Wikipedia, the world’s free online encyclopedia is celebrating its 20-year anniversary, or rather, its 20 years of existence!
1. Wikipedia was created on January 15, 2001! I guess you can get that information simply by backdating its 20th birthday from today…okay, but did you know Wikipedia was founded by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger? If you never knew, now you know!
2. Wikipedia is actually sustained by everyone. The articles you see on Wikipedia were made by people not employed by Wikipedia. You too can log into Wikipedia and create an article or make an edit too!
3. Sandister Tei is the Wikimedian of the year 2020! Wikimedia is an annual award organized by Wikipedia to recognize their most exceptional contributors! Sandister Tei is one of the founders of Wikimedia Ghana Group and she is a major player in the development of Wikipedia’s volunteer communities in sub-Saharan Africa.
4. Over 280,000 people edit Wikipedia every month! That translates to about 9,333 edits every day and 388 edits every hour! Someone is probably making an edit on Wikipedia as you read this article now!
5. Wikipedia has over 1 million topics in English alone, 5 million registered editors, 50 million articles across 300 languages, and is the 5th most popular website according to Alexa!