Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/July 4

This is the talk page for making suggestions or discussing improvements to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/July 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 July 4 article, see Talk:July 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 July 4, 2025

Wikipedia:Today's featured article/July 4, 2025

create – talk – watch

Picture of the day for July 4, 2025

Mount Rushmore National Memorial is centered on a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dakota. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum created the sculpture's design and oversaw the project's execution from 1927 to 1941 with the help of his son, Lincoln Borglum. The sculpture features the 60-foot-tall (18 m) heads of four United States Presidents recommended by Borglum: George Washington (1732–1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), chosen to represent the nation's birth, growth, development and preservation, respectively.

Photograph credit: Thomas Wolf

Recently featured:

← Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/July 3 * Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/July 5 →

2012 notes

Omitted: United States Declaration of Independence; Crab Nebula; Brazilian cruiser Bahia; Deep Impact (spacecraft)
Included: Battle of Klushino (2nd appearance, last in 2010); Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (first appearance); Annual Reminder (first appearance); Operation Entebbe (5th appearance, last in 2009)
Repeats: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total; 150th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 06:22, 3 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

2013 notes

Moved to Ineligible: United States Declaration of Independence (maintenance); Massacre of Lviv professors (maintenance); Battle of Kursk (maintenance)
Omitted: Battle of Klushino; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; Annual Reminder; Operation Entebbe
Included: Pulcheria (first appearance); Crab Nebula (3rd appearance, last in 2011); Brazilian cruiser Bahia (3rd appearance, last in 2011); William Shockley (first appearance); Deep Impact (spacecraft) (3rd appearance, last in 2011)

—howcheng {chat} 06:04, 3 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Removed Deep Impact for severe image abuse, and re-added Battle of Klushino, which looked like the highest-quality article in the eligible slots (article quality should be the barometer here, not how often they appeared 365 days ago; readers won't remember them). Ed ^{[talk] [majestic titan]} 04:05, 4 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

That one has the GA mark on it, so quality (as advertised) was indeed taken into account in that case. —howcheng {chat} 05:40, 4 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

No worries, it's an ancient GA in Wikipedia terms, but a GA nonetheless. :-) Ed ^{[talk] [majestic titan]} 05:54, 4 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

One other note: if you swap out the blurb that goes with the image, don't forget to change the image as well. —howcheng {chat} 06:56, 4 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

2014 notes

Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Battle of Kursk; Deep Impact (spacecraft)
Omitted: Crab Nebula; Brazilian cruiser Bahia; William Shockley
Included: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (6th appearance, last in 2012); 1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash/Władysław Sikorski's death controversy (both: first appearance); Higgs boson/Search for the Higgs boson (both: first appearance)
Repeats: Pulcheria (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total; 1,600th anniversary); Battle of Klushino (3rd consecutive appearance, 4 total)

—howcheng {chat} 06:25, 3 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

2015 notes

Moved to Ineligible: United States Declaration of Independence (US-related items both TFA and POTD for 2015)
New articles (ineligible): United States Military Academy (featured on March 16)
Omitted: Pulcheria; Battle of Klushino; 1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash/Władysław Sikorski's death controversy; Higgs boson/Search for the Higgs boson (both ineligible—maintenance)
Included: Ulrich of Augsburg (rescued from Ineligible); Crab Nebula (4th appearance, last in 2013); Brazilian cruiser Bahia (4th appearance, last in 2013; 70th anniversary); Annual Reminder (2nd appearance, last in 2012; 50th anniversary); Deep Impact (spacecraft) (3rd appearance, last in 2011; 10th anniverasry)
Repeats: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2nd consecutive appearance, 7 total)

—howcheng {chat} 03:13, 3 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

2016 notes

Omitted: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; Brazilian cruiser Bahia; Annual Reminder; Deep Impact (spacecraft)
Included: Battle of Klushino (5th appearance, last in 2014); Leaves of Grass (first appearance); Massacre of Lviv professors (5th appearance, last in 2010; 75th anniversary); Operation Entebbe (6th appearance, last in 2012; 10th anniversary)
Repeats: Crab Nebula (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total)

