Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/April 3

This is the talk page for making suggestions or discussing improvements to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/April 3.

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 April 3 article, see Talk:April 3 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 April 3, 2025
Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 3, 2025 create – talk – watch
Picture of the day for April 3, 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/April 2 * Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/April 4 →

1860 - The first successful Pony Express run from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California is started (completed on April 13).
1865 - American Civil War: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the break-away Confederate States of America.
1882 - Old West outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back and killed in Saint Joseph, Missouri by Robert Ford for a $5,000 reward.
1942 - World War II: Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. Bataan fell on April 9 and the Bataan Death March began.
- Let's save this for April 9th. -- PFHLai 04:02, 2005 Apr 2 (UTC)
1946 - Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed outside Manila in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.
- Let's save this for April 9th. -- PFHLai 04:02, 2005 Apr 2 (UTC)
1948 - President Harry Truman signs the Marshall Plan which authorizes $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "mountaintop" speech.
1974 - The Super Outbreak occurred. 148 tornadoes affected 13 states in 26 hours. It was the biggest tornado outbreak in the planet's recorded history.
1986 - IBM unveils the PC Convertible, the first laptop computer.
1996 - Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his Montana cabin.

re: tornado image

It is bad practice to place generic images in as representations of historical events. So I have removed the tornado image.

Let's try to use only images that are actually of the person or incident in question. Kingturtle 02:15, 3 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Super Outbreak

Latest comment: 18 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

The link for La Niña needs to be fixed. The title of its article is actually ENSO, for "El Niño-Southern Oscillation". --Kitch 11:50, 3 April 2006 (UTC)Reply

Addition to "On this Day"

Latest comment: 15 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Can someone modify the "On this Day" section" on the "Main Page". It should show that this day is observed as Rama Navami. This is a national holiday in India and one of the most auspicious day in Hinduism.Bmayuresh (talk) 04:45, 3 April 2009 (UTC)Reply

2012 notes

Latest comment: 12 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Omitted: Pony Express; Whitechapel murders; Jeju Uprising; Martin Cooper (inventor)
Included: Edward the Confessor (2nd appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible); Oscar Wilde (8th appearance, last in 2010); Kamen Rider Series (2nd appearance, last in 2008; rescued from Ineligible); YFZ Ranch (first appearance)
Repeats: Joseph Stalin (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total)

—howcheng {chat} 05:53, 2 April 2012 (UTC)Reply

2013 notes

Latest comment: 11 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Omitted: Edward the Confessor; Oscar Wilde; Joseph Stalin; Kamen Rider Series; YFZ Ranch
Included: Whitechapel murders (2nd appearance, last in 2011); Richard Hauptmann (2nd appearance, last in 2006; rescued from Ineligible); Jeju Uprising (3rd appearance, last in 2011); Martin Cooper (inventor) (4th appearance, last in 2011; 40th anniversary); Osborne 1 (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 06:15, 2 April 2013 (UTC)Reply

2014 notes

Latest comment: 10 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Super Outbreak (there was another tornado outbreak article just on, so this is gets left out despite this being its 40th anniversary)
Omitted: Whitechapel murders; Richard Hauptmann; Jeju Uprising; Martin Cooper (inventor); Osborne 1
Included: Edward the Confessor (3rd appearance, last in 2012); Oscar Wilde (9th appearance, last in 2012); Joseph Stalin (5th appearance, last in 2012); Leadbeater's possum (first appearance); 1996 Croatia USAF CT-43 crash (3rd appearance, last in 2010)

—howcheng {chat} 10:19, 2 April 2014 (UTC)Reply

2015 notes

Latest comment: 9 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Moved to Ineligible: Osborne 1 (maintenance)
New articles (unused): Binghamton shootings
Omitted: Edward the Confessor; Oscar Wilde; Joseph Stalin; Leadbeater's possum; 1996 Croatia USAF CT-43 crash
Included: Pony Express (6th appearance, last in 2011); Whitechapel murders (3rd appearance, last in 2013); Marshall Plan (9th appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible); Kamen Rider Series (3rd appearance, last in 2012); 2013 Argentina floods (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 10:30, 1 April 2015 (UTC)Reply

2016 notes

Latest comment: 8 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Moved to Ineligible: 1974 Super Outbreak (maintenance)
Omitted: Pony Express; Whitechapel murders; Marshall Plan; Kamen Rider Series (ineligible—maintenance); 2013 Argentina floods
Included: Edward the Confessor (4th appearance, last in 2014); Oscar Wilde (10th appearance, last in 2014); Joseph Stalin (6th appearance, last in 2014); Masaharu Homma (first appearance; 70th anniversary); 1996 Croatia USAF CT-43 crash (4th appearance, last in 2014' 20th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 16:01, 1 April 2016 (UTC)Reply

