Wikipedia's first sentence called it “document written by sir henry mcmahon and released by the british government in response to a memorandum issued”. Today it says “document written by sir mark sykes”.
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 2020 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 2020
Declaration to the Seven was a document written by the Sir Mark Sykes , approved by Charles Hardinge , the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office and released on June 16, 1918 in response to a memorandum issued anonymously by seven Syrian notables in Cairo that included members of the soon to be formed Syrian Unity Party , established in the wake of the Balfour Declaration and the November 23, 1917 publication by the Bolsheviks of the secret May 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France . The memorandum requested a "guarantee of the ultimate independence of Arabia ". The Declaration stated the British policy that the future government of the regions of the Ottoman Empire occupied by Allies of World War I "should be based upon the principle of the consent of the governed ". "Report of a Committee set up to consider certain correspondence between Sir Henry McMahon (his Majesty's high commissioner in Egypt) and the Sharif of Mecca in 1915 and 1916" .1 Arab nationalism, a history: nation and state in the Arab world .
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 918975316.
The opening as it stood in 2010
The Declaration to the Seven was a document written by Sir Henry McMahon and released by the British Government in response to a memorandum issued anonymously by seven Syrian notables in Cairo who were members of the newly-formed Party of Syrian Unity , which had been established in the wake of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the publication by the Bolsheviks of the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement . The memorandum requested a "guarantee of the ultimate independence of Arabia ". The Declaration stated the British policy that the future government of the regions of the Ottoman Empire occupied by Allied forces in World War I should be based on the consent of the governed. "Report of a Committee set up to consider certain correspondence between Sir Henry McMahon (his Majesty's high commissioner in Egypt) and the Sharif of Mecca in 1915 and 1916" . Arab nationalism, a history: nation and state in the Arab world .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 367586699.
The opening as it stood in 2015
The Declaration to the Seven was a document written by Sir Henry McMahon and released by the British Government in response to a memorandum issued anonymously by seven Syrian notables in Cairo who were members of the newly formed Party of Syrian Unity , which had been established in the wake of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the publication by the Bolsheviks of the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement . The memorandum requested a "guarantee of the ultimate independence of Arabia ". The Declaration stated the British policy that the future government of the regions of the Ottoman Empire occupied by Allied forces in World War I should be based on the consent of the governed . "Report of a Committee set up to consider certain correspondence between Sir Henry McMahon (his Majesty's high commissioner in Egypt) and the Sharif of Mecca in 1915 and 1916" . Arab nationalism, a history: nation and state in the Arab world .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 662799417.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
The Declaration to the Seven was a document written by Sir Mark Sykes , approved by Charles Hardinge , the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office and released on June 16, 1918 in response to a memorandum issued anonymously by seven Syrian notables in Cairo that included members of the soon to be formed Syrian Unity Party , established in the wake of the Balfour Declaration and the November 23, 1917 publication by the Bolsheviks of the secret May 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France . The memorandum requested a "guarantee of the ultimate independence of Arabia ". The Declaration stated the British policy that the future government of the regions of the Ottoman Empire occupied by Allies of World War I "should be based upon the principle of the consent of the governed ". "McMahon-Husain correspondence - Report of Arab-UK committee - UK documentation Cmd. 5974 (excerpts)/Non-UN document (16 March 1939)" . 2008-06-18. Arab nationalism, a history: nation and state in the Arab world .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1171725549.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Document published in 1918 The Declaration to the Seven was a document written by Sir Mark Sykes , approved by Charles Hardinge , the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office and released on June 16, 1918, in response to a memorandum issued anonymously by seven Syrian notables in Cairo that included members of the soon to be formed Syrian Unity Party , established in the wake of the Balfour Declaration and the November 23, 1917, publication by the Bolsheviks of the secret May 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement between Britain and France . The memorandum requested a "guarantee of the ultimate independence of Arabia ". The Declaration stated the British policy that the future government of the regions of the Ottoman Empire occupied by Allies of World War I "should be based upon the principle of the consent of the governed ". "McMahon–Husain correspondence – Report of Arab-UK committee – UK documentation Cmd. 5974 (excerpts)/Non-UN document (16 March 1939)" . 2008-06-18. Arab nationalism, a history: nation and state in the Arab world .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1272336061. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “document written by sir henry mcmahon and released by the british government in response to a memorandum issued”. Today it says “document written by sir mark sykes”. Read the current article and compare.
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
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
document written by sir henry mcmahon and released by the british government in response to a memorandum issued
Now
document written by sir mark sykes
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.
