Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/August 4

This is the talk page for making suggestions or discussing improvements to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/August 4.

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 August 4 article, see Talk:August 4 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 August 4, 2025
Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 4, 2025 create – talk – watch
Picture of the day for August 4, 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/August 3 * Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/August 5 →

2012 notes

Latest comment: 12 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Omitted: Battle of Stanhope Park; Pope Pius X; Gulf of Tonkin incident; Comfort women; María del Luján Telpuk
Included: Battle of Evesham (2nd appearance, last in 2010); Battle of Lonato (first appearance); Italicus Express bombing 1974 (first appearance); Burkina Faso (4th appearance as blurb, last in 2010); MTS Oceanos (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 06:14, 3 August 2012 (UTC)Reply

2013 notes

Latest comment: 11 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Moved to Ineligible: Pope Pius X (maintenance)
Omitted: Battle of Evesham; Battle of Lonato; Italicus Express bombing 1974; MTS Oceanos; María del Luján Telpuk
Included: Second Temple (first appearance); Battle of Stanhope Park (2nd appearance, last in 2011); Mount Asama (first appearance); Thomas Sankara (4th appearance, last in 2008; blurb previously featured Burkina Faso, which is currently ineligible); 2006 Trincomalee massacre of NGO workers (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 09:40, 3 August 2013 (UTC)Reply

2014 notes

Latest comment: 10 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Rescued from Ineligible (unused): United States Revenue Cutter Service
Omitted: Second Temple; Battle of Stanhope Park (ineligible—maintenance); Mount Asama; Thomas Sankara; 2006 Trincomalee massacre of NGO workers
Included: Battle of Evesham (3rd appearance, last in 2012); Battle of Lonato (2nd appearance, last in 2012); Gulf of Tonkin incident (8th appearance, last in 2011; 50th anniversary); Italicus Express bombing 1974 (2nd appearance, last in 2012; 40th anniversary); Comfort women (2nd appearance, last in 2011)

—howcheng {chat} 05:35, 3 August 2014 (UTC)Reply

2015 notes

Latest comment: 9 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Deleted: Second Temple (date not actually mentioned in article)
Moved to Ineligible: MTS Oceanos (maintenance)
Omitted: Cook Islands (ineligible—maintenance); Battle of Lonato; Italicus Express bombing 1974; Comfort women
Included: United States Revenue Cutter Service (5th appearance, last in 2008; 225th anniversary); Operation Storm (first appearance; 10th anniversary); María del Luján Telpuk (3rd appearance, last in 2012)
Repeats: Battle of Evesham (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total); Gulf of Tonkin incident (2nd consecutive appearance, 9 total)

—howcheng {chat} 19:56, 2 August 2015 (UTC)Reply

2016 notes

Latest comment: 8 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Omitted: Battle of Evesham; United States Revenue Cutter Service; Operation Storm; María del Luján Telpuk
Included: Mount Asama (2nd appearance, last in 2013); Treaty of London (1839) (5th appearance, last in 2007; rescued from Ineligible); Thomas Sankara (5th appearance, last in 2013); 2006 Trincomalee massacre of NGO workers (2nd appearance, last in 2013; 10th anniversary)
Repeats: Gulf of Tonkin incident (3rd consecutive appearance, 10 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:01, 3 August 2016 (UTC)Reply

2017 notes

Latest comment: 7 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Moved to Ineligible: United States Revenue Cutter Service (maintenance); Italicus Express bombing (maintenance)
Omitted: Cook Islands (ineligible—maintenance); Mount Asama; Gulf of Tonkin incident (ineligible—maintenance); 2006 Trincomalee massacre of NGO workers
Included: Battle of Evesham (5th appearance, last in 2015); Austro-Turkish War (1788–91) (first appearance); Comfort women (3rd appearance, last in 2014); María del Luján Telpuk (4th appearance, last in 2014; 10th anniversary); Jan van den Hoecke (first appearance); John Vianney (first appearance); Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (first appearance)
Repeats: Treaty of London (1839) (2nd consecutive appearance, 6 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:39, 4 August 2017 (UTC)Reply

2018 notes

Latest comment: 6 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Moved to Ineligible: Thomas Sankara (maintenance)
Rescued from Ineligible (unused): MTS Oceanos
Omitted: Battle of Evesham; Austro-Turkish War (1788–1791); Comfort women; María del Luján Telpuk; Jan van den Hoecke; John Vianney; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
Included: Capture of Gibraltar (first appearance; rescued from Ineligible); Mount Asama (3rd appearance, last in 2016); Gulf of Tonkin incident (11th appearance, last in 2016; rescued from Ineligible); Operation Storm (3rd appearance, last in 2015); Henry I of France (first appearance); John Venn (first appearance); David Lange (first appearance)
Repeats: Treaty of London (1839) (3rd consecutive appearance, 7 total)

