Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/February 26

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This is the talk page for making suggestions or discussing improvements to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 26.

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 26 article, see Talk:February 26 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 26, 2025

Wikipedia:Today's featured article/February 26, 2025

create – talk – watch

Picture of the day for February 26, 2025

Ancient temple dedicated to Hindu God Shiva at Wangath Temple complex in the Himalayas of Jammu and Kashmir, India. Today is Maha Shivaratri, an annual Hindu festival in honour of Shiva. In the Kashmir Valley, it is celebrated by Kashmiri Hindus and is locally known as Herath.

Photograph credit: Basavaraj K. Korkar; edited by UnpetitproleX

Recently featured:

← Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/February 25 * Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/February 27 →

Could someone delete one entry from this list, since there are 5 of them plus a national holyday? And could someone explain why this page is protected from editing? --Panairjdde 18:27, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Please see my talk page. -- PFHLai 22:32, 2005 Feb 24 (UTC)

Bolding

This was asked on the mainpage's talk page and it got me thinking. Shouldn't "World Trade Center bombing" be bolded and not Ramzi Yousef. I mean, the bombing is the event that occured today which makes it notable, not the bomber. -- SmthManly / ^ManlyTalk / ^{ManlyContribs} 20:41, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Not really. Bolding was done to feature a page. For instance, a famous general won a war. The general's page was featured on the anniversary of the victory, with the link bolded. If the article about the war is a stub (or carries a NPOV tag, etc.), we will never bold the link to that page. Otherwise, both links may be bolded. I may switch things around from year to year. Sometimes, I had to pick one over the other if someone posted a cleanup tag, etc. There is also the issue of not featuring the same page twice within the same year, diversity of topics and things like that to worry about ..... In today's case, bolding the link to either the bomber or the bombing is fine. -- PFHLai 08:32, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

2012 notes

Deleted: Treaty of Roskilde (moved to March 8, the Gregorian date), Hundred Days (appears on March 20, which is a more relevant date)
Omitted: Nick Leeson (blurb featured Barings Bank last year, which is now ineligible)
Included: Kinemacolor (first appearance), Ghost rockets (first appearance), WorldWideWeb (4th appearance, last in 2009)
Repeats: Livery Stable Blues (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total), Vincent Massey (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

—howcheng {chat} 06:56, 25 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

2013 notes

Omitted: Kinemacolor; Livery Stable Blues; Ghost rockets; Vincent Massey; Nick Leeson
Included: Nabonassar (first appearance); Valentinian I (6th appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible); Napoleon (12th appearance, last in 2010; blurb previously featured Hundred Days, but that is used on March 20 instead); Luftwaffe (4th appearance, last in 2006; rescued from Ineligible)
Repeats: WorldWideWeb (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total)

—howcheng {chat} 08:02, 25 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

2014 notes

Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Robert Watson-Watt
New articles (unused): Mongol siege of Kaifeng (was just on DYK on 28 December 2013)
Omitted: Nabonassar; Luftwaffe; WorldWideWeb
Included: Livery Stable Blues (3rd appearance, last in 2012); February 26 Incident (2nd appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible); Nick Leeson (2nd appearance, last in 2012)
Repeats: Valentinian I (2nd consecutive appearance, 7 total); Napoleon (2nd consecutive appearance, 13 total)

—howcheng {chat} 06:44, 25 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

2015 notes

Omitted: Valentinian I; Livery Stable Blues; February 26 Incident
Included: Mongol siege of Kaifeng (first appearance); Robert Watson-Watt (7th appearance, last in 2010; 80th anniversary); Vincent Massey (3rd appearance, last in 2012)
Repeats: Napoleon (3rd consecutive appearance, 14 total; 200th anniversary); Nick Leeson (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total; 20th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 06:10, 25 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

2016 notes

Omitted: Napoleon; Robert Watson-Watt; Vincent Massey; Nick Leeson
Included: Nabonassar (2nd appearance, last in 2013); February 26 Incident (3rd appearance, last in 2014); WorldWideWeb (6th appearance, last in 2013; 25th anniversary); 2008 New York Philharmonic visit to North Korea (first appearance)
Repeats: Mongol siege of Kaifeng (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

