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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 October 1, 2024
Wikipedia:Today's featured article/October 1, 2024
I strongly suggest that the passage on Franco be removed or reworded. By the time of October 1936 the Spanish Civil War was still raging, and the Republic was still in control over major parts of the country and was the internationally recognized government. The fact that the Nationalists appointed Franco as head of state might have had symbolic importance to them, but it didn't actually mean that he became the head of state of Spain. The fact that thereäs a wikilink to Spanish State doesn't help much, it is still misleading to a casual visitor to the main page. --Soman 22:13, 1 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I've rewritten the line. Is it any better ? -- PFHLai 23:01, 1 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, much better. But it might still need a short mention, like "Francisco Franco was declared Generalísimo and head of state by the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War". I know that would be a bit long though. --Soman 23:04, 1 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]
It would be nice if there is a page about the various Nationalist factions during the civil war that the word 'Nationalists' can link to. Linking to just Falange would be misleading, I suppose. Would link to Nationalism be good enough ? -- PFHLai 23:29, 1 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]
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Would it be possible to remove the Filipino American History Month from the anniversary page? It does not refer to a specific date and, in the current format, makes the whole thing crowded as far as how it would appear on the main page.
Sdverv (talk) 22:18, 30 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
It's pretty crowded, yes, but there's no imbalance between the columns in terms of whitespace on the Main Page right now, so I don't think it needs to be removed. This may change if DYK gets too short. —howcheng {chat} 07:02, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for responding. Now that I look at how it posted on the Main Page, I think it should be fine.--Sdverv (talk) 13:20, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
@Howcheng: I've now resolved the issues with Ashura and it can be inserted as an observance just like before. Regards. --Mhhosseintalk 02:52, 30 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
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Could any admin replace the "[[History of the People's Republic of China (1949–1976)|the establishment]]" with "[[Proclamation of the People's Republic of China|the establishment]]" for preciseness? And is it eligible to add in the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China article?
—Wei4Green | 唯绿远大 (talk) 19:28, 30 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I am requesting that this article Independence Day be featured on Wikipedia's homepage for today on the On This Day column as Nigeria is the biggest country in the world today celebrating it's Independence day rather than Tuvalu.
Josedimaria237 (talk) 01:39, 1 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Josedimaria237: That article has three empty sections, and Nigeria is ineligible due to the "Languages" section needs more citations. —howcheng {chat} 06:59, 3 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]