2001 年 1 月，维基百科作为 Nupedia 的一个副项目开始运行，以便在进入同行评审程序之前对文章进行协作。维基百科的名称是桑格于 2001 年 1 月 11 日提出的，是 wiki（夏威夷语，意为 “快速”）和 encyclopedia (百科全书)的谐音。wikipedia.com 和 wikipedia.org 域名分别于 1 月 12 日和 13 日注册，wikipedia.org 也于同日上线。该项目于 1 月 15 日（“维基百科日”）正式开放，首批国际维基百科--法语版、德语版、加泰罗尼亚语版、瑞典语版和意大利语版--于 3 月至 5 月间创建。此时，“中立观点”（NPOV）政策正式制定，7 月 26 日，维基百科的第一波 slashdotter 浪潮到来。关于维基百科的第一篇媒体报道出现在 2001 年 8 月的《威尔士星期日报》上。

9.11 袭击事件促使维基百科主页上出现了突发新闻报道以及链接相关文章的信息框。当时，大约有 100 篇文章与 9/11 事件有关。9.11 袭击事件发生后，雅虎主页上出现了维基百科关于袭击事件文章的链接，导致流量激增。

In January 2001, Wikipedia began as a side-project of Nupedia, to allow collaboration on articles prior to entering the peer-review process. The name was suggested by Sanger on 11 January 2001 as a portmanteau of the words wiki (Hawaiian for "quick") and encyclopedia. The wikipedia.com and wikipedia.org domain names were registered on 12 and 13 January, respectively, with wikipedia.org being brought online on the same day. The project formally opened on 15 January ("Wikipedia Day"), with the first international Wikipedias – the French, German, Catalan, Swedish, and Italian editions – being created between March and May. The "neutral point of view" (NPOV) policy was officially formulated at this time, and Wikipedia's first slashdotter wave arrived on 26 July. The first media report about Wikipedia appeared in August 2001 in the newspaper Wales on Sunday.

The September 11 attacks spurred the appearance of breaking news stories on the homepage, as well as information boxes linking related articles. At the time, approximately 100 articles related to 9/11 had been created. After the September 11 attacks, a link to the Wikipedia article on the attacks appeared on Yahoo!'s home page, resulting in a spike in traffic.

参考：

History of Wikipedia - Wikipedia