Difference between revisions of "Timeline of Wikipedia"
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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> | | 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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| 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 | + | | 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." | | 2001 || January 11 || Naming || Larry Sanger suggests the name "Wikipedia" as a portmanteau of "wiki" and "encyclopedia." | ||
Revision as of 13:51, 17 September 2024
This is a timeline of Wikipedia, a free, web-based encyclopedia that is collaboratively written by volunteers from around the world.
Contents
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:
- Controversies: see List of Wikipedia controversies
| 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." |
| 2001 | January 12 | Domain Registration | The domain name wikipedia.com is registered. |
| 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.
|
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 2001 | January 15 | Wikipedia Launch | Wikipedia is officially launched under the wikipedia.com domain as an independent project, separate from Nupedia, with the goal of allowing volunteers to edit articles more freely.
|
| 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. |
| 2001 | March | New Subdomain | The Japanese Wikipedia (*nihongo.wikipedia.com*) is created, initially using Romanized Japanese. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 2001 | July 26 | Media Attention | Wikipedia experiences a surge in traffic due to the first "slashdotter" wave. |
| 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. |
| 2001 | August | Media Report | The first media report about Wikipedia appears in Wales on Sunday. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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 | Philosophical Disagreement | Sanger and Wales differ on how to manage open encyclopedias, particularly concerning disruptive editors, roles for experts, and project management. | |
| 2002 | Funding Reduction | Bomis reduces funding for Wikipedia, leading to the departure of Larry Sanger. | |
| 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 | Social Meeting | The first Wikipedian social meeting takes place in Munich, Germany. |
| 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 | Foundation | The Wikimedia Foundation is established. | |
| 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. |
| 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 | 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. | |
| 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. |
| 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. | |
| 2005 | Policy Changes | New policies are introduced, including: | |
| 2005 | Checkuser privilege policy update to assist in sock puppetry investigations. | ||
| 2005 | Semi-protection feature. | ||
| 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. |
| 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.[8][9] |
| 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. |
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
- Third decade: 2020–present
- 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
- ↑ Winchester, Simon (1998). The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. Harpers, p. 106.
- ↑ 2.0 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".
- ↑ Winchester, Simon (1998). The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. Harpers, p. 106.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedlistserv.uh.edu - ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Citation/CS1/Suggestions' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Citation/CS1/Suggestions' not found.
- ↑ "[Nupedia-l] Nupedia's wiki: try it out". 2003-04-25. Archived from the original on 25 April 2003. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
- ↑ "China Blocks Wikipedia Across All Language Editions". ooni.org. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
- ↑ "Wikipedia Currently Down in China". thatsmags.com. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
