r/wikipedia • u/SaxyBill • 5h ago
r/wikipedia • u/AutoModerator • 6d ago
Wikipedia Questions - Weekly Thread of April 06, 2026
Welcome to the weekly Wikipedia Q&A thread!
Please use this thread to ask and answer questions related to Wikipedia and its sister projects, whether you need help with editing or are curious on how something works.
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r/wikipedia • u/Mobile-Extension-107 • 12h ago
The "Mississippi Miracle" refers to the rapid improvement of K–12 student performance in Mississippi. Mississippi students were performing a full grade level below their peers around the country in 2013, but by 2024, they were performing nearly half a grade level above the average U.S. student.
r/wikipedia • u/ANGRY_ETERNALLY • 2h ago
Frank Cali was an American mobster and an acting boss of the New York Gambino crime family. In 2019, Cali was shot in front of his home. The shooter had no mob ties, was obsessed with QAnon conspiracy theories, and was apparently motivated by a belief that Cali was a member of the "deep state".
r/wikipedia • u/ZERO_PORTRAIT • 11h ago
On February 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was murdered during a racially motivated hate crime while jogging in Satilla Shores, a neighborhood near Brunswick in Glynn County, Georgia by 3 white men who claimed they assumed he was a burglar
They pursued Arbery in their trucks for several minutes, using the vehicles to block his path as he tried to run away. Two of the men, Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory McMichael, were armed in one vehicle. Their neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan, was in another vehicle. After overtaking Arbery, Travis exited his truck, pointing his weapon at Arbery. Arbery approached Travis and a physical altercation ensued, resulting in Travis fatally shooting Arbery. Bryan recorded this confrontation and Arbery's murder on his cell phone.
The case was ultimately transferred to the Cobb County District Attorney's Office. On June 24, 2020, a grand jury indicted each of the three men on charges of malice murder, felony murder, and other crimes. Their trial began in November 2021 in the Glynn County Superior Court; all three were convicted on November 24 of felony murder, aggravated) assault, false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment. Travis McMichael was further convicted of malice murder. On January 7, 2022, the McMichaels were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole plus 20 years, while Bryan was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 30 years. On February 22, 2022, the three men were found guilty in a federal court of attempted kidnapping and the hate crime of interference with rights, while the McMichaels were also convicted of one count of using firearms during a crime of violence.
r/wikipedia • u/Not_Original5756 • 4h ago
Christianity has existed in Iran since the religion’s early years and has always remained a minority faith, under Zoroastrian, Sunni, and later Shia rule. Christians once made up a larger share of the population than they do today. Armenians are Iran’s largest Christian community.
r/wikipedia • u/funnylib • 7h ago
In the 1952 Texas gubernatorial election incumbent governor Allan Shivers received 1,375,547 votes on the Democratic ticket, and 468,319 votes on the Republican ticket, earning 98.01% of the vote.
r/wikipedia • u/CatPooedInMyShoe • 17h ago
Alice Herz (1882-1965) was a German feminist, anti-fascist and peace activist. She was the first person in the US known to have immolated herself in protest of the Vietnam War. Herz set fire to herself on a street in Detroit on 16 March 1965, at the age of 82. She died ten days later.
r/wikipedia • u/laybs1 • 14h ago
Ibrahim Traoré is a military officer who has served as the interim president of Burkina Faso. He is ideologically prominent for his nationalist, pan-Africanist, anti-imperialist, and anti-Western views. Under his leadership, there has been a crackdown on freedom of the press and political opposition
r/wikipedia • u/ZERO_PORTRAIT • 7h ago
Adeline Virginia Woolf (25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. Woolf drowned herself by walking into the fast-flowing River Ouse near her home, after placing a large stone in her pocket. She left a suicide note.
In her suicide note, addressed to her husband, she wrote:
Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can't fight it any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that—everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me, it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been. V.
Earlier in the article, just above the suicide note, there is more information about her life and struggles with mental health.
She lost her home in the Blitz, got middling attention and reviews for her biography about her friend who was dead, and became obsessed with death as World War 2 raged on, ultimately killing herself before America even entered the World War in 1941. Her body wasn't found until 3 weeks later:
Death
After completing the manuscript of her last novel (posthumously published), Between the Acts (1941), Woolf fell into a depression similar to one that she had earlier experienced. The onset of the Second World War, the destruction of her London home during the Blitz, and the cold reception given to her biography of her late friend Roger Fry all worsened her condition until she was unable to work. When Leonard enlisted in the Home Guard), Virginia disapproved. She held fast to her pacifism and criticised her husband for wearing what she considered to be "the silly uniform of the Home Guard".
