Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/April 17

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This is the talk page for making suggestions or discussing improvements to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/April 17.

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To discuss improvements to the corresponding April 17 article, see Talk:April 17 instead.

Frequently asked questions

Q1: Why is [Insert event here], 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.

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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.

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Q4: Why is the birthday/death anniversary of [Insert name here] 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:

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Today's featured article for April 17, 2025
The word bædlingas in the Cleopatra Glossaries *Bæddel* and *bædling* are Old English terms referring to non-normative sexual or gender categories. Occurring in a small number of medieval glossaries and penitentials (guides for religious penance), the exact meaning of the terms (and their distinction, if any) are debated by scholars. Both terms are often connected to effeminacy and adultery. Bæddel is glossed as "hermaphrodite" and a "man of both sexes" in its two extant glosses, while bædling is often glossed with terms associated with effeminacy and softness. The Oxford English Dictionary supports bæddel as the etymological root of the English adjective bad, although scholars propose alternative origins, including a shared root with both bæddel and bædling. The term bædlings may have included people assigned female at birth who took on masculine social roles or referred to intersex people. Scholars suggest that bædlings could represent a third gender outside the gender binary or a form of gender nonconformity in Anglo-Saxon society. (Full article...) Archive By email More featured articles About view – talk – edit – history – watch
Picture of the day for April 17, 2025
The featured picture for this day has not yet been chosen. In general, pictures of the day are scheduled in order of promotion to featured status. See Wikipedia:Picture of the day/Guidelines for full guidelines. create

← Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/April 16 * Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/April 18 →

1986 - The Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly declared peace, ending the Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War.

An excellent addition by Zzyzx11. Very interesting.... Maybe the letter 'c' should be dropped. :-) --PFHLai 14:31, 16 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's defiantly interesting, but should quirky technicalities of history take precedent over events with major historical impacts? --Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 22:48, 17 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki

Maguan?

Seems kinda weird that a treaty signed in a Japanese city is translated using the Chinese transliteration of the place name? (And this is a Sinophile talking :P) Kelvinc 08:34, 17 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

'unequal'

The treaty is unequal, without the quotes. That's a fact. Or, the other method: if you think the unequal treaty is a term, as in the article linked, then quote both words: 'unequal treaty'. Aran|heru|nar 11:21, 17 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Both problems have been fixed. In future, please use WP:ERRORS. Response is usually quicker there. Thanks. --PFHLai 17:28, 17 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

2012 notes

Omitted: Bay of Pigs Invasion; Cambodian Civil War; Murder of Yvonne Fletcher
Included: Peak District (first appearance); Sirhan Sirhan (3rd appearance, first on this date, last in 2006; previously appeared on June 5); Constitution Act, 1982 (3rd appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible)
Repeats: Canute IV of Denmark (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total); Minas Geraes class battleship/South American dreadnought race (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total for Minas Geraes class; first appearance for Dreadnought race)

—howcheng {chat} 05:44, 16 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

2013 notes

Omitted: Canute IV of Denmark (ineligible—maintenance); Minas Geraes-class battleship/South American dreadnought race; Sirhan Sirhan
Included: Veronese Easter (first appearance); Lena massacre (first appearance); Bay of Pigs Invasion (8th appearance, last in 2011); Cambodian Civil War(8th appearance, last in 2011)
Repeats: Peak District (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total); Constitution Act, 1982 (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total)

—howcheng {chat} 06:05, 16 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

2014 notes

New articles (unused): West Fertilizer Company explosion
Omitted: Veronese Easter (ineligible—maintenance); Lena massacre; Peak District; Bay of Pigs Invasion; Constitution Act, 1982
Included: South American dreadnought race (2nd appearance, last in 2012; blurb previously also featured Minas Geraes-class battleship, but was shortened); Henri Giraud (6th appearance, last in 2008; rescued from Ineligible); Sirhan Sirhan (5th appearance, last in 2012); Murder of Yvonne Fletcher (2nd appearance, last in 2011; 30th anniversary)
Repeats: Cambodian Civil War (2nd consecutive appearance, 10 total)

—howcheng {chat} 05:34, 16 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

2015 notes

New articles (unused): Star Wars (film)
Moved to Ineligible: Lena massacre (maintenance)
Omitted: Henri Giraud (ineligible—maintenance); Sirhan Sirhan; Murder of Yvonne Fletcher
Included: Canute IV of Denmark (3rd appearance, last in 2012; rescued from Ineligible); Peak District (3rd appearance, last in 2013); West Fertilizer Company explosion (first appearance)
Repeats: South American dreadnought race (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total); Cambodian Civil War (3rd consecutive appearance, 11 total; 40th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 06:13, 15 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Checking the list

@Howcheng: Ineligible articles are still ineligible while one of the articles and Canute IV of Denmark in the eligible list has "CN" tags which needs to be addressed. Public holidays in Syria cites to no reference and has to be moved to the Ineligible list. Mhhossein (talk) 12:25, 14 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

A few {{cn}} tags are fine. There's no hard number as to at what point we say no – that's a judgement call, based on how well-referenced the rest of the article is. Both of these look OK to me. —howcheng {chat} 05:58, 15 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

