details
2016 January 19 Milestone The Japanese Wikipedia surpasses the one million article mark, becoming the thirteenth Wikipedia edition to achieve this milestone. The millionth article is about Wave 224, a World War II submarine of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
2016 Mid-Year Popularity Ranking Wikipedia regains its position as the sixth-most-popular website globally according to Alexa Internet, moving up from the seventh place it held the previous year. This reflects continued strong global usage and prominence.
2017 Mid-Year Popularity Ranking Wikipedia is ranked as the fifth-most-popular website globally by Alexa Internet, marking an improvement from its sixth-place position the previous year. This indicates a further rise in global usage and recognition.
2017 April 29 Access Restriction Wikipedia access is blocked across all language editions in Turkey by Turkish authorities. This restriction remains in place until January 15, 2020, when a Turkish court rules that the block violated human rights.
2017 December 28 Access Restriction The encrypted version of the Japanese Wikipedia is blocked in China. This block continues to affect access to Wikipedia in China, reflecting ongoing issues related to internet censorship.
2017 Various Dates Availability Expansion Wikipedia Zero, an initiative to provide free mobile access to Wikipedia, is made available in Iraq and Afghanistan, expanding access to Wikipedia's resources in these regions.
Year Month and date Event type Details
2018 April 13 Milestone The Chinese Wikipedia surpasses 1 million articles, becoming the fourteenth Wikipedia edition to achieve this milestone. Despite this achievement, the Chinese Wikipedia has been blocked in Mainland China since May 2015.
2018 June 26 Milestone The Portuguese Wikipedia exceeds 1 million articles, becoming the fifteenth Wikipedia edition to reach this milestone. The one-millionth article is titled "Perdão de Richard Nixon" (the Pardon of Richard Nixon).
2018 Throughout the Year Popularity Ranking Wikipedia maintains its position as the fifth-most-popular website globally according to Alexa Internet, reflecting its continued strong global presence.
2018 Throughout the Year Technological Development Wikipedia begins utilizing Artificial Intelligence to create draft articles on overlooked topics, representing a significant development in how content is generated and managed.
2019 April 23 Access Restriction Chinese authorities expand the block on Wikipedia to include all language versions. This expansion coincides with significant anniversaries, including the 30th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre and the 100th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement, leading to tighter internet censorship in China.[30][31]
2019 August Popularity Ranking According to Alexa.com, Wikipedia's global ranking falls from fifth to seventh place in terms of internet engagement, indicating a decline in its relative position among global websites.
Year Month and date Event type Details
2020 23 January Milestone The English Wikipedia added its six millionth article, a biography of Maria Elise Turner Lauder. Despite this significant growth in articles, Wikipedia's global internet engagement, as measured by Alexa, continued to decline. By February 2020, Wikipedia fell to the eleventh position in the global internet engagement rankings. Wikipedia's role in covering the COVID-19 pandemic, including edits, discussions, and deletions, was deemed valuable for future historians. The World Health Organization collaborated with Wikipedia to disseminate COVID-19-related information and combat misinformation.
2021 January Anniversary Wikipedia's 20th anniversary was noted in the media. On 13 January 2021, the English Wikipedia reached one billion edits, with the billionth edit made by Steven Pruitt. MIT Press published "Wikipedia @ 20: Stories of an Unfinished Revolution," a collection of essays edited by Joseph Reagle and Jackie Koerner, featuring contributions from notable Wikipedians and experts. By November 2021, Wikipedia had fallen to the thirteenth position in global internet engagement rankings.
2022 6 December Controversy Wikipedian Richard Knipel created the article "Artwork title," which included a draft generated by ChatGPT, with minor edits to conform to Wikipedia standards. This was believed to be the first instance of ChatGPT being used to compose a Wikipedia article. The use of ChatGPT sparked controversy within the Wikipedia community, leading to a debate about the appropriateness of using AI models in Wikipedia content creation.