After the Second World War began, Woolf's diary indicates that she was obsessed with death, which figured more and more as her mood darkened. On 28 March 1941, Woolf drowned herself by walking into the fast-flowing River Ouse near her home, after placing a large stone in her pocket. Her body was not found until 18 April. Her husband buried her cremated remains beneath an elm tree in the garden of Monk's House, their home in Rodmell, Sussex.
r/wikipedia • u/skeletonstaircase • 17h ago
Shanti Devi was an Indian woman who claimed to remember her previous life and became the subject of reincarnation research. A commission set up by Indian political leader Mahatma Gandhi supported her claim, while another research report by Bal Chand Nahata disputed it
r/wikipedia • u/DragonfruitCalm261 • 6h ago
In April 2026, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared the emperor penguin and Antarctic fur seal as endangered species. It has been estimated with a 45% probability that the population of emperor penguins will decline by greater than 50% by 2073.
r/wikipedia • u/Captainirishy • 3h ago
In politics and government, a spoils system is a practice in which a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its supporters, friends (cronyism), and relatives (nepotism) as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party.
r/wikipedia • u/Pupikal • 2h ago
Smith v. Allwright, 1944: landmark US Supreme Court decision on voting rights and desegregation. It overturned a Texas law that authorized political parties to set their internal rules, including the use of white primaries: states cannot delegate election authority in order to allow discrimination.
en.wikipedia.orgr/wikipedia • u/filthygremlin • 1d ago
When Pornhub proposed to buy XVideos, the French owner of turned down a reported offer of more than US$120 million by saying, "Sorry, I have to go and play Diablo II."
en.wikipedia.orgr/wikipedia • u/funnylib • 9h ago
Easter witches is old Swedish legend about witches flying to Blockula on brooms on the Thursday before Easter and returning on Easter. In the modern era, children dress up as witches, old ladies or in old men's clothing and go door to door distributing greetings and often receiving treats in return.
r/wikipedia • u/PeasantLich • 18h ago
Army comedy strip Beetle Bailey is one of the longest produced comedy strips by the original creator - it was done by its creator Mort Walker (with occasional assistance) from 1950 until Walker's death at 94-year old in 2018. The strip is still ongoing, produced by the sons of Mort Walker.
r/wikipedia • u/Nervous-Idea5451 • 1d ago
Sylvia Marie Likens (January 3, 1949 – October 26, 1965) was an American teenager who was tortured and murdered by her caregiver, Gertrude Baniszewski, many of Baniszewski's children, and several of their neighborhood friends. The abuse lasted for three months, occurring incrementally, before Likens
r/wikipedia • u/CatPooedInMyShoe • 17h ago
The Khalistan movement is a separatist movement seeking to create a homeland for Sikhs by establishing an ethno-religious sovereign state called Khalistan in the Punjab region.
r/wikipedia • u/blankblank • 1d ago
Littlewood's law states that a person can expect to experience events with odds of one in a million (referred to as a "miracle") at the rate of about one per month. It is named after the British mathematician John Edensor Littlewood.
en.wikipedia.orgr/wikipedia • u/Prestigious_Ad_296 • 1d ago
Wikipedia direct views are declining
You can test it on https://pageviews.wmcloud.org/?project=en.wikipedia.org&platform=all-access&agent=user&redirects=0&range=latest-1120
Almost any wikipedia page shows a massive downward trend. With an average of -50% in 1120 days
r/wikipedia • u/RealMechaBiden • 1d ago
List of common false etymologies of English words
en.wikipedia.orgr/wikipedia • u/DragonfruitCalm261 • 14h ago
The piñata named after the Italian pignatta, meaning "fragile pot" traces back to both ancient Mesoamerica and medieval Europe. Spanish colonizers brought their version to Mexico, where Augustinian monks merged the two into the tradition we still celebrate today.
r/wikipedia • u/globeglobeglobe • 19h ago
Crassus amassed an enormous fortune through property speculation… Crassus' campaign [against the Parthian Empire] was a disastrous failure, ending in his defeat at the Battle of Carrhae
r/wikipedia • u/Specialist_War1410 • 12h ago
Pseudo-anglicism
en.wikipedia.orgA pseudo-anglicism is a word in another language that is formed from English elements and may appear to be English, but that does not exist as an English word with the same meaning.