Wikipedia's first sentence called it “a 1977 american thriller film directed by john frankenheimer and based on the novel by thomas harris”. Today it says “a 1977 american action thriller film directed by john frankenheimer and based on thomas harris 's novel of the”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2025 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2025
1977 film by John Frankenheimer For the Italian film by Mario Bava, see Black Sunday (1960 film) . Black Sunday is a 1977 American action thriller film directed by John Frankenheimer and based on Thomas Harris 's novel of the same name . It was produced by Robert Evans , and stars Robert Shaw , Bruce Dern and Marthe Keller . It was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1978. The screenplay was written by Ernest Lehman , Kenneth Ross and Ivan Moffat . Ross had previously written the screenplay for The Day of the Jackal , a similar plot-driven political thriller . The inspiration of the story came from the Munich massacre , perpetrated by the Black September organization against Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics , giving the title for the novel and film.
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1296424120.
The opening as it stood in 2010
Black Sunday is a 1977 American thriller film directed by John Frankenheimer and based on the novel by Thomas Harris . The film starred Robert Shaw , Bruce Dern , and Marthe Keller and was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture in 1978. The inspiration of the story came from the Black September attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 369511226.
The opening as it stood in 2015 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Black Sunday is a 1977 American thriller film directed by John Frankenheimer , based on Thomas Harris ' novel of the same name .The film was produced by Robert Evans and starred Robert Shaw , Bruce Dern and Marthe Keller .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 666309042.
The opening as it stood in 2020
1977 film by John Frankenheimer Black Sunday is a 1977 American thriller film directed by John Frankenheimer , based on Thomas Harris ' 1975 novel of the same name .The film was produced by Robert Evans , and stars Robert Shaw , Bruce Dern , and Marthe Keller .The screenplay was written by Ernest Lehman , Kenneth Ross , and Ivan Moffat .Ross had previously written the screenplay for The Day of the Jackal , a similar plot-driven political thriller .The inspiration of the story came from the Munich massacre , perpetrated by the Black September organization against Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics , giving both the novel and film its title.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 958790713.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
1977 film by John Frankenheimer For the Italian film by Mario Bava, see Black Sunday (1960 film) .Black Sunday is a 1977 American action thriller film directed by John Frankenheimer and based on Thomas Harris ' novel of the same name . It was produced by Robert Evans , and stars Robert Shaw , Bruce Dern and Marthe Keller . It was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1978. The screenplay was written by Ernest Lehman , Kenneth Ross and Ivan Moffat . Ross had previously written the screenplay for The Day of the Jackal , a similar plot-driven political thriller . The inspiration of the story came from the Munich massacre , perpetrated by the Black September organization against Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics , giving the title for the novel and film.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1158110841.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “a 1977 american thriller film directed by john frankenheimer and based on the novel by thomas harris”. Today it says “a 1977 american action thriller film directed by john frankenheimer and based on thomas harris 's novel of the”. Read the current article and compare.
2010
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2025
massacre
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Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2010, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
a 1977 american thriller film directed by john frankenheimer and based on the novel by thomas harris
Now
a 1977 american action thriller film directed by john frankenheimer and based on thomas harris 's novel of the
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.