Frequently asked questions Q1: Why is , 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 . 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 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.

• Moved to Ineligible: Doctor Who (maintenance); EgyptAir Flight 648 (maintenance); Maguindanao massacre (maintenance)
• Omitted: Manchester Martyrs; Abyssinia Crisis; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
• Included: Edwin Hubble (3rd consecutive appearance, 3 total; moved from December 30); Cocos (Keeling) Islands (first appearance); Bombardment of Yeonpyeong (first appearance)
• Repeats: William M. Tweed (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total); Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:12, 22 November 2012 (UTC)

• Deleted: China and the United Nations (also featured on October 25)
• New articles (ineligible): Holodomor (maintenance)
• New articles (unused): Il Canto degli Italiani (moved from November 17)
• Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Maguindanao massacre
• Omitted: William M. Tweed; Cocos (Keeling) Islands; Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961; Bombardment of Yeonpyeong
• Included: 1733 slave insurrection on St. John (first appearance); Manchester Martyrs (5th appearance, last in 2011); IBM Simon (first appearance); Ali Abdullah Saleh/Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi (both: first appearance)
• Repeats: Edwin Hubble (4th consecutive appearance, 4 total)

—howcheng {chat} 08:30, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

• Rescued from Ineligible (unused): An Unearthly Child/Doctor Who; Eduard Shevardnadze
• Omitted: 1733 slave insurrection on St. John; Manchester Martyrs; IBM Simon; Ali Abdullah Saleh/Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi
• Included: Perkin Warbeck (first appearance; rescued from Ineligible); William M. Tweed (3rd appearance, last in 2012); Abyssinia Crisis (2nd appearance, last in 2011); Maguindanao massacre (first appearance)
• Repeats: Edwin Hubble (3rd appearance, 5 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:28, 22 November 2014 (UTC)

• Omitted: Perkin Warbeck; William M. Tweed; Edwin Hubble; Abyssinia Crisis; Maguindanao massacre
• Included: 1733 slave insurrection on St. John (2nd appearance, last in 2013); Manchester Martyrs (6th appearance, last in 2013); Doctor Who (4th appearance, last in 2010; blurb previously also featured An Unearthly Child, which is currently ineligible); Cocos (Keeling) Islands(2nd appearance, last in 2012; 60th anniversary); Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (4th appearance, last in 2011; 10th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 11:43, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

• Moved to Ineligible: William M. Tweed (maintenance); Abyssinia Crisis (maintenance)
• Omitted: Manchester Martyrs; Cocos (Keeling) Islands (ineligible—maintenance); Doctor Who; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
• Included: Perkin Warbeck (2nd appearance, last in 2014); 1980 Irpinia earthquake (2nd appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible); Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 (4th appearance, last in 2012); Il Canto degli Italiani (first appearance)
• Repeats: 1733 slave insurrection on St. John (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:48, 23 November 2016 (UTC)reply

Per WP:ERRORS, I have removed National Sovereignty Day in Argentina, which is celebrated on 20 November, and moved Abyssinia Crisis to ineligible because of the number of "citation needed" tags. I replaced it with Il Canto degli Italian. Bencherlite^Talk 09:17, 23 November 2016 (UTC)reply

• Moved to Ineligible: Bombardment of Yeonpyeong (maintenance)
• New articles (unused): Miley Cyrus
• Omitted: Saint George's Day (ineligible—maintenance); Perkin Warbeck (ineligible—maintenance); 1733 slave insurrection on St. John; 1980 Irpinia earthquake; Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961; Il Canto degli Italiani
• Included: Manchester Martyrs (7th appearance, last in 2015; 150th anniversary); William M. Tweed (4th appearance, last in 2014; rescued from Ineligible); Edwin Hubble (6th appearance, last in 2014); IBM Simon (2nd appearance, last in 2013; 25th anniversary); MV Explorer (1969) (2nd appearance, last in 2010; 10th anniversary); Richard Hakluyt (first appearance); Mary Brewster Hazelton (first appearance); Mary Whitehouse (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 09:03, 23 November 2017 (UTC)reply

Not listing Thanksgiving for an unreferenced section on Sports? -- JHunterJ (talk) 14:36, 23 November 2017 (UTC)reply

@JHunterJ: Correct, alas. —howcheng {chat} 19:52, 23 November 2017 (UTC)reply

That seems like a poster child example for a time to ignore all rules. -- JHunterJ (talk) 13:38, 24 November 2017 (UTC)reply

• Moved to Ineligible: Doctor Who (maintenance); Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (maintenance)
• Omitted: William M. Tweed; IBM Simon; MV Explorer (1969); Richard Hakluyt; Mary Brewster Hazelton; Mary Whitehouse
• Included: 1733 slave insurrection on St. John (4th appearance, last in 2016); Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 (5th appearance, last in 2016); Il Canto degli Italiani (3rd appearance, last in 2016); Jean-Baptiste Jourdan (first appearance); Shangguan Yunzhu (first appearance); Miley Cyrus (first appearance)
• Repeats: Manchester Martyrs (2nd consecutive appearance, 8 total); Edwin Hubble (2nd consecutive appearance, 7 total)

—howcheng {chat} 17:59, 20 November 2019 (UTC)reply

• New articles (unused): Jacques Mayol
• Omitted: Manchester Martyrs; Edwin Hubble; Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961; Il Canto degli Italiani; Jean-Baptiste Jourdan; Shangguan Yunzhu; Miley Cyrus
• Included: William M. Tweed (5th appearance, last in 2017); IBM Simon (3rd appearance, last in 2017); Maguindanao massacre (3rd appearance, last in 2014); Eadred (first appearance); Prospero Alpini (first appearance); Mary Landrieu (first appearance)
• Repeats: 1733 slave insurrection on St. John (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total)

—howcheng {chat} 17:08, 25 November 2019 (UTC)reply

• Moved to Ineligible: Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 (maintenance)
• Omitted: 1733 slave insurrection on St. John; IBM Simon; Maguindanao massacre; Eadred; Prospero Alpini; Mary Landrieu
• Included: Manchester Martyrs (9th appearance, last in 2018); An Unearthly Child (first appearance; rescued from Ineligible); 1980 Irpinia earthquake (3rd appearance, last in 2016; 40th anniversary); MV Explorer (1969) (3rd appearance, last in 2017); Jean-Baptiste Jourdan (2nd appearance, last in 2018); Anne Burns (first appearance); Yusof Ishak (first appearance; 50th anniversary)
• Repeats: William M. Tweed (2nd consecutive appearance, 6 total)

—howcheng {chat} 04:21, 25 November 2020 (UTC)reply

• Omitted: William M. Tweed; An Unearthly Child; 1980 Irpinia earthquake; MV Explorer (1969); Jean-Baptiste Jourdan; Anne Burns; Yusof Ishak
• Included: 1733 slave insurrection on St. John (6th appearance, last in 2019); Edwin Hubble (8th appearance, last in 2018); Jacques Mayol (first appearance); Ali Abdullah Saleh/Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi (both: 2nd appearance, last in 2013); Beatriz Galindo (first appearance); El Lissitzky (first appearance); Mary Whitehouse (2nd appearance, last in 2017; 20th anniversary)
• Repeats: Manchester Martyrs (2nd consecutive appearance, 10 total)

—howcheng {chat} 08:28, 24 November 2021 (UTC)reply