English Wikipedia passes 500 thousand article milestone
{{WikimediaMention}}
{{date|March 18, 2005}}[[Image:Wikipedia-logo-en.png|right|thumb|130px|The English Wikipedia was started in 2001]]
[[w:Wikipedia|Wikipedia]] hit the half-million mark Friday as the English-language encyclopedia passed the 500 thousand article mark, according to a press prelease by the [[W:Wikimedia Foundation|Wikimedia Foundation]] (The Wikimedia Foundation also runs Wikinews).

The article that put the site over the top was ''[[w:Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union|Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union]].'' The total of 500 thousand articles exceeds any other encyclopedia, according to the press release. 

With an average of 2,500 characters per article, Wikipedia contains 1.25 [[w:gigabyte|gigabyte]]s of raw text, which if printed on double-sided letter-size paper would form a stack about 66 feet or more than six stories tall. Other recent additions to its English-language edition include hundreds of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sound/list full-length songs], almost a gigabyte of [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page new images], and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikiportal/Art subject-specific portals].  

==Sources==

*{{source|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Press_releases/March_2005| title=Wikipedia Publishes 500,000th English Article | author= |pub=Wikipedia|date=March 18, 2005}}
*{{source|url=http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21909| title=Wikipedia exceeds half million article mark  | author= |pub=The Inquirer|date=March 18, 2005}}

{{archive}}
[[Category:Science and technology]]
[[Category:Published]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Internet]]
The English Wikipedia was started in 2001
Wikipedia hit the half-million mark Friday as the English-language encyclopedia passed the 500 thousand article mark, according to a press prelease by the Wikimedia Foundation (The Wikimedia Foundation also runs Wikinews).

The article that put the site over the top was Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union. The total of 500 thousand articles exceeds any other encyclopedia, according to the press release. 

With an average of 2,500 characters per article, Wikipedia contains 1.25 gigabytes of raw text, which if printed on double-sided letter-size paper would form a stack about 66 feet or more than six stories tall. Other recent additions to its English-language edition include hundreds of  full-length songs, almost a gigabyte of  new images, and  subject-specific portals.
Science and technology Published Wikipedia Internet