2017 notes

Latest comment: 6 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Moved to Ineligible: Richard Hauptmann (maintenance); Marshall Plan (maintenance); Martin Cooper (inventor) (maintenance)
Omitted: Edward the Confessor; Oscar Wilde; Joseph Stalin; Masaharu Homma; 1996 Croatia USAF CT-43 crash
Included: Whitechapel murders (4th appearance, last in 2015); Jeju uprising (4th appearance, last in 2013); Leadbeater's possum (2nd appearance, last in 2014); Osborne 1 (2nd appearance, last in 2013; rescued from Ineligible); Mary Carpenter (first appearance); Tony Benn (first appearance); Graham Greene (first appearance)
Repeats: Pony Express (3rd consecutive appearance, 8 total)

—howcheng {chat} 02:40, 1 April 2018 (UTC)Reply

2018 notes

Latest comment: 6 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Omitted: Pony Express; Whitechapel murders; Leadbeater's possum; Osborne 1; Mary Carpenter; Tony Benn; Graham Greene
Included: Edward the Confessor (5th appearance, last in 2016; 10th anniversary); Italian War of 1551–1559 (first appearance); Joseph Stalin (7th appearance, last in 2016); YFZ Ranch (2nd appearance, last in 2012; 975th anniversary); Ernst Chladni (first appearance); Thomas C. Kinkaid (first appearance); Pál Teleki (first appearance)
Repeats: Jeju uprising (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total; 70th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 07:24, 3 April 2018 (UTC)Reply

2019 notes

Latest comment: 5 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Moved to Ineligible: Leadbeater's possum (maintenance)
Omitted: Edward the Confessor; Joseph Stalin; Jeju uprising; YFZ Ranch (ineligible—maintenance); Ernst Chladni; Thomas C. Kinkaid; Pál Teleki
Included: Pony Express (9th appearance, last in 2017); Oscar Wilde (11th appearance, last in 2016); Masaharu Homma (2nd appearance, last in 2016); Binghamton shootings (first appearance; 10th anniversary); Al-Adil ibn al-Sallar (first appearance); Gus Grissom (first appearance); Mary Cartwright (first appearance)
Repeats: Italian War of 1551–1559 (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

—howcheng {chat} 15:56, 3 April 2019 (UTC)Reply

2020 notes

Latest comment: 4 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

New articles (unused): Panama Papers
Omitted: Italian War of 1551–1559; Oscar Wilde; Masaharu Homma; Binghamton shootings; Al-Adil ibn al-Sallar; Gus Grissom; Mary Cartwright
Included: Whitechapel murders (5th appearance, last in 2017); Joseph Stalin (8th appearance, last in 2018); Jeju uprising (6th appearance, last in 2018); United States v. Microsoft Corp. (first appearance; 20th anniversary); Richard of Chichester (first appearance); Cyrus K. Holliday (first appearance); Roza Shanina (first appearance)
Repeats: Pony Express (2nd consecutive appearance, 10 total)

—howcheng {chat} 17:54, 4 April 2020 (UTC)Reply

2021 notes

Latest comment: 3 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

New articles (unused): SethBling
Omitted: Pony Express; Whitechapel murders; Joseph Stalin; Jeju uprising; United States v. Microsoft Corp.; Richard of Chichester; Cyrus K. Holliday; Roza Shanina
Included: Edward the Confessor (6th appearance, last in 2018); Italian War of 1551–1559 (3rd appearance, last in 2019); Masaharu Homma (3rd appearance, last in 2019; 75th anniversary); Osborne 1 (3rd appearance, last in 2017; 40th anniversary); 1996 Croatia USAF CT-43 crash (5th appearance, last in 2017; 25th anniversary); Thomas C. Kinkaid (2nd appearance, last in 2018); Pál Teleki (2nd appearance, last in 2018; 80th anniversary); Graham Greene (2nd appearance, last in 2017; 30th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 06:14, 6 April 2021 (UTC)Reply

2022 notes

Latest comment: 2 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

New articles (unused): Houston–Mount Everest flight expedition
Omitted: Edward the Confessor; Italian War of 1551–1559; Masaharu Homma; Osborne 1; 1996 Croatia USAF CT-43 crash; Pál Teleki; Graham Greene
Included: Pony Express (11th appearance, last in 2020); Oscar Wilde (12th appearance, last in 2020); Joseph Stalin (9th appearance, last in 2020; 100th anniversary); Jeju uprising (11th appearance, last in 2020); Panama Papers (first appearance); George Herbert (first appearance); Ernst Chladni (2nd appearance, last in 2018); SethBling (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 03:47, 4 April 2022 (UTC)Reply

Add topic