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.
As a German I've never heard the expression "Schicksalstag". Some major events in German history happened on november 9th, but we don't call that "Schicksalstag" and we don't really commemorate these events, except the one of 1938; however, the expression "Schicksalstag" is wrong and irritating.--62.246.64.1214:27, 9 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
According to de.wikipedia it's a term mostly used by historians and jounalists, but has become used more often outside those circles since 1989.
Nach Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs wurde von verschiedenen Historikern und Journalisten
für diesen Tag der Ausdruck Schicksalstag geprägt, der aber erst nach den Ereignissen
vom Herbst 1989 weitere Verbreitung fand.
Simply because you havent heard of something doesn't make it untrue. But having said that, neither the en or de articles have any references. It's possible this term is WP:POV loaded? --Monotonehell02:40, 10 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]
OTD normally does not discriminate between official public holidays sanctioned by a country's government, and those that are unofficial significant observances. Since the event is still observed by a ceremony in Dublin, how do want this resolved? Post "in the United Kingdom and in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin"? Zzyzx11(Talk)03:36, 9 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I was under the impression that Remembrance Sunday was observed in both countries, as both countries fought on the same side during the Great War - I wasn't aware that republican and unionist problems had extended to services of remembrance. How about if we put 'the United Kingdom and some other countries'? or 'the United Kingdom and part of the Republic of Ireland'? Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry (talk) 04:04, 9 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
It's a historical event of enormous significance, far more so than any of the other anniversaries listed. It's not so much the end of the Berlin Wall itself, but what it represented. It signaled the end of the Cold War and Iron Curtain. It also marked the end of the 20th century in a historical sense. Someone dropped the ball here, badly. Jsc1973 (talk) 06:15, 9 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I couldn't agree more - The fall of the Berlin Wall is certainly much too significant to be left out, no matter what improvements could still be done to the article. I strongly believe that this blunder must be fixed asap. Cheers, MikeZ (talk) 12:06, 9 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
It seems the article's good-to-go. Anyway, you can edit/add items to SA a few days before it is protected by admins. I do that sometimes but only a few people know about that so... –HowardtheDuck12:57, 9 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
A number of users had specifically requested that the article Inner German border be selected as the main page featured article for 9 November 2009 – precisely because it is the 20th anniversary of when the East German government announced the opening of both it and the Berlin Wall. Because the blurb mentions the 9 November 1989 event, it will appear in that section this year instead of here. Cheers. Zzyzx11 (talk) 03:48, 8 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I'm really convinced that the fall of the Berlin Wall is of solitude importance, and it should be included in OTD, even more as it's the 20th anniversary today. There are just a handful of global events in the same category of really comparable historic importance. Just imagine, on 9/11 we would only show a featured article about the building of the WTC, arguing that this article contains the information that the towers were destroyed in 2001. --- The importance of the fall of the Berlin Wall justifies an exception from the otherwise good guideline of not having similar featured articles with OTD topics. MikeZ (talk) 17:29, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
{{editprotected}}
So the fall of the Berlin Wall wasn't mentioned at OTD last year because it was also TFA. That's fine, but this year it isn't TFA, and it still isn't mentioned. Can we fix that? Pais (talk) 16:52, 9 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Now that it's already November 9th, I'm going to say "No, wait until next year so it can be properly discussed." In any event, I'd need the text to put into the template, which you haven't provided. Hersfold(t/a/c)19:04, 9 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Now that it's already November 10th, the question is moot. The text is already there, it's just formatted to be commented out on every November 9th. Well, no big deal; it's not as if the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe was important to world history or anything. I'm sure no one will care next year either. Pais (talk) 08:13, 10 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It seems the page is no longer protected, so I went ahead and corrected it myself. Now at least next year on November 9 the Main Page won't be an embarrassment to Wikipedia's credibility like it was this year. Pais (talk) 11:55, 13 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I would like to see the Berlin Wall fall in OTD this Nov. 9. Suggest blurb be rewritten to include Günter Schabowski's famed impromptu reply to the press-conference question "when?" — "immediately, without delay" ("sofort, unverzüglich") — which sent droves of incredulous East Berliners streaming to the Wall.
Everyone knows the Fall of the Wall presaged the collapse of Communism, the Soviet Union, etc., and it's not necessary to repeat these truisms. Sca (talk) 17:26, 7 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Howcheng, I'm not sure about the procedure for this (I did have a look, but couldn't quite work it out), so I thought I'd post here and ping you. I want to suggest a change for the blurb about the enactment of the Human Rights Act. Currently it refers to the abolition of capital punishment, but the Human Rights Act is much more notable and well-known for incorporating the European Convention on Human Rights into United Kingdom law - this was the main purpose of the Act. Capital punishment was basically a dead letter (no pun intended!) in Britain by then - it hadn't been used since it was abolished for murder, more than three decades before. If you look at the lead of the Human Rights Act article, it contains no mention of the abolition of the death penalty, and in the body there is just a small two-paragraph section. I would propose that the blurb be changed to this: "With the passing of the Human Rights Act, the European Convention on Human Rights was incorporated into United Kingdom law." Thanks, Neljack (talk) 04:08, 10 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
New article, maybe would be the better link for this entry? It's the 30th anniversary, so it'll probably be getting a ton of attention in the news, and the new article could use some eyes. It's also due to be at DYK that day, FWIW. --valereee (talk) 18:12, 4 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]
@Valereee: Sorry, we don't duplicate content between the Main Page sections. Since it's going on DYK, it will just have to wait until next year to be on OTD. Thanks, though. —howcheng {chat}18:31, 17 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Howcheng, no worries! I'm actually happier if it waits until next year, as I'd been concerned about it being in both places and as a result getting a gazillion views when it was still pretty new. --valereee (talk) 12:55, 18 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]
