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: Mary Robinson (maintenance)
• New articles (unused): Richard Sorge
• Omitted: London Gazette; Last Spike (Canadian Pacific Railway); Tacoma Narrows Bridge (1940) (ineligible—maintenance; blurb previously featured Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which is really the wrong article); Magic Johnson
• Included: Dunmore's Proclamation (first appearance); Battle of Belmont (first appearance); Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (5th appearance, last in 2008; rescued from Ineligible); Jokela school shooting (first appearance)
• Repeats: October Revolution (5th consecutive appearance, 9 total)

—howcheng {chat} 11:06, 6 November 2012 (UTC)

• Moved to Ineligible: Richard Sorge (maintenance)
• New articles (unused): Third Battle of Gaza
• Omitted: Dunmore's Proclamation; Battle of Belmont; October Revolution; Zine El Abidine Ben Ali; Jokela school shooting
• Included: The London Gazette (9th appearance, last in 2011); Battle of Tippecanoe (3rd appearance, last in 2010); Last Spike (Canadian Pacific Railway) (4th appearance, last in 2011); Museum of Modern Art (first appearance); Armenia (Soviet hospital ship) (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 06:36, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

While i realize we have virtually have a year to think about it, but i think we should include Typhoon Haiyan within the Selected anniversaries for November 7. I chose the date since it is the date of its first landfall in the Philippines and am nominating it since it is confirmed that the typhoon killed over 5000 people.Jason Rees (talk) 05:36, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

To avoid recentism, we don't generally include articles on events until they are at least two years old, although I may break that rule when the day in question has a short list of eligible articles, which is not the case here. —howcheng {chat} 11:35, 6 November 2014 (UTC)

• Omitted: The London Gazette; Battle of Tippecanoe; Last Spike (Canadian Pacific Railway); Museum of Modern Art; Armenia (Soviet hospital ship)
• Included: Third Council of Constantinople (first appearance); Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia (first appearance); Elijah Parish Lovejoy (first appearance); Third Battle of Gaza (first appearance); Mars Global Surveyor (4th appearance, last in 2006; rescued from Ineligible)

—howcheng {chat} 11:38, 6 November 2014 (UTC)reply

• New articles (unused): Jeanette Rankin
• Omitted: Third Council of Constantinople; Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia; Elijah Parish Lovejoy; Third Battle of Gaza; Mars Global Surveyor
• Included: The London Gazette (10th appearance; 450th anniversary); Dunmore's Proclamation (2nd appearance, last in 2012); October Revolution (6th appearance as blurb, 10 total, last in 2012); Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore) (first appearance); Hillary Clinton (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 09:16, 5 November 2015 (UTC)reply

• Omitted: Dunmore's Proclamation; October Revolution (ineligible—maintenance); Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore); Hillary Clinton
• Included: Last Spike (Canadian Pacific Railway) (5th appearance, last in 2013); Jeannette Rankin (first appearance; 100th anniversary); Soviet hospital ship Armenia (2nd appearance, last in 2013; 75th anniversary); Magic Johnson (4th appearance, last in 2011; 25th anniversary)
• Repeats: The London Gazette (2nd consecutive appearance, 11 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:22, 6 November 2016 (UTC)reply

• Deleted: National Revolution and Solidarity Day (not observed anymore)
• Moved to Ineligible: Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia (maintenance); Elijah Parish Lovejoy (maintenance); Museum of Modern Art (maintenance); Mars Global Surveyor (maintenance); Jokela school shooting (maintenance)
• Omitted: The London Gazette; Last Spike (Canadian Pacific Railway); Jeannette Rankin; Soviet hospital ship Armenia; Magic Johnson
• Included: Third Council of Constantinople (2nd appearance, last in 2014); Dunmore's Proclamation (3rd appearance, last in 2015); Battle of Belmont (2nd appearance, last in 2012); Third Battle of Gaza (2nd appearance, last in 2014; 100th anniversary); Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore) (2nd appearance, last in 2015); Jeanne de Jussie (first appearance); Thomas Brassey (first appearance); Lorde (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 03:34, 7 November 2017 (UTC)reply

• Omitted: Dunmore's Proclamation; Battle of Belmont; Third Battle of Gaza; Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore); Jeanne de Jussie; Thomas Brassey; Lorde
• Included: Battle of Tippecanoe (4th appearance, last in 2013); Neft Daşları (first appearance); 1987 Tunisian coup d'état (first appearance; blurb previously featured Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, which is currently ineligible); Hillary Clinton (2nd appearance, last in 2015); Maldev Rathore (first appearance); Lise Meitner (first appearance); Eleanor Roosevelt (first appearance)
• Repeats: Third Council of Constantinople (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total)

—howcheng {chat} 19:07, 7 November 2018 (UTC)reply

• New articles (unused): Ri Ul-sol
• Omitted: Third Council of Constantinople; Battle of Tippecanoe; 1987 Tunisian coup d'état; Hillary Clinton; Maldev Rathore; Lise Meitner; Eleanor Roosevelt
• Included: The London Gazette (12th appearance, last in 2016); Last Spike (Canadian Pacific Railway) (6th appearance, last in 2016); Jeannette Rankin (2nd appearance, last in 2016); Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore) (3rd appearance, last in 2017); Ibn Hazm (first appearance); 1025th birthday; Paul Sandby (first appearance); Ellen Stewart (first appearance; 100th birthday)
• Repeats: Neft Daşları (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total; 70th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 17:03, 8 November 2019 (UTC)reply

• Omitted: The London Gazette; Last Spike (Canadian Pacific Railway) (ineligible—maintenance); Neft Daşları; Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore); Ibn Hazm; Paul Sandby; Ellen Stewart
• Included: Third Council of Constantinople (4th appearance, last in 2018); Battle of Tippecanoe (5th appearance, last in 2018); Third Battle of Gaza (3rd appearance, last in 2017); 1987 Tunisian coup d'état (2nd appearance, last in 2018); Hillary Clinton (3rd appearance, last in 2018; 20th anniversary); William Stukeley (first appearance); Ruby Hurley (first appearance); Ri Ul-sol (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 04:09, 9 November 2020 (UTC)reply

• Moved to Ineligible: The London Gazette (maintenance)
• Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Elijah Parish Lovejoy
• Omitted: Battle of Tippecanoe; Third Battle of Gaza; 1987 Tunisian coup d'état; Hillary Clinton; William Stukeley; Ruby Hurley; Ri Ul-sol
• Included: Dunmore's Proclamation (4th appearance, last in 2017); Soviet hospital ship Armenia (3rd appearance, last in 2016; 80th anniversary); Neft Daşları(3rd appearance, last in 2019); Magic Johnson (5th appearance, last in 2016; 30th anniversary); Emanuele Luigi Galizia (first appearance); Lise Meitner (2nd appearance, last in 2018); Lorde (2nd appearance, last in 2017; 25th birthday)
• Repeats: Third Council of Constantinople (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total)

—howcheng {chat} 18:08, 8 November 2021 (UTC)reply