Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/February 21

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This is the talk page for making suggestions or discussing improvements to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 21.

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 21 article, see Talk:February 21 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 21, 2025
The Virgo interferometer is a large-scale scientific instrument near Pisa, Italy, for detecting gravitational waves. The detector detects minuscule length variations in its two 3-km (1.9 mi) arms induced by the passage of gravitational waves. The project, named after the Virgo galaxy cluster, was first approved in 1992 and construction was completed in 2003. In 2015, the first observation of gravitational waves was made by the two other detectors, while Virgo was being upgraded. It resumed observations in early August 2017, making its first detection on 14 August; followed by the detection of the GW170817 gravitational wave, the only one also observed with classical methods (optical, gamma-ray, X-ray and radio telescopes) as of 2024. Virgo is hosted by the European Gravitational Observatory; the broader Virgo Collaboration, gathering 940 members in 20 countries, operates the detector, and defines the strategy and policy for its use and upgrades. (Full article...) Archive By email More featured articles About view – talk – edit – history – watch
Picture of the day for February 21, 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/February 20 * Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/February 22 →

Guidelines for selected anniversaries require no more that 4 anniversaries when national holidays are present. I am going to delete 1952 anniversary.--Panairjdde 11:27, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Malcolm X?

Would you consider picturing Malcolm X? I added a good PD photo from his article to the unused image list. Ahseaton 11:32, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hmmm... and get three consecutive days of Sel Anniv images of Americans ? Oh, well. Since we now have a free use pic of Dolly the sheep, I'll hide John Hopkins and show Dolly on tomorrow's Sel Anniv template. -- PFHLai 10:20, 21 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Who is Martin that was born in 1992

And should this entry be removed. It looks like vandalism to me.

2012 notes

Omitted: Language Movement Day in Bangladesh (ineligible—maintenance), Thomas (Bishop of Finland), Battle of Wayna Daga, Kurt Eisner, Convention on Psychotropic Substances
Included: Steam locomotive (first appearance; blurb previously featured Richard Trevithick, which is ineligible due to maintenance reasons), The Communist Manifesto (6th appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible), NASCAR (first appearance), Peace symbols (4th appearance, last in 2010), Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 09:03, 20 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

2013 notes

Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Steam locomotive
Omitted: Battle of Wayna Daga; The Communist Manifesto; NASCAR (ineligible—maintenance); Peace symbols
Included: New Mexico Campaign/Battle of Valverde (both: first appearance); Carolina Parakeet (first appearance); Iranian events of 1921 (first appearance); Malcolm X (6th appearance, last in 2010)
Repeats: Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total; 40th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 23:23, 19 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

2014 notes

Omitted: International Mother Language Day (ineligible—maintenance); Battle of Valverde (blurb previously also featured New Mexico Campaign, which is currently ineligible); Carolina Parakeet (ineligible—maintenance); 1921 Persian coup d'etat; Malcolm X (ineligible—The Autobiography of Malcolm X is TFA for 2014); Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114
Included: Thomas (bishop of Finland) (2nd appearance, last in 2011); Steam locomotive (first appearance; blurb previously featured Richard Trevithick, which is currently ineligible, and is making its 7th appearance, last in 2010); Cherokee Phoenix (first appearance); Kurt Eisner (2nd appearance, last in 2011); Bengali Language Movement (3rd appearance, last in 2010)

—howcheng {chat} 11:37, 20 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

2015 notes

Omitted: Thomas (bishop of Finland); Steam locomotive; Cherokee Phoenix; Kurt Eisner; Bengali Language Movement
Included: Language Movement Day (rescued from Ineligible); James I of Scotland (first appearance); The Communist Manifesto (7th appearance, last in 2012); 1921 Persian coup d'etat (2nd appearance, last in 2013); Malcolm X (7th appearance, last in 2013; 50th anniversary); Convention on Psychotropic Substances (4th appearance, last in 2011)

—howcheng {chat} 12:01, 19 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Howcheng:, Is it possible to change Language Movement Day to International Mother Language Day. It is an international day declared by UNESCO. Is it eligible for selected anniversary? - Rahat (Message) 19:15, 20 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Ctg4Rahat:: Unfortunately, that second article is ineligible due to the maintenance tags on it. —howcheng {chat} 00:35, 21 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

