Timeline of Wikipedia

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

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• 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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*.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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*.
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 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	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	–	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	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	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	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.
2004	January	Milestone	The percentage of English articles falls below 50%, as non-English language versions continue to grow.
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.

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

• 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