January 15, 2001: Wikipedia begins operation. According to its own Wikipedia page (I've removed the footnotes):
Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001, by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger; Sanger coined its name as a blending of "wiki" and "encyclopedia". Wales was influenced by the "spontaneous order" ideas associated with Friedrich Hayek and Austrian School of economics, after being exposed to these ideas by Austrian economist and Mises Institute Senior Fellow Mark Thornton. Initially available only in English, versions in other languages were quickly developed. Its combined editions comprise more than 58 million articles, attracting around 2 billion unique device visits per month, and more than 17 million edits per month (1.9 edits per second). In 2006, Time magazine stated that the policy of allowing anyone to edit had made Wikipedia the "biggest (and perhaps best) encyclopedia in the world".
Wikipedia has received praise for its enablement of the democratization of knowledge, extent of coverage, unique structure, culture, and reduced amount of commercial bias, but criticism for exhibiting systemic bias, particularly gender bias against women and alleged ideological bias. Its reliability was frequently criticized in the 2000s, but has improved over time and has been generally praised in the late 2010s and early 2020s. Its coverage of controversial topics such as American politics and major events such as the COVID-19 pandemic has received substantial media attention. It has been censored by world governments, ranging from specific pages to the entire site. It has become an element of popular culture, with references in books, films and academic studies. In 2018, Facebook and YouTube announced that they would help users detect fake news by suggesting fact-checking links to related Wikipedia articles.
I could write this blog without using Wikipedia. But it would be a lot harder.
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January 15, 2001 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was in the middle of its Playoffs. There were 12 NBA games played that day:
* The New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs, 104-82 at Madison Square Garden.
* The New Jersey Nets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 84-78 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.
* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Charlotte Hornets, 84-79 at the First Union Center (now the Wells Fargo Center) in Philadelphia. Allen Iverson scored 35 points.
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Washington Wizards, 101-95 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.
* The Orlando Magic beat the Chicago Bulls, 113-104 at the TD Waterhouse Centre in Orlando.
* The Indiana Pacers beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 89-74 at the Conseco Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.
* The Boston Celtics beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 107-102 at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Paul Pierce scored 42 points.
* The Sacramento Kings beat the Dallas Mavericks, 116-105 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.
* The Denver Nuggets beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 122-111 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.
* The Utah Jazz beat the Houston Rockets, 116-104 in overtime at the Delta Center (now the Vivint Arena) in Salt Lake City.
* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 113-112 in overtime at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.
* And the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Golden State Warriors, 107-101 at the Oakland Arena.
And there were 5 games played in the NHL:
* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 3-2 at the Mellon Arena (the Civic Arena) in Pittsburgh.
* The League's 2 new expansion teams played at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus. The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Minnesota Wild, 3-0.
* The Florida Panthers beat the Dallas Stars, 2-0 at the National Car Rental Center (now the FLA Live Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.
* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-1 at the America West Arena (now the Footprint Center) in Phoenix.
* And the Detroit Red Wings beat the San Jose Sharks, 3-2 at the San Jose Arena (now the SAP Center).
