Proposed new main page · Current main page · Vote and discuss
The final election ran from 1 March 2006, 00:01 (UTC) until 18 March 2006, 23:59 (UTC). Voting is now ended.
The results are 687 (support) /213 (oppose) /43 (neutral)

Welcome to Wikipedia

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit

Intro · Categories · FAQs · Glossaries · Lists · Overviews · Portals · Site news · Index

26 February

Debris from the Roswell balloon

The Roswell incident is a conspiracy theory that alleges that debris from a United States Army Air Forces balloon (pictured) recovered in 1947 near Roswell, New Mexico, was part of a crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft. The debris was from the top-secret Project Mogul, which used high-altitude balloons to detect nuclear tests. Roswell Army Air Field personnel, unaware of Mogul, gathered the material and announced the recovery of a "flying disc"; the statement was retracted within a day. To obscure the source of the debris, the Army reported that it was a conventional weather balloon. In 1978, retired Air Force officer Jesse Marcel revealed that the weather balloon had been a cover story and speculated that the debris was extraterrestrial. This became the basis for long-lasting and increasingly complex and contradictory UFO conspiracy theories, none of which have any factual basis. The conspiracy narrative has become a common trope in fiction. The town of Roswell promotes itself as a UFO tourism destination. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

Today's featured picture

{{{caption}}}

In the news...

Friedrich Merz

In the German federal election, the CDU/CSU, led by Friedrich Merz (pictured), wins the most seats in the Bundestag.
Archaeologists announce that the empty tomb Wadi C-4 near Luxor, Egypt, was that of the pharaoh Thutmose II.
At the British Academy Film Awards, Conclave wins four awards, including Best Film.
Mahamoud Ali Youssouf is elected chairman of the African Union Commission.
President of Romania Klaus Iohannis resigns from office, and is succeeded by Ilie Bolojan in an acting capacity.

Second feature

David and Gladys Wright House

... that a landscaper was hired to demolish the David and Gladys Wright House (pictured), but he hesitated when he saw the building itself?
... that Jorge Dias has been called "the most important Portuguese anthropologist of the 20th century"?
... that Gerard Way got dental work midway through the recording session for "Vampires Will Never Hurt You"?
... that the Jingtai Emperor was rumored to have been strangled to death by a eunuch?
... that UserBenchmark unlocks free testing only if users can shoot down 13 ships?
... that Giuseppe Panini turned a batch of unsold stickers into a company which had produced over 150 billion trading cards by 1996?
... that Cybermania '94 was the first televised video game awards show?
... that Antiqua et nova is a Vatican document that expresses serious ethical concerns surrounding the usage of artificial intelligence?
... that Kaiapoi Pā has been incorrectly called Kaiapohia, a pun that can be translated as 'piling up of bodies for eating'?

On this day...

February 26

Nabonassar's name in Akkadian

747 BC – According to Ptolemy, the reign of the Babylonian king Nabonassar (name in Akkadian pictured) began, marking a new era characterized by the systematic maintenance of chronologically precise historical records.
1914 – RMS Britannic, the third and largest Olympic-class ocean liner of the White Star Line after RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic, was launched at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast.
1979 – The Superliner railcar entered revenue service with Amtrak.
1995 – Barings Bank, the oldest merchant bank in London, was declared insolvent after its head derivatives trader in Singapore, Nick Leeson, lost £827 million while making unauthorised trades on futures contracts.
2014 – Former editor-in-chief of Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao Kevin Lau was stabbed, prompting concerns and protests about media freedom.

Fatima bint al-Ahmar (d. 1349)
Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll (b. 1629)
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (b. 1954)
Jennie Smillie Robertson (d. 1981)

More anniversaries:

{{{Image text}}} Wikipedia community

Every page on Wikipedia is a collaborative effort. But there are some special places reserved for specific types of discussion and assistance. Find what you're looking for here:

The Community Portal — The center of community involvement. Learn about projects and activities you can join to help improve Wikipedia.
The Help Desk — Come here if you need help editing. You can ask a question about using Wikipedia. Alternatively, you can find what you need at Help:Contents.
The Reference Desk — For questions about any subject you're researching or curious about (not about Wikipedia itself), just like at a library's reference desk.
The Village Pump — The main discussion forums of Wikipedia.
The Signpost — Wikipedia's newspaper, where you can read and post news about what's happening on this website.
Donations — Wikipedia is funded entirely by its users. We appreciate all donations. Thank you!

{{{Image text}}} Wikipedia in other languages

This Wikipedia is written in English. Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below.

1,000,000+ articles
- العربية
- Deutsch
- Español
- فارسی‎
- Français
- Italiano
- Nederlands
- 日本語
- Polski
- Português
- Русский
- Svenska
- Українська
- Tiếng Việt
- 中文
250,000+ articles
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Bahasa Melayu
- 閩南語
- Български
- Català
- Čeština
- Dansk
- Esperanto
- Euskara
- עברית
- Հայերեն
- 한국어
- Magyar
- Norsk bokmål
- Română
- Simple English
- Slovenčina
- Srpski
- Srpskohrvatski
- Suomi
- Türkçe
- Oʻzbekcha
50,000+ articles

{{{Image text}}} Wikipedia's sister projects

Wikipedia is written by volunteer editors and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other volunteer projects: