Wikipedia's first sentence called it “american pilot who flew transport aircraft as a foreign volunteer in israel's struggle for independence and as”. Today it says “american pilot who flew transport aircraft as a foreign volunteer in israel's war for independence and as chief”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “An American Israeli pilot and the first Chief Pilot of El Al In 1949”. It now reads “American-Israeli pilot; first Chief Pilot of El Al In 1949”.
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
An American Israeli pilot and the first Chief Pilot of El Al In 1949, Sam Lewis became the first Chief Pilot of El Al Sam Lewis (February 5, 1912 - February 18, 1992) was an American pilot who flew transport aircraft as a foreign volunteer in Israel's struggle for Independence and as chief pilot for Israel's national airline, El Al . Lewis was known for his ability to fly any airplane under any condition.1
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1177428737.
The opening as it stood in 2025 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
An American Israeli pilot and the first Chief Pilot of El Al In 1949, Sam Lewis became the first Chief Pilot of El Al Sam Lewis (February 5, 1912 – February 18, 1992) was an American pilot who flew transport aircraft as a foreign volunteer in Israel's war for independence and as chief pilot for Israel's national airline, El Al .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1293737249. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “american pilot who flew transport aircraft as a foreign volunteer in israel's struggle for independence and as”. Today it says “american pilot who flew transport aircraft as a foreign volunteer in israel's war for independence and as chief”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “An American Israeli pilot and the first Chief Pilot of El Al In 1949”. It now reads “American-Israeli pilot; first Chief Pilot of El Al In 1949”. Read the current article and compare.
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 2023, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
american pilot who flew transport aircraft as a foreign volunteer in israel's struggle for independence and as
Now
american pilot who flew transport aircraft as a foreign volunteer in israel's war for independence and as chief
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.
