Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/October 21

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This is the talk page for making suggestions or discussing improvements to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/October 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 October 21 article, see Talk:October 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.

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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.

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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.
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Today's featured article for October 21, 2025

Wikipedia:Today's featured article/October 21, 2025

create – talk – watch

Picture of the day for October 21, 2025

Nepalese woman lights traditional lamps (diyas) for Tihar. Tihar is the Nepali name for the five-day Hindu festival of Diwali. Today is the third and main day of the festival, which is celebrated by lighting diyas and candles.

Photograph credit: Mithun Kunwar

Recently featured:

← Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/October 20 * Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/October 22 →

Hope some admin has this on the watch list ... Apparently Evita's and Juan Perron's marriage took plave on oct, 22, not 21 - see as the most reliable looking site I found on this <sheesh it's a blocked site> evita<dot>4mg<dot>com/CapI<dot>html (in Spanish, but search 22 de octubre de 1945 there). On German selected anniversaries I've chosen Megamouth Shark#6 instead see [1] for further information) cheers --de:Benutzer:Interpretix 01:03, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for pointing this out. I wish I'd seen this earlier. The wedding is now off the list of selected anniversaries. I've copied your post on Talk:Eva Perón. I hope someone more familiar with the Peróns than me can get this clarified. Thanks. --PFHLai 17:36, 16 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Trafalgar Day

The article isn't anything special, but how far away is Trafalgar Day from being well-written enough to be on here? Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry (talk) 14:01, 21 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

2012 notes

Omitted: People's Crusade; England expects that every man will do his duty; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Valentich disappearance (ineligible—maintenance)
Included: Florence Nightingale (8th appearance, last in 2010); Medicine Lodge Treaty (3rd appearance, last in 2010); Battle of Yongju (first appearance); Jaffna hospital massacre (3rd appearance, last in 2010)
Repeats: Saint Pierre and Miquelon (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

—howcheng {chat} 04:30, 20 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

2013 notes

New articles (unused): HMS Niobe (1897)
Omitted: Saint Pierre and Miquelon; Florence Nightingale; Medicine Lodge Treaty; Battle of Yongju; Jaffna hospital massacre
Included: People's Crusade (2nd appearance, last in 2011); Battle of Sekigahara (3rd appearance, last in 2007; rescued from Ineligible); Orpheus in the Underworld (5th appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible); The Sheik/Rudolph Valentino (both: first appearance); Metre (6th appearance, last in 2010; 30th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 06:32, 20 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

2014 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Saint Pierre and Miquelon (maintenance)
Omitted: People's Crusade; Battle of Sekigahara; Orpheus in the Underworld; The Sheik (film)/Rudolph Valentino; Metre
Included: England expects that every man will do his duty (2nd appearance, last in 2011); Florence Nightingale (9th appearance, last in 2012); HMS Niobe (1897) (first appearance); Battle of Aachen (3rd appearance, last in 2010; 70th anniversary); Disappearance of Frederick Valentich (3rd appearance, last in 2011; rescued from Ineligible)

—howcheng {chat} 10:29, 20 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

2015 notes

Omitted: England expects that every man will do his duty; HMS Niobe (1897); Battle of Aachen; Disappearance of Frederick Valentich
Included: Battle of Sekigahara (4th appearance, last in 2013); Medicine Lodge Treaty (4th appearance, last in 2012); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (2nd appearance, last in 2011); Andreas Papandreou (first appearance)
Repeats: Florence Nightingale (2nd consecutive appearance, 10 total)

—howcheng {chat} 17:27, 19 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Back to the Future Day 2015

FYI October 21st 2015 is getting some press coverage as Back to the Future Day, e.g. BBC (mostly taken from this Financial Times story, NBC, CNN, 63,934 likes on Facebook, etc. And there are special screenings all over the place, e.g. [2], [3], [4]. - Pointillist (talk) 17:42, 20 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Done. Will take it off for next year. —howcheng {chat} 22:38, 20 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

2016 request

@Howcheng: - the Aberfan disaster is listed as ineligible due to external links. I see no reason why this should be. Both ELs are relevant to the article and neither seems to be in breach of WP:ELNO. As this year is the 50th anniversary, can the article be featured with a photograph please? Mjroots (talk) 07:49, 6 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Mjroots: This is what it looked like a year ago. Looks like someone did some pruning, so we are good to go. —howcheng {chat} 16:46, 6 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

