Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/March 24

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This is the talk page for making suggestions or discussing improvements to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/March 24.

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 March 24 article, see Talk:March 24 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 March 24, 2025
Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) is an animated short film by American cartoonist Winsor McCay (c. 1867–1934). He first used the film before live audiences as an interactive part of his vaudeville act: the frisky, childlike Gertie did tricks at the command of her master. His employer, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, later curtailed McCay's vaudeville activities, so McCay added a live-action introductory sequence to the film for its theatrical release. Gertie was the first film to use animation techniques such as keyframes, registration marks, tracing paper, the Mutoscope action viewer, and animation loops. Gertie influenced the next generation of animators, including the Fleischer brothers, Otto Messmer, Paul Terry, and Walt Disney. McCay abandoned a sequel, Gertie on Tour (c. 1921), after producing about a minute of footage. Gertie is the best preserved of his films—others are lost or in fragments—and has been preserved in the US National Film Registry. (Full article...) Archive By email More featured articles About view – talk – edit – history – watch
Picture of the day for March 24, 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/March 23 * Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/March 25 →

1965 - NASA spacecraft Ranger 9, equipped to convert its signals into a form suitable for showing on domestic television, brought images of the Moon into ordinary homes before crash-landing.
- Needs wikifying.-- PFHLai 06:56, 2005 Mar 22 (UTC)

1989 - Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Alaska's Prince William Sound the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (11 million gallons) of oil after running aground.
1999 - NATO launches air strikes in Yugoslavia which was refusing to sign a peace treaty. This marks the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
2001 - Apple Computer releases Mac OS X version 10.0.

2012 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Dirty War (maintenance)
Omitted: James VI and I; Titokowaru's War; Mycobacterium tuberculosis/Tuberculosis; Óscar Romero; Bhutanese general election, 2008
Included: Brandenburg concertos (first appearance); Sakuradamon incident (1860) (first appearance); McMahon murders (first appearance); Nanjing incident (first appearance); Stalag Luft III (5th appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible)

—howcheng {chat} 06:47, 23 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

2013 notes

Omitted: Sakuradamon Incident (1860); McMahon murders; Stalag Luft III
Included: Titokowaru's War (2nd appearance, last in 2011); Mycobacterium tuberculosis/Tuberculosis (bacterium: first appearance; TB: 8th appearance, last in 2011); Exxon Valdez oil spill (7th appearance, last in 2010)
Repeats: Brandenburg concertos (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total); Nanking Incident (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

—howcheng {chat} 05:57, 23 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

2014 notes

Omitted: Brandenburg concertos; Mycobacterium tuberculosis/Tuberculosis; Nanking Incident
Included: James VI and I (9th appearance, last in 2011); Ardeatine massacre (first appearance; 70th anniversary); Bhutanese National Assembly election, 2008 (2nd appearance, last in 2011)
Repeats: Titokowaru's War (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total); Exxon Valdez (2nd consecutive appearance, 8 total; 25th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 07:25, 23 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

2015 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Brandenburg Concertos (maintenance); McMahon killings (maintenance)
Omitted: James VI and I; Titokowaru's War; Ardeatine massacre; Bhutanese National Assembly election, 2008
Included: Sakuradamon Incident (1860) (2nd appearance, last in 2012); Mycobacterium tuberculosis/Tuberculosis (bacterium: 2nd appearance; TB: 9th appearance; both last in 2013); Nanking Incident (3rd appearance, last in 2013); Stalag Luft III (6th appearance, last in 2012)
Repeats: Exxon Valdez oil spill (3rd consecutive appearance, 9 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:13, 22 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

2016 / Cowherd death

I offer the Cowherd death to bring back the earliest date and to add variety. I can see that it's not a major event at the time, and that that counts against it.

Although it *is* a minor death at the time, it's important in the development of a significant [edit: global] social movement (vegetarianism). And it's also an interesting, quirky, piece of history.

His followers are also important in the Salford liberal culture - they helped found the Guardian newspaper, opposed the slave trade, founded a municipal graveyard, etc. So though he's not a household name, his life had ripple effects.

Anyway, I thought I'd create a talk page section so that you know where it came from, and it was offered in good faith. Ian McDonald (talk) 00:48, 2 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The article does not mention the date of his death. --BorgQueen (talk) 01:29, 2 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Of course. Thanks for explaining your revert here. I'd independently realised it and added it, with more info about his burial and inscription, before I got your revert notification. Ian McDonald (talk) 15:10, 2 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@BorgQueen: (Just so that User talk:BorgQueen gets a notification) Ian McDonald (talk) 14:40, 11 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