2023 January Interface Update The default Wikipedia desktop interface was updated for the first time since 2010, introducing the Vector 2022 design. Additionally, after consultation and a contest, Wikimedia adopted its first sound logo, which applies to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.
Year Month and date Event type Details
2001 January Software Wikipedia ran on UseModWiki, a wiki software written in Perl by Clifford Adams. The server utilized Linux, and the original text was stored in files rather than in a database. Articles were named using the CamelCase convention.
2002 January Software "Phase II" of the wiki software was introduced, replacing UseModWiki. This version, developed by Magnus Manske, included a PHP wiki engine specifically for Wikipedia.
2002 July Software The major rewrite of the wiki software, known as "Phase III," was launched, which became MediaWiki. Written by Lee Daniel Crocker, this version was developed in response to the increasing demands of Wikipedia.
2002 October Automation Derek Ramsey created Rambot, an automated program to add articles about United States towns based on U.S. census data. This bot increased the number of Wikipedia articles by 33,832 and is considered one of the most controversial moves in Wikipedia's history.
2003 January Feature Support for mathematical formulas using TeX was added, contributed by Tomasz Wegrzanowski.
2003 June 9 Feature The ISBN interface was updated to link ISBNs in articles to Special:Booksources, which fetches content from Wikipedia:Book sources, improving the linking of ISBNs.
2003 December 6 System System messages shown to Wikipedia users were made editable, allowing administrators to modify parts of MediaWiki's interface, such as messages shown to blocked users.
2004 February 12 Server Server operations were moved from San Diego, California to Tampa, Florida.
2004 May 29 Software The MediaWiki software was updated across all Wikipedia websites to a new version.
2004 May 30 Feature The first instances of "categorization" entries appeared. This marked the beginning of a systematic categorization effort for articles, distinct from previous schemes which were viewed as lists.
2004 June 3 System Administrators gained the ability to edit the style of the interface by modifying the CSS in the monobook stylesheet at MediaWiki:Monobook.css.
2004 May 30 Feature The Template namespace was created with MediaWiki 1.3, allowing the transclusion of standard texts.
2005 June 7 Server At 3:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, the bulk of Wikimedia's servers were moved to a new facility across the street. All Wikimedia projects experienced downtime during this transition.
2013 March Feature The first phase of the Wikidata interwiki database became available across Wikipedia's language editions.
2013 July Feature The VisualEditor editing interface was inaugurated, allowing users to edit Wikipedia using a WYSIWYG text editor, along with an interface optimized for mobile devices.
Year Month and date Event type Details
2002 April 4 Feature The "BrilliantProse" feature, which was later renamed "Featured Articles," was moved from the article namespace to the Wikipedia namespace.
2003 October 15 Branding A new Wikipedia logo was installed. The logo concept was selected through a voting process and later revised. The final design was created by David Friedland, based on a concept by Paul Stansifer.
2004 February 22 Feature The "Did You Know" (DYK) section made its first appearance on the Main Page of Wikipedia.
2004 February 23 Design A coordinated new look for the Main Page was introduced at 19:46 UTC. This update featured hand-chosen entries for the Daily Featured Article, Anniversaries, In the News, and Did You Know sections.
2005 January 10 Feature The multilingual portal at www.wikipedia.org was established, replacing the previous redirect to the English-language Wikipedia.
2005 February 5 Feature The first thematic "portal," Portal:Biology, was created on the English Wikipedia. The concept had been pioneered on the German Wikipedia with the creation of Portal:Recht (law studies) in October 2003.
