Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/January 4

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This is the talk page for making suggestions or discussing improvements to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/January 4.

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.
To discuss improvements to the corresponding January 4 article, see Talk:January 4 instead.

Frequently asked questions

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?

A2: The short, basic reason is the systemic bias of Wikipedia. There are not enough good, well-written articles on 19th-century and earlier events for all 365 days in the year. Currently, a majority of users seem to be generally more interested in writing articles about recent events. If you would like to further help mitigate the systemic bias in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias.

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 January 4, 2025
Wikipedia:Today's featured article/January 4, 2025 create – talk – watch
Picture of the day for January 4, 2025
The featured picture for this day has not yet been chosen. In general, pictures of the day are scheduled in order of promotion to featured status. See Wikipedia:Picture of the day/Guidelines for full guidelines. create

← Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/January 3 * Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/January 5 →

2012 notes

Omitted: Battle of Nui Bop, The Scout Association, Third Battle of Seoul, Last of the Summer Wine, North American ice storm of 1998 (ineligible—maintenance)
Included: Palace of Whitehall (6th appearance, last in 2010, rescued from Ineligible), Samuel Colt (first appearance), Fabian Society (7th appearance, last in 2010), Nancy Pelosi (2nd appearance, last in 2008), Burj Khalifa (first appearance)

--howcheng {chat} 23:13, 2 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Addendum: Third Battle of Seoul (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total) included for balance. howcheng {chat} 20:07, 4 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

2013 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Gulf of Sidra incident (1989) (maintenance)
Omitted: Palace of Whitehall; Samuel Colt; Fabian Society; Third Battle of Seoul; Nancy Pelosi; Burj Khalifa
Included: Battle of Nui Bop (2nd appearance, last in 2011); Topsy (elephant) (first appearance; rescued from Ineligible); Last of the Summer Wine (2nd appearance, last in 2011; 40th anniversary); Reavey and O'Dowd killings (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total; appeared last year on January 5); Ariel Sharon (2nd appearance, last in 2011)
Note: Reavey and O'Dowd killings should probably be deleted next year and kept for January 5, because there are fewer eligible items that day.

—howcheng {chat} 19:08, 4 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

2014 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Burma (maintenance)
Omitted: Battle of Núi Bop; Topsy (elephant); Last of the Summer Wine; Reavey and O'Dowd killings (ineligible—appears on January 5 with Kingsmill massacre); Ariel Sharon
Included: Independence Day (Burma) (first appearance); Palace of Whitehall (7th appearance, last in 2012); Fabian Society (8th appearance, last in 2012); 1970 Tonghai earthquake (first appearance); Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith (first appearance; 40th anniversary); Spirit (rover) (6th appearance, last in 2010; 10th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 07:41, 3 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

2015 notes

Added and deleted: Anne of Brittany (fact not in article)
Omitted: Palace of Whitehall; Fabian Society; 1970 Tonghai earthquake; Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith (ineligible—maintenance);
Included: Constantine Hangerli (first appearance); Samuel Colt (2nd appearance, last in 2012); The Scout Association (2nd appearance, last in 2011); Third Battle of Seoul (3rd appearance, last in 2012)
Repeats: Spirit (rover) (2nd consecutive appearance, 7 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:28, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

2016 notes

Omitted: Constantine Hangerli; Samuel Colt; The Scout Association; Spirit (rover)
Included: Palace of Whitehall (8th appearance, last in 2014); Solomon Northup (first appearance); 1970 Tonghai earthquake (2nd appearance, last in 2014); Burj Khalifa (2nd appearance, last in 2012; rescued from Ineligible)
Repeats: Third Battle of Seoul (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total)

—howcheng {chat} 04:54, 2 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

2017 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Fabian Society (maintenance); Topsy (elephant) (maintenance)
Omitted: Apsis (ineligible—maintenance); Independence Day (Myanmar) (ineligible—maintenance); Palace of Whitehall (ineligible—maintenance); Solomon Northup; Third Battle of Seoul; 1970 Tonghai earthquake; Burj Khalifa
Included: Charles I of England (8th appearance, last in 2015; normally appears on January 30, but included today for Main Page balance and because the other hooks are not good for chronological balance); Constantine Hangerli (2nd appearance, last in 2015); Samuel Colt (3rd appearance, last in 2015); The Scout Association (3rd appearance, last in 2015); Billboard (magazine) (first appearance; rescued from Ineligible); Last of the Summer Wine (3rd appearance, last in 2013)

—howcheng {chat} 16:53, 4 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

2018 notes

Deleted: 1970 Tonghai earthquake (moved to January 5)
Moved to Ineligible: Solomon Northup (maintenance)
Rescued from Ineligible (unused): 1989 air battle near Tobruk
Omitted: Charles I of England (deleted; moved back to January 30, its usual date); Samuel Colt; Billboard (magazine); Last of the Summer Wine
Included: Battle of Núi Bop (3rd appearance, last in 2013); Sao Shwe Thaik (first appearance; blurb previously featured Myanmar and is making its 8th appearance, last in 2013); Nancy Pelosi (3rd appearance, last in 2012); Louis Braille (first appearance); Johanna Westerdijk (first appearance); T. S. Eliot (first appearance)
Repeats: Constantine Hangerli (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total); The Scout Association (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total)

