To report an error when this list is currently on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Before making a suggestion, please read the selected anniversaries guidelines. Please remember that this list usually defers to supporting pages when there is disagreement, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Q1: Why is [Insert event here], an event that is "more important and significant" than all the others that are currently listed, not posted?
A1: Relative article quality along with the mix of topics already listed are often deciding factors in what gets posted. Any given day of the year can have a great many important or significant historical events. The problem is that there is generally only room on the Main Page to list about 5 events at a time, so not everything can be posted.
As stated on Wikipedia:FAQ/Main Page, the items and events posted on the Main Page are chosen based more on how well they are written, not based on how much important or significant their subjects are. It is easier for admins to select a well-written, cited, verifiable article over a poor one versus trying to determine objectively how much a subject is important or significant.
Keep in mind that the quality requirements only apply to the selected bolded article, not the other links. Thus, an event may qualify for multiple dates in a year if there is an article written in a summary style and an article providing detailed content; if one of those pages have cleanup issues, the other page can be bolded as an alternate.
Another criterion is to maintain some variety of topics, and not exhibit, just for example, tech-centrism, or the belief that the world stops at the edge of the English-speaking world. Many days have a large pool of potential articles, so they will rotate in and out every year to give each one some Main Page exposure. In addition, an event is not posted if it is also the subject of this year's scheduled featured article or featured picture.
Q2: There are way too many 20th-century events listed. Why aren't there more events from the 19th century and before?
Q3: This page seems to be biased toward events based in [Insert country or region here]. What can be done about it?
A3: This again is attributed to the systemic bias of Wikipedia. Many users are generally more interested in working on good, well-written articles pertaining to their home country. Since this is the English Wikipedia, there will be more English-speaking users, and thus more articles pertaining to English-speaking countries. And if there are more users who are from the United States, there will probably be more well-written articles about events based in the United States. Again, if you would like to further help mitigate the systemic bias in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias.
Q4: Why is the birthday/death anniversary of [Insert name here] not listed?
A4: There are only four slots available for birth and death anniversaries. As with the events, article quality and diversity in time period, geography, and reason for notability are all contributing factors in whether an article gets selected for inclusion.
Q5: Are the holidays/observances listed in any particular order?
A5: Yes, there is a specified order: International observances first, then alphabetically by where observed.
Q6: Some of the holidays/observances that are listed have dates in parentheses beside them. What do they mean?
A6: There are two reasons that some holidays/observances have dates next to them:
Non-Gregorian-based holidays/observances are marked with the current year as a reminder to others that their dates do in fact vary from year to year.
National Days, Independence Days, and other holidays celebrating the nationhood of a country are generally marked by the year of the significant historic date being observed.
Today's featured article for December 21, 2024
Wikipedia:Today's featured article/December 21, 2024
Note: All five items are about the United States, but there are unfortunately no other eligible articles (and I went through 70+ pages of Google search results)
It is midsummer in the Southern Hemisphere so I would appreciate a mention of the summer solstice festivals here as well as the winter solstice festivals up north. It is very frustrating being wished a happy Yule in midsummer! HelenOnline (talk) 09:58, 20 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I sympathize with your request, but there are a few issues here.
Wheel of the Year is tagged as needing more references, so that's ineligible. Paganism in South Africa barely mentions the summer solstice and also is too localized to a single country to be listed as a general summer solstice article. Sorry. —howcheng {chat} 19:25, 20 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for your polite response, I understand. HelenOnline (talk) 09:48, 21 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Yule was placed on December 25 in the 10th century, and it has been celebrated in conjunction with Christmas since that time.[1] See
Merriam Webster, "Yule" ("the feast of the nativity of Jesus Christ : christmas") and "Christmas", ("a Christian feast on December 25").
Oxford, "Yule", ("archaic term for Christmas.") Random House Unabridged Dictionary, "Yule", ("Christmas, or the Christmas season.") Kauffner (talk) 15:30, 1 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Howcheng. This entry is missing some bold syntax:
* [[1124]] – Lamberto Scannabecchi was elected Pope and took the name '''[[Pope Honorius II|((nowrap|Honorius II))]].
More importantly, this entry has two bold terms:
* [[1844]] – The '''[[Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers|Rochdale Pioneers]]''', usually considered the first successful [[cooperative|co-operative]] enterprise, opened their store in [[Rochdale]], England, and formed the basis for the modern '''[[History of the cooperative movement|co-operative movement]]'''.
I think it's highly unusual to have two bold terms for a single entry. This may be the reason daily-article-l didn't post for December 21, 2016. --MZMcBride (talk) 06:31, 21 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I fixed the syntax, but it's not uncommon at all for multiple articles to be bold in OTD. Admittedly, this is the first occurrence in December, but November 1, November 5, November 14, and November 27 all had blurbs with multiple bold articles. —howcheng {chat} 08:17, 21 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Huh, all right, fair enough. Thanks for the tweak!
I wonder if it was the syntax that tripped up the bot or if it was something else. When I re-ran the script just now, it worked fine.
Looking at older e-mails such as November 1, 2016, I'm a bit surprised nobody has ever complained (to me, anyway) that we only output one link per selected anniversaries entry even when there are multiple bold links. --MZMcBride (talk) 14:33, 21 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]