Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/December 24

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

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To discuss improvements to the corresponding December 24 article, see Talk:December 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.

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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 December 24, 2024

The aftermath of the bombing

The Brinks Hotel bombing in Saigon occurred on December 24, 1964, during the Vietnam War. Two Viet Cong operatives detonated a car bomb under the hotel, which housed United States Army officers. The explosion killed two Americans and injured approximately 60. The Viet Cong commanders had two objectives: to demonstrate their ability to strike in South Vietnam should the United States decide to launch air raids against North Vietnam, and to show the South Vietnamese that the Americans could not be relied upon for protection. The bombing prompted debate within United States President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration. Most of his advisers favored retaliatory bombing of North Vietnam and the introduction of American combat troops, while Johnson preferred the existing strategy of training the Army of the Republic of Vietnam to protect South Vietnam from the Viet Cong. In the end, Johnson decided not to take retaliatory action. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

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Picture of the day for December 24, 2024

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is an American silent film directed by Stuart Paton, released on December 24, 1916. The film's storyline is based on the 1870 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas by Jules Verne. It also incorporates elements from Verne's 1875 novel The Mysterious Island. This was the first motion picture filmed underwater. Actual underwater cameras were not used, but a system of watertight tubes and mirrors allowed the camera to shoot reflected images of underwater scenes staged in shallow sunlit waters in the Bahamas. For the scene featuring a battle with an octopus, cinematographer John Ernest Williamson devised a vewing chamber called the "photosphere", a 6×10-foot steel globe in which a cameraman could be placed. The film was made by The Universal Film Manufacturing Company (now Universal Pictures), not then known as a major motion picture studio, and took two years to make, at the cost of $500,000.

Film credit: Stuart Paton

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← Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/December 23 * Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/December 25 →

Tense in Brinks Hotel bombing

Why is this one item in present tense? It should be in the past tense, parallel to all the other items. — crism (talk) 00:26, 24 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

2011 notes

New articles (unused): Italian Hall disaster
Moved to Ineligible: Rendlesham Forest incident
Swapped out: War of 1812 (ineligible), Silent Night, 1964 Brinks Hotel bombing, Christmas truce (ineligible), Ariane 1
Swapped in: Kiritimati (7th appearance, last in 2009), Eggnog Riot (first appearance), NORAD Tracks Santa (first appearance), Cyclone Tracy (6th appearance, last in 2009)
Left in: Pope Boniface VIII (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

--howcheng {chat} 21:18, 23 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

2012 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Silent Night (maintenance); Italian Hall disaster (maintenance); Ariane 1 (maintenance)
Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Tangiwai disaster
Omitted: Pope Boniface VIII (ineligible—maintenance); Kiritimati; Eggnog Riot; NORAD Tracks Santa; Cyclone Tracy
Included: Ku Klux Klan (6th appearance, last in 2009); Christmas truce (6th appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible); Earthrise (3rd appearance, last in 2009); Rendlesham Forest incident (first appearance; rescued from Ineligible); 2008 Christmas massacres (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 08:47, 23 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

2013 notes

Omitted: Ku Klux Klan (ineligible—maintenance); Christmas truce; Earthrise; Rendlesham Forest incident; 2008 Christmas massacres
Included: Du Fu (first appearance); Silent Night (5th appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible); Italian Hall disaster (first appearance; 100th anniversary; rescued from Ineligible); Tangiwai disaster (2nd appearance, last in 2008; 60th anniversary); District of Columbia home rule (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 07:05, 23 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

2014 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Christmas truce (POTD for 2014-12-25)
Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Ku Klux Klan
Omitted: Du Fu; Silent Night; Italian Hall disaster; Tangiwai disaster; District of Columbia home rule
Included: Kiritimati (8th appearance, last in 2011); Treaty of Ghent (4th appearance, last in 2009; 200th anniversary); Eggnog Riot (2nd appearance, last in 2011); 1964 Brinks Hotel bombing (3rd appearance, last in 2010; 50th anniversary); Cyclone Tracy (7th anniversary, last in 2011; 40th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 16:34, 22 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

2015 notes

Added and deleted: Sodder children disappearance (not notable enough)
Omitted: Kiritimati; Treaty of Ghent; Eggnog Riot; 1964 Brinks Hotel bombing; Cyclone Tracy
Included: Pope Boniface VIII (3rd appearance, last in 2011; rescued from Ineligible); Ku Klux Klan (7th appearance, last in 2012; 150th anniversary); Christmas truce (7th appearance, last in 2012; rescued from Ineligible); NORAD Tracks Santa (2nd appearance, last in 2011; 60th anniversary); 2008 Christmas massacres (2nd appearance, last in 2012)

