January 15: Wikipedia Day, Martin Luther King Day
Kyiv • UNN
Wikipedia Day is celebrated on January 15 to mark the launch of the free online encyclopedia in 2001, which now contains more than 62 million articles in 339 languages. It coincides with Martin Luther King Day, honoring the legacy of the civil rights leader.
Today, on January 15, Internet users in many countries celebrate Wikipedia Day, a free electronic encyclopedia, UNN reports .
On January 15, 2001, the first version of Wikipedia became available.
The electronic encyclopedia was founded by Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales.
By the end of 2001, the site had 20,000 articles and 18 sections in different languages. The resource was gaining popularity, while Nupedia was losing ground and ceased to exist in 2003.
Together, Wikipedia's editions cover more than 62 million articles, attracting about 2 billion unique device visits per month and more than 14 million edits per month.
One of the advantages of Wikipedia is the ability to present information in your native language - the site consists of 339 language sections. The largest Wikipedia in terms of the number of articles is English, which contains more than 6 million articles.
The first articles in Ukrainian on Wikipedia began appearing in 2004.
Currently, the number of articles on Ukrainian Wikipedia is 1,305,217. According to this indicator, it ranks 14th among all language sections, 10th among European Wikipedias, and 3rd among Wikipedias in Slavic languages.
January 15 is also Martin Luther King Day. It was on this day in 1929 that one of the most famous public figures of the twentieth century was born.
Thanks to his efforts, the United States adopted laws on civil and electoral rights, which guaranteed equal human rights regardless of nationality and color.
In 1964, Martin Luther King won the Nobel Peace Prize.
On April 4, 1968, he was fatally wounded by a sniper's bullet in Memphis.
Today is also the day of fresh juice.
In ancient and medieval times, people, of course, consumed juices from freshly squeezed fruits, but only in southern countries where these same fruits grew. However, to quench their thirst, people drank mostly water, and for entertainment, the Greeks and Romans valued wine the most, while northern European peoples preferred beer.
Around the beginning of the twentieth century, the second birth of juices began, and it began with the invention of pasteurization, which allows the juices to be stored for a long time, making it possible to commercialize and sell them.
In the 1930s, an American named Norman Walker invented a juicer that brought back the popularity of fresh juices and made them available in every home.
According to the church calendar, today is the Day of Remembrance of Paul of Thebes, who is considered the first Christian hermit monk.
Paul was born into a wealthy family in Egypt, but became an orphan at an early age. His relatives wanted to take over his family's wealth, and Paul was forced to flee.
He settled in a cave and devoted his life to prayers to the Lord.
It is believed that Paul spent about 90 years in the cave and died when he was 113 years old.
On January 15, Pavlo, Mykhailo, Ivan, Julian, and Olena celebrate their name days.