2005 July 16 Feature The English Wikipedia began featuring "featured pictures" on the Main Page, showcasing notable images each day.
2006 March 19 Design The Main Page of the English-language Wikipedia underwent its first redesign in nearly two years, following a community vote.
2010 May 13 Interface A new interface was released, including an updated logo, new navigation tools, and a link wizard. The "classic" Wikipedia interface remained available as an option for users.
Year Month and date Event type Details
2020 September Announcement Wikipedia's new skin, Vector 2022, is announced. Initially planned for debut in 2021, it is aimed at modernizing the user interface of Wikipedia and improving user experience.
2020 Various Testing Early versions of Vector 2022 are rolled out for testing on the French-, Hebrew-, and Portuguese-language Wikipedia sites. This gradual rollout allows for feedback and adjustments before the full release.
2023 January 18 Full Deployment Vector 2022 is officially launched as the default skin for readers on 300 out of 318 language editions of Wikimedia sites. The update includes changes such as a revised user interface, a collapsible sidebar, and an improved search function.
2023 January 18 Availability The update is made available as the default for Arabic and Greek Wikipedia versions. Users can still opt to use the previous skin, Vector 2010, by registering and setting their preferences.
2023 January 18 Community Reaction The Wikipedia community is divided on the new skin. Despite criticism, including concerns about increased white space, the discussion closes in favor of Vector 2022. Some adjustments are made based on user feedback, such as a toggle to expand article content width.
2023 January 18 Media Response Journalists view Vector 2022 as a useful but minor update. Critics note that while the new features are beneficial, the overall change does not drastically alter the reading experience. Discussions highlight similarities to past resistances to visual changes on other platforms.
2023 January 18 User Options Users can still access older skins like Monobook and Timeless. To revert to Vector 2010, users must register for a Wikipedia account and adjust their preferences accordingly.
2023 January 18 Feature Adjustments Developers respond to community feedback by implementing changes such as an option to fill the entire screen with article content. However, some language editions, like Swahili, express unanimous disapproval of the new skin.
Year Month and date Event type Details
2001 April Policy Jimmy Wales formally defines the "neutral point of view" as Wikipedia's core non-negotiable editorial policy. This was a reformulation of the "Lack of Bias" policy outlined by Larry Sanger for Nupedia in spring or summer 2000.
2001 September Policy The concept of collaboration by subject matter through WikiProjects is introduced, allowing users to work together on specific topics or themes.
2002 February Policy Due to concerns over potential censorship and commercialization by Bomis Inc., the Spanish Wikipedia community breaks away to establish Enciclopedia Libre. Despite later clarification of Wikipedia's non-commercial nature, re-merger talks with Enciclopedia Libre did not reach a conclusion, and both projects continue to exist separately.
2002 Throughout Policy The Manual of Style, along with various other policies and guidelines, is created to clarify policy and style issues within Wikipedia.
2002 November Communication New mailing lists, including WikiEN and Announce, as well as other language-specific lists (e.g., Polish), are established to manage traffic and improve communication among Wikipedia contributors.
2003 July Policy A rule against editing one's own autobiography is introduced to prevent conflicts of interest and ensure neutrality in personal articles.
2003 October 28 Community The first "real" meeting of Wikipedians occurs in Munich, marking the beginning of organized Wikipedian gatherings. This leads to the establishment of regular meetups around the world and the creation of related online communities.
2004 July 10 – August 30 Feature The Wikipedia:Browse and Wikipedia:Browse by overview sections on the Main Page are replaced by links to overviews. The Community Portal is introduced on August 27 to serve as a central hub for community efforts.
2005 September – December Policy Several anti-abuse features and policies are introduced, including:

