Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/May 17

This is the talk page for making suggestions or discussing improvements to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/May 17.

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 May 17 article, see Talk:May 17 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 May 17, 2025
Wikipedia:Today's featured article/May 17, 2025 create – talk – watch
Picture of the day for May 17, 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/May 16 * Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/May 18 →

2012 notes

Latest comment: 12 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Moved to Ineligible: USS Oriskany (CV-34) (maintenance);
Omitted: Montreal; Antikythera mechanism; Brown v. Board of Education; Internal conflict in Peru (ineligible—maintenance); Dalia Grybauskaitė
Included: Anne of Denmark (5th appearance, last in 2010); Rosalía de Castro (first appearance); Protocol of Corfu (first appearance); Jacques Chirac (3rd appearance, last in 2006); Same-sex marriage in Massachusetts (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 16:26, 16 May 2012 (UTC)Reply

2013 notes

Latest comment: 11 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

New articles (unused): Dublin and Monaghan bombings
Omitted: Norwegian Constitution Day (ineligible—maintenance); Anne of Denmark; Protocol of Corfu; Jacques Chirac; Same-sex marriage in Massachusetts
Included: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (first appearance); New York Stock Exchange (5th appearance, last in 2007; rescued from Ineligible); Brown v. Board of Education (6th appearance, last in 2011); Internal conflict in Peru (3rd appearance, last in 2011; rescued from Ineligible); Dalia Grybauskaitė (3rd appearance, last in 2011)
Repeats: Rosalía de Castro (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total; 150th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 06:47, 16 May 2013 (UTC)Reply

2014 notes

Latest comment: 10 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Rescued from Ineligible (unused): International Telecommunication Union
New articles (unused): First Congo War; 2000 UEFA Cup Final riots
Omitted: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (ineligible—maintenance); New York Stock Exchange; Rosalía de Castro; Internal conflict in Peru (ineligible—maintenance); Dalia Grybauskaitė
Included: Montreal (2nd appearance, last in 2011); Protocol of Corfu (2nd appearance, last in 2012; 100th anniversary); Dublin and Monaghan bombings (first appearance; 40th anniversary); Same-sex marriage in Massachusetts (2nd appearance, last in 2012; 10th anniversary)
Repeats: Brown v. Board of Education (2nd consecutive appearance, 7 total; 60th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 22:12, 15 May 2014 (UTC)Reply

2015 notes

Latest comment: 9 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Omitted: Montreal (ineligible—maintenance); Protocol of Corfu; Brown v. Board of Education; Dublin and Monaghan bombings; Same-sex marriage in Massachusetts
Included: Anne of Denmark (6th appearance, last in 2012; 425th anniversary); New York Stock Exchange (6th appearance, last in 2013); International Telecommunication Union (first appearance; 150th anniversary); Antikythera mechanism (5th appearance, last in 2011); Jacques Chirac (4th appearance, last in 2012; 20th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 05:31, 15 May 2015 (UTC)Reply

2016 notes

Latest comment: 8 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Omitted: Anne of Denmark; New York Stock Exchange; International Telecommunication Union; Jacques Chirac
Included: Montreal (3rd appearance, last in 2014; rescued from Ineligible); Rosalía de Castro (3rd appearance, last in 2013); Brown v. Board of Education (8th appearance, last in 2014); Dalia Grybauskaitė (4th appearance, last in 2013)
Repeats: Antikythera mechanism (2nd consecutive appearance, 6 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:01, 16 May 2016 (UTC)Reply

2017 notes

Latest comment: 7 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Moved to Ineligible: New York Stock Exchange (maintenance); International Telecommunication Union (maintenance); Jacques Chirac (maintenance)
Omitted: Galician Literature Day (ineligible—maintenance); Montreal; Rosalía de Castro (ineligible—maintenance); Antikythera mechanism; Brown v. Board of Education; Dalia Grybauskaitė
Included: Battle of Rovine (first appearance); Anne of Denmark (7th appearance, last in 2015); Protocol of Corfu (3rd appearance, last in 2014); Coco Chanel (first appearance; 70th anniversary); First Congo War (first appearance; 20th anniversary); Mary, Queen of Hungary (first appearance); Cool Papa Bell (first appearance); Maggie Laubser (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 07:39, 17 May 2017 (UTC)Reply

