Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/April 18

Skip to table of contents

This is the talk page for making suggestions or discussing improvements to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/April 18.

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 April 18 article, see Talk:April 18 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 April 18, 2025

Poison Springs Battleground State Park

The Battle of Poison Spring was fought on April 18, 1864, as part of the Camden Expedition during the American Civil War. In support of the Red River campaign in Louisiana, a Union force commanded by Frederick Steele had moved from Little Rock, Arkansas, and occupied Camden. Short on supplies, Steele sent a detachment commanded by James M. Williams to forage for corn that was reported to be in the area. Confederate cavalry commanded by John S. Marmaduke and Samuel B. Maxey attacked the foraging party. Marmaduke's men formed a roadblock to the east, while Maxey's men attacked from the south. The first two Confederate attacks were unsuccessful, but the third broke the Union line. Williams's command was routed, losing its wagon train. African-American soldiers from the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment were massacred during and after the battle. The defeat at Poison Spring and another defeat at the Battle of Marks' Mills led Steele to retreat to Little Rock. (Full article...)

Recently featured:

view – talk – edit – history – watch

Picture of the day for April 18, 2025

Christ Crowned with Thorns, sometimes known as Christ Mocked, is an oil-on-panel painting by Hieronymus Bosch. It is held in the National Gallery in London, which dates it to around 1510, though some art historians prefer earlier dates. The painting combines two events from the biblical account of the Passion: the mocking of Jesus and the crowning with thorns. A serene Jesus, dressed in white at the centre of the busy scene, gazes calmly out of the picture, in contrast with the violent intent of the four men around him. Two armoured soldiers stand above and behind him, with two other spectators kneeling below and in front. The soldier to the right, with oak leaves in his hat and a spiked collar, grasps Jesus's shoulder, while the other soldier to the left, dressed in green with a broad-headed hunting crossbow bolt through his headdress, holds the crown of thorns in a mailed hand, about to thrust it onto Jesus's head. The position of the crown of thorns creates a halo above the head of Jesus. In front, the man to the left has a blue robe and red head covering, and the man to the right in a light red robe is grasping Christ's cloak to strip it off. The figures are crowded together in a small space in a single plane, in a manner reminiscent of Flemish devotional art of the type popularized by Hans Memling and Hugo van der Goes.

Painting credit: Hieronymus Bosch

Recently featured:

← Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/April 17 * Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/April 19 →

1025 - Boleslaw I Chrobry is crowned as the first in history king of Poland.

1506 - Construction of St. Peter's Basilica (pictured right) in Vatican City began.
1518 - Bona Sforza is crowned as queen of Poland and married to Sigismund I of Poland.
1775 - Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott ride to warn of impending arrests of Samuel Adams and John Hancock and seizure of weapons. Only Prescott finishes the ride.
1906 - A very large earthquake hit San Francisco, California.
1942 - World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo occurs.
1947 - The British Royal Navy detonated 6,700 tonnes of explosives in Operation Big Bang to destroy bunkers and military installations on the North Sea island of Heligoland, Germany, creating the biggest non-nuclear explosion at that time