- The "Checkuser" policy to detect abuse through sock-puppetry. - Restriction of new page creation to registered users. - Introduction of the Wikipedia:Biographies of living people policy for stricter quality control of biographical articles. - The "semi-protection" policy to restrict editing to registered users on certain pages.

2006 May Feature The "oversight" feature is introduced on the English Wikipedia, allowing trusted users to permanently erase revisions containing copyright violations or libelous information.
2007 January 1 Community The Esperanza subcommunity is disbanded by communal consent. Founded in September 2005 to promote "wikilove" and support, it had developed its own subculture and structures.
2007 April Policy Results of a four-month policy review seeking to merge Wikipedia's core policies are polled. The proposal to create a single core policy does not gain consensus, with many users preferring the existing structure of separate focused policies.
2012 January 18 Protest Wikipedia participates in a one-day blackout, called by Jimmy Wales, to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) under consideration by the United States Congress. This action is part of a broader protest involving over 7,000 websites.
Year Month and date Event type Details
2002 August URL Change The URL of Wikipedia was changed from wikipedia.com to wikipedia.org following Jimmy Wales' announcement that Wikipedia would never run commercial advertisements. This change marked a shift in the project's focus towards a non-commercial, community-driven model.
2003 June 20 Founding The Wikimedia Foundation was founded to support the Wikimedia projects and ensure their continued operation and growth.
2006 January Committee Formation The Communications Committee was formed to manage media inquiries and handle emails received for the foundation and Wikipedia via the newly implemented OTRS (a ticket handling system).
2006 January Board Election Angela Beesley and Florence Nibart-Devouard were elected to the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation. During this period, Angela Beesley was actively involved in editing content and setting policies, including the privacy policy.
2006 January 10 Trademark Wikipedia was officially registered as a trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, formalizing the protection of the name and brand of the project.
2006 July Board Resignation Angela Beesley resigned from the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation.
2006 October Board Leadership Florence Nibart-Devouard was appointed chair of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, taking on a leadership role in guiding the foundation's activities and policies.
Year Month and date Event type Details
2001 January 15 First Edit The first recorded edit of Wikipedia was performed, marking the inception of what would become one of the largest collaborative knowledge bases on the internet.
2002 December Sister Project The first sister project, Wiktionary, was created. It aimed to produce a dictionary and thesaurus for words in all languages, utilizing the same software as Wikipedia.
2003 January 22 Milestone The English Wikipedia reached the 100,000 article milestone with the article on Hastings. This achievement was notable as it garnered attention from Slashdot.
2003 June 20 Sister Project On the same day the Wikimedia Foundation was founded, "Wikiquote" was created. Later in the year, "Wikibooks" was launched, followed by the establishment of "Wikisource" towards the end of the year.
2004 January Milestone Wikipedia reached the 200,000-article milestone in English with the article on Neil Warnock. The total article count for both English and non-English Wikipedias reached 450,000, and by the following month, it surpassed 500,000.
2004 April 20 Milestone The article count of the English Wikipedia reached 250,000.
2004 July 7 Milestone The article count of the English Wikipedia reached 300,000.
2004 September 20 Milestone Wikipedia's total article count exceeded 1,000,000 articles in over 105 languages. The one millionth article was published in the Hebrew Wikipedia, discussing the flag of Kazakhstan.
2004 November 20 Milestone The article count of the English Wikipedia reached 400,000.
2005 March 18 Milestone Wikipedia surpassed the 500,000-article milestone in English, with "Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union" being announced as the landmark article.
2005 May Achievement Wikipedia became the most popular reference website on the Internet, according to Hitwise, surpassing Dictionary.com.
2005 September 29 Milestone The English Wikipedia passed the 750,000-article mark.
2006 March 1 Milestone The English Wikipedia reached the 1,000,000-article mark, with "Jordanhill railway station" being recognized as the milestone article.
2006 June 8 Milestone The English Wikipedia surpassed the 1,000-featured-article mark, with "Iranian peoples" as the notable article.
2006 August 15 New Project The Wikimedia Foundation launched Wikiversity, a project aimed at creating a free educational platform.
2006 September 1 Milestone Wikipedia exceeded 5,000,000 articles across all 229 language editions.
2006 November 24 Milestone The English Wikipedia surpassed the 1,500,000-article mark, with "Kanab ambersnail" being highlighted as the milestone article.
2007 April 4 Publication The first Wikipedia CD selection in English was published as a free download, making a curated selection of Wikipedia content available offline.
2007 April 22 Milestone The English Wikipedia reached the 1,750,000-article mark, with "RAF raid on La Caine HQ" being recognized as the milestone article.
2007 September 9 Milestone The English Wikipedia surpassed the 2,000,000-article mark. "El Hormiguero" was accepted as the 2,000,000th article by consensus.
2008 March 28 Milestone Wikipedia exceeded 10 million articles across all 251 language editions, reflecting the extensive growth of the project.
2008 October 11 Milestone The English Wikipedia surpassed the 2,500,000-article mark. Although no official identification was made, "Joe Connor (baseball)" was suggested as a candidate for the 2,500,000th article.
2009 August 17 Milestone The English Wikipedia surpassed the 3,000,000-article mark, with "Beate Eriksen" being announced as the milestone article on the Main Page.


