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 from User talk:Zzyzx11#September 18

My point is that I find it unacceptable to promote chiropractic on the front page. Find another event. DS (talk) 04:51, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Why? And what should be the alternative? Zzyzx11 (Talk) 04:52, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

There has been a few complaints for more non- 20th Century events. Zzyzx11 (Talk) 04:54, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

In many ways, chiropractic is bullshit. How about the Treaty of Belgrade, or the Battle of Chojnice, or... ooh, the Panic of 1873, which seems particularly appropriate given recent economic turmoil in the US? And then we can replace the picture of Palmer with the one of Stolypin again. DS (talk) 04:57, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Treaty of Belgrade may be too stubby. Battle of Chojnice is tagged with {{unreferenced}}. And I am hesitant about Panic of 1873 because of complaints on Talk:Main Page#September 11 and Talk:Main Page#Rampant Pro-Rail bias on Main Page !!! for similar subjects on main pages as a whole. As for "chiropractic is bullshit", that is more an WP:POV or WP:OR opinion/complaint on your part than a legitimate reason, more like the opinions of users who I have to point to Wikipedia:FAQ/Main Page#I think that the articles listed on the Main Page are awful. Isn't the Main Page biased towards certain topics? What can be done about it?. Zzyzx11 (Talk) 05:01, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

The consensus of the WP:OTD pages, and the articles featured on the main page in general, are based on how well the articles are written. The are NOT chosen based on how much their subjects are important or significant, or how one feels about the subject. I find that your unilateral edit, saying that "chiropractic is bullshit" was made solely based on your personal feelings on the subject! I will keep the item off because I wish to not edit/wheel war any further. Regards. Zzyzx11 (Talk) 05:21, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, I'm only three-quarters awake at this time. DS (talk) 05:23, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

• Omitted: Battle of Chrysopolis; Lord Haw-Haw; Hurricane Fifi–Orlene; 2001 anthrax attacks
• Included: Tiberius (first appearance); Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (4th appearance, last in 2006); History of chiropractic (first appearance); United States Air Force/Central Intelligence Agency (first appearance for both)
• Repeats: Blackpool Illuminations (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

—howcheng {chat} 05:44, 17 September 2012 (UTC)reply

Please protect this page more thoroughly; while it tells me that I can't edit it, I'm given an "edit" button instead of a "view source" button.

2001:18E8:2:1020:B1B9:4E32:3CE8:AB45 (talk) 17:55, 18 September 2012 (UTC)reply

Although the tab is indeed titled "Edit", you'll find that you can't make changes to the text. The page is cascade protected, which means that it inherits the strictest protection level of all of the pages that it's transcluded to. For example, it's transcluded in Wikipedia:Main Page/1, which is fully protected; therefore Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/September 18 is fully protected as well. --Redrose64 (talk) 19:35, 18 September 2012 (UTC)reply

• Rescued from Ineligible (unused): The New York Times
• Omitted: Tiberius; Fugitive Slave Act of 1850; Blackpool Illuminations; History of chiropractic; Lord Haw-Haw; Central Intelligence Agency/United States Air Force
• Included: Royal Opera House (7th appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible); Jay Cooke & Company (first appearance); Hull House (first appearance); Dag Hammarskjöld (2nd appearance, last in 2007; rescued from Ineligible); Hurricane Fifi–Orlene (2nd appearance, last in 2011)

—howcheng {chat} 15:52, 17 September 2013 (UTC)reply

• Moved to Ineligible: Central Intelligence Agency/United States Air Force (CIA: maintenance)
• Omitted: Royal Opera House; Jay Cooke & Company; Dag Hammarskjöld
• Included: The New York Times (3rd appearance, last in 2009); Lord Haw-Haw (3rd apperance, last in 2012; 75th anniversary); ICANN (5th appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible)
• Repeats: Hull House (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total; 125th anniversary); Hurricane Fifi–Orlene (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total; 40th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 07:11, 17 September 2014 (UTC)reply

• Moved to Ineligible: Nerva; 2001 anthrax attacks
• Omitted: The New York Times; Hull House; Lord Haw-Haw; Hurricane Fifi–Orlene
• Included: Battle of Chrysopolis (6th appearance, last in 2011); Royal Opera House (8th appearance, last in 2013); History of chiropractic (2nd appearance, last in 2012); Battle of Dobro Pole (first appearance)
• Repeats: ICANN (2nd consecutive appearance, 6 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:19, 16 September 2015 (UTC)reply

• Moved to Ineligible: Lord Haw-Haw (maintenance); Dag Hammarskjöld (maintenance)
• Omitted: Battle of Chrysopolis; History of chiropractic; Battle of Dobro Pole; ICANN
• Included: Tiberius (2nd appearance, last in 2012); Blackpool Illuminations (3rd appearance, last in 2012); Pyotr Stolypin (3rd appearance, last in 2014); Hurricane Fifi–Orlene (4th appearance, last in 2014)
• Repeats: Royal Opera House (2nd consecutive appearance, 9 total)

