The word “Wikipedian” was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2012. Wikipedians also write rules, policies, and essays and there is a long tradition to put them under quite silly names. For example, Wikipedia has an essay titled “No angry Mastodons,” which informs users that they should not add their entries when they are angry, and offers recommendations on how to avoid edit‑wars with other people.

Wikipedia’s constantly growing volume can be observed when you go to the “Statistics” page and refresh it several times in quick succession: the numbers change in front of your eyes! Jimmy Wales, one of the founders of Wikipedia, said that his goal is to provide “free access to the sum of all human knowledge.” It is roughly estimated that we would need 104 million articles and 20 more years to achieve that.

Interestingly, Encyclopaedia Britannica holds the 1st place as the best encyclopedia, according to another analytical source, refseek.com. The second and third place is occupied by Catholic Encyclopaedia and Columbia Encyclopaedia, respectively. Wikipedia ranks 21st on that list.

Polish editors have been among the most active Wikipedia contributors since its birth. At present, there are about 4,600 active editors who contribute their articles and help develop Wikipedia and other Polish sister projects like Wikisłownik and Wikiźródła. In 2021, Polish Wikipedia celebrated its 20th birthday.

Wikipedia belongs to the Vesta family, one of the most numerous asteroid families in the asteroid belt – a region in the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars, with millions of objects orbiting the Sun.

Keith Richards, the guitarist of the Rolling Stones, also has some connection with Britannica. One day in 1998, when he was reaching for a book, his home bookshelf broke, sending a set of 129‑pound Britannica volumes tumbling down on top of him. He suffered three broken ribs and as a result, the Stones’ European tour had to be postponed.

It is interesting to know that the first edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica had only three volumes and was far from what we consider a reputable source of factual information. For example, it contained some guesses or even errors, like the entry for California spelled with double “L” and stating that it is a large country of the West Indies, being either a peninsula or an island.

All jigsaw pieces of the logo have glyphs, which symbolises the multilingualism of Wikipedia, as they are usually the first glyph of the word “Wikipedia” in a given language, such as Japanese, Cyrylic, or Hebrew. The logo symbol aims to show the unflagging and never‑ending attempt to write about and cover all possible topics. The empty space at the top symbolises the incomplete nature of the project, the articles and languages yet to be added.

Wikipedians around the world celebrate this day by organising their own parties in their local communities, during which they discuss Wikipedia and share a cake, or special Wiki cupcakes. In order to celebrate Wikipedia Day you can create a page of your own about a book, a film, or a celebrity you can’t find a Wiki page for. Another idea is to conduct and then publish a survey among your friends or any students on how Wikipedia is used in their assignments and whether it is a good source of quote.

Most guessing pools are for the topic, and possibly a title of a future article which marks achieving a certain number of articles: for example the millionth article pool, where people tried to guess what the millionth article on Wikipedia would be about. By the way, the millionth article has already been written and certified so this pool is now closed. The winner is the person who comes the closest to or predicts the exact actual topic.