Year Month and date Event type Details
2009 December 27 Milestone The German Wikipedia exceeded 1,000,000 articles, becoming the second Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2010 September 21 Milestone The French Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the third Wikipedia language edition to reach this milestone.
2010 December 12 Milestone The English Wikipedia surpassed the 3,500,000-article mark.
2011 November 22 Milestone Wikipedia exceeded 20 million articles across all 282 language editions.
2011 November 7 Milestone The German Wikipedia surpassed 100 million page edits.
2011 November 24 Milestone The English Wikipedia surpassed 500 million page edits.
2011 December 17 Milestone The Dutch Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the fourth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2012 July 13 Milestone The English Wikipedia surpassed 4,000,000 articles, with "Izbat al-Burj" as the milestone article.
2013 January 22 Milestone The Italian Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the fifth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2013 May 11 Milestone The Russian Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the sixth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2013 May 16 Milestone The Spanish Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the seventh Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2013 June 15 Milestone The Swedish Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the eighth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2013 September 25 Milestone The Polish Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the ninth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2013 October 21 Milestone Wikipedia exceeded 30 million articles across all 287 language editions.
2013 December 17 Milestone The French Wikipedia surpassed 100 million page edits.
2014 April 25 Milestone The English Wikipedia surpassed the 4,500,000-article mark.
2014 June 8 Milestone The Waray Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the tenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2014 June 15 Milestone The Vietnamese Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the eleventh Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2014 July 17 Milestone The Cebuano Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the twelfth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2015 September 6 Milestone The Swedish Wikipedia surpassed 2,000,000 articles, becoming the second Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2015 November 1 Milestone The English Wikipedia surpassed 5,000,000 articles, with "Persoonia terminalis" as the milestone article. The English Wikipedia also had over 125,000 active editors.
2016 February 1 Milestone The Japanese Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the thirteenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2016 February 14 Milestone The Cebuano Wikipedia surpassed 2,000,000 articles, becoming the third Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2016 April 29 Milestone The Swedish Wikipedia surpassed 3,000,000 articles, becoming the third Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2016 May 26 Milestone Wikipedia exceeded 40 million articles across all 293 language editions.
2016 September 26 Milestone The Cebuano Wikipedia surpassed 3,000,000 articles, becoming the fourth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2016 November 19 Milestone The German Wikipedia surpassed 2,000,000 articles, becoming the fifth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2017 March 3 Milestone The Cebuano Wikipedia surpassed 4,000,000 articles, becoming the second Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2017 July 6 Milestone The Spanish Wikipedia surpassed 100 million page edits.
2017 September 15 Milestone The Russian Wikipedia surpassed 100 million page edits.
2017 October 27 Milestone The English Wikipedia surpassed 5,500,000 articles.
2018 April 13 Milestone The Chinese Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the fourteenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2018 June 27 Milestone The Portuguese Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the fifteenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2018 July 8 Milestone The French Wikipedia surpassed 2,000,000 articles, becoming the fifth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2018 October 14 Milestone The Arabic Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the sixteenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2019 January 20 Milestone The Spanish Wikipedia surpassed 1,500,000 articles, becoming the seventh Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2019 February 1 Milestone The Italian Wikipedia surpassed 1,500,000 articles, becoming the eighth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2019 March 9 Milestone Wikipedia exceeded 50 million articles across all 309 language editions.
2019 August 2 Milestone The South Azerbaijani Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 page edits.
2019 November 17 Milestone The Arabic Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the eighteenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2020 January 23 Milestone The English Wikipedia surpassed 6,000,000 articles, with "Maria Elise Turner Lauder" as the milestone article.
2020 March 9 Milestone The Dutch Wikipedia surpassed 2,000,000 articles, becoming the sixth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2020 March 23 Milestone The Ukrainian Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the seventeenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2020 July 1 Milestone The Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 articles, becoming the eighteenth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2020 December 25 Milestone The Bengali Wikipedia surpassed 100,000 articles.
2021 February 3 Milestone The Malagasy Wikipedia surpassed 1,000,000 page edits.
2021 February 4 Milestone The English Wikipedia surpassed 1 billion page edits.
2021 October 14 Milestone The Cebuano Wikipedia surpassed 6,000,000 articles, becoming the second Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2021 December 14 Milestone The Polish Wikipedia surpassed 1,500,000 articles, becoming the twelfth Wikipedia language edition to do so.
2021 December 26 Milestone The Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia surpassed 1,500,000 articles.
2022 January 19 Milestone The Indonesian Wikipedia surpassed 20 million page edits.
2022 October 17 Milestone The Norwegian Wikipedia surpassed 600,000 articles.
2022 November 27 Milestone Wikipedia exceeded 60 million articles across all 329 language editions.