2018 notes

Latest comment: 6 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

New articles (unused): Hazel R. O'Leary
Omitted: Battle of Rovine; Anne of Denmark; Protocol of Corfu; Coco Chanel; First Congo War (ineligible—maintenance); Mary, Queen of Hungary; Cool Papa Bell; Maggie Laubser
Included: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (2nd appearance, last in 2013; rescued from Ineligible); Montreal (4th appearance, last in 2016); Antikythera mechanism (7th appearance, last in 2016); Chuck E. Cheese's (first appearance); 2000 UEFA Cup Final riots (first appearance); Martin Delrio (first appearance); Samuel Clarke (first appearance); Enya (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 06:24, 17 May 2018 (UTC)Reply

2019 notes

Latest comment: 5 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Omitted: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham; Montreal; Antikythera mechanism; Chuck E. Cheese's; 2000 UEFA Cup Final riots; Martin Delrio; Samuel Clarke; Enya
Included: Galician Literature Day (rescued from Ineligible); Battle of Rovine (2nd appearance, last in 2017); International Telecommunication Union (5th appearance, last in 2017; rescued from Ineligible); Brown v. Board of Education (9th appearance, last in 2016); Dublin and Monaghan bombings (2nd appearance, last in 2014); Dalia Grybauskaitė (5th appearance, last in 2016; 10th anniversary); Seth Warner (2nd appearance, last in 2017; previously appeared on December 26, his death anniversary); Sebastian Kneipp (first appearance); Dorothy Levitt (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 15:55, 17 May 2019 (UTC)Reply

2020 notes

Latest comment: 4 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Omitted: Battle of Rovine; International Telecommunication Union; Brown v. Board of Education; Dublin and Monaghan bombings; Dalia Grybauskaitė; Seth Warner; Sebastian Kneipp; Dorothy Levitt
Included: Anne of Denmark (8th appearance, last in 2017); Montreal (5th appearance, last in 2018); Coco Chanel (2nd appearance, last in 2017); 2000 UEFA Cup Final riots (2nd appearance, last in 2018; 20th anniversary); Mary, Queen of Hungary (2nd appearance, last in 2017); Caroline of Brunswick (first appearance); B. S. Chandrasekhar (first appearance; 75th birthday)

—howcheng {chat} 16:31, 18 May 2020 (UTC)Reply

2021 notes

Latest comment: 3 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Omitted: Anne of Denmark; Montreal; Coco Chanel; 2000 UEFA Cup Final riots; Mary, Queen of Hungary; Caroline of Brunswick; B. S. Chandrasekhar
Included: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (3rd appearance, last in 2018; 500th anniversary); International Telecommunication Union (6th appearance, last in 2019); The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (first appearance); Protocol of Corfu (4th appearance, last in 2017); Dalia Grybauskaitė (6th appearance, last in 2019); Sebastian Kneipp (6th appearance, last in 2019; 200th birthday); Clara Ayres (first appearance); Enya (2nd appearance, last in 2018; 60th birthday)

—howcheng {chat} 07:29, 19 May 2021 (UTC)Reply

2022 notes

Latest comment: 2 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Omitted: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham; International Telecommunication Union; The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; Protocol of Corfu; Dalia Grybauskaitė; Sebastian Kneipp; Clara Ayres; Enya
Included: International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (rescued from Ineligible); Battle of Rovine (3rd appearance, last in 2019); Montreal (6th appearance, last in 2020); Antikythera mechanism (8th appearance, last in 2018); Coco Chanel (3rd appearance, last in 2020; 75th anniversary); Dublin and Monaghan bombings (3rd appearance, last in 2019); Martin Delrio (2nd appearance, last in 2018); Seth Warner (3rd appearance, last in 2019); Dorothy Levitt (2nd appearance, last in 2019; 100th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 07:35, 18 May 2022 (UTC)Reply

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