—howcheng {chat} 17:14, 4 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2019 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Burj Khalifa (maintenance)
New articles (ineligible): Brian Horrocks (TFA for 2019); Johannes Brost (maintenance)
Omitted: Battle of Núi Bop; The Scout Association; Sao Shwe Thaik; Nancy Pelosi; Louis Braille; Johanna Westerdijk; T. S. Eliot
Included: Battle of Ruspina (first appearance); Palace of Whitehall (9th appearance, last in 2016; rescued from Ineligible); Third Battle of Seoul (5th appearance, last in 2016); 1989 air battle near Tobruk (3rd appearance, last in 2010; 30th anniversary); George Tryon (first appearance); Josef Suk (composer) (first appearance); Erwin Schrödinger (first appearance)
Repeats: Constantine Hangerli (3rd consecutive appearance, 4 total)

—howcheng {chat} 17:46, 4 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

2020 notes

Deleted: Johannes Brost (moved to September 25, his birthday)
New articles (unused): Hennenman–Kroonstad train crash
Omitted: Battle of Ruspina (ineligible—maintenance); Palace of Whitehall; Constantine Hangerli; Third Battle of Seoul; 1989 air battle near Tobruk; George Tryon; Josef Suk (composer); Erwin Schrödinger
Included: Samuel Colt (4th appearance, last in 2017); Battle of Núi Bop (4th appearance, last in 2018); Billboard (magazine) (2nd appearance, last in 2017); Spirit (rover) (8th appearance, last in 2015); Moses Mendelssohn (first appearance); Clara Emilia Smitt (first appearance); Brian Horrocks (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 17:35, 5 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

2021 notes

Something really out to be done about the lead banner: a suggestion is at Talk:Baixa de Cassanje revolt Sparafucil (talk) 02:17, 4 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Martyrs of Colonial Repression Day seems to be the current common English version. Sparafucil (talk) 07:22, 7 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

2021 notes

Omitted: Samuel Colt; Battle of Núi Bop; Billboard (magazine); Rose Heilbron; Spirit (rover); Moses Mendelssohn; Clara Emilia Smitt; Brian Horrocks
Included: Constantine Hangerli (5th appearance, last in 2019); Solomon Northup (2nd appearance, last in 2016; rescued from Ineligible); The Scout Association (5th appearance, last in 2018); Third Battle of Seoul (6th appearance, last in 2019; 70th anniversary); Hennenman–Kroonstad train crash (first appearance); Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy (first appearance); Nellie Cashman (first appearance); Erwin Schrödinger (2nd appearance, last in 2019)

—howcheng {chat} 07:49, 6 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

2022 notes

New articles (unused): Sex Pistols (moved from January 6)
Omitted: Constantine Hangerli; Solomon Northup; Third Battle of Seoul; Hennenman–Kroonstad train crash; Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy; Nellie Cashman; Erwin Schrödinger
Included: Palace of Whitehall (10th appearance, last in 2019); Battle of Núi Bop (5th appearance, last in 2020); Sao Shwe Thaik (2nd appearance, last in 2018); Rose Heilbron (2nd appearance, last in 2020; 50th anniversary); Burj Khalifa (3rd appearance, last in 2016; rescued from Ineligible); Moses Mendelssohn (2nd appearance, last in 2020); Johanna Westerdijk (3rd appearance, last in 2019); Tom Acker (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 16:49, 5 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Removal of a currently ineligible entry

The page Clara Emilia Smitt was previously proposed and subsequently listed as ineligible for January 4th as a birthday. The reason for ineligibility was a lack of sources for the birth date. After a small amount of digging, all sources claiming 01/04/1864 as her birthday cited the wiki article and the only easily accessible article which didn't instead placed her birth in the Spring of 1862.

While I feel I could be bold and remove the entry myself, I am fairly new to Wikipedia and entirely inexperienced with selected anniversaries. As such, I don't quite feel comfortable doing so and instead would ask that someone with more experience vent my assertion and do what they see fit. Dionysius Miller^talk 15:24, 6 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Done QuicoleJR (talk) 22:26, 18 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Erwin Schrödinger eligibility

In addition to looking into Clara Emilia Smitt as mentioned above, I went through Erwin Schrödinger's page and moved/created citations to fill out the uncited sections (reason for ineligibility) and removed two uncited, subjective claims. I believe this page is ready to be reassessed for eligibility. Dionysius Miller^talk 16:37, 6 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Done Only one CN tag, which I believe does not make it ineligible by itself. QuicoleJR (talk) 22:26, 18 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]