Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/January 25

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This is the talk page for making suggestions or discussing improvements to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/January 25.

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 January 25 article, see Talk:January 25 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 January 25, 2025

Lemmy of Motörhead

The new wave of British heavy metal began in the late 1970s and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. Encompassing diverse mainstream and underground styles, the music often infused 1970s heavy metal music with the intensity of punk rock to produce fast and aggressive songs. The do it yourself ethic of the new metal bands led to the spread of raw-sounding, self-produced recordings and a proliferation of independent record labels. Song lyrics were usually about escapist themes from mythology, fantasy, horror or the rock lifestyle. The movement involved mostly young, white, male musicians and fans of the heavy metal subculture, whose behavioural and visual codes were quickly adopted by metal fans worldwide after the spread of the music globally. The movement spawned perhaps a thousand bands, but only a few survived the rise of MTV and glam metal. Among them, Motörhead and Saxon had considerable success, and Iron Maiden and Def Leppard became international stars. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

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Picture of the day for January 25, 2025

The Monarch of the Glen is an oil-on-canvas painting of a red deer stag completed in 1851 by the English painter Sir Edwin Landseer. It was commissioned as part of a series of three panels to hang in the Palace of Westminster, in London. As one of the most popular paintings throughout the 19th century, it sold widely in reproductions in steel engraving, and was finally bought by companies to use in advertising. The painting had become something of a cliché by the mid-20th century, as "the ultimate biscuit tin image of Scotland: a bulky stag set against the violet hills and watery skies of an isolated wilderness", according to the Sunday Herald.

Painting credit: Edwin Landseer

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← Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/January 24 * Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/January 26 →

"Teenaged Edward III was crowned King of England"

Not sure this is really gramatically correct. Shouldn't it be Teenager or Young king or even fourteen year old...?

--Nunners 16:16, 25 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

2012 notes

New articles (unused): Luanda
Omitted: Anne Boleyn, Moscow State University (ineligible—maintenance), Juana Barraza, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409
Included: São Paulo (6th appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible), 1993 shootings at CIA Headquarters (2nd appearance, last in 2008), Timeline of the 2011 Egyptian revolution under Hosni Mubarak's rule (first appearance)
Repeats: Nellie Bly (2nd consecutive appearance, 6 total), Idi Amin (8th consecutive appearance, 11 total—previously was featured on April 11 as well)
Note: Couldn't hide Idi Amin, as all the suitable backups are in the 21st century. Luanda was added late and not used to prevent having two separate blurbs about the founding of settlements named São Paulo.

—howcheng {chat} 06:48, 25 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

2013 notes

Omitted: São Paulo (ineligible—maintenance); Nellie Bly; Idi Amin; Timeline of the 2011–2012 Egyptian revolution under Hosni Mubarak's rule
Included: Dydd Santes Dwynwen (observance, first appearance); Luanda (first appearance); Apalachee massacre (first appearance); Emmy Award (first appearance); Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 (2nd appearance, last in 2011)
Repeats: 1993 shootings at CIA Headquarters (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total; 20th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 18:41, 23 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

2014 notes

New articles (ineligible): Ukrainian People's Republic (maintenance)
Omitted: Luanda; 1993 shootings at CIA Headquarters; Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409
Included: São Paulo (7th appearance, last in 2012; rescued from Ineligible); Idi Amin (12th appearance, last in 2012); Opportunity (rover) (4th appearance, last in 2007; 10th anniversary)
Repeats: Apalachee massacre (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total); Emmy Award (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:30, 24 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

2015 notes

New articles (unused): Norwegian rocket incident
Omitted: São Paulo; Apalachee massacre; Emmy Award; Opportunity (rover)
Included: Anne Boleyn (7th appearance, last in 2011); Nellie Bly (8th appearance, last in 2012); Avianca Flight 52 (first appearance; 25th anniversary); Timeline of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 (2nd appearance, last in 2012)
Repeats: Idi Amin (2nd consecutive appearance, 13 total)

—howcheng {chat} 08:07, 23 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

2016 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Luanda (maintenance)
Omitted: Anne Boleyn; Idi Amin; Avianca Flight 52; Timeline of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011
Included: São Paulo (8th appearance, last in 2014); Emmy Award (3rd appearance, last in 2014); Norwegian rocket incident (first appearance); OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb (3rd appearance, last in 2010)
Repeats: Nellie Bly (2nd consecutive appearance, 9 total)

