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.

• 1777 - North Carolina ratifies the American Declaration of Independence.
• 1861 - American Civil War begins with the bombardment of Fort Sumter in South Carolina by Confederate forces.
• 1945 - American President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in Warm Springs, Georgia of a brain hemmorage.
• 1961 - Yuri Gagarin is the first man in space.
• 1981 - The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission.

in terms of space exploration yuri gagarin is more important than the columbia shuttle launch. If one wishes to avoid further soviet x americans discussion, put an image of galileu galilei

I could have also used the STS-1 patch, cycling in and out with Gagarin's pic, but I was too busy elsewhere that day. We'll re-visit this next year. -- PFHLai 10:05, 2005 Apr 23 (UTC)

Why is this locked anyway?--Alexandre Van de Sande 17:36, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Sorry, everything on the MainPage is "locked" to avoid vandalism. -- PFHLai 10:05, 2005 Apr 23 (UTC)

Needs to be replaced. Would do it my self, but am at work. A dmrb♉ltz ( T | C) 00:13, 12 April 2006 (UTC) reply

it's also my birthday >_>;; -- Keatsta 02:49, 17 April 2006 (UTC) reply

Columbia was actually the second space shuttle (after the Enterprise), though the first opperational shuttle. The portion of this page that links to the main page should be modified accordingly. — Scouter Sig 17:58, 12 April 2007 (UTC) reply

His spacecraft wasn't Vostok 3KA-2; it was called Vostok 3KA-3. There were two previous unmanned spacecraft of the same model, and his was the third (hence the "3"). Hopefully this can be fixed before tomorrow. Mlm42 ( talk) 15:45, 11 April 2011 (UTC) reply

Thanks! :) Mlm42 ( talk) 20:17, 11 April 2011 (UTC) reply

• Omitted: Anthemius; Battle of Fort Sumter; SMS Zrínyi; Yuri Gagarin; Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel
• Included: Siege of Constantinople (1204)/ Fourth Crusade (1st appearance for Siege; 4th for Crusade, last in 2009—rescued from Ineligible); Terry Fox (3rd appearance, last in 2010); Jim Gary (first appearance); Disneyland Paris (first appearance)
• Repeats: Broughton Suspension Bridge (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

— howcheng { chat} 16:06, 11 April 2012 (UTC) reply

• New articles (unused): Halifax Resolves
• Added but then deleted: Dugway sheep incident (wrong date; moved to March 17)
• Omitted: Terry Fox; Jim Gary; Disneyland Paris
• Included: SMS Zrínyi (first appearance); Yuri Gagarin (9th appearance, last in 2011); 2007 Iraqi Parliament bombing (first appearance);
• Repeats: Siege of Constantinople (1204) (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total; blurb also featured Fourth Crusade, which is now ineligible); Broughton Suspension Bridge (3rd consecutive appearance, 3 total)

— howcheng { chat} 05:36, 11 April 2013 (UTC) reply

• New articles (unused): Edwin of Northumbria
• Omitted: Siege of Constantinople (1204); SMS Zrínyi; 2007 Iraqi Parliament bombing
• Included: Shapur I (first appearance); Halifax Resolves (first appearance); Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel (2nd appearance, last in 2011; 20th anniversary)
• Repeats: Broughton Suspension Bridge (4th consecutive appearance, 4 total); Yuri Gagarin (2nd consecutive appearance, 10 total)

— howcheng { chat} 10:28, 11 April 2014 (UTC) reply

• Moved to Ineligible: Anthemius (maintenance)
• Omitted: Shapur I; Halifax Resolves; Broughton Suspension Bridge; Yuri Gagarin; Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel
• Included: Edwin of Northumbria (first appearance); Siege of Constantinople (1204) (3rd appearance, last in 2013); Battle of the Saintes (first appearance); SMS Zrínyi (3rd appearance, last in 2013); Jim Gary (2nd appearance, last in 2012; 25th anniversary)

— howcheng { chat} 08:20, 10 April 2015 (UTC) reply

• Moved to Ineligible: Yuri Gagarin (maintenance); Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel (maintenance)
• Omitted: Edwin of Northumbria; Battle of the Saintes; SMS Zrínyi; Jim Gary
• Included: Shapur I (2nd appearance, last in 2014); Battle of Fort Sumter (5th appearance, last in 2011); Terry Fox (4th appearance, last in 2012); 2007 Iraqi Parliament bombing (2nd appearance, last in 2013)
• Repeats: Siege of Constantinople (1204) (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total)

— howcheng { chat} 07:22, 10 April 2016 (UTC) reply

• Moved to Ineligible: Jim Gary (maintenance); Disneyland Paris (maintenance)
• Omitted: Shapur I; Siege of Constantinople (1204) (ineligible—maintenance); Battle of Fort Sumter
• Included: Halifax Resolves (2nd appearance, last in 2014); Broughton Suspension Bridge (5th appearance, last in 2014); SMS Zrínyi (4th appearance, last in 2015)
• Repeats: Terry Fox (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total); 2007 Iraqi Parliament bombing (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total; 10th anniversary)

— howcheng { chat} 07:37, 12 April 2017 (UTC) reply

• Moved to Ineligible: Shapur I (maintenance); Battle of the Saintes (maintenance)
• Omitted: Halifax Resolves; Broughton Suspension Bridge; Terry Fox; 2007 Iraqi Parliament bombing; Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood; Beverly Cleary; Xin Fengxia
• Included: Edwin of Northumbria (2nd appearance, last in 2015); Froberg mutiny (first appearance); Battle of Fort Sumter (6th appearance, last in 2016); Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel (3rd appearance, last in 2014; rescued from Ineligible); Charles VII of Sweden (first appearance); Alexander Ostrovsky (first appearance); Imogen Holst (first appearance)
• Repeats: SMS Zrínyi (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total)

— howcheng { chat} 05:25, 12 April 2018 (UTC) reply

• Omitted: Edwin of Northumbria; Battle of Fort Sumter; Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel (ineligible—maintenance); Charles VII of Sweden; Alexander Ostrovsky; Keiko Fukuda
• Included: Halifax Resolves (3rd appearance, last in 2017); Broughton Suspension Bridge (6th appearance, last in 2017); Terry Fox (6th appearance, last in 2017); George N. Briggs (first appearance); Imogen Holst (first appearance); Karim Fakhrawi (first appearance)
• Repeats: Froberg mutiny (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total); SMS Zrínyi (3rd consecutive appearance, 6 total)

— howcheng { chat} 15:42, 12 April 2019 (UTC) reply

• Deleted: Sack of Constantinople (1204) (moved to April 13)
• Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Yuri Gagarin
• Omitted: Halifax Resolves; Froberg mutiny; Broughton Suspension Bridge; George N. Briggs; Imogen Holst; Karim Fakhrawi
• Included: Edwin of Northumbria (3rd appearance, last in 2018); Chios massacre (6th appearance, last in 2018; moved from March 31); Great Fire of Valparaíso (first appearance); Margaret of Bourbon, Queen of Navarre (first appearance); Addie Joss (first appearance); Sydney Allard (first appearance)
• Repeats: SMS Zrínyi (4th consecutive appearance, 7 total); Terry Fox (2nd consecutive appearance, 7 total; 40th anniversary)

— howcheng { chat} 21:54, 13 April 2020 (UTC) reply

• Moved to Ineligible: 2007 Iraqi Parliament bombing (maintenance)
• New articles (unused): Fourth Crusade (blurb previously featured Sack of Constantinople and was moved back from April 13); Jane Withers
• Omitted: Edwin of Northumbria; Chios massacre; SMS Zrínyi; Terry Fox; Great Fire of Valparaíso; Margaret of Bourbon, Queen of Navarre; Addie Joss; Sydney Allard
• Included: Broughton Suspension Bridge (7th appearance, last in 2019); Battle of Fort Sumter (7th appearance, last in 2018); Yuri Gagarin (12th appearance, last in 2015; rescued from Ineligible; 60th anniversary); 2013 Kidal suicide attack (first appearance); Tenby Davies (first appearance); Beverly Cleary (2nd appearance, last in 2017); Karim Fakhrawi (2nd appearance, last in 2019; 10th anniversary)

— howcheng { chat} 06:45, 14 April 2021 (UTC) reply

• New articles (unused): Zelia Nuttall
• Omitted: Broughton Suspension Bridge; Battle of Fort Sumter; 2013 Kidal suicide attack; Tenby Davies; Beverly Cleary; Karim Fakhrawi
• Included: Fourth Crusade (6th appearance, last in 2020); Chios massacre (7th appearance, last in 2020; 200th anniversary); 1980 Liberian coup d'état (first appearance;; rescued from Ineligible; blurb previously featured Samuel Doe, which remains ineligible); Great Fire of Valparaíso (2nd appearance, last in 2020); Richeza of Poland, Queen of Sweden (first appearance); Nicola Amati (first appearance); Abbie Hoffman (first appearance)
• Repeats: Yuri Gagarin (2nd consecutive appearance, 13 total)

— howcheng { chat} 07:06, 13 April 2022 (UTC) reply