Case file
Horatio Spafford
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “prominent american lawyer”. Today it says “american lawyer and presbyterian church elder”.
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.
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The opening as it read in 2010
Horatio Gates Spafford Horatio Gates Spafford (October 20, 1828, Troy, New York - October 16, 1888, Jerusalem ) was a prominent American lawyer , best known for penning the Christian hymn It Is Well With My Soul , following a family tragedy in which four of his daughters died.1 Source of middle name and birth/death information2
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 367877278.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “prominent american lawyer”. Today it says “american lawyer and presbyterian church elder”. Read the current article and compare.
| 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | Oct '23 | 2025 |
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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
prominent american lawyer
Now
american lawyer and presbyterian church elder
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.