—howcheng {chat} 23:22, 3 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

2017 notes

New articles (unused): Kylie (album)
Omitted: Apsis (ineligible—maintenance); Ulrich of Augsburg (ineligible—maintenance); Crab Nebula; Battle of Klushino; Leaves of Grass; Massacre of Lwów professors; Operation Entebbe
Included: Pulcheria (3rd appearance, last in 2014); Grand Junction Railway (2nd appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible); Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (2nd appearance, last in 2012; rescued from Ineligible); 1982 Iranian diplomats kidnapping (first appearance; moved from June 4); Deep Impact (spacecraft) (4th appearance, last in 2015); Usama ibn Munqidh (first appearance); Samuel Richardson (first appearance); Pitikwahanapiwiyin (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 04:09, 4 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

2018 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Kylie (album) (date not cited)
New articles (unused): John Adams/Thomas Jefferson
Omitted: Pulcheria; Grand Junction Railway; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; 1982 Iranian diplomats kidnapping; Deep Impact (spacecraft); Usama ibn Munqidh; Samuel Richardson; Pîhtokahanapiwiyin
Included: Crab Nebula (6th appearance, last in 2016); United States Declaration of Independence (7th appearance, last in 2011; rescued from Ineligible); Battle of Hamel (first appearance; 100th anniversary); 1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash/Władysław Sikorski's death controversy (both: 2nd appearance, last in 2014; 75th anniversary); 1954 FIFA World Cup Final (first appearance; rescued from Ineligible); Philippe de Monte (first appearance); Christian Fürchtegott Gellert (first appearance); Geraldo Rivera (first appearance; 75th birthday)

—howcheng {chat} 07:09, 5 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2019 notes

Moved to Ineligible: SS La Bourgogne (maintenance)
New articles (unused): Steve Fossett (moved from July 2)
Omitted: Crab Nebula; United States Declaration of Independence; Battle of Hamel; 1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash/Władysław Sikorski's death controversy; 1954 FIFA World Cup Final; Philippe de Monte; Christian Fürchtegott Gellert; Geraldo Rivera
Included: Battle of Hattin (4th appearance, last in 2006; rescued from Ineligible); Battle of Klushino (6th appearance, last in 2016); Brazilian cruiser Bahia (5th appearance, last in 2015); Operation PBHistory (first appearance); Kylie (album) (first appearance; rescued from Ineligible); Elizabeth of Portugal (first appearance); John Adams/Thomas Jefferson (Adams: first appearance; Jefferson: 3rd appearance, last in 2018; moved from April 13); Yonatan Netanyahu (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 19:53, 16 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

2020 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Pulcheria (blurb needs rewrite)
New articles (ineligible): Steve Fossett (maintenance; moved from July 2)
Omitted: Battle of Hattin (ineligible—maintenance); Battle of Klushino (ineligible—maintenance); Operation PBHistory; Kylie (album); Elizabeth of Portugal; John Adams/Thomas Jefferson; Yonatan Netanyahu
Included: Crab Nebula (7th appearance, last in 2018); Operation Entebbe (7th appearance, last in 2016); Deep Impact (spacecraft) (5th appearance, last in 2017); Raynald of Châtillon (first appearance); John Leake (first appearance); Suzanne Lenglen (first appearance)
Repeats: Brazilian cruiser Bahia (2nd consecutive appearance, 6 total; 75th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 17:49, 6 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

2021 notes

Omitted: Crab Nebula; Brazilian cruiser Bahia; Operation Entebbe; Deep Impact (spacecraft); Raynald of Châtillon; John Leake; Suzanne Lenglen
Included: Grand Junction Railway (3rd appearance, last in 2017); Leaves of Grass (2nd appearance, last in 2016); Burning of the Riga synagogues (first appearance; 80th anniversary); William Shockley (2nd appearance, last in 2013; 70th anniversary); Antoine Daniel (2nd appearance, last in 2019; also appears on May 27); Hubert Cecil Booth (first appearance; 150th birthday); Sonia Pierre (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 03:36, 6 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

2022 notes

New articles (ineligible): International Date Line (maintenance)
Omitted: Grand Junction Railway; Leaves of Grass; Burning of the Riga synagogues; William Shockley; Min Phalaung; Hubert Cecil Booth; Sonia Pierre
Included: Ulrich of Augsburg (rescued from Ineligible); Pulcheria (4th appearance, last in 2017; rescued from Ineligible); Crab Nebula (8th appearance, last in 2020); Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (8th appearance, last in 2015; rescued from Ineligible); Battle of Hamel (2nd appearance, last in 2018); 1982 kidnapping of Iranian diplomats (2nd appearance, last in 2017; 40th anniversary); Usama ibn Munqidh (2nd appearance, last in 2017); Poundmaker (2nd appearance, last in 2017); Andre Spitzer (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 06:46, 6 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]