2016 notes

Omitted: Cambodian Civil War; West Fertilizer Company explosion
Included: Star Wars (film) (4th appearance, last in 2011; previously featured on May 25); Constitution Act, 1982 (5th appearance, last in 2013)
Repeats: Canute IV of Denmark (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total); South American dreadnought race (3rd consecutive appearance, 4 total); Peak District (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:25, 15 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

2017 notes

Moved to Ineligible: West Fertilizer Company explosion (maintenance)
Omitted: Canute IV of Denmark; Peak District; Star Wars (film); Constitution Act, 1982
Included: Siege of Kaunas (1362) (first appearance); Bay of Pigs Invasion (9th appearance, last in 2013); Cambodian Civil War (12th appearance, last in 2015); Kepler-186f (first appearance); Karen Blixen (first appearance); Sean Bean (first appearance); Elda Emma Anderson (first appearance)
Repeats: South American dreadnought race (4th consecutive appearance, 5 total)

—howcheng {chat} 03:36, 17 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Star Wars should be deleted from this day and left on May 25. —howcheng {chat} 04:21, 25 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Countermand the above suggestion, because May 25 has more eligible articles than this one. —howcheng {chat} 01:05, 16 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2018 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Constitution Act, 1982 (maintenance)
Omitted: Bay of Pigs Invasion; Cambodian Civil War; Kepler-186f; Karen Blixen; Sean Bean; Elda Emma Anderson
Included: Evacuation Day (Syria) (first appearance; rescued from Ineligible); Harald III of Denmark/Canute IV of Denmark (Harald: first appearance; Canute: 5th appearance, last in 2016); Peak District (5th appearance, last in 2016); Star Wars (film) (6th appearance, last in 2017 on May 25, but now it's deleted from there); Marino Faliero (first appearance); Cap Anson (first appearance); Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu (first appearance)
Repeats: Siege of Kaunas (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total); South American dreadnought race (5th consecutive appearance, 6 total)

—howcheng {chat} 17:05, 17 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2019 notes

New articles (ineligible): Eliza Acton (TFA for 2019)
Omitted: Siege of Kaunas; South American dreadnought race; Peak District; Star Wars (film); Marino Faliero; Cap Anson; Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu
Included: Battle of San Juan (1797) (4th appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible); Sirhan Sirhan (6th appearance, last in 2014; 50th anniversary); Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War (3rd appearance, last in 2008; rescued from Ineligible); Kepler-186f (2nd appearance, last in 2017); Hannah Webster Foster (first appearance); Neville McNamara (first appearance); Sean Bean (2nd appearance, last in 2017; 60th birthday)
Repeats: Harald III of Denmark/Canute IV of Denmark (2nd consecutive appearance; Harald: 2 total; Canute: 6 total)

—howcheng {chat} 15:48, 17 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

2020 notes

Omitted: Canute IV of Denmark/Harald III of Denmark; Sirhan Sirhan; Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War; Kepler-186f; Hannah Webster Foster; Neville McNamara; Sean Bean
Included: Siege of Kaunas (3rd appearance, last in 2018); Morelos; Peak District (6th appearance, last in 2018); Fall of Phnom Penh/Cambodian Civil War (Fall: first appearance; War: 13th, last in 2017); Bernard of Italy (first appearance); Eliza Acton (first appearance); Vikram (actor) (first appearance)
Repeats: Battle of San Juan (1797) (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total)

—howcheng {chat} 19:18, 18 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

2021 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Bay of Pigs Invasion (maintenance); Sean Bean (maintenance)
New articles (ineligible): Provisional Government of Bangladesh (maintenance); Benjamin Franklin (maintenance)
New articles (unused): Mary Jefferson Eppes
Omitted: Battle of San Juan (1797); Morelos; Fall of Phnom Penh; Bernard of Italy; Eliza Acton; Vikram (actor)
Included: Canute IV of Denmark/Harald III of Denmark (Canute: 7th appearance; Harald: 3rd; both last in 2019); Brazilian battleship Minas Geraes/South American dreadnought race (Battleship: 3rd appearance, last in 2011; previously appeared on November 21; Race: 7th appearance, last in 2018); Marino Faliero (2nd appearance, last in 2018); William R. Day (first appearance); Elda Emma Anderson (2nd appearance, last in 2017; 60th anniversary)
Repeats: Siege of Kaunas (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total); Peak District (2nd consecutive appearance, 7 total; 70th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 06:29, 20 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

2022 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Morelos (maintenance)
New articles (ineligible): Catalpa rescue (maintenance)
Omitted: Siege of Kaunas; Marino Faliero; William R. Day; Elda Emma Anderson
Included: Battle of San Juan (1797) (6th appearance, last in 2020; 225th anniversary); 1971 Yugoslav Embassy shooting; Benjamin Franklin (4th appearance, last in 2021; normally appears on October 19); Karen Blixen (2nd appearance, last in 2017); Victoria Beckham (first appearance)
Repeats: Canute IV of Denmark/Harald III of Denmark (both: 2nd consecutive appearance; Canute: 8 total; Harald: 4 total); Brazilian battleship Minas Geraes/South American dreadnought race (both: 2nd consecutive appearance; MG: 4 total; Race: 8 total); Peak District (3rd consecutive appearance, 8 total)

—howcheng {chat} 03:38, 18 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]