—howcheng {chat} 17:07, 24 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

2017 notes

Omitted: February 26 Incident; 2008 New York Philharmonic visit to North Korea
Deleted: Ayyám-i-Há (moved to February 25); WorldWideWeb (moved to December 25); Vincent Massey (moved to February 28); Tsagaan Sar (moved to February 27)
Included: Napoleon (4th appearance, last in 2015); Livery Stable Blues (4th appearance, last in 2014; 100th anniversarsy); 2013 Luxor hot air balloon crash (first appearance); Levi Strauss (2nd appearance, last in 2012; also appears on May 20 so should not have been included today but nobody was paying attention); Mary Whiton Calkins (first appearance)
Repeats: Nabonassar (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total); Mongol siege of Kaifeng (3rd consecutive appearance, 3 total)

Mackensen (talk) 19:23, 25 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

2018 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Kinemacolor (maintenance)
Omitted: Saviours' Day (deleted—date not certain); Liberation of Kuwait campaign (ineligible—maintenance); Nabonassar; Livery Stable Blues; 2013 Luxor hot air balloon crash; Levi Strauss; Mary Whiton Calkins
Included: HMHS Britannic (2nd appearance, last in 2017; moved from November 21); Robert Watson-Watt (8th appearance, last in 2015); 2008 New York Philharmonic visit to North Korea (2nd appearance, last in 2016; 10th anniversary); John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford (first appearance); Herbert Henry Dow (first appearance); Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (first appearance)
Repeats: Mongol siege of Kaifeng (4th consecutive appearance, 4 total); Napoleon (2nd consecutive appearance, 16 total)

—howcheng {chat} 22:53, 26 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2019 notes

Deleted: Levi Strauss (already included on May 20)
New articles (unused): Thomas-Alexandre Dumas
Omitted: Mongol siege of Kaifeng; HMHS Britannic; Robert Watson-Watt; 2008 New York Philharmonic visit to North Korea; John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford; Herbert Henry Dow; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Included: Nabonassar (4th appearance, last in 2017); Luftwaffe (5th appearance, last in 2013); Superliner (railcar) (first appearance; 40th anniversary); Shooting of Trayvon Martin (first appearance); Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll (first appearance); Nadezhda Krupskaya (first appearance); Howard Hanson (first appearance)
Repeats: Napoleon (3rd consecutive appearance, 17 total)

—howcheng {chat} 17:40, 26 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

2020 notes

Omitted: Nabonassar; Napoleon; Luftwaffe; Superliner (railcar); Shooting of Trayvon Martin; Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll; Nadezhda Krupskaya; Howard Hanson
Included: Battle of Benevento (5th appearance, last in 2009; rescued from Ineligible); Janszoon voyage of 1605–06; February 26 Incident (4th appearance, last in 2016); Barings Bank/Nick Leeson (Barings: 3rd appearance, last in 2011; Leeson: th appearance, last in 2016; 25th anniversary); Lorenzino de' Medici (first appearance); Thomas-Alexandre Dumas (first appearance); Joseph Wapner (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 16:37, 27 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

2021 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Mary Whiton Calkins (maintenance)
Omitted: Battle of Benevento; Janszoon voyage of 1605–06; February 26 Incident; Lorenzino de' Medici; Thomas-Alexandre Dumas; Joseph Wapner
Included: Nabonassar (5th appearance, last in 2019); Napoleon (18th appearance, last in 2019); 2013 Luxor hot air balloon crash (2nd appearance, last in 2017); Fatima bint al-Ahmar (first appearance); Kenneth Edgeworth (first appearance); Howard Hanson (2nd appearance, last in 2019; 40th anniversary)
Repeats: Barings Bank/Nick Leeson (2nd consecutive appearance; Barings: 4 total; Leeson: 5 total)

—howcheng {chat} 19:59, 27 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

2022 notes

Deleted: Mongol siege of Kaifeng (moved to May 29)
Omitted: Nabonassar; Barings Bank; 2013 Luxor hot air balloon crash; Fatima bint al-Ahmar; Kenneth Edgeworth; Howard Hanson
Included: Janszoon voyage of 1605–06 (2nd appearance, last in 2020); Livery Stable Blues (5th appearance, last in 2017); Robert Watson-Watt (9th appearance, last in 2018); Killing of Trayvon Martin (2nd appearance, last in 2019; 10th anniversary); Manfred, King of Sicily (2nd appearance, last in 2005); Camille Flammarion (first appearance); Raosaheb Gogte (first appearance)
Repeats: Napoleon (2nd consecutive appearance, 20 total; also appeared on May 5 last year for his 200th death anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 05:58, 27 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]