—howcheng {chat} 21:29, 23 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Addendum: Norwegian rocket incident was removed for Main Page balance. —howcheng {chat} 16:48, 28 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

2017 notes

New articles (ineligible): 1348 Friuli earthquake (maintenance)
Omitted: Dydd Santes Dwynwen (ineligible—maintenance); São Paulo; Nellie Bly (ineligible—maintenance); Emmy Award; OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb
Included: Tatiana Day (first appearance); Battle of Mikatagahara (first appearance; rescued from Ineligible); Apalachee massacre (3rd appearance, last in 2014); Idi Amin (14th appearance, last in 2015); Flag of Georgia (country) (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 08:45, 25 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

2018 notes

Moved to Ineligible: São Paulo (maintenance)
New articles (unused): Helene Bresslau Schweitzer
Omitted: Robert Burns (ineligible—maintenance); Battle of Mikatagahara; Apalachee massacre; Flag of Georgia (country) (ineligible—maintenance)
Included: Anne Boleyn (9th appearance, last in 2015); Nellie Bly (10th appearance, last in 2016; rescued from Ineligible); 1993 shootings at CIA Headquarters (4th appearance, last in 2013; 25th anniversary); Opportunity (rover) (4th appearance, last in 2014); J. Marion Sims (first appearance); Virginia Woolf (first appearance); Mikhail Suslov (first appearance)
Repeats: Idi Amin (2nd consecutive appearance, 15 total)

—howcheng {chat} 04:29, 25 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2019 notes

Omitted: Anne Boleyn; Nellie Bly; Idi Amin; 1993 shootings at CIA Headquarters; Opportunity (rover); J. Marion Sims; Virginia Woolf; Mikhail Suslov
Included: Battle of Mikatagahara (2nd appearance, last in 2017); Apalachee massacre (4th appearance, last in 2017); Emmy Award (4th appearance, last in 2016; 70th anniversary); Norwegian rocket incident (first appearance); Timeline of the Egyptian revolution of 2011 (2nd appearance, last in 2015); Leo IV the Khazar (first appearance); Helene Bresslau Schweitzer (2nd appearance, last in 2017; previously appeared on June 1, her death anniversary); Ali Hassan al-Majid (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 16:56, 25 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

2020 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Nellie Bly (maintenance)
Omitted: Apalachee massacre; Emmy Award; Norwegian rocket incident; Timeline of the Egyptian revolution of 2011; Leo IV the Khazar; Helene Bresslau Schweitzer; Ali Hassan al-Majid
Included: London Corresponding Society (first appearance); Idi Amin/1971 Ugandan coup d'état (Amin: 16th appearance, last in 2018; Coup: first appearance); 1993 shootings at CIA Headquarters (5th appearance, last in 2018); Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 (3rd appearance, last in 2013; 10th anniversary); Ma Xiguang (first appearance); Anna Gardner (first appearance); Xavi (first appearance; 40th birthday)
Repeats: Battle of Mikatagahara (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total)

—howcheng {chat} 17:20, 27 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

2021 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Emmy Award (maintenance)
New articles (unused): Nguyễn Hữu Có
Omitted: Tatiana Day (ineligible—maintenance); Battle of Mikatagahara; London Corresponding Society; CIA headquarters shooting; Ma Xiguang; Anna Gardner; Xavi
Included: Anne Boleyn (10th appearance, last in 2018); Nellie Bly (11th appearance, last in 2018; rescued from Ineligible); Juana Barraza (2nd appearance, last in 2011); Timeline of the Egyptian revolution of 2011 (3rd appearance, last in 2019; 10th anniversary); Robert Burton (scholar) (first appearance); Ernst Alexanderson (first appearance); Jane Bathori (first appearance)
Repeats: Idi Amin/1971 Ugandan coup d'état (2nd consecutive appearance; Amin: 17 total; Coup: 2 total; 50th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 07:39, 27 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

2022 notes

Omitted: Anne Boleyn; Nellie Bly; Idi Amin; Juana Barraza; Timeline of the Egyptian revolution of 2011; Robert Burton (scholar); Ernst Alexanderson; Jane Bathori
Included: Apalachee massacre (5th appearance, last in 2019); London Corresponding Society (2nd appearance, last in 2020); SS Laurentic (1908) (first appearance); Nguyễn Hữu Có (first appearance); Norwegian rocket incident (2nd appearance, last in 2019); Mihrimah Sultan (daughter of Suleiman I) (first appearance); John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (first appearance); Mikhail Suslov (2nd appearance, last in 2018; 40th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 05:10, 26 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]