Wikipedia's first sentence called it “autobiographical account of the experiences of t”. Today it says “autobiographical account of the experiences of british army colonel t”.
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 2005 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 2005
Some Englishmen, of whom Kitchener was chief, believed that a rebellion of Arabs against Turks would enable England, while fighting Germany, simultaneously to defeat Turkey. Their knowledge of the nature and power and country of the Arabic-speaking peoples made them think that the issue of such a rebellion would be happy: and indicated its character and method. So they allowed it to begin... Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Introduction Tooling on the cover of the first public printing, showing twin scimitars and the legend: "the sword also means clean-ness + death" Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph is the autobiographical account of the experiences of T.1Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") while serving as a liaison officer with rebel forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks of 1916 to 1918 .2
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 16122482.
The opening as it stood in 2010 4 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom rock formation in Wadi Rum Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph is the autobiographical account of the experiences of British soldier T. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), while serving as a liaison officer with rebel forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks of 1916 to 1918.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 368132330.
The opening as it stood in 2015
Seven Pillars of Wisdom is the autobiographical account of the experiences of British soldier T. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), while serving as a liaison officer with rebel forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks of 1916 to 1918.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 663179332.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Seven Pillars of Wisdom is the autobiographical account of the experiences of British soldier T. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), while serving as a liaison officer with rebel forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks of 1916 to 1918. It was completed in February 1922, but first published in December 1926.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 955039839.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Lawrence "Pillars of Wisdom" redirects here. Seven Pillars of Wisdom is the autobiographical account of the experiences of British Army Colonel T. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") while serving as a military advisor to Bedouin forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire of 1916 to 1918. It was completed in February 1922, but first published in December 1926.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1172586671.
The opening as it stood in 2025 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Lawrence This article is about the T.E. Seven Pillars of Wisdom is the autobiographical account of the experiences of British Army Colonel T. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") while serving as a military advisor to Bedouin forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire of 1916 to 1918. It was completed in February 1922, but first published in December 1926 originally published for the US market in 1927 as Revolt in the Desert and is the only version that was commercially released while he was alive.Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1935) is a longer form of the book at almost double the page count and released to the international market.Revolt in the Desert was the only version of Seven Pillars of Wisdom published for the general public in Lawrence’s lifetime.Lawrence — Revolt in the Desert" .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1296658597. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “autobiographical account of the experiences of t”. Today it says “autobiographical account of the experiences of british army colonel t”. Read the current article and compare.
2005
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 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
autobiographical account of the experiences of t
Now
autobiographical account of the experiences of british army colonel t
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.
