Template:Did you know nominations/Thomas North Whitehead

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Yoninah (talk) 21:57, 25 March 2017 (UTC)

Thomas North Whitehead

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• ... that Thomas North Whitehead suggested that England give America the Magna Carta to win support for Lend-Lease? [Source]

• Reviewed: Sh2-297

5x expanded by David Eppstein (talk). Self-nominated at 07:15, 18 March 2017 (UTC).

• New and long enough, all ¶ with citations, copyvio check reveals no problems. Hook is within size. QPC verified. Hook verified with source, however I find it slightly misleading as "the Magna Carta" implies the original but the document involved was actually one of four surviving original copies of the 13 or more made in the 13th century. I would suggest a slight rewording here. MB 16:54, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

• Those are the originals. The Magna Carta was originally made in multiple copies; four of them survive. The particular one in question is owned by Lincoln Cathedral, and their web site on it [1] says "Only four original copies of Magna Carta remain from when it was sealed by King John in 1215." Or, to put it another way, here "copies" means that they were copies of each other, not that they were copies of some other ur-document. —David Eppstein (talk) 17:13, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

• Yes I realize all that. My point is that the hook doesn't say that, it says "the Magna Carta" which I interpret as much more rare and significant that one of the four surviving copies. In the article, you were accurate saying "one of the original copies of the Magna Carta". The hook should not be less accurate. MB 21:38, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

• Well, I think it's a lot less punchy, but how about

• ALT1 ... that Thomas North Whitehead suggested that England give America one of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta to win support for Lend-Lease?

I modified the article to add the number of surviving copies and to use a different source that mentions this number of copies. —David Eppstein (talk) 23:53, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

I agree ALT1 is a lot less punchy but no one can object to it being accurate. If you want to add another source to the article, a punchier hook could be:

• ALT2 ... that Thomas North Whitehead suggested that to win support for Lend-Lease, England give America the copy of the Magna Carta that was held in Fort Knox for safety during WWII?

• No, I prefer ALT1. I think the extraneous detail just distracts from the point. And the timing is backwards: it was held in Fort Knox for safety for the five years after Whitehead hatched this plan. For the two years before that, it was out on exhibit. —David Eppstein (talk) 04:05, 19 March 2017 (UTC)

OK then, approved with ALT1. MB 14:16, 19 March 2017 (UTC)