—howcheng {chat} 06:09, 4 August 2018 (UTC)Reply

2019 notes

Latest comment: 5 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

New articles (unused): Maurice Richard; John Wark; Meghan, Duchess of Sussex
Omitted: Capture of Gibraltar; Operation Storm; Henry I of France; John Venn; David Lange
Included: Battle of Evesham (6th appearance, last in 2017); María del Luján Telpuk (5th appearance, last in 2017); Peter de Montfort (first appearance); Laura Knight (first appearance); Jessica Mauboy (first appearance; 30th birthday)
Repeats: Mount Asama (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total); Treaty of London (1839)/German invasion of Belgium (Treaty: 4th consecutive appearance, 6 total; Invasion: first appearance); Gulf of Tonkin incident (2nd consecutive appearance, 12 total)

—howcheng {chat} 15:56, 6 August 2019 (UTC)Reply

2020 notes

Latest comment: 3 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion

Moved to Ineligible: James Thompson (surveyor) (TFA for 2020)
New articles (ineligible): As-Salih Ismail, Sultan of Egypt (date not cited); Osbert Lancaster (TFA for 2020-07-27)
Omitted: Battle of Evesham; Treaty of London (1839); María del Luján Telpuk/Suitcase scandal; Peter de Montfort; Laura Knight; Jessica Mauboy
Included: Battle of Lonato (3rd appearance, last in 2014); Operation Storm (4th appearance, last in 2018); Harry Lauder (first appearance); Samuel J. Tilden (first appearance); Helen Thomas (first appearance; 100th birthday)
Repeats: Mount Asama (3rd consecutive appearance, 5 total); Gulf of Tonkin incident (3rd consecutive appearance, 13 total)

—howcheng {chat} 21:45, 5 August 2020 (UTC)Reply

Hi! I was going through that page today, and I noticed that we omitted any reference to last year's explosion in Beirut, Lebanon I'm suggesting that we mention it.BlitzkriegCat (talk) 17:03, 4 August 2021 (UTC)Reply

2021 notes

Latest comment: 3 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Osbert Lancaster
New articles (unused): Jeanne Calment (moved from February 14)
Omitted: Mount Asama; Gulf of Tonkin incident; Operation Storm; Harry Lauder; Samuel J. Tilden; Helen Thomas
Included: James Thompson (surveyor) (first appearance); MTS Oceanos (2nd appearance, last in 2012); 2006 Trincomalee massacre of NGO workers (3rd appearance, last in 2016); Henry I of France (2nd appearance, last in 2018); Maurice Richard (first appearance; 100th birthday); Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (first appearance; 40th birthday)
Repeats: Battle of Lonato (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total; 225th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 16:14, 6 August 2021 (UTC)Reply

2022 notes

Latest comment: 2 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Omitted: Battle of Lonato; MTS Oceanos; 2006 Trincomalee massacre of NGO workers; Henry I of France; Maurice Richard; Meghan, Duchess of Sussex
Included: Battle of Evesham (7th appearance, last in 2019); Capture of Gibraltar (2nd appearance, last in 2018); 2020 Beirut explosion (first appearance); Laura Knight (2nd appearance, last in 2019); Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (2nd appearance, last in 2017); David Lange (2nd appearance, last in 2018; 80th birthday)
Repeats: James Thompson (surveyor) (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

—howcheng {chat} 19:00, 8 August 2022 (UTC)Reply

2023 notes

Omitted: Battle of Evesham; Capture of Gibraltar; James Thompson (surveyor); 2020 Beirut explosion; Laura Knight; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother; David Lange
Included: Black Prince's chevauchée of 1356 (first appearance); Mount Asama/Tenmei eruption (Mount Asama: 6th appearance, last in 2020; Tenmei eruption: first appearance); Lizzie Borden (4th appearance on August 4, last in 2009, 6 total, last in 2019); Expulsion of Asians from Uganda (first appearance); 1983 Upper Voltan coup d'état (first appearance); Lady Zhen (first appearance on August 4, 2 total); Percy Bysshe Shelley (first appearance on August 4, 2 total); Osbert Lancaster (first appearance); Margarito Bautista (first appearance on August 4, 2 total)

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