Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/December 14

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This is the talk page for making suggestions or discussing improvements to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/December 14.

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 December 14 article, see Talk:December 14 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 December 14, 2025
Wikipedia:Today's featured article/December 14, 2025 create – talk – watch
Picture of the day for December 14, 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/December 13 * Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/December 15 →

More variation

All of the current 5 events listed are from the past 100 years or so. What about replacing one of them by by the 13th century St._Lucia's_flood (with Zuider_Zee as selected article)? baszoetekouw (talk) 23:51, 31 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

2012 notes

Omitted: 557 Constantinople earthquake; Montgolfier brothers (ineligible—maintenance); Amundsen's South Pole expedition; Three Gorges Dam; Tino rangatiratanga
Included: Toledo War (3rd appearance, last in 2009; rescued from Ineligible); Ian Meckiff (2nd appearance, last in 2010); Mariner 2 (4th appearance, last in 2007; 50th anniversary); Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (first appearance)
Repeats: Vargas tragedy (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

—howcheng {chat} 06:35, 13 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

2013 notes

Omitted: Toledo War; Ian Meckiff; Mariner 2; Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas
Included: Sweet Dew Incident (first appearance); Alabama (2nd appearance, last in 2009); Amundsen's South Pole expedition (first appearance; blurb is making its 7th appearance, last in 2010 and previously featured Roald Amundsen, which is currently ineligible); Baldwin Hills Reservoir (first appearance)
Repeats: Vargas tragedy (3rd consecutive appearance, 3 total)
Note: Japanese battleship Haruna not included despite it having its 100th anniversary because Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi was TFA on December 7

—howcheng {chat} 10:32, 13 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

2014 notes

Omitted: Sweet Dew Incident; Alabama; Amundsen's South Pole expedition; Baldwin Hills Dam disaster; Vargas tragedy
Included: 557 Constantinople earthquake (2nd appearance, last in 2011); Toledo War (4th appearance, last in 2012); Japanese battleship Haruna (2nd appearance, last in 2010); Three Gorges Dam (2nd appearance, last in 2011; 20th anniversary); ALBA (first appearance; 10th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 07:58, 13 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

2015 notes

Omitted: 557 Constantinople earthquake; Toledo War (ineligible—TFA for 2015); Japanese battleship Haruna; Three Gorges Dam; ALBA (ineligible—maintenance)
Included: Sweet Dew Incident (2nd appearance, last in 2013); Alabama (3rd appearance, last in 2013); Max Planck (4th appearance, last in 2009; rescued from Ineligible); Mariner 2 (5th appearance, last in 2012); Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting (first appearance)
Repeats: (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total)

—howcheng {chat} 08:36, 12 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

2016 notes

Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Eugene Cernan
Omitted: Alabama; Max Planck; Mariner 2; Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting
Included: Toledo War (5th appearance, last in 2014; rescued from Ineligible); Amundsen's South Pole expedition (2nd appearance, last in 2013); Ian Meckiff (3rd appearance, last in 2012); Muntadhar al-Zaidi (first appearance)
Repeats: Sweet Dew Incident (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total)

—howcheng {chat} 08:17, 14 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

2017 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Alabama (maintenance); Mariner 2 (maintenance); Three Gorges Dam (maintenance)
Omitted: Sweet Dew incident; Amundsen's South Pole expedition; Ian Meckiff; Muntadhar al-Zaidi
Included: 557 Constantinople earthquake (3rd appearance, last in 2014); Japanese battleship Haruna (3rd appearance, last in 2014); Golan Heights (first appearance); Siege of Tkvarcheli (2nd appearance, last in 2011); Al-Ashraf Khalil (first appearance); Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (first appearance); Helle Thorning-Schmidt (first appearance)
Repeats: Toledo War (2nd consecutive appearance, 6 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:10, 14 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

2018 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Max Planck (maintenance)
New articles (unused): KaDee Strickland
Omitted: Toledo War; Japanese battleship Haruna; Golan Heights; Siege of Tkvarcheli; Al-Ashraf Khalil; Princess Alice of the United Kingdom; Helle Thorning-Schmidt
Included: Sweet Dew incident (4th appearance, last in 2016); 1918 United Kingdom general election (first appearance; 100th anniversary); Cathode-ray tube amusement device (first appearance; 70th anniversary); Bush shoeing incident (first appearance; 10th anniversary; blurb previously featured Muntadhar al-Zaidi); Aldfrith of Northumbria (first appearance); Louis Marshall (first appearance); Lupe Vélez (first appearance)
Repeats: 557 Constantinople earthquake (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total)

—howcheng {chat} 02:48, 17 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2019 notes

New articles (unused): December 14, 1998 Albanian–Yugoslav border ambush
Omitted: 557 Constantinople earthquake; Sweet Dew incident; 1918 United Kingdom general election; Cathode-ray tube amusement device; Bush shoeing incident; Aldfrith of Northumbria; Louis Marshall
Included: John of the Cross (first appearance); Amundsen's South Pole expedition (3rd appearance, last in 2016); Baldwin Hills Dam disaster (2nd appearance, last in 2013); Vargas tragedy (4th appearance, last in 2013; 20th anniversary); Tino rangatiratanga (2nd appearance, last in 2011; 10th anniversary); Al-Ashraf Khalil (2nd appearance, last in 2017); KaDee Strickland (first appearance)
Repeats: Lupe Vélez (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total; 75th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 16:50, 16 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

2020 notes

Omitted: John of the Cross (ineligible—maintenance); Amundsen's South Pole expedition; Baldwin Hills Dam disaster; Vargas tragedy; Tino rangatiratanga; Al-Ashraf Khalil; Lupe Vélez; KaDee Strickland
Included: Anne Greene (first appearance); Toledo War (7th appearance, last in 2017); Japanese battleship Haruna (4th appearance, last in 2017); Ian Meckiff; (4th appearance, last in 2016; 60th anniversary) John III of the Sedre (first appearance); Giovanni Battista Cipriani (first appearance); Michael Owen (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 05:17, 16 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

2021 notes

Omitted: Anne Greene; Toledo War; Japanese battleship Haruna; Ian Meckiff; John III of the Sedre; Giovanni Battista Cipriani; Michael Owen
Included: Sweet Dew incident (5th appearance, last in 2018); Battle of Bean's Station (2nd appearance, last in 2018); 1918 United Kingdom general election (2nd appearance, last in 2018); Golan Heights (2nd appearance, last in 2017; 40th anniversary); December 14, 1998, Albanian–Yugoslav border ambush (first appearance); Niccolò Perotti (first appearance); DeFord Bailey (first appearance); Kim Beazley (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 08:41, 15 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]