Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999 saw 353x more Wikipedia readers than usual

What this article is

A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's ascending node of orbit on Wednesday, August 11, 1999, with a magnitude of 1.0286. This was one of the most-viewed total solar eclipses in human history. A solar eclipse is when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the light of the sun for a viewer on earth. A total solar eclipse is when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into night. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 3.5 days after perigee, the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.

Summary text from the Wikipedia article "Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999", available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the full article.

What changed that day

The largest single addition was 38 characters. See everything that changed on 2026-08-12 in Wikipedia's own diff view — that is where the reason for a surge is usually visible, written and sourced by the editors who were following the story.

How this was measured

Views are Wikimedia's own pageview counts for en.wikipedia, filtered to agent=user so automated traffic is excluded. The baseline is the median of the previous 60 days, which is used instead of the mean so that an earlier surge cannot flatten a later one. The multiple is the day's views divided by that median.