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The following discussion 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 Gatoclass (talk) 09:18, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

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Old Fortress, Corfu

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Old Fortress of Corfu

  • ... that on 28 October 1718 lightning struck the powder magazine at the Old Fortress of Corfu (pictured) causing an explosion which resulted in "one of the greatest catastrophes" in the history of Corfu?
  • ALT1 ... that the town of Corfu got its Western name from the twin peaks of its Old Fortress (pictured)?

Created by Dr.K. (talk). Self nominated at 02:47, 28 November 2013 (UTC).

  • Hook & article lenth, date, copyio checked. Sources The Edinburgh Gazetteer, Or Geographical Dictionary and The Ionian Islands are both backing up the hook. We stille need that QPQ though...Lajbi Holla @ me • CP 21:36, 2 December 2013 (UTC)
Good to go then. Sorry there needs to be some clafirication provided regarding the date of the lightning. I will explain it in details shortly. Lajbi Holla @ me • CP 08:20, 3 December 2013 (UTC)
So sources are confusing and not coherent on the date of the explosion. You give 28 October 1718 in the hook but your own source The Edinburgh Gazetteer, Or Geographical Dictionary claims November. With a quick Google search there are some sites which support this. E.g. realcorfu.com dates it 11th November 1718. I know it's not as valuable as a book, so I search for a book. The Geschichte Von Venedig p. 361 says "Am 21. September 1718 hat eine Pulverexplosion auf Korfü, bei der Andrea Pisani unter den Trümmern seines Palastes den Tod fand" so it is September. As the death of the captian and the lightning happened the same time you get more - contradicting - results by searching "Andrea Pisani". So you should sort out your own sources to not contradict each other and give a reason why you sided with one date over the other before this submission could be reviewed properly. Lajbi Holla @ me • CP 11:13, 3 December 2013 (UTC)
  • ALT2... that in 1718 lightning struck the powder magazine at the Old Fortress of Corfu (pictured) causing an explosion which resulted in "one of the greatest catastrophes" in the history of Corfu?
Thank you Lajbi. I have removed the exact date for the explosion out of the hook and left only the year "1718" as shown in ALT2. By the way "28 October 1718" was given by Freely which was the first source I used. I found the other sources later. Since the exact date is unclear I have also left the year only in the article "1718" which is not disputed. Alternatively we can go with ALT1 about the name of the city. Δρ.Κ. λόγοςπράξις 14:26, 3 December 2013 (UTC)
ALT2 good to go. Lajbi Holla @ me • CP 18:21, 3 December 2013 (UTC)
Thank you very much Lajbi. Nice meeting you. Take care. Δρ.Κ. λόγοςπράξις 21:47, 3 December 2013 (UTC)
  • I'm concerned that some of the phrasing in this article is too close to that of its sources. Compare for example "killed or taken as slaves in great numbers. Such actions created great anger and frustration amongst the Corfiots and put in doubt the ability of Venice to defend the island" with "killed or taken into slavery in great numbers, a trauma that created anger and frustration among Venice's Corfiot subjects and also doubts as to the Republic's ability to protect them". Nikkimaria (talk) 19:02, 4 December 2013 (UTC)
  • @Nikkimaria: Is this the only occurrence? I will fix this first. If you have any other examples please let me know. Δρ.Κ. λόγοςπράξις 05:11, 5 December 2013 (UTC)
  • I have rephrased: left outside the fort to die or become slaves. The rejection of the people at the gates angered the Corfiots who lost faith in the effectiveness of Venice's defensive plans.. Δρ.Κ. λόγοςπράξις 05:22, 5 December 2013 (UTC)
  • Okay. I don't have access to all the sources, but for those I do paraphrasing is okay. Thanks for the talk-page note - for future reference, pings don't work in template-space. Nikkimaria (talk) 15:14, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

It seems like that your method of relying heavily on the first source backfires and stir up more faux results. I was seeking for consensus on the date by looking up Greek sources and found another mismatch in numbers. In the sentence "Additionally, 2,000 others died in the explosion, in one of the greatest catastrophes in the history of Corfu", which contains the hook fact, also have a death toll, which is only supported by one source. I came across this online : "[the] palace was blown and buried General Andrea Pisano under the ruins along with his family and 60 other people [...] The explosion caused a total of around a thousand deaths and wounding five hundred people. In the archives of the Catholic Archdiocese of Corfu extant book of acts which are recorded the names of the dead (sources differ and give the number of dead from 900 to 2000). " (translated version). So it claims much lesser casualties than the first source ( The Ionian Islands) and only assumes that at most it could reach the 2000. I think lesser emphasis on the source that claims it is the "greatest catastrophe" is sufficient if the actual loss numbers are well verified. There are six refs attahced but only one focuses on the victims. Lajbi Holla @ me • CP 10:21, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

@Lajbi: There is a second source that mentions the victims in the article in addition to the reference by Freely: the Edinburgh Gazetteer gives "above 1500": "...killing above 1500 of the inhabitants". But I will not argue the numbers. I have modified "2000" to "hundreds". Δρ.Κ. λόγοςπράξις 10:48, 5 December 2013 (UTC)
You don't have to rephrase the sentence (but it's okay though) if you'll give an interval and put on some notes (inline or in a Notes section) that specifies which estimate is based on what or who. Historical records are rarely identical. Like in Siege of Jajce Infobox Strength or Battle of Acapulco#Notes. This issue doesn't affect directly the DYK but the article needs to be throughout nevertheless. Lajbi Holla @ me • CP 12:23, 5 December 2013 (UTC)
Anyway I give an AGF OK, but the article could benefit from some more improvement. Lajbi Holla @ me • CP 12:25, 5 December 2013 (UTC)
Thank you again Lajbi for your time and also for your research and your find of the reference by the Catholic Archdiocese which was excellent. I agree with your points regarding the old records. They very often disagree on the finer details. Please feel free to tweak the numbers to your satisfaction if you wish or make any other improvement to the article. Best regards. Δρ.Κ. λόγοςπράξις 12:45, 5 December 2013 (UTC)
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