Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors

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Errors in today's or tomorrow's On this day

OTD today

It seems like "Ronald Reagan Day" is only practiced in two states, Wisconsin and California, not "most states" as the label indicatesQwed117 (talk) 00:43, 6 February 2018 (UTC)

Errors in the current or next Did you know...

DYK current

Crusades

I'm probably in the wrong place as this is not really an error but a frustration. That wedding at Kerak is widely celebrated for the display of chivalry by Saladin. The DYK hook really underplays the magnificent story and makes it really quite mundane. Our article includes the cited text: "Humphrey's mother convinced Saladin not to bombard the tower in which the newly married young couple were lodged, although he continued to besiege the rest of the fortress." The article doesn't mention what I remember reading 20 years ago in Steven Runciman's epic history, that the queen mother sent Saladin some of the wedding feast to say thank you. Can you imagine being the deliveryman? Some good sources --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 12:41, 5 February 2018 (UTC)

Pearl Sword

This one's a definite error. All three sources make it clear that the Queen was laughing and joking ("pinch of salt" mentioned in all 3) when she suggested hitting Amin with the sword if he turned up. This is absent from the article but more concerningly absent from our shop front Main page. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 12:47, 5 February 2018 (UTC)

I looked this incident up in From Shore to Shore - The Final Years. The Diaries of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, 1953-1979, edited by Philip Ziegler, Collins, 1989. The context is the Jubilee Thanksgiving Service in St Paul's. Mountbatten says "I asked her [the Queen] afterwards why she had looked rather cross and worried at one time and she laughed and said "I was just thinking how awful it would be if Amin (the horrible dictator of Uganda) were to gate-crash the party and arrive after all." I asked her what she had proposed to do and she said that she had decided she would use the City's Pearl Sword which the Lord Mayor had placed in front of her to hit him hard over the head with." So yes she laughed, but was she joking? DuncanHill (talk) 15:30, 5 February 2018 (UTC)

• The issue of the Queen and Pearl Sword is not a "definite error". For example of coverage elsewhere, see The Queen's plot to bash Idi Amin over the head with a pearl sword. That appeared in the Daily Telegraph which seemed to play it fairly straight. By attributing the story to Mountbatten, we don't present this as an absolute in fact in Wikipedia's voice. We should let the reader form their own opinion about how serious this was, rather than making our own assumptions. Andrew D. (talk) 16:38, 5 February 2018 (UTC)

I've moved "according to Lord Mountbatten" to the front of the hook, to make it more clear. ansh666 21:21, 5 February 2018 (UTC)

Vikings

• ... that an archaeological find identified as a 10th-century Viking helmet has been alleged to actually be a World War II Luftwaffe helmet?

The "allegations" in the article come from two unreliable sources, so why do we repeat them on the Main Page? Actually, it doesn't even come from 2 sources, but from one, probably this one (which is probably the original) and this one, which copies it ("The helmet is was believed to be a" is a giveaway).

It is unclear which helmet is supposed to be mistaken for this, the Kiev helmet is not the best preserved Biking helmet by far, you can see it on image 562 in this source[1], where it is obviously not comparable to the 1945 helmet. This DYK entry seems very dubious as it stands, and I would suggest immediate pulling. Fram (talk) 16:06, 5 February 2018 (UTC)

Note that this issue was raised at RSN, but the response for input about a source there was hardly an endorsement for the hook or the sources. Instead it was suggested that this "fact" wouldn't make a good DYK hook. No idea why that advice was ignored. Fram (talk) 16:17, 5 February 2018 (UTC)

Errors in the summary of the last or next featured list

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