Meta information on the timeline

How the timeline was built

The initial version of the timeline was written by Sebastian Sanchez.

Funding information for this timeline is available.

Feedback and comments

Feedback for the timeline can be provided at the following places:

  • FIXME

What the timeline is still missing

  • Fundraising
  • feature/update
  • language versions
  • userbase evolution
  • research
  • criticism (e.g. by notable people)
  • public opinion
  • government intervention
  • notable policies by the Wikipedia community and the Wikimedia Foundation
  • controversies
  • references to Wikipedia in popular culture
  • philosophies among Wikipedians (e.g. inclusionism vs exclusionism)
  • competition
  • awards
  • parodies
  • other

Timeline update strategy

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ Winchester, Simon (1998). The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. Harpers, p. 106.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Reagle, Joseph (2010). Good Faith Collaboration. The Culture of Wikipedia. MIT Press. Template:ISBN. Chapter 2: "The Pursuit of the Universal Encyclopedia".
  3. ↑ Winchester, Simon (1998). The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. Harpers, p. 106.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named listserv.uh.edu
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Citation/CS1/Suggestions' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Citation/CS1/Suggestions' not found.
  7. ↑ "[Nupedia-l] Nupedia's wiki: try it out". 2003-04-25. Archived from the original on 25 April 2003. Retrieved 2023-08-21. 
  8. ↑ "[Nupedia-l] Re: [Advisory-l] The wiki...". nupedia.com. Archived from the original on 14 April 2003. 
  9. ↑ Network Solutions (2007) WHOIS domain registration information results for wikipedia.com from Network Solutions Template:Webarchive. Retrieved 27 July 2007.
  10. ↑ Network Solutions (2007). "WHOIS domain registration information results for wikipedia.org from Network Solutions Template:Webarchive". Retrieved 27 July 2007.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Citation/CS1/Suggestions' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Citation/CS1/Suggestions' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Citation/CS1/Suggestions' not found.
  14. ↑ "Nihongo No Wikipedia: HomePage". 20 April 2001. Archived from the original on 20 April 2001. Retrieved 16 March 2023. 
  15. ↑ "Wikipedia: HomePage". 31 March 2001. Archived from the original on 31 March 2001. Retrieved 16 March 2023. 
  16. ↑ The Documentation on the French Wikipedia Template:Webarchive mentions the date of 23 March 2001, but this date is not supported by Wikipedia snapshots on the Internet Archive, nor by Jason Richey's letter, which was dated 11 May 2001 (see below).
  17. ↑ Letter of Jason Richey to wikipedia-l mailing list Template:Webarchive 11 May 2001
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Citation/CS1/Suggestions' not found.
  19. ↑ Wales on Sunday (26 August 2001) Knowledge at your fingertips. Game On: Internet Chat.(writing, "Both Encarta and Britannica are official publications with well-deserved reputations. But there are other options, such as homemade encyclopaedias. One is Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com) which uses clever software to build an encyclopaedia from scratch. Wiki is software installed on a web server that allows anyone to edit any of the pages. On Wikipedia, anyone can write about any subject they know about. The idea is that over time, enough experts will offer their knowledge for free and build up the world's ultimate hand-built database of knowledge. The disadvantage is that it's still an ongoing project. So far about 8,000 articles have been written and the editors are aiming for 100,000.")
  20. ↑ October 2001 homepage screenshot shows the "Breaking News" header up top, as well as 11 September 2001 block of articles under "Current events"; the 9/11 page shows the activist nature of the page, as well as the large number of subtopics created to cover the event.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Citation/CS1/Suggestions' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Citation/CS1/Suggestions' not found.
  23. ↑ "A Decade of Wikipedia Research: Insights on Participation, Content, and Quality". Social Network Analysis and Mining. Springer. Retrieved 17 September 2024. 
  24. ↑ "Our Work". wikimediafoundation.org. Retrieved 17 September 2024. 
  25. ↑ "Wikipedia Is Now Banned in China in All Languages". slate.com. Retrieved 17 September 2024. 
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Citation/CS1/Suggestions' not found.
  27. ↑ "Wikipedia Blocked Again in China". rsf.org. Retrieved 17 September 2024. 
  28. ↑ WP:BLP was started on 17 December 2005, with the narrative "I started this due to the Daniel Brandt situation". Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons Template:Webarchive
  29. ↑ "Wikimedia Announces the Release of Wikipedia Version 0.5 - A CD Collection of Articles from the English Wikipedia". meta.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 17 September 2024. 
  30. ↑ "China Blocks Wikipedia Across All Language Editions". ooni.org. Retrieved 17 September 2024. 
  31. ↑ "Wikipedia Currently Down in China". thatsmags.com. Retrieved 17 September 2024. 
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