Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/February 2

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This is the talk page for making suggestions or discussing improvements to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 2.

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 February 2 article, see Talk:February 2 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 February 2, 2025

Joyce, c. 1918

James Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of the 20th century. He is best known for his short story collection Dubliners, and for his novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. Together with Virginia Woolf and Dorothy Richardson, he is credited with the development of the stream of consciousness technique in which the same weight is given to both the internal world of the mind and the external world of events and circumstances as factors shaping the actions and views of fictional characters. His fictional universe is firmly rooted in Dublin and reflects his family life and the events and friends and enemies from his school and college days. In this, he became both one of the most cosmopolitan and local of all the prominent English language modernists. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

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Picture of the day for February 2, 2025

The Lost World is a

Directed by Harry O. Hoyt

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← Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/February 1 * Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/February 3 →

Joyce

As this is James Joyce's birthday and the original date of publication for Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, I feel that Joyce should be given at least some attention. The Joyceans I know are very feisty, and something even this simple would just make their days. M. Luke Myers 03:32, 3 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Greetings to my friends, neighbors, Wikipaedians, and children of the Pleiadean systems. Once again, I am disappointed by the lack of Joyce in the daily mailings. This is supposed to be a day to re-Joyce. M. Luke Myers 03:46, 4 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, but under the guidelines of the "On this day/Selected anniversaries" pages, "births and deaths can only be used on centennials, etc." Zzyzx11 (Talk) 07:12, 31 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Terra Mariana

Terra Mariana

Sourcing concerns. Entirely unsourced paragraphs, and specific claims of dates and key facts are unreferenced. The lede/intro of the article is a total of seven paragraphs long, in violation of WP:LEAD which states it should be no more than four paragraphs. This article requires much cleanup. Tagged as such. -- Cirt (talk) 10:21, 1 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

2012 notes

Omitted: Buenos Aires (ineligible—maintenance), New Amsterdam (ineligible—maintenance)
Included: Terra Mariana (first appearance), Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (8th appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible), Treaty of Tartu (Russian–Estonian)/Estonian War of Independence (first appearance for both articles), General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon (first appearance)
Repeats: South African wine (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

—howcheng {chat} 06:18, 1 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

2013 notes

Omitted: South African wine; General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon
Included: Zimbabwean dollar (first appearance)
Repeats: Terra Mariana (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total); Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (2nd consecutive appearance, 9 total); Treaty of Tartu (Russian–Estonian)/Estonian War of Independence (both: 2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total); Hama massacre (5th consecutive appearance, 5 total)

—howcheng {chat} 03:46, 2 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

2014 notes

Moved to Ineligible: General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon (maintenance)
Omitted: Terra Mariana; Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; Treaty of Tartu (Russian–Estonian)/Estonian War of Independence; 1982 Hama massacre; Zimbabwean dollar
Included: Buenos Aires (5th appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible); Ulysses (novel) (3rd appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible); Export-Import Bank of the United States (first appearance; 80th anniversary); Ramsar Convention (first appearance); Roger Federer (2nd appearance, last in 2011; 10th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 07:18, 2 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

2015 notes

Rescued from Ineligible (unused): General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon
Omitted: Ulysses (novel); Export-Import Bank of the United States; Ramsar Convention; Roger Federer
Included: Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (4th appearance, last in 2007; rescued from Ineligible); Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (10th appearance, last in 2013); Battle of Stalingrad (7th appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible); Apartheid (10th appearance, last in 2007; rescued from Ineligible)
Repeats: Buenos Aires (2nd consecutive appearance, 6 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:28, 31 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

2016 notes

Omitted: Groundhog Day (ineligible—maintenance); Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor; Buenos Aires (ineligible—maintenance); Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; Battle of Stalingrad; Apartheid
Included: Terra Mariana (3rd appearance, last in 2013); Alexander Selkirk/Woodes Rogers (both: 3rd appearance, last in 2014; rescued from Ineligible); Ulysses (novel) (4th appearance, last in 2014); General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon (2nd appearance, last in 2012); Zimbabwean dollar (2nd appearance, last in 2013)

