Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/December 4

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This is the talk page for making suggestions or discussing improvements to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/December 4.

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 4 article, see Talk:December 4 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 4, 2025
Wikipedia:Today's featured article/December 4, 2025 create – talk – watch
Picture of the day for December 4, 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 3 * Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/December 5 →

The image is copyrighted an will be deleted on Commons! --ALE! 13:00, 13 June 2006 (UTC) Can an admin change the image to a non-redlink please. We could use the portrait of Bokassa, the painting of Jeremiah Horrocks observing the transit of Venus, or one of the modern photos of a transit. -- AJR | Talk 17:05, 22 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, the guidelines say we should not use fair use images, which pretty much limits us to Horrocks or a transit (we do have images to illustrate Sati, but I don't think they look very clear in thumbnail.) -- AJR | Talk 17:17, 22 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Done. Changed it to the Horrocks image. ♠P M C♠ 19:54, 22 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

2012 notes

Moved to Ineligible: The Observer (maintenance)
New articles (Ineligible): Grey Cup (recently appeared as TFA); The Dandy (moved from December 3);
Omitted: Transit of Venus (ineligible—appeared as TFA on June 5, 2012); Sati (practice); History of the Montreal Canadiens; Pan American World Airways; Jena Six
Included: Mary Celeste (first appearance; rescued from Ineligible); Shangani Patrol (first appearance); History of Burger King (first appearance); Bruce George Peter Lee (first appearance); Unified Task Force (4th appearance, last in 2010)

—howcheng {chat} 07:47, 3 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

- Also added Carloman I for main page balance; whitespace problem needed fixing and ITN was already itself long enough (8 items there today). --Jayron32 13:00, 4 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  - Alas, the next DYK set was rather short, so had to remove Carloman (and shorten ITN too). —howcheng {chat} 17:56, 4 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

2013 notes

Omitted: Mary Celeste; Shangani Patrol; History of Burger King; Bruce George Peter Lee; Unified Task Force
Included: Carloman I (first appearance); Transit of Venus (9th appearance, last in 2011); Sati (practice) (8th appearance, last in 2011); Grey Cup (first appearance); Led Zeppelin (5th appearance, last in 2010); Jena Six (2nd appearance, last in 2011)

—howcheng {chat} 21:43, 3 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

2014 notes

Omitted: Carloman I; Transit of Venus; Grey Cup; Led Zeppelin; Jena Six
Included: Shangani Patrol (2nd appearance, last in 2012); History of the Montreal Canadiens (3rd appearance, last in 2011); Burger King (first appearance; 60th anniversary); McGurk's Bar bombing (first appearance)
Repeats: Sati (practice) (2nd consecutive appearance, 9 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:19, 3 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

User:Howcheng, IMO, there is too recentism: 1829-1971. IMO, Carloman I (771) will be a good addition. --Redtigerxyz ^Talk 07:29, 3 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

That's not that bad. There are some days when we only have one or zero events before the 20th century. —howcheng {chat} 00:31, 4 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

2015 notes

Omitted: Shangani Patrol; History of the Montreal Canadiens; Burger King; McGurk's Bar bombing
Included: Transit of Venus (10th appearance, last in 2013); Grey Cup (2nd appearance, last in 2013); Bruce George Peter Lee (2nd appearance, last in 2012); Unified Task Force (5th appearance, last in 2012)
Repeats: Sati (practice) (3rd consecutive appearance, 10 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:47, 2 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

2016 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Woodrow Wilson (maintenance); Pan American World Airways (maintenance)
Omitted: Navy Day (India) (ineligible—maintenance); Transit of Venus, 1639; Sati (practice); Grey Cup; Bruce George Peter Lee; Unified Task Force
Included: Carloman I (2nd appearance, last in 2013); Mary Celeste (2nd appearance, last in 2012); History of the Montreal Canadiens (first appearance); Led Zeppelin (first appearance); Jena Six (3rd appearance, last in 2013)

—howcheng {chat} 04:00, 2 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

2017 notes

Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Pan American World Airways
Omitted: Carloman I (ineligible—maintenance); Mary Celeste; History of the Montreal Canadiens; Led Zeppelin; Jena Six
Included: Transit of Venus, 1639 (2nd appearance, last in 2015); Shangani Patrol (3rd appearance, last in 2014); Grey Cup (3rd appearance, last in 2015); McGurk's Bar bombing (2nd appearance, last in 2014); Unified Task Force (6th appearance, last in 2015; 25th anniversary); John Cotton (minister) (first appearance); I. K. Gujral (first appearance); Pearl Corkhill (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 17:04, 5 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

2018 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Pan American World Airways (maintenance)
Omitted: Transit of Venus, 1639; Grey Cup; McGurk's Bar bombing; Unified Task Force; John Cotton (minister); I. K. Gujral; Pearl Corkhill
Included: Sati (practice) (11th appearance, last in 2015); History of the Montreal Canadiens (6th appearance, last in 2016); Operation Trident (1971) (first appearance); Dianne Feinstein (first appearance; 40th anniversary); Maerten de Vos (first appearance); Jesse Burkett (first appearance; 150th birthday); Benjamin Britten (first appearance)
Repeats: Shangani Patrol (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total; 125th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 17:09, 4 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Fred Hampton

Any reason Fred Hampton shouldn't be included on the list of notable deaths for this date? The manner of his death is important to his legacy and was certainly among the more notable events of this week in 1969. ☯.Zen Swashbuckler.☠ 17:39, 4 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Zenswashbuckler: The "Early life" section has no references, same as the first half of the "Chicago" section, and a bunch of the "In music" entries are not cited. Fix those up and we can get him in for next year on the 50th anniversary. —howcheng {chat} 21:56, 4 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2019 notes

Deleted: Woodrow Wilson (not a good date for this article; moved to January 8)
Omitted: Shangani Patrol; History of the Montreal Canadiens; Operation Trident (1971); Dianne Feinstein; Maerten de Vos; Jesse Burkett; Benjamin Britten
Included: Navy Day (India) (rescued from Ineligible); Mary Celeste (3rd appearance, last in 2016); Duncan Stewart (British diplomat) (first appearance; 70th anniversary); Led Zeppelin (2nd appearance, last in 2016); Jena Six (4th appearance, last in 2016); John Leamy (merchant) (first appearance); I. K. Gujral (2nd appearance, last in 2017; 100th birthday); Hannah Arendt (first appearance)
Repeats: Sati (practice) (2nd consecutive appearance, 12 total)

—howcheng {chat} 17:02, 5 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

2020 notes

New articles (ineligible): Battle of Pontvallain (TFA for 2020)
Moved to Ineligible: Burger King (date not verifiable)
Omitted: Sati (practice); Mary Celeste; Duncan Stewart (British diplomat); John Leamy (merchant); Inder Kumar Gujral; Hannah Arendt
Included: 1639 transit of Venus (3rd appearance, last in 2017); Shangani Patrol (4th appearance, last in 2017); Grey Cup (4th appearance, last in 2017); Pope John XXII (first appearance); Agnes Forbes Blackadder (first appearance); Frank Zappa (first appearance)
Repeats: Led Zeppelin (2nd consecutive appearance, 8 total; 40th anniversary); Jena Six (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:34, 7 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

2021 notes

Omitted: 1639 transit of Venus; Shangani Patrol; Grey Cup; Led Zeppelin; Jena Six; Pope John XXII; Agnes Forbes Blackadder; Frank Zappa
Included: Battle of Pontvallain (first appearance; rescued from Ineligible); Sati (practice) (13th appearance, last in 2019); History of the Montreal Canadiens (7th appearance, last in 2018); Duncan Stewart (colonial administrator) (2nd appearance, last in 2019); McGurk's Bar bombing (3rd appearance, last in 2017; 50th anniversary); John of Damascus (first appearance); Gregor MacGregor (first appearance); Roberta Bondar (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 07:42, 5 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]