Wikipedia:Main Page/sandbox/banner

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

Today's featured content

Today's featured list: The moons of Saturn are numerous and diverse, ranging from tiny moonlets less than 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) across to the enormous Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury. Saturn has sixty-two moons with confirmed orbits, fifty-three of which have names, and only thirteen of which have diameters larger than 50 kilometers (31 mi). Saturn has seven moons that are large enough to become spherical, and dense rings with complex orbital motions of their own.

Today's featured topic: The BBC Sports Personality of the Year is an awards ceremony that takes place annually in December. Devised by Paul Fox in 1954, it originally consisted of one titular award. Several new awards have been introduced, and as of 2008^[update], eight awards are presented, including the Team of the Year, Overseas Personality, Lifetime Achievement Award, Helen Rollason Award, the Coach Award, and the Newcomer Award.

Listen to
Spring, from The Four Seasons

Today's featured sound: The Four Seasons, a set of four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. Composed in 1723,The Four Seasons is Vivaldi's best-known work, and is among the most popular pieces of Baroque music. The texture of each concerto is varied, each resembling its respective season. Performed by John Harrison and the Wichita State University Chamber Players.

Did you know...

Red Fićo monument

... that a monument in Croatia (pictured) depicts a small red car triumphing over a battle tank?
... that the 2025 St. Louis tornado caused the worst residential damage in the U.S. since the 2011 Joplin tornado?
... that Isabel Gutiérrez del Arroyo considered preserving Puerto Rican history to be the best way to serve her people?
... that players of a 2022 strategy board game have to manage stress, overheating, and tight cornering?
... that Jim Lankas retired from professional boxing and wrestling to enter farming?
... that Utah Jazz basketball broadcasts returned in 2023 to a station that is named after the team?
... that the first headquarters of New York magazine was a former political clubhouse?
... that Lucie Lagerbielke had a public feud in the press with critic Poul Bjerre after he criticised one of her books?
... that Angelina Jolie paid homage to Marilyn Monroe with a dress?

In the news
Flooding near Hunt, Texas Flooding in central Texas (pictured), United States, leaves more than 100 people dead. Astronomers announce the discovery of 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object passing through the Solar System. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile releases the first light images from its new 8.4-metre (28 ft) telescope. In basketball, the Oklahoma City Thunder defeat the Indiana Pacers to win the NBA Finals. Ongoing: Gaza war Russian invasion of Ukraine timeline Sudanese civil war timeline Recent deaths: Bobby Jenks Terry Brown Thio Su Mien Gilda Cruz-Romo Gamini Lokuge Lajos Sătmăreanu Nominate an article
On this day...
July 8 Players during the 2014 World Cup semi-final 1758 – French and Indian War: French forces defeated the British at Fort Carillon on the shore of Lake Champlain in the British colony of New York. 1950 – Korean War: American troops withdrew from Cheonan, in modern-day South Korea, after suffering heavy casualties from a North Korean attack. 1962 – Following student protests at Rangoon University, Burmese general Ne Win ordered the demolition of the historic students' union building. 1965 – Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 21 was destroyed by a bomb near 100 Mile House, Canada, killing 52. 2014 – In the 2014 FIFA World Cup semi-finals at Mineirão stadium, Brazil, Germany defeated Brazil 7-1 (players pictured), breaking several tournament records. Qatr al-Nada (d. 900) Peter Sainthill (b. 1593) Christiaan Huygens (d. 1685) Beck (b. 1970) More anniversaries: July 7 July 8 July 9 Archive By email List of days of the year About

Today's featured picture

The Gross Clinic is an 1875 oil-on-canvas painting by the American artist Thomas Eakins. It measures 8 ft by 6.5 ft (240 cm by 200 cm). The painting depicts Samuel D. Gross (July 8, 1805 – May 6, 1884), a seventy-year-old American medical professor, dressed in a black frock coat and lecturing a group of Jefferson Medical College students in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The painting is based on a surgery, witnessed by Eakins, in which Gross treated a young man for an infected femur. Gross is pictured here performing a conservative operation, as opposed to the amputation normally carried out at the time. Eakins included a self-portrait in the form of a student with a white cuffed sleeve sketching or writing, at the right-hand edge of the painting, next to the tunnel railing. The Gross Clinic has been restored three times, most recently in 2010, and is currently in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Painting credit: Thomas Eakins

Recently featured:

Other areas of Wikipedia

Community portal – The central hub for editors, with resources, links, tasks, and announcements.
Village pump – Forum for discussions about Wikipedia itself, including policies and technical issues.
Site news – Sources of news about Wikipedia and the broader Wikimedia movement.
Teahouse – Ask basic questions about using or editing Wikipedia.
Help desk – Ask questions about using or editing Wikipedia.
Reference desk – Ask research questions about encyclopedic topics.
Content portals – A unique way to navigate the encyclopedia.

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: