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.

• Could the New Year (N.S. 1127) of Nepalese people according to Nepal Sambat, a lunar calendar, be added to the anniversaries in this date?-- Eukesh 15:03, 22 October 2006 (UTC) reply

• Please mention this on the relevant pages. Today's date should be mentioned in the article with the bolded link. -- PFHLai 18:03, 23 October 2006 (UTC) reply
• I have trouble finding references to confirm the date of this New Year's Day as today. It seems Tihar may be more prominent. Can someone put in the dates, please ? -- PFHLai 19:44, 23 October 2006 (UTC) reply

• Please add 1956 Hungarian Revolution this is the 50th anniversary and a featured article! -- Kun25 20:08, 22 October 2006 (UTC) reply

• This was removed because it's the featured article today. We should avoid double-featuring the same page. -- PFHLai 18:03, 23 October 2006 (UTC) reply

From main page error report for 23 October 2009:

This National Day is a double commemoration, firstly of the 1956 uprising, and secondly, it is also the birthday of the Republic. Both the years of 1956 and 1989 should appear appropriately next to the name "National Day". 88.87.241.43 ( talk) 09:48, 23 October 2009 (UTC) reply

• Moved to Ineligible: War of Jenkins' Ear (maintenance); The Smurfs (maintenance)
• New articles (unused): Shankill Road bombing
• Omitted: Irish Rebellion of 1641; National Women's Rights Convention; Hungarian Revolution of 1956; 1983 Beirut barracks bombing; iPod
• Included: Pope Symmachus (first appearance); Battle for Henderson Field (first appearance; 70th anniversary); Operation Linebacker (2nd appearance, last in 2010; 40th anniversary); Phillips Disaster of 1989 (first appearance); Moscow theater hostage crisis (5th appearance, last in 2008; 10th anniversary)

— howcheng { chat} 07:08, 22 October 2012 (UTC) reply

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 really, really ought to be included here... not only one a national memorial day in Hungary, but a major turning point in the Cold War globally. Of far greater importance -- this is subjective, yes, but not without merit, I think -- than, for example, the ending date of a US bombing campaign in Vietnam, or a failed Japanese attack in WWII. Korossyl ( talk) 16:30, 23 October 2012 (UTC) reply

Korossyl ( talk) 16:30, 23 October 2012 (UTC) reply

There is no need for an edit request now as the page is unprotected until next year. Woody ( talk) 12:26, 25 October 2012 (UTC) reply

The short answer to this request is that not every article will appear every year. Please see the FAQ above, question Q1. If you see Talk:Hungarian Revolution of 1956, you can see that the article had been included from 2009–11, so it just took a break this year. — howcheng { chat} 16:42, 25 October 2012 (UTC) reply

• Omitted: Pope Symmachus; Battle for Henderson Field; Operation Linebacker; Phillips Disaster of 1989; Moscow theater hostage crisis
• Included: Valentinian III (4th appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible); Malet coup of 1812 (first appearance); Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (8th appearance, last in 2011); 1983 Beirut barracks bombing (9th appearance, last in 2011; 30th anniversary); Shankill Road bombing (first appearance; 20th anniversary)

— howcheng { chat} 05:35, 22 October 2013 (UTC) reply

• Omitted: Valentinian III; Malet coup of 1812; 1983 Beirut barracks bombing; Shankill Road bombing
• Included: Irish Rebellion of 1641 (2nd appearance, last in 2011); National Women's Rights Convention (2nd appearance, last in 2011); Phillips Disaster of 1989 (2nd appearance, last in 2012; 25th anniversary); iPod (2nd appearance, last in 2011)
• Repeats: Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (2nd consecutive appearance, 9 total)

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

The header says it all. Pizza1016 ( talk | contribs) 05:58, 23 October 2014 (UTC) reply

Done Nope. — Mr. Stradivarius ^{♪ talk ♪} 10:54, 23 October 2014 (UTC) reply

• Omitted: National Women's Rights Convention; Hungarian Revolution of 1956; Phillips Disaster of 1989; iPod
• Included: Malet coup of 1812 (2nd appearance, last in 2013); ABS-CBN (first appearance); Operation Linebacker (3rd appearance, last in 2012); Moscow theater hostage crisis (5th appearance, last in 2012)
• Repeats: Irish Rebellion of 1641 (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total)

— howcheng { chat} 11:16, 21 October 2015 (UTC) reply

• Moved to Ineligible: Valentinian III (maintenance); Phillips disaster of 1989 (maintenance); iPod (maintenance)
• Omitted: ABS-CBN; Operation Linebacker; Moscow theater hostage crisis
• Included: Battle for Henderson Field (2nd appearance, last in 2012); Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (10th appearance, last in 2014; 60th anniversary); 1983 Beirut barracks bombings (10th appearance, last in 2013)
• Repeats: Irish Rebellion of 1641 (3rd consecutive appearance, 4 total); Malet coup of 1812 (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total)

— howcheng { chat} 05:36, 23 October 2016 (UTC) reply

• Moved to Ineligible: ABS-CBN (maintenance); Operation Linebacker (maintenance)
• Omitted: Hungary (ineligible—maintenance); Irish Rebellion of 1641 (ineligible—maintenance); Malet coup of 1812 (ineligible—maintenance); 1983 Beirut barracks bombings
• Included: National Women's Rights Convention (3rd appearance, last in 2014); Moscow theater hostage crisis (7th appearance, last in 2015); Anne Oldfield (first appearance); Stefano Franscini (first appearance); Annabel Breuer (first appearance; 25th birthday)
• Repeats: Battle for Henderson Field (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total; 75th anniversary); Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (2nd consecutive appearance, 11 total)

— howcheng { chat} 03:19, 23 October 2017 (UTC) reply

• Omitted: Battle for Henderson Field (ineligible— TFA for 2018); Hungarian Revolution of 1956; Anne Oldfield; Stefano Franscini; Annabel Breuer
• Included: Irish Rebellion of 1641 (5th appearance, last in 2016; rescued from Ineligible); Jeannette Piccard (first appearance); 1983 Beirut barracks bombings (11th appearance, last in 2016); Sweyn III of Denmark (first appearance); Ludwig Leichhardt (first appearance); Soong Mei-ling (first appearance)
• Repeats: National Women's Rights Convention; (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total); Moscow theater hostage crisis (2nd consecutive appearance, 8 total)

— howcheng { chat} 20:47, 23 October 2018 (UTC) reply

• Omitted: Jeannette Piccard; 1983 Beirut barracks bombings; Moscow theater hostage crisis; Sweyn III of Denmark; Ludwig Leichhardt; Soong Mei-ling
• Included: Battle for Henderson Field (4th appearance, last in 2017; rescued from Ineligible); Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (12th appearance, last in 2017); Miracle Valley shootout (first appearance); John Heisman (first appearance; 150th birthday); Douglas Jardine (first appearance); Daniel Wildenstein (2nd appearance, last in 2017; also appears on September 11, his birthday)
• Repeats: Irish Rebellion of 1641 (2nd consecutive appearance, 6 total); National Women's Rights Convention (3rd consecutive appearance, 5 total)

— howcheng { chat} 16:04, 24 October 2019 (UTC) reply

• Moved to Ineligible: 1983 Beirut barracks bombings (maintenance); Anne Oldfield (maintenance)
• New articles (unused): Josh Kirby
• Omitted: Miracle Valley shootout (ineligible—maintenance); John Heisman; Daniel Wildenstein
• Included: Fred Shero (first appearance); Stella Obasanjo (first appearance)
• Repeats: Irish Rebellion of 1641 (3rd consecutive appearance, 7 total); National Women's Rights Convention (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total); Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (2nd consecutive appearance, 13 total); Douglas Jardine (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

Due to time constraints, most everything is repeating this year. — howcheng { chat} 18:59, 24 October 2020 (UTC) reply

@ Howcheng:The date of Mawlid would seem to be the same for Sunni & mainstream Shia muslims according to Mawlid#Date. Islamic calendar#notable dates on the other hand gives "12 Rabi al-Awwal: Mawlid or Birth of the Prophet for Sunnis. 17 Rabi al-Awwal: Mawlid for Shias." and Islamic_holidays#Dates_of_holidays_and_other_days_of_note makes no such distinction. I think however that this week it is observed only in Twelver Shi’ism. Sparafucil ( talk) 04:36, 23 October 2021 (UTC) reply

@ Sparafucil: I'm not sure what change you need here. I will be offline for most of tomorrow, so please bring it up at WP:ERRORS for a faster response. Thanks. — howcheng { chat} 07:02, 23 October 2021 (UTC) reply

• Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Operation Linebacker
• Omitted: Irish Rebellion of 1641; Battle for Henderson Field; Douglas Jardine; Fred Shero; Stella Obasanjo
• Included: Auld Alliance (first appearance); Alberto Santos-Dumont/ Santos-Dumont 14-bis (Santos-Dumont: 2nd appearance, last in 2007; 14-bis: first appearance; resued from Ineligible); Jeannette Piccard (2nd appearance, last in 2018); Johan Gabriel Ståhlberg (first appearance); Emma Vyssotsky (first appearance); Josh Kirby (first appearance; 20th anniversary)
• Repeats: National Women's Rights Convention (5th consecutive appearance, 7 total); Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (3rd consecutive appearance, 14 total)

— howcheng { chat} 02:48, 24 October 2021 (UTC) reply

I don't think that hot-air balloons fly that high. The article mentions hydrogen as the lift gas. Danimal57 ( talk) 10:33, 23 October 2022 (UTC) reply

Hey I agree. Please see http://www.pilotspost.co.za/arn0001845 and https://www.britannica.com/technology/balloon-flight/Balloons-reach-the-stratosphere @ Howcheng: Aerohydro ( talk) 23:17, 24 October 2022 (UTC) reply