Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/September 16

Skip to table of contents

This is the talk page for making suggestions or discussing improvements to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/September 16.

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 September 16 article, see Talk:September 16 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 September 16, 2025
Wikipedia:Today's featured article/September 16, 2025 create – talk – watch
Picture of the day for September 16, 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/September 15 * Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/September 17 →

The September 16th entry says softball was invented on this date in 1887. It wasn't. It was invented on November 24, 1887. The Softball article says it was invented on the date the Harvard/Yale football game was played. This is true. The game was played on 11/24/1887. Thank you.

2012 notes

Moved to Ineligible: One-Two-GO Airlines Flight 269 (maintenance)
New articles (unused): Project Stormfury
Omitted: Grito de Dolores; Wall Street bombing; Allied invasion of Italy (ineligible—maintenance); Eurasian Land Bridge; Black Wednesday
Included: Battle of Harlem Heights (4th appearance, last in 2010); Italian invasion of Egypt (first appearance); Typhoon Nancy (1961) (first appearance); Sabra and Shatila massacre (8th appearance, last in 2010; 30th anniversary); Blackwater Baghdad shootings (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 06:07, 15 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

2013 notes

Omitted: Mexico/Papua New Guinea (both: ineligible—maintenance); Battle of Harlem Heights; Italian invasion of Egypt; Typhoon Nancy (1961); Sabra and Shatila massacre; Blackwater Baghdad shootings
Included: Grito de Dolores (2nd appearance, last in 2011); Rezā Shāh (2nd appearance, last in 2006; rescued from Ineligible); Chester Carlson (first appearance); Malaysia (8th appearance, last in 2010); Montreal Protocol (3rd appearance, last in 2010)

—howcheng {chat} 03:39, 15 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

2014 notes

Omitted: Reza Pahlavi; Chester Carlson; Malaysia; Montreal Protocol
Included: Mexico (rescued from Ineligible); Glyndŵr Rising (first appearance; rescued from Ineligible); Wall Street bombing (2nd appearance, last in 2011); Project Stormfury (first appearance); Eurasian Land Bridge (2nd appearance, last in 2011)
Repeats: Grito de Dolores (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total)

—howcheng {chat} 10:00, 15 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

2015 notes

New articles (unused): 1988–94 British broadcasting voice restrictions
Omitted: Wall Street bombing; Project Stormfury
Included: Battle of Harlem Heights (5th appearance, last in 2012); Italian invasion of Egypt (2nd appearance, last in 2012; 75th anniversary)
Repeats: Glyndŵr Rising (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total); Grito de Dolores (3rd consecutive appearance, 4 total); Eurasian Land Bridge (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total; 25th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 06:39, 14 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

2016 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Reza Shah (maintenance); Montreal Protocol (maintenance)
Omitted: Glyndŵr Rising (ineligible—maintenance); Cry of Dolores (ineligible—maintenance); Eurasian Land Bridge
Included: Typhoon Nancy (1961) (2nd appearance, last in 2012); Sabra and Shatila massacre (9th appearance, last in 2012); 1988–94 British broadcasting voice restrictions (first appearance)
Repeats: Battle of Harlem Heights (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total); Italian invasion of Egypt (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total)

—howcheng {chat} 17:42, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Eid al-Mubahalah

@Howcheng: As I stated here, today, i.e. September the 15th, is Eid al-Mubahalah in Iran and some other countries. It did not go to the main page, but let's do it for tomorrow since tomorrow is Eid in Iraq (See the difference between here and here). I've made the required changes to the article. --Mhhossein ^talk 13:07, 15 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

2017 notes

Omitted: Malaysia Day (maintenance); Mexico (maintenance); Typhoon Nancy (1961); Sabra and Shatila massacre; 1988–94 British broadcasting voice restrictions
Included: Malaysia (10th appearance as blurb, last in 2013); Eurasian Land Bridge (4th appearance, last in 2015); Nisour Square massacre (2nd appearance, last in 2012; 10th anniversary); Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (first appearance); Madge Syers (first appearance); Lauren Bacall (first appearance)
Repeats: Battle of Harlem Heights (3rd consecutive appearance, 7 total); Italian invasion of Egypt (3rd consecutive appearance, 4 total)

—howcheng {chat} 15:28, 17 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

2018 notes

New articles (unused): East German balloon escape
Omitted: Battle of Harlem Heights; Malaysia; Nisour Square massacre; Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit; Madge Syers; Lauren Bacall
Included: Malaysia Day (rescued from Ineligible); Wall Street bombing (3rd appearance, last in 2014); Typhoon Nancy (1961) (3rd appearance, last in 2016); Sabra and Shatila massacre (10th appearance, last in 2016); Philip III of Navarre (first appearance); Marian Cruger Coffin (first appearance); Ahn Eak-tai (first appearance)
Repeats: Italian invasion of Egypt (4th consecutive appearance, 5 total); Eurasian Land Bridge (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total)

—howcheng {chat} 06:12, 16 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2019 notes

@Howcheng: September 16 seems to be overwhelmingly biased towards the Western World. For geographic variety and for this article's historical importance per WP:OTDRULES, Black September, a conflict in Jordan, should be added. Makeandtoss (talk) 15:44, 15 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

1970 – King Hussein of Jordan declares war against the Palestine Liberation Organization, the conflict which became to be known as Black September.

