Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/December 13

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This is the talk page for making suggestions or discussing improvements to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/December 13.

To report an error when this list is currently on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Before making a suggestion, please read the selected anniversaries guidelines. Please remember that this list usually defers to supporting pages when there is disagreement, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
To discuss improvements to the corresponding December 13 article, see Talk:December 13 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.

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 [Insert country or region here]. 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 [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:

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.

Today's featured article for December 13, 2025
Wikipedia:Today's featured article/December 13, 2025 create – talk – watch
Picture of the day for December 13, 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/December 12 * Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/December 14 →

The 1981 event should probably point to Martial law in Poland. That is the article about the actual event, as opposed to Martial law, which describes what it is in general. --daranz^t 15:47, 13 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Dartmouth

Is not really Royally Chartered. The only two royally chartered colleges in the US are Columbia and William & Mary. Dartmouth's charter is signed by the governor, on behalf of the crown, but not by the crown. Savidan 21:23, 13 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sorry, I don't quite understand how we can qualify the statement in order to be accurate in the way that you mention. Can you suggest an alternative wording? howcheng {chat} 22:24, 13 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Dartmouth, and the rest of December 13, is now off the Main Page. I presume it's unprotected, so you can fix it for next year. Art LaPella (talk) 00:52, 14 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

2011 notes

Swapped out: Council of Trent, Dartmouth College, 2001 Indian Parliament attack, Baiji
Swapped in: Battle of Alton (first appearance), Ephraim McDowell (first appearance), Nanking Massacre (4th appearance, last in 2008, recovered from Ineligible), Wojciech Jaruzelski (6th appearance, last in 2009, recovered from Ineligible)
Left in: 1960 Ethiopian coup attempt (2nd consecutive appearance, 2nd overall)
Deliberately did not use Battle of Fredericksburg, despite its omission last year, to avoid having three war articles.

--howcheng {chat} 20:55, 12 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

2012 notes

Omitted: Battle of Alton; Ephraim McDowell; 1960 Ethiopian coup attempt; Wojciech Jaruzelski
Included: Francis Drake (9th appearance, last in 2008); National Guard of the United States (first appearance); Battle of Fredericksburg (6th appearance, last in 2009; 150th anniversary); 2001 Indian Parliament attack (2nd appearance, last in 2010)
Repeats: Nanking Massacre (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total; 75th anniversary)

2013 notes

Omitted: Francis Drake; National Guard of the United States; Battle of Fredericksburg; Nanking Massacre; 2001 Indian Parliament attack
Included: Council of Trent (7th appearance, last in 2010); Ephraim McDowell (2nd appearance, last in 2011); 1960 Ethiopian coup attempt (3rd appearance, last in 2011); Attack on Derryard checkpoint (first appearance); 2011 Liège attack (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 05:14, 12 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Another suggestion is 13 December 1981 when General Jaruzelski declared martial law, suspended Solidarity and imprisoned many union leaders. I THINK THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. -TrainSimFan

Arba'een

Arba'een is added. While Arba'een is always on the same day of the Islamic calendar, the date on the Gregorian calendar varies from year to year due to differences between the two calendars, since the Islamic calendar, the Hijri calendar (AH), is a lunar calendar and the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar. Furthermore, the method used to determine when each Islamic month begins varies from country to country (see Islamic calendar). Arba'een this year, coincides with 13 December in many countries such as Iraq. Mhhossein (talk) 09:48, 10 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

2014 notes

Deleted: Ephraim McDowell (moved to December 25)
Moved to Ineligible: National Guard of the United States (maintenance); Baiji (maintenance)
Omitted: Malta (ineligible—maintenance); Council of Trent; 1960 Ethiopian coup attempt; Wojciech Jaruzelski; 2011 Liège attack
Included: Battle of Alton (2nd appearance, last in 2011); Duke William (ship) (first appearance); Battle of Nanking/Nanking Massacre (Battle: 2nd appearance, Massacre: 6th appearance, last in 2012); 2001 Indian Parliament attack (3rd appearance, last in 2012)
Repeats: Attack on Derryard checkpoint (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total; 25th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 07:20, 12 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

2015 notes

Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Baiji
Omitted: Battle of Alton; Duke William (ship); Battle of Nanking/Nanking Massacre; Attack on Derryard checkpoint
Included: Council of Trent (8th appearance, last in 2013); Dartmouth College (5th appearance, last in 2010); 1960 Ethiopian coup attempt (4th appearance, last in 2013); Wojciech Jaruzelski (7th appearance, last in 2011)
Repeats: 2001 Indian Parliament attack (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total)

—howcheng {chat} 08:17, 11 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

2016 notes

Omitted: Council of Trent; Dartmouth College; Wojciech Jaruzelski; 2001 Indian Parliament attack
Included: Francis Drake (10th appearance, last in 2012); Battle of Fredericksburg (7th appearance, last in 2012); Attack on Derryard checkpoint (3rd appearance, last in 2014); Baiji (2nd appearance, last in 2010; 10th anniversary)
Repeats: 1960 Ethiopian coup attempt (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total)

—howcheng {chat} 10:27, 13 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Edit war by Joseph

@Howcheng: Please notice that User:Sir Joseph is edit warring on this page. He has reverted all of my house keepings. --Mhhossein ^talk 19:29, 11 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Reverting you is not edit warring. You are the one who didn't abide by BRD. Sir Joseph ^(talk) 20:05, 11 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