2016 notes

Omitted: James I of Scotland; The Communist Manifesto; 1921 Persian coup d'état; Malcolm X; Convention on Psychotropic Substances
Included: International Mother Language Day (rescued from Ineligible); Battle of Wayna Daga (3rd appearance, last in 2012); Steam locomotive (2nd appearance, last in 2014); Kurt Eisner (3rd appearance, last in 2014); Peace symbols (5th appearance, last in 2012); Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 (3rd appearance, last in 2013)

—howcheng {chat} 07:40, 19 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

2017 notes

Moved to Ineligible: 1921 Persian coup d'état (maintenance); Convention on Psychotropic Substances (maintenance)
Omitted: International Mother Language Day (ineligible—maintenance); Battle of Wayna Daga; Steam locomotive (ineligible—maintenance); Kurt Eisner; Peace symbols; Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114
Included: Thomas (bishop of Finland) (3rd appearance, last in 2014); Cherokee Phoenix (2nd appearance, last in 2014); Constituent Assembly of Georgia (first appearance); Edwin H. Land (first appearance; 70th anniversary); Language Movement (4th appearance, last in 2014); Baruch Spinoza (first appearance); Nina Simone (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 04:20, 21 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

2018 notes

Moved to Ineligible: The Communist Manifesto (maintenance)
Omitted: Language Movement Day (ineligible—maintenance); Thomas (bishop of Finland); Cherokee Phoenix; Constituent Assembly of Georgia (ineligible—maintenance); Edwin H. Land (ineligible—maintenance); Language Movement; Baruch Spinoza; Nina Simone
Included: Battle of Wayna Daga (4th appearance, last in 2016; 475th anniversary); Battle of Valverde (2nd appearance, last in 2013); Kurt Eisner (4th appearance, last in 2016); Peace symbols (6th appearance, last in 2016; 60th anniversary); Malcolm X (8th appearance, last in 2015); Gaius Caesar (first appearance); Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick (first appearance); Thelma Estrin (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 16:51, 21 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2019 notes

Omitted: Battle of Wayna Daga; Battle of Valverde; Peace symbols; Malcolm X; Gaius Caesar; Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick; Thelma Estrin
Included: James I of Scotland (2nd appearance, last in 2015); Cherokee Phoenix (3rd appearance, last in 2017); Warlord Rebellion in northeastern Shandong (first appearance; 90th anniversary); Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 (4th appearance, last in 2016); Baruch Spinoza (2nd appearance, last in 2017); Mary Edwards Walker (first appearance; 100th anniversary); Howard Florey (first appearance)
Repeats: Kurt Eisner (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total; 100th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 16:46, 21 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

2020 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Battle of Wayna Daga (date not cited)
New articles (ineligible): Elizabeth Willing Powel (appearing on DYK)
Omitted: Cherokee Phoenix; Kurt Eisner; Warlord Rebellion in northeastern Shandong; Baruch Spinoza; Mary Edwards Walker; Howard Florey
Included: Language Movement Day (rescued from Ineligible); Thomas (bishop of Finland) (4th appearance, last in 2017); Bengali language movement (5th appearance, last in 2017); Malcolm X (9th appearance, last in 2018); Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (first appearance); Léo Delibes (first appearance); Ellen Page (first appearance)
Repeats: James I of Scotland (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total); Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total)

—howcheng {chat} 16:53, 24 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

2021 notes

Omitted: Thomas (bishop of Finland) (ineligible—maintenance); James I of Scotland; Bengali language movement; Malcolm X; Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi; Léo Delibes; Elliot Page
Included: Siege of Inverness (1746) (first appearance); Battle of Valverde (3rd appearance, last in 2018); Warlord Rebellion in northeastern Shandong (2nd appearance, last in 2019); Peace symbols (7th appearance, last in 2018); Elizabeth Willing Powel (first appearance); Mirra Alfassa (first appearance); Jeanne Martin Cissé (first appearance)
Repeats: Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 (3rd consecutive appearance, 6 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:58, 23 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

2022 notes

Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Telephone directory
Omitted: Siege of Inverness (1746); Battle of Valverde; Peace symbols; Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114; Elizabeth Willing Powel; Mirra Alfassa; Jeanne Martin Cissé
Included: James I of Scotland (4th appearance, last in 2020); Lucy Hobbs Taylor (2nd appearance, last in 2018; previously appeared on March 14, her death anniversary); Bengali language movement (6th appearance, last in 2020; 70th anniversary); Raimondo Montecuccoli (first appearance); Goscombe John (first appearance); Helen Hooven Santmyer (first appearance)
Repeats: Warlord Rebellion in northeastern Shandong (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total)

—howcheng {chat} 08:28, 22 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]