—howcheng {chat} 17:01, 22 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Image size

The size of the picture is so small as to make it unrecognizable - there is no need for that, please increase it! - Owain Knight (talk) 13:27, 24 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

2016 notes

Omitted: Pope Boniface VIII (ineligible—maintenance); Ku Klux Klan; Christmas truce; NORAD Tracks Santa; 2008 Christmas massacres
Included: Du Fu (2nd appearance, last in 2013); Aida (first appearance); Tangiwai disaster (3rd appearance, last in 2013); Earthrise (4th appearance, last in 2012); Cyclone Tracy (8th appearance, last in 2014; 40th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 08:20, 24 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Typo

The listing for the Christmas truce says "the World War I". I imagine this is a combination of "World War I" and "the First World War" that should probably be fixed. —Gordon P. Hemsley→✉ 01:43, 24 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

2017 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Kiritimati (maintenance)
Omitted: Christmas Eve (ineligible—maintenance); Du Fu; Aida (ineligible—maintenance); Tangiwai disaster; Earthrise; Cyclone Tracy (ineligible—maintenance)
Included: Silent Night (6th appearance, last in 2013); Crown Colony of Labuan (first appearance); Christmas truce (8th appearance, last in 2015); 1964 Brinks Hotel bombing(4th appearance, last in 2014); District of Columbia home rule (2nd appearance, last in 2013); Adam Mickiewicz (first appearance); Cosima Wagner (first appearance); Jeff Sessions (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 07:01, 22 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2018 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Earthrise (Apollo 8 is TFA for 2018)
New articles (unused): Gongsun Shu (was just on DYK)
Omitted: Crown Colony of Labuan; Christmas truce; 1964 Brinks Hotel bombing; District of Columbia home rule; Adam Mickiewicz; Cosima Wagner; Jeff Sessions
Included: Du Fu (3rd appearance, last in 2016); Italian Hall disaster (2nd appearance, last in 2013); Tangiwai disaster (4th appearance, last in 2016); 2008 Christmas massacres (3rd appearance, last in 2015; 10th anniversary); Yang Bin (first appearance); Leonaert Bramer (first appearance); Pernilla Wahlgren (first appearance)
Repeats: Silent Night (2nd consecutive appearance, 7 total; 200th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 04:27, 24 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2019 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Jeff Sessions (maintenance)
Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Reginald Fessenden
New articles (unused): Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik
Omitted: Du Fu; Silent Night; Italian Hall disaster; Tangiwai disaster; Yang Bin; Leonaert Bramer; Pernilla Wahlgren
Included: Treaty of Ghent (5th appearance, last in 2014); Crown Colony of Labuan (2nd appearance, last in 2017); NORAD Tracks Santa (3rd appearance, last in 2015); Soviet–Afghan War (11th appearance, last in 2017, normally appears on February 15; 40th anniversary); Gongsun Shu (first appearance); Johnny Gruelle (first appearance); Maria Koepcke (first appearance)
Repeats: 2008 Christmas massacres (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total)

—howcheng {chat} 22:28, 25 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

2020 notes

Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Aida
New articles (unused): William Warburton
Omitted: Treaty of Ghent; NORAD Tracks Santa; Soviet–Afghan War; 2008 Christmas massacres; Gongsun Shu; Johnny Gruelle; Maria Koepcke
Included: Du Fu (4th appearance, last in 2018); Eggnog Riot (3rd appearance, last in 2014); 1964 Brinks Hotel bombing (5th appearance, last in 2017); Indian Airlines Flight 814 (first appearance); Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik (first appearance); Walter Bower (first appearance); Anthony Fauci (first appearance)
Repeats: Crown Colony of Labuan (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total)

—howcheng {chat} 18:36, 25 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

2021 notes

Deleted: Rendlesham Forest incident (moved to December 26); Maria Koepcke (exact date unknown)
Omitted: Du Fu; Eggnog Riot (ineligible—maintenance); Crown Colony of Labuan; 1964 Brinks Hotel bombing; Indian Airlines Flight 814; Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik; Walter Bower
Included: Silent Night (8th appearance, last in 2018); Aida (2nd appearance, last in 2016; 150th anniversary); Christmas truce (9th appearance, last in 2017); Tangiwai disaster (5th appearance, last in 2018); 2008 Christmas massacres (5th appearance, last in 2019); Leonaert Bramer (2nd appearance, last in 2018); Cosima Wagner (2nd appearance, last in 2017)
Repeats: Anthony Fauci (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

—howcheng {chat} 08:35, 25 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]