The popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia has recently achieved a major milestone. The English language version of the know-it-all website has recently published its five millionth article of all time.
The article that was given the distinction of being number five million was the entry for Persoonia terminalis, which is an Australian shrub belonging to the Proteaceae family. The shrub is known for having two different subspecies.
The article was posted on Sunday, November 1st at 12:27 UTC. The website celebrated its achievement by having confetti fall from the ceiling of the Wikimedia Foundation.
The article was written by Wikipedia user Cas Liber, who is known for being a frequent contributor to the website. According to Liber’s page on Wikipedia, the user is from Sydney, Australia and has previously been identified as an “Awesome Wikipedian”. Cas Liber, who specializes in articles about nature, is also a certified psychiatrist and an avid rugby fan.
Wikipedia was originally launched on January 15, 2001 by creators Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. It achieved two million articles by 2007, three million by 2009 and four million by 2012. At this rate, the website is expected to achieve six million articles by 2018.
The website is known as an encyclopedia where anyone can submit edits for peer review. Dedicated users take their time to ensure that new content is posted on a regular basis and that old articles are continuously updated in order to take new events and news into consideration.
The free to use website frequently asks for donations from users so that it can obtain funding. It is owned by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that works out of San Francisco. The foundation was formed in 2003 as a means of providing funding for Wikipedia and its sister projects. The foundation currently employs nearly 300 people.
Nearly 500 million people visit Wikipedia every month. Taking every language into consideration, the website contains more than 37 million unique articles.
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