—howcheng {chat} 06:39, 16 September 2017 (UTC)reply

• Moved to Ineligible: Hull House (maintenance); The New York Times (maintenance)
• New articles (ineligible): Fashoda Incident (maintenance)
• Omitted: Tiberius (ineligible—maintenance); Blackpool Illuminations; Pyotr Stolypin (ineligible—maintenance); Hurricane Fifi–Orlene
• Included: Battle of Chrysopolis(7th appearance, last in 2015); Old Faithful (first appearance); Battle of Dobro Pole (2nd appearance, last in 2015); Scottish independence referendum, 2014 (first appearance); Constantine III (Western Roman Emperor) (first appearance); Zhang Xianzhong (first appearance); Sol Campbell (first appearance)
• Repeats: Royal Opera House (3rd consecutive appearance, 10 total)

—howcheng {chat} 17:03, 18 September 2017 (UTC)reply

• Deleted: ICANN (moved to September 30)
• Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Nerva
• Omitted: Battle of Chrysopolis; Royal Opera House; Old Faithful; Scottish independence referendum, 2014; Constantine III (Western Roman Emperor) (deleted—exact death date unknown); Zhang Xianzhong; Sol Campbell
• Included: Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (5th appearance, last in 2012); Blackpool Illuminations (4th appearance, last in 2016); Hurricane Fifi–Orlene (5th appearance, last in 2016); 2001 anthrax attacks (2nd appearance, last in 2011); William Hazlitt (first appearance); Toni Wolff (first appearance); Christian Pulisic (first appearance)
• Repeats: Battle of Dobro Pole (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total; 100th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 15:56, 18 September 2018 (UTC)reply

• Omitted: Fugitive Slave Act of 1850; Blackpool Illuminations; Battle of Dobro Pole; Hurricane Fifi–Orlene; 2001 anthrax attacks; William Hazlitt; Toni Wolff; Christian Pulisic
• Included: Nerva (8th appearance, last in 2010); Royal Opera House (11th appearance, last in 2017); The New York Times (4th appearance, last in 2014; rescued from Ineligible); Australian cricket team in England in 1948 (5th appearance, last in 2018; moved from May 15); 2014 Scottish independence referendum (2nd appearance, last in 2017); Andronikos Komnenos (son of Alexios I) (first appearance); Zhang Xianzhong (2nd appearance, last in 2017); Edwin McMillan (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 16:03, 20 September 2019 (UTC)reply

• Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Dag Hammarskjöld
• Omitted: Nerva; Royal Opera House; The New York Times; 2014 Scottish independence referendum; Andronikos Komnenos (son of Alexios I); Zhang Xianzhong; Edwin McMillan
• Included: Battle of Kapetron (first appearance); Old Faithful (2nd appearance, last in 2017); History of chiropractic (3rd appearance, last in 2015; 125th anniversary); Battle of Dobro Pole (4th appearance, last in 2018); Kate Booth (first appearance); Blue Panther (first appearance); Haim Hefer (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 20:23, 19 September 2020 (UTC)reply

• Omitted: Battle of Kapetron; Old Faithful; History of chiropractic; Battle of Dobro Pole; Kate Booth; Blue Panther; Haim Hefer
• Included: Battle of Chrysopolis (8th appearance, last in 2017); Blackpool Illuminations (5th appearance, last in 2018); Australian cricket team in England in 1948 (6th appearance, last in 2019); Dag Hammarskjöld (3rd appearance, last in 2013; 60th anniversary); 2001 anthrax attacks (3rd appearance, last in 2018; 20th anniversary); Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford (first appearance); André Dacier (first appearance); Suicide of Jamey Rodemeyer (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 07:36, 19 September 2021 (UTC)reply

• Omitted: Battle of Chrysopolis; Blackpool Illuminations; Dag Hammarskjöld; 2001 anthrax attacks; Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford; André Dacier; Suicide of Jamey Rodemeyer
• Included: Battle of Kapetron (2nd appearance, last in 2020); Battle of Dobro Pole (5th appearance, last in 2020); Hurricane Fifi–Orlene (6th appearance, last in 2018); 2014 Scottish independence referendum (3rd appearance, last in 2019); Zhang Xianzhong (3rd appearance, last in 2019); Edwin McMillan (2nd appearance, last in 2019); Christian Pulisic (2nd appearance, last in 2018)
• Repeats: Australian cricket team in England in 1948 (2nd consecutive appearance, 7 total)

—howcheng {chat} 17:40, 21 September 2022 (UTC)reply