And you came to be wrong as Howcheng said, not Bold. --Mhhossein ^talk 07:13, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

That's not how BRD works. And is there a reason why you are so aggressive with this entry? Sir Joseph ^(talk) 16:35, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

OK, let's cool it down here. Sir Joseph, this is standard operating procedure for OTD updates. We usually vet the articles 1-3 days in advance of their main page appearance. If we do it too late, then we get complaints that there wasn't enough time for editors to fix any problems, and if we do it too early, then basically you have to do it again later in case any changes were made. A few days ahead of time seems to be the optimal balance. As I said to you elsewhere, if you have an issue with specific article(s) (such as in this case), then please limit the scope of your revert so that other cleanup is not affected. Mhhossein the Jewish holidays are kind of a special case because WikiProject Judaism is fairly proactive in fixing issues when they are made aware of them. SJ specifically came to me about this article to let me know they were working on it, so we can let this get handled at WP:ERRORS if it's not done in time. Thanks. —howcheng {chat} 16:59, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I'm OK with that. I do think however that some of the tagging is extremely nitpicky and overly aggressive. Our goal should be to have articles on the front page, not to exclude them. If there are glaring issues, then yes, it might not belong, but on the flip side, having articles on the page allow more people to edit and fix issues. Sir Joseph ^(talk) 17:02, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the intervention Howcheng. Reverting all what I had done was sort of annoying edit. SJ could simply resolve the issues instead of these reverts. I do my best to to keep the main page clean. --Mhhossein ^talk 18:29, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hanukkah

Dear @Howcheng: Hanukkah is listed as eligible while it has some maintenance tags and needs to be refimproved in multiple areas. --Mhhossein ^talk 07:16, 12 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

2017 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Council of Trent (maintenance); Duke William (ship) (maintenance); 2001 Indian Parliament attack (maintenance)
Omitted: Battle of Fredericksburg; 1960 Ethiopian coup attempt; Attack on Derryard checkpoint; Baiji (ineligible—maintenance)
Included: Battle of Alton (3rd appearance, last in 2014); Dartmouth College (first appearance); Battle of Nanking (3rd appearance, last in 2014; 80th anniversary); 1982 North Yemen earthquake (first appearance); Samuel Johnson (first appearance); Emily Carr (first appearance); Taylor Swift (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 07:00, 14 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

2018 notes

Omitted: Dartmouth College; Battle of Nanking; 1982 North Yemen earthquake; Samuel Johnson; Emily Carr; Taylor Swift
Included: Battle of Fredericksburg (8th appearance, last in 2016); An American in Paris (first appearance; 90th anniversary); 1960 Ethiopian coup attempt (6th appearance, last in 2016); 2001 Indian Parliament attack (5th appearance, last in 2015); Francesco Bianchini (first appearance); Ana Néri (first appearance); Dora Marsden (first appearance)
Repeats: Battle of Alton (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total; 375th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 16:56, 13 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2019 notes

Omitted: Battle of Fredericksburg; An American in Paris; 1960 Ethiopian coup attempt; 2001 Indian Parliament attack; Francesco Bianchini; Ana Néri; Dora Marsden
Included: Dartmouth College (7th appearance, last in 2017; 250th anniversary); Battle of Nanking (4th appearance, last in 2017); Attack on Derryard checkpoint (4th appearance, last in 2016; 30th anniversary); 2011 Liège attack (2nd appearance, last in 2013); Heinrich Heine (first appearance); Taylor Swift (2nd appearance, last in 2017; 30th birthday); Jill Craigie (first appearance)
Repeats: Battle of Alton (3rd consecutive appearance, 5 total)

—howcheng {chat} 16:41, 16 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

2020 notes

New articles (ineligible): 1975 Spring Offensive (maintenance)
Omitted: Battle of Alton; Dartmouth College; Battle of Nanking; Attack on Derryard checkpoint; 2011 Liège attack; Heinrich Heine; Jill Craigie
Included: Battle of Fredericksburg (9th appearance, last in 2018); An American in Paris (2nd appearance, last in 2018); 1960 Ethiopian coup d'état attempt (7th appearance, last in 2018; 60th anniversary); 1982 North Yemen earthquake (2nd appearance, last in 2017); Paul Speratus (first appearance); Mary Todd Lincoln (first appearance); Dora Marsden (2nd appearance, last in 2018; 60th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 05:28, 15 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

2021 notes

Omitted: Battle of Fredericksburg; An American in Paris; 1960 Ethiopian coup d'état attempt; 1982 North Yemen earthquake; Paul Speratus; Mary Todd Lincoln; Dora Marsden
Included: Battle of Alton (6th appearance, last in 2019); Dartmouth College (8th appearance, last in 2019); Martial law in Poland (2nd appearance, last in 2021; 40th anniversary; also appeared on July 22, but removed from there; rescued from Ineligible; blurb previously featured Wojciech Jaruzelski, which remains ineligible, and is making its 8th appearance, last in 2015); 2001 Indian Parliament attack (6th appearance, last in 2018; 20th anniversary); 2011 Liège attack (3rd appearance, last in 2019; 10th anniversary); Pope Callixtus II (first appearance); Emily Carr (2nd appearance, last in 2017; 150th birthday); Hans-Joachim Marseille (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 17:19, 14 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]