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Internet Encyclopedia
Rick Gates proposes an "internet-based encyclopedia", which would allow anyone to contribute articles to a central database. It was named Interpedia shortly afterwards by R. L. Samuell, though the project never left the planning stages. -
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Wikipedia
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Nupedia
Nupedia goes live. Nupedia was a web-based encyclopedia whose articles were written by experts, but licensed as free content. It was founded by Jimmy Wales and underwritten by his dot com company Bomis, which sold advertising on a search portal. Larry Sanger was hired as editor-in-chief of Nupedia. -
Wikipedia
Wikipedia.com and Wikipedia.org formally open to the internet. -
Languages
The first non-English Wikipedia opens, with French, German, Catalan, Swedish and Italian sites all in place by the end of May. -
NPOV
Jimmy Wales formally defines the "neutral point of view", or NPOV, one of the core tenets of Wikipedia. -
Leaving Nupedia
Larry Sanger leaves Nupedia and Wikipedia, following the funding for his position being cut by Bomis. The reasons for his departure have been debated considerably over the years, but his stated reason at the time was that he couldn't do justice to the task as a part-time volunteer. In 2004, heclaimed his departure was due to "a certain poisonous social or political atmosphere in the project". -
Spanish Fork
Wales announces he would never run advertisements on Wikipedia, likely in response to the "Spanish Fork" during the preceding February. The site moves to Wikipedia.org to cement the principle, with Wikipedia.com still in use today as a redirect. -
Crash
Nupedia's servers crash and it goes offline. It never returns. -
1,000,000
Wikipedia posts its millionth article, about Jordanhill railway station in west Glasgow. -
Citizendium
Larry Sanger starts up Citizendium as a "more credible free encyclopedia". It demands authors and editors use their real name, and asks experts to approve articles as accurate. At the time of writing, it has just 15,371 articles, with 156 having been approved by experts. -
5,000,000
Wikipedia passes 5,000,000 registered editor accounts. -
10,000,000
The 10 millionth Wikipedia article is created. It turns out to be a Hungarian biography of 16th century painter Nicholas Hilliard. -
Easier
The site's interface is considerably revamped, making it considerably easier to read and edit pages, as well as improvements to the toolbar, and link wizard. The goal is to reduce some of the obstacles that new users come up against when editing their first few pages. -
10 Years
Wikipedia arrives at its 10-year anniversary, marking the milestone with a series of events across the globe.