Wikipedia:April Fools' Main Page/Did you know

Did you know?
Introduction and rules
Introduction	WP:DYK
General discussion	WT:DYK
Guidelines	WP:DYKCRIT
Reviewer instructions	WP:DYKRI
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Nominate an article	WP:DYKCNN
Awaiting approval	WP:DYKN
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Please use this page for discussions surrounding the creation of "Did You Know" items for April Fools' Day 2025

Areas of work needed to complete the front page are:

• Wikipedia:April Fool's Main Page/Featured Articles
• Wikipedia:April Fool's Main Page/Today's Featured Picture
• Wikipedia:April Fool's Main Page/Featured List
• Wikipedia:April Fool's Main Page/On This Day
• Wikipedia:April Fool's Main Page/In The News
• Wikipedia:April Fool's Main Page/Did You Know

Ground rules for this activity along with a list of participants may be found on the Main talk page.

Rules

April Fools Did You Know items should present some trivia that can be presented in a manner that is possibly unbelievable to the reader. This can be done through words or names that mean two different things, shortened names, unbelievable facts, unrelated facts, etc. The normal written and unwritten rules for Did You Know (DYK) are followed, with these exceptions...

• April Fools DYKs are subject to the usual exclusions regarding prior Main Page appearance, but the normal rules for special occasions do not apply: the article need only have been created/expanded/brought to GA in the year immediately preceding the April 1 on which it will appear.
• Proper capitalization, title formatting, and linking standards may be disregarded only if adhering to them will tend to give away the joke. This should be done as little as possible. (example from 2009: "... that Caviar, Chardonnay, and Hot Cocoa compete for the love of Ray J? ")

All other Wikipedia rules and guidelines still apply. Pay special attention to Wikipedia's Biographies of living persons guidelines if your hook relates to a living person.

Remember, we are trying to confuse and mislead Wikipedians and visitors, not lie to them. Keep all hooks and articles completely truthful, but outrageous. (examples from 2010: A hook claiming Dmitry Medvedev died in 2005 is ok, saying Mikheil Saakashvili died is not.)

How to review a nomination

Any editor who was not involved in writing/expanding or nominating an article may review it by checking to see that the article meets the DYK criteria except, per above, the normal new enough rule (long enough, no serious editorial or content issues) and the hook is cited. Editors may also alter the suggested hook to improve it, suggest new hooks, or even lend a hand and make edits to the article which the hook applies so that the hook is supported and accurate. For a more detailed discussion of the DYK rules and review process see the supplementary guidelines.

If you want to confirm that an article is ready to be placed on a later update, or note that there is an issue with the article or hook, please use the following symbols to point the issues out:

Symbol	Code	Status	Description
	{{subst:DYKtick}} {{subst:DYKyes}}	Approved	No problems, ready for DYK
	{{subst:DYKtickAGF}}	Approved	Article is ready for DYK, with a foreign-language, offline or paywalled hook reference accepted in good faith
	{{subst:DYK?}}	Query	DYK eligibility requires that an issue be addressed. Notify nominator with {{subst:DYKproblem|Article|header=yes|sig=yes}}
	{{subst:DYK?no}}	Maybe	DYK eligibility requires additional work. Notify nominator with {{subst:DYKproblem|Article|header=yes|sig=yes}}
	{{subst:DYKno}}	Rejected	Article is either completely ineligible or otherwise requires an insurmountable amount of work before becoming eligible.
	{{subst:DYK?again}}	New review	Requesting a second opinion or fresh review

An article cannot be officially promoted until a reviewer has given approval ( or ) to at least one of the article's hooks.

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Nominations

Awaiting verification

Note: Nominations for April 1 should be added to Template talk:Did you know in the usual way, as well as below.

Verified hooks

Barack Obama (horse)

(

• Comment or view
• Article history

)

• ... that Barack Obama was euthanized?

• Source: https://www.goupstate.com/story/news/2018/09/14/horse-named-barack-obama-euthanized-at-world-equestrian-games/10274313007/

• ALT1: ... that Barack Obama was an Anglo-Arabian? Source: https://www.goupstate.com/story/news/2018/09/14/horse-named-barack-obama-euthanized-at-world-equestrian-games/10274313007/
• ALT2: ... that Barack Obama died at the age of 20? Source: https://www.goupstate.com/story/news/2018/09/14/horse-named-barack-obama-euthanized-at-world-equestrian-games/10274313007/
• Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Lee Dong-hwan (pastor)
• Comment: Personally, ALT0 is my favorite hook.

Created by Di (they-them) (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 15 past nominations.

Di (they-them) (talk) 16:20, 22 July 2024 (UTC).

Well, this definitely won't lead to anyone freaking out when opening the Main Page. No, seriously, I love the original hook, and the other two are good backup alternatives if anyone wants to limit the surprise effect to more reasonable levels. Regarding the article, it's new enough, long enough, well-sourced enough and copyvio-free, and includes the content of ALT0 and ALT1. No WP:BLP (or should it be WP:BDH?) issues as far as I can see.

Only one very esoteric thing to note: all horses are traditionally registered with a date of birth of "January 1st", even if they were born later in the year, so the article technically doesn't have the information that he died at age 20 beyond the age template (should {{Death date and age}} have a variant for horses?). Either way, that's pretty much a non-issue, and the DYK is approved! Chaotic Enby (talk · contribs) 16:40, 22 July 2024 (UTC)

After a little more research, it looks like I was mistaken, and horse age is also calculated from January 1. So the information is enough to say that the horse was "20 years old" for horse purposes, even if it might not have lived 20 literal years. Chaotic Enby (talk · contribs) 16:55, 22 July 2024 (UTC)

Di (they-them), are you willing for this to wait for WP:DYKAPRIL? ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 17:18, 26 July 2024 (UTC)

@AirshipJungleman29: Sure, that's fine with me. Di (they-them) (talk) 18:27, 26 July 2024 (UTC)