2016 notes

Deleted: Direct rule (wrong date)
Moved to Ineligible: Ardeatine massacre (maintenance)
Omitted: Sakuradamon Incident (1860); Mycobacterium tuberculosis/Tuberculosis; Nanking Incident; Stalag Luft III; Exxon Valdez oil spill
Included: James VI and I (10th appearance, last in 2014); Titokowaru's War (4th appearance, last in 2014); Tydings–McDuffie Act (first appearance); Germanwings Flight 9525 (first appearance)
Repeats: Exxon Valdez oil spill (4th consecutive appearance, 10 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:46, 22 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

2017 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Nanking Incident (maintenance); Stalag Luft III (maintenance)
Omitted: James VI and I; Tītokowaru's War; Germanwings Flight 9525
Included: Sakuradamon Incident (1860) (3rd appearance, last in 2015); Mycobacterium tuberculosis/Tuberculosis (Mycobacterium: 3rd appearance; Tuberculosis: 10th appearance; both last in 2015); Bhutanese National Assembly election, 2008 (3rd appearance, last in 2014); William Morris (first appearance); Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (first appearance); David Irving (first appearance)
Repeats: Tydings–McDuffie Act (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total); Exxon Valdez oil spill (5th consecutive appearance, 11 total)

—howcheng {chat} 06:37, 24 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

2018 notes

Rescued from Ineligible (unused): McMahon killings
New articles (unused): Jessica Chastain (TFA for 2018)
Omitted: Mycobacterium tuberculosis/Tuberculosis; Exxon Valdez oil spill; William Morris; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; David Irving
Included: James VI and I (11th appearance, last in 2016); 1921 Women's Olympiad (first appearance); Wulfred (first appearance); Fanny Crosby (first appearance); Maria Radner (first appearance)
Repeats: Sakuradamon Incident (1860) (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total); Tydings–McDuffie Act (3rd consecutive appearance, 3 total); Bhutanese National Assembly election, 2008 (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total; 10th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 05:56, 24 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2019 notes

Deleted: Commonwealth of the Philippines (already appears on November 15 and we have a separate blurb for Tydings–McDuffie Act); Tītokowaru's War (wrong date and the date in the article is not cited)
Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Óscar Romero
New articles (unused): Rough Wooing
Omitted: James VI and I; Sakuradamon Incident (1860); 1921 Women's Olympiad; Tydings–McDuffie Act; 2008 Bhutanese National Assembly election; Wulfred; Fanny Crosby; Maria Radner
Included: Tuberculosis (11th appearance, last in 2017; blurb also previously featured Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is currently ineligible); McMahon killings (2nd appearance, last in 2012); Dirty War (3rd appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible); Exxon Valdez oil spill (12th appearance, last in 2017; 30th anniversary); Elizabeth Ridgeway (first appearance); Lorna Hodgkinson (2nd appearance, last in 2017; previously appeared on May 13, her birthday); Jessica Chastain (first appearance; rescued from Ineligible)

—howcheng {chat} 15:58, 25 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

2020 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Germanwings Flight 9525 (maintenance)
Omitted: Tuberculosis; McMahon killings; Dirty War; Exxon Valdez oil spill; Elizabeth Ridgeway; Lorna Hodgkinson (deleted as already featured elsewhere); Jessica Chastain
Included: Rough Wooing (first appearance); Tītokowaru's War (5th appearance, last in 2016; restored to page after date verified); 1946 Cabinet Mission to India (first appearance); Óscar Romero (2nd appearance, last in 2011; 40th anniversary); 2008 Bhutanese National Assembly election (5th appearance, last in 2018); Catherine of Vadstena (first appearance); Fanny Crosby (2nd appearance, last in 2018; 200th birthday); Kitty O'Neil (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 15:59, 25 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

2021 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Dirty War (maintenance)
Omitted: Rough Wooing; Tītokowaru's War; 1946 Cabinet Mission to India; Óscar Romero; 2008 Bhutanese National Assembly election; Kitty O'Neil
Included: James VI and I (12th appearance, last in 2018); Sakuradamon Incident (1860) (5th appearance, last in 2018); Tuberculosis (12th appearance, last in 2019); 1921 Women's Olympiad (2nd appearance, last in 2018; 100th anniversary); Exxon Valdez oil spill (13th appearance, last in 2019); E. T. Whittaker (first appearance)
Repeats: Catherine of Vadstena (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total); Fanny Crosby (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total)

—howcheng {chat} 06:44, 26 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

2022 notes

Omitted: James VI and I; Sakuradamon Incident (1860); Tuberculosis; 1921 Women's Olympiad; Exxon Valdez oil spill; Catherine of Vadstena; Fanny Crosby; E. T. Whittaker
Included: Tītokowaru's War (6th appearance, last in 2020); Winton Motor Carriage Company (2nd appearance, last in 2004; rescued from Ineligible); McMahon killings (3rd appearance, last in 2019; 100th anniversary); Tydings–McDuffie Act (4th appearance, last in 2018); Óscar Romero (3rd appearance, last in 2020); Hugh III of Cyprus (first appearance); Antoine-Henri Jomini (first appearance); Rudra Rajasingham (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 02:48, 25 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]