On March 1st 2006 the English language version of Wikipedia reached its one millionth article, Jordanhill railway station in the West End of Glasgow.
For more than 20 years, Wikipedia has been the go-to corner of the internet for finding out information on everything from the phenotypic plasticity of Amazonian tree frogs to the annual passenger numbers for Glasgow's suburban railway stations.
Yes it often gets things wrong, but hold your hand up, how many times have you turned to Wiki when you needed to find out something quickly?
On March 1st, 2006, it was announced that the English version of the site had hit the one million mark with its entry for the West End station, created by Wikipedia contributor Ewan MacDonald.
On March 1st, 2006, it was announced that the English version of the site had hit the one million mark with its entry for the West End station, created by Wikipedia contributor Ewan MacDonald.
The non-profit online encyclopaedia was started in 2001 by Jimmy Wales, who set an original target of reaching 100,000 articles, which would make it as large as the most comprehensive edition Encyclopaedia Britannica. Within just two years, the fast-growing Wikipedia had smashed that threshold and has continued to expand ever since.
Commenting on his website reaching one million articles, Jimmy Wales said at the time: "We are thrilled that our millionth article in English is about the Jordanhill railway station.
"This is not something which would appear in a traditional encyclopaedia, and it shows how Wikipedia reflects the needs and interests of people everywhere, and not just the dictates of what academics and cultural mavens claim is worthy of an encyclopaedia."
Nowadays, Wikipedia remains hugely popular and influential. It is the fifth most visited website in the world and easily the single largest source of encyclopaedic information on the world wide web.
As of February 2023, there are more than 6.6 million articles on the English version of Wikipedia, but no matter how large the site gets or how many more records it breaks, Jordanhill Railway Station will always be article number one million.
