Wikipedia's first sentence called it “american mass murderer and domestic terrorist who killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a mass shooting at”. Today it says “american mass murderer who killed 49 people and wounded 58 others”.
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
Omar Mir Seddique Mateen ( Pashto : عمر مير صديق متين ; born Omar Mir Seddique ; November 16, 1986 – June 12, 2016) was an American domestic terrorist and mass murderer who killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub , a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida , on June 12, 2016, before he was killed in a shootout with the local police. It was the deadliest mass shooting in American history until the Las Vegas Strip shooting on October 1, 2017, and it is the deadliest known incident of violence against LGBT people in U.S. history . Born in New York to Afghan-American parents, his family moved to Florida as a child, where he displayed an interest in violence and had behavioral problems in school, including struggling academically and receiving numerous suspensions. As an adult, he drifted through various jobs and a failed marriage before eventually becoming an armed G4S security guard . Before the shooting, he had been investigated for connections to terrorism by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2013 and 2014. During that period, he was placed on the Terrorist Screening Database , but was subsequently removed. In a call to 911 during the shooting, Mateen identified himself as " Mujahideen ," "Islamic Soldier," and "Soldier of God"; and pledged his allegiance multiple times to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi , who at the time was the leader of the militant jihadist group, the Islamic State . He said the shooting was "triggered" by an airstrike in Iraq that killed Abu Waheeb , an IS commander, six weeks before. Here's their case for a firearms restriction on people on the terrorist watch list" . "Transcripts Show ISIS Influence on Orlando Gunman: Omar Mateen cited the death of an Islamic State leader as a motivation for the June massacre" .
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1297987937.
The opening as it stood in 2020
American mass murderer Omar Mir Seddique (November 16, 1986 – June 12, 2016), also known as Omar Mateen , was an American mass murderer and domestic terrorist who killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a mass shooting at the gay Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida , on June 12, 2016, before he was killed in a shootout with the local police. It was the deadliest shooting by a single shooter in United States history until the Las Vegas Strip shooting on October 1, 2017. Before the shooting, he had been investigated for connections to terrorism by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2013 and 2014. During that period, he was placed on the Terrorist Screening Database , but was subsequently removed. In a call to 9-1-1 during the shooting, Mateen identified himself as " Mujahideen ", "Islamic Soldier", and "Soldier of God"; and pledged his allegiance multiple times to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi , who at the time was the leader of the militant jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant . He said the shooting was "triggered" by an airstrike in Iraq that killed Abu Wahib , an ISIL commander, six weeks before. Here's their case for a firearms restriction on people on the terrorist watch list" . "Transcripts Show ISIS Influence on Orlando Gunman: Omar Mateen cited the death of an Islamic State leader as a motivation for the June massacre" .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 965003107.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
American mass murderer (1986–2016) Omar Mir Seddique Mateen born Omar Mir Seddique ; ( ; November 16, 1986 – June 12, 2016) was an American terrorist and mass murderer who murdered 49 people and wounded 53 others in a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida , on June 12, 2016, before he was killed in a shootout with the local police. It was the deadliest shooting by a single shooter in United States history until the Las Vegas Strip shooting on October 1, 2017. Born in New York to Afghan-American parents, he moved to Florida as a child, where he displayed an interest in violence and had behavioral problems in school, including struggling academically and receiving numerous suspensions.As an adult he drifted through various jobs and a failed marriage before eventually becoming a security guard by profession. Before the shooting, he had been investigated for connections to terrorism by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2013 and 2014. During that period, he was placed on the Terrorist Screening Database , but was subsequently removed. In a call to 9-1-1 during the shooting, Mateen identified himself as " Mujahideen ", "Islamic Soldier", and "Soldier of God"; and pledged his allegiance multiple times to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi , who at the time was the leader of the militant jihadist group ISIL . He said the shooting was "triggered" by an airstrike in Iraq that killed Abu Wahib , an ISIL commander, six weeks before. Here's their case for a firearms restriction on people on the terrorist watch list" . "Transcripts Show ISIS Influence on Orlando Gunman: Omar Mateen cited the death of an Islamic State leader as a motivation for the June massacre" .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1178344772.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “american mass murderer and domestic terrorist who killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a mass shooting at”. Today it says “american mass murderer who killed 49 people and wounded 58 others”. Read the current article and compare.
2020
Oct '23
2025
terror
3
3
3
militant
1
1
1
jihad
1
1
1
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 2020, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
american mass murderer and domestic terrorist who killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a mass shooting at
Now
american mass murderer who killed 49 people and wounded 58 others
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.
