History

To give you a quick overview of the development of Wikipedia we created a timeline with the most important facts and dates. It will help you to understand the foundation of and changes in the first projects of encyclopedias on the internet.

Short History of Encyclopedias

 * idea of gathering all of the world's knowledge in one place is very old → first ways to reach that goal were libraries
 * first printed encyclopedia was published in France between 1751 and 1772
 * invention of computers → first non-book-based encyclopedias (Microsoft Encarta)
 * development of the web → web-based encyclopedias

Timeline: Development of Wikipedia
1993:

2000:
 * first ideas to create an encyclopedia on the internet → failed
 * first web-based encyclopedia project called Nupedia (English) by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger → expert authors apply texts → several reviewing processes

2001:


 * single English-language edition of a new wiki for Nupedia at www.wikipedia.com → non-English Wikipedias follow → German Wikipedia deutsche.wikipedia.com is the first

2002:
 * fears of commercial advertising → loss of many Spanish users of Wikipedia → announcement of Wikipedia being a non-commercial page without advertisements → new domain: wikipedia.org
 * no full-time editor-in-chief needed → Larry Sanger leaves
 * first sister-project of Wikipdia: Wiktionary

2003:
 * more and more writers for Wikipedia -> servers of Nupedia are taken down
 * newly founded Wikimedia Foundation takes over the servers of Wikipedia

2004:
 * wikifarm "wikia" founded by Jimmy Wales → to host several small wikis also called wikias

2005:
 * Wikipedia: most popular reference website on the InternetJimmy_Wales_Fundraiser_Appeal.jpg
 * first Wikipedia scandal → biography of well known person containing false information for months

2007:
 * more than 2 million articles on Wikipedia → largest encyclopedia ever assembled

today:
 * around 15 million articles in over 200 languages
 * more and more sister-projects and similar pages

Read on

 * How Wikipedia works