Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running!

Main Page

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Welcome to Wikipedia,

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

1,376,976 articles in English

Arts
Biography
Geography

History
Mathematics
Science

Society
Technology
All portals

Overview · Searching · Editing · Questions · Help

Categories · Featured content · A–Z index

Today's featured article

Actuaries are business professionals who deal with the financial impact of risk and uncertainty. Actuaries are highly trained experts with a deep understanding of financial security systems, their reasons for being, their complexity, their mathematics, and the way they work. They evaluate the likelihood of future events and design creative ways to quantify the contingent outcomes in order to minimize losses associated with uncertain undesirable events. These risks can impact both sides of the balance sheet and require asset management, liability management, and valuation skills. It takes a combination of strong analytical skills, business knowledge and understanding of both human behavior and the vagaries of information systems to design and manage programs that control risk. Actuaries work in a number of insurance disciplines, which may be classified as life, health, pensions, annuities, and asset management, social welfare programs, property, casualty, liability, general insurance and reinsurance. (more...)

Recently featured: Simon Byrne – Autostereogram – Hilary Putnam

Archive – By email – More featured articles...

Did you know...

From Wikipedia's newest articles:

...that the Northern Barred Frog of Australia (pictured) has a tadpole which reaches 12.5 centimetres (4.9 in) in length?
...that virtuoso double bassist and composer Frantisek Kotzwara asked a prostitute to cut off his testicles and died from erotic asphyxiation?
...that Rocco Petrone was the first non-German administrator of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center?
...that in addition to their use on early sailing ships, early trains had "crow's nests" as well?
...that Ichikawa Danjūrō V, one of the most famous and successful Kabuki actors, was briefly forced out of the theater after being accused of misappropriating funds?
... that Islam Khan was the founder of the modern city of Dhaka and the first Mughal general to subjugate Bengal?

Archive – Start a new article...

In the news

Michael Schumacher, the most successful driver in Formula One history, announces that he is to retire.
Space Shuttle Atlantis (pictured) lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center to begin STS-115.
Tony Blair announces that he will resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom before the 2007 Labour Party Conference.
Princess Kiko of Japan gives birth to the first male heir born into the Japanese Imperial Family for more than 40 years. The as-yet-unnamed infant may become third in line for the Chrysanthemum Throne.
More than two months after the Mexican elections, Felipe Calderón is declared President-elect by the Federal Electoral Tribunal.

Wikinews – Recent deaths – More current events...

On this day...

September 10: National Grandparents' Day in the United States (2006)

1813 - War of 1812: An American fleet led by Oliver Hazard Perry scored a decisive victory in the Battle of Lake Erie.
1897 - A peaceful labor demonstration made up of mostly Polish and Slovak anthracite coal miners in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States, was fired upon by a sheriff's posse comitatus in the Lattimer Massacre.
1898 - Empress Elisabeth of Austria (pictured) was fatally stabbed in Geneva, Switzerland.
1960 - Mickey Mantle hit what is thought to be the longest home run in major league baseball, an estimated 643 feet.
1990 - Africa's largest church, the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire, was consecrated by Pope John Paul II.

Recent days: September 9 – September 8 – September 7

Archive – By email – More anniversaries...

Today's featured picture

Cutaway diagram of a simplified coal-fired thermal power station, where the chemical energy stored in coal is converted successively into thermal energy, mechanical energy, and finally electrical energy for continuous use and distribution across a wide geographic area. Each power plant is a highly complex, custom-designed system. Present construction costs, as of 2004, run to $1,300 per kilowatt, or US$650 million for a 500 MWe unit.

Image credit: BillC
Archive - More featured pictures...

Other areas of Wikipedia

Help desk — Ask questions about using Wikipedia.
Reference desk — Serving as virtual librarians, Wikipedia volunteers tackle your questions on a wide range of subjects.
Village pump — For discussions about Wikipedia itself, including areas for technical issues and policies.
Community portal — Bulletin board, projects, resources and activities covering a wide range of Wikipedia areas.
Site news — Announcements, updates, articles and press releases on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation.

Wikipedia's sister projects

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

Wiktionary Dictionary and thesaurus	Wikinews Free-content news	Wikiquote Collection of quotations
Wikibooks Free textbooks and manuals	Wikispecies Directory of species	Wikisource Free-content library
Wikiversity Free learning materials and activities	Commons Shared media repository	Meta-Wiki Wikimedia project coordination

Wikipedia languages

This Wikipedia is written in English. Started in 2001, it currently contains 1,376,976 articles. Many other Wikipedias are available; the largest are listed below.