Makeandtoss, Black September usually appears on September 17 and will appear this year. We do not feature the same article on more than one day. --- Coffeeandcrumbs 18:18, 15 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Makeandtoss: I had originally included a blurb about Malaysia, but a different editor removed it. —howcheng {chat} 16:13, 17 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

2019 notes

Deleted: 1988–94 British broadcasting voice restrictions (moved to October 19)
Omitted: Wall Street bombing; Typhoon Nancy (1961); Sabra and Shatila massacre; Eurasian Land Bridge; Philip III of Navarre; Marian Cruger Coffin; Ahn Eak-tai
Included: Battle of Harlem Heights (8th appearance, last in 2017); Project Stormfury (2nd appearance, last in 2014); East German balloon escape (first appearance; 40th anniversary); Washington Navy Yard shooting (first appearance); Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (2nd appearance, last in 2017); Louis XVIII (first appearance); Katie Melua (first appearance)
Repeats: Italian invasion of Egypt (5th consecutive appearance, 6 total)

—howcheng {chat} 16:12, 17 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

2020 notes

Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Black Wednesday
New articles (ineligible): Mikhail Kutuzov (maintenance)
Omitted: Battle of Harlem Heights; Project Stormfury; East German balloon escape; Washington Navy Yard shooting; Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit; Louis XVIII; Katie Melua
Included: James Francis Edward Stuart (4th appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible); Wall Street bombing (4th appearance, last in 2018; 100th anniversary); Eurasian Land Bridge (6th appearance, last in 2018; 30th anniversary); Nisour Square massacre (3rd appearance, last in 2017); Pandulf Verraccio (first appearance); Nadia Boulanger (first appearance); Karen Muir (first appearance)
Repeats: Italian invasion of Egypt (6th consecutive appearance, 7 total; 80th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 02:14, 18 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

2021 Notes

The Day of Atonement / Yom Kippur is a moveable observance that occurs on the 10 of Tishrei, which is 16 September 2021.

Hi Howcheng, this should be for this year (2021) only, but not for future years. thanks.Jaredscribe (talk) 00:43, 16 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Jaredscribe: A maintenance tag in Yom Kippur § Avodah: remembering the Temple service makes the article ineligible for inclusion (and also the "Temple service" section has very few footnotes). —howcheng {chat} 08:29, 16 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

2021 notes

New articles (ineligible): Paolo Di Lauro (maintenance)
New articles (unused): Millicent Fenwick
Omitted: Malaysia Day (ineligible—maintenance); James Francis Edward Stuart (ineligible—maintenance); Wall Street bombing; Italian invasion of Egypt; Eurasian Land Bridge; Nisour Square massacre; Pandulf Verraccio; Nadia Boulanger; Karen Muir
Included: Battle of Harlem Heights (9th appearance, last in 2019); Typhoon Nancy (1961) (4th appearance, last in 2018; 60th anniversary); Mikoyan MiG-31 (first appearance); East German balloon escape (2nd appearance, last in 2019); Washington Navy Yard shooting (2nd appearance, last in 2019); Mikhail Kutuzov (first appearance; rescued from Ineligible); Miriam Benjamin (first appearance); Louis Réard (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 07:34, 17 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

2022 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Pandulf Verraccio (maintenance)
Omitted: Typhoon Nancy (1961); Mikoyan MiG-31; East German balloon escape; Washington Navy Yard shooting
Included: Italian invasion of Egypt (8th appearance, last in 2020); Project Stormfury (3rd appearance, last in 2019); Sabra and Shatila massacre (11th appearance, last in 2018; 40th anniversary); Eurasian Land Bridge (7th appearance, last in 2020); Philip III of Navarre (2nd appearance, last in 2018); Marian Cruger Coffin (2nd appearance, last in 2018); Ahn Eak-tai (2nd appearance, last in 2018)
Repeats: Battle of Harlem Heights (2nd consecutive appearance, 10 total)

—howcheng {chat} 17:22, 21 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

notes section

I find the eligible/ineligible sections extremely unwieldy, so just taking notes of potential interesting articles on talk.

Zhao Wei (gangster) (07:11, 1 September 2023 (UTC))

Vaticidalprophet 07:11, 1 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]