2016 notes

Omitted: Battle of Sekigahara (ineligible—maintenance); Florence Nightingale; Medicine Lodge Treaty; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Andreas Papandreou
Included: People's Crusade (3rd appearance, last in 2013); Orpheus in the Underworld (6th appearance, last in 2013); HMS Niobe (1897) (2nd appearance, last in 2014); Aberfan disaster (first appearance; rescued from Ineligible; 50th anniversary); Metre (7th appearance, last in 2013)

—howcheng {chat} 03:31, 21 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

2017 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Florence Nightingale (maintenance); Andreas Papandreou (maintenance); Jaffna hospital massacre (maintenance)
New articles (ineligible): Kragujevac massacre (TFA for 2017; moved from October 20)
Omitted: People's Crusade; Orpheus in the Underworld; HMS Niobe (1897); Metre
Included: Saint Pierre and Miquelon (3rd appearance, last in 2012; rescued from Ineligible); England expects that every man will do his duty (3rd appearance, last in 2014); Medicine Lodge Treaty (5th appearance, last in 2015; 150th anniversary); Agreed Framework (first appearance); Sims Reeves (first appearance); Isabelle Eberhardt (first appearance); Virginia Zeani (first appearance)
Repeats: Aberfan disaster (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

—howcheng {chat} 03:49, 21 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

2018 notes

Moved to Ineligible: People's Crusade (maintenance)
Omitted: England expects that every man will do his duty; Medicine Lodge Treaty; Aberfan disaster (ineligible—TFA for 2018); Agreed Framework; Sims Reeves; Isabelle Eberhardt; Virginia Zeani
Included: Florence Nightingale (11th appearance, last in 2015; rescued from Ineligible); Battle of Aachen (4th appearance, last in 2014); Battle of Yongju (2nd appearance, last in 2012); Disappearance of Frederick Valentich (4th appearance, last in 2014); Edmund Waller (first appearance); Ursula K. Le Guin (first appearance); Steph Davies (first appearance)
Repeats: Saint Pierre and Miquelon (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total)

—howcheng {chat} 01:53, 21 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2019 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Battle of Auberoche (TFA for March 2, 2019)
Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Aberfan disaster
New articles (unused): Dedan Kimathi/Mau Mau Uprising (Kimathi moved from February 18)
Omitted: Saint Pierre and Miquelon; Florence Nightingale; Battle of Aachen; Battle of Yongju; Disappearance of Frederick Valentich; Edmund Waller; Ursula K. Le Guin (ineligible—TFA for 2019); Steph Davies
Included: Orpheus in the Underworld (7th appearance, last in 2016); Medicine Lodge Treaty (6th appearance, last in 2017); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (3rd appearance, last in 2015; 60th anniversary); 1969 Somali coup d'état/Somali Democratic Republic (both: first appearance); Metre (8th appearance, last in 2016; rescued from Ineligible); Henry Lawes (first appearance); Georg Solti (first appearance); Dorothy Hale (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 16:04, 22 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

2020 notes

Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Ursula K. Le Guin
Omitted: Orpheus in the Underworld; Medicine Lodge Treaty; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; 1969 Somali coup d'état/Somali Democratic Republic; Metre; Henry Lawes; Georg Solti; Dorothy Hale
Included: Battle of Auberoche (first appearance; rescued from Ineligible); Saint Pierre and Miquelon (5th appearance, last in 2018; 500th anniversary); Florence Nightingale (12th appearance, last in 2018); Disappearance of Frederick Valentich (5th appearance, last in 2018); John Cooke (Royal Navy officer) (first appearance); Will Carleton (first appearance); Hans Asperger (first appearance; 40th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 02:18, 23 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

2021 notes

Moved to Ineligible: England expects that every man will do his duty (maintenance)
Omitted: Battle of Auberoche; Saint Pierre and Miquelon; Florence Nightingale; Disappearance of Frederick Valentich; John Cooke (Royal Navy officer); Will Carleton; Hans Asperger
Included: People's Crusade (4th appearance, last in 2016; 925th anniversary; rescued from Ineligible); Orpheus in the Underworld (8th appearance, last in 2019); Kragujevac massacre (6th appearance, last in 2016; 80th anniversary); Shinjuku riot (first appearance); Agreed Framework (2nd appearance, last in 2017); Birger Jarl (first appearance); Sims Reeves (2nd appearance, last in 2017; 200th birthday); Ursula K. Le Guin (2nd appearance, last in 2018)

—howcheng {chat} 07:13, 23 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]