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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 August 14, 2024
Hudson Volcano is a
volcano in the rugged mountains of southern Chile. Lying in the
Southern Volcanic Zone of the
Andes, it was formed by the
subduction of the oceanic
Nazca Plate under the continental
South American Plate. Hudson has the form of a 10-kilometre-wide (6-mile) volcanic
caldera filled with ice. The volcano has erupted numerous times in the past 2.5 million years forming widespread
tephra deposits, and is the most active volcano in the region. Four large eruptions have taken place in the past 20,000 years: 17,300–17,440
before present (BP), 7,750 BP, 4,200 BP, and in 1991. The 7,750 BP eruption was among the most intense volcanic eruptions in South America during the
Holocene, devastated the local ecosystem and may have caused substantial shifts in human settlement and lifestyle. During the 1991 eruption,
volcanic ash covered a large area in Chile and Argentina, and was deposited as far as Antarctica. The last eruption was in 2011. (Full article...)
Takht-i-Bahi are the ruins of a 1st century CE
Buddhist monastery complex located in what was once the
ancient Indian region of
Gandhara, in present-day northern Pakistani province of
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Considered to be exceptionally well-preserved and particularly representative of Buddhist monastic architecture of its era, the ruins were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with the neighbouring remains of an
ancient town in 1980. Pictured here is an aerial view of the complex, showing its various chambers and courtyards.
The joint declaration by FDR and Churchill that was issued as a plain, typed press release on August 14, 1941 would later be called the "Atlantic Charter" by a Socialist London newspaper. There was never an actual signed legal document. That wasn't the real purpose of "Operation Riviera" which would later be called the "Atlantic Conference" but it was good press, and it helped cover the fact that the U.S. (still technically neutral at the time) was engaging in war plans with one of the belligerents engaged in World War II military conflicts. For more details, see "discussion" related to Wikipedia entry of "Atlantic Charter."
Victory over Japan Day says this was the day the Japanese formally surrendered in Japan, August 15, there, and August 14 in the United States and the day older people remember the celebration. It seems to me this should be on the Main Page today with clarification.--
Dthomsen8 (
talk)
23:38, 14 August 2016 (UTC)reply
Items are listed on the date they happened in the locality that they happened in. The surrender ceremony took place in Japan on the 15th, so we list it on the 15th. —howcheng {
chat}