Wikipedia's first sentence called it “senior british army officer with the desert mounted corps during world war i who was wounded in action three ti”. Today it says “senior british army officer and later a conservative party politician”.
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 October 6, 2023 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 October 6, 2023
John Tyson Wigan , CB , CMG , DSO (31 July 1877 – 23 November 1952) was a senior British Army officer and later a Conservative Party politician. He served with the Desert Mounted Corps during World War I , and was wounded in action three times during campaigning at the Battle of Gallipoli and during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign . He had previously been badly wounded in the Second Boer War . Following his retirement from the army post-war, Wigan became a Member of Parliament (MP) for three years.
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1147377440.
The opening as it stood in 2010
Brigadier-General John Tyson Wigan, CB , CMG , DSO (July, 1872 – November, 1952) was a senior British Army officer with the Desert Mounted Corps during World War I who was wounded in action three times during campaigning at the Battle of Gallipoli and during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign . He had previously been badly wounded in the Second Boer War and following his retirement from the army post-war became a Member of Parliament for the Conservative Party .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 368287845.
The opening as it stood in 2015
Brigadier-General John Tyson Wigan, CB CMG DSO (July 1877 – November 1952) was a senior British Army officer with the Desert Mounted Corps during World War I who was wounded in action three times during campaigning at the Battle of Gallipoli and during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign . He had previously been badly wounded in the Second Boer War and following his retirement from the army post-war became a Member of Parliament for the Conservative Party .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 659310680.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Brigadier-General John Tyson Wigan , CB , CMG , DSO (July 1877 – November 1952) was a senior British Army officer and later a Conservative Party politician. He served with the Desert Mounted Corps during World War I , and was wounded in action three times during campaigning at the Battle of Gallipoli and during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign . He had previously been badly wounded in the Second Boer War . Following his retirement from the army post-war, Wigan became a Member of Parliament (MP) for three years.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 949841995.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “senior british army officer with the desert mounted corps during world war i who was wounded in action three ti”. Today it says “senior british army officer and later a conservative party politician”. 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
senior british army officer with the desert mounted corps during world war i who was wounded in action three ti
Now
senior british army officer and later a conservative party politician
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.
