Founding History of Wikipedia
Founded by Jimmy Wales, Michael Davis, and Tim Shell.
Incorporated as Bomis Inc. in November 1996.
Purchased the bomis.com domain name in November 1996.
Purchased the nupedia.com domain name in October 1999.
Started design and development work for Nupedia in October 1999.
Launched Nupedia in March 2000.
Purchased the wikipedia.org domain name in January 2001.
Launched Wikipedia in January 2001.
Incorporated as Wikimedia Foundation Inc. in June 2003.
Headquartered in San Francisco, USA.
Click on the thumbnails below to see more details.
Year 1 of Wikipedia
Backstory
Month 1
Month 2
Month 3
Month 4
Month 5
Month 6
Month 7
Month 8
Month 9
Month 10
Month 11
Month 12
Version 1 of Wikipedia (Website)
MAR 2000
Stats of Wikipedia
1999 to 2002
2003 to 2006
2007 to 2010
2011 to 2014
2015 to 2018
2019 to 2020
Full Year 1 of Wikipedia
Y1 of Wikipedia.pdfOCT 1999 to SEP 2000
Extras of Wikipedia
Articles of Incorporation for Bomis.pdf1996 NOV Articles of Incorporation
2005 SEP Q&A with Jimmy Wales
2013 NOV Wikipedia's forgotten founder Larry Sanger
2016 DEC Ward Cunningham, Inventor of the Wiki
2020 JAN Wikipedia: Jimmy Wales
2021 DEC Rewriting history: first Wikipedia edit to be sold as an NFT