—howcheng {chat} 06:51, 2 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

2017 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (maintenance); South African wine (maintenance); Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (maintenance); Treaty of Tartu (Russian–Estonian)/Estonian War of Independence (War: maintenance); Ramsar Convention (maintenance); 1982 Hama massacre (maintenance)
Omitted: Terra Mariana; Ulysses (novel); General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon; Zimbabwean dollar (ineligible—maintenance)
Included: Groundhog Day (rescued from Ineligible); Stephen, King of England (4th appearance, last in 2016; moved from November 1); Export–Import Bank of the United States (2nd appearance, last in 2014); Roger Federer (3rd appearance, last in 2014)
Repeats: Alexander Selkirk/Woodes Rogers (both: 2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total)

—howcheng {chat} 08:06, 2 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

2018 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Apartheid (maintenance)
Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Treaty of Tartu (Russian–Estonian)
New articles (unused): Battle at Fort Utah; Frederick William Vanderbilt
Omitted: Stephen, King of England; Export–Import Bank of the United States; Roger Federer
Included: Transylvanian peasant revolt (first appearance); Grand Central Terminal (first appearance); Osvald Group (first appearance); MV Rabaul Queen (first appearance); Piotr Skarga (first appearance); Vincenzo Dimech (first appearance); Christie Brinkley (first appearance)
Repeats: Alexander Selkirk/Woodes Rogers (both: 3rd consecutive appearance, 5 total)

—howcheng {chat} 16:53, 2 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2019 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Stephen, King of England (featured on November 1)
Omitted: Transylvanian peasant revolt; Alexander Selkirk/Woodes Rogers; Grand Central Terminal; Osvald Group; MV Rabaul Queen; Piotr Skarga; Vincenzo Dimech; Christie Brinkley
Included: Breviary of Alaric (first appearance); Battle at Fort Utah (first appearance); Treaty of Tartu (Russian–Estonian) (3rd appearance, last in 2013); General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon (3rd appearance, last in 2016); Roger Federer (4th appearance, last in 2017); Isaac Titsingh (first appearance); Frederick William Vanderbilt (first appearance); Mary Docherty (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 18:20, 2 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

2020 notes

Omitted: Breviary of Alaric; Battle at Fort Utah; General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon; Roger Federer (ineligible—maintenance); Isaac Titsingh; Frederick William Vanderbilt; Mary Docherty
Included: Terra Mariana (4th appearance, last in 2016); Transylvanian peasant revolt (2nd appearance, last in 2018); Export–Import Bank of the United States (3rd appearance, last in 2017); 2007 Catania football violence (first appearance); Alix Le Clerc (first appearance); William Stanley (inventor) (first appearance); Philip Seymour Hoffman (first appearance)
Repeats: Treaty of Tartu (Russian–Estonian) (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total; 100th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 18:27, 3 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

2021 notes

New articles (ineligible): Agha Petros (date not cited)
Omitted: Terra Mariana; Transylvanian peasant revolt; Export–Import Bank of the United States; 2007 Catania football violence; Alix Le Clerc; William Stanley (inventor); Philip Seymour Hoffman
Included: Alexander Selkirk/Woodes Rogers (both: 6th appearance, last in 2018); Battle at Fort Utah (2nd appearance, last in 2018); Osvald Group (2nd appearance, last in 2018); MV Rabaul Queen (2nd appearance, last in 2018); Julia Nava de Ruisánchez (first appearance); Abraham Iyambo (first appearance)
Repeats: Treaty of Tartu (Estonia–Russia) (3rd consecutive appearance, 5 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:32, 4 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

2022 notes

Omitted: Alexander Selkirk/Woodes Rogers; Battle at Fort Utah; Treaty of Tartu (Estonia–Russia); MV Rabaul Queen; Julia Nava de Ruisánchez; Abraham Iyambo
Included: Breviary of Alaric (2nd appearance, last in 2019); South African wine (3rd appearance, last in 2012; rescued from Ineligible); Grand Central Terminal (2nd appearance, last in 2018); Omid (first appearance); Judith Quiney (2nd appearance, last in 2018; also appears on February 9, her death date); José Guadalupe Posada (first appearance); Alfred Delp (first appearance)
Repeats: Osvald Group (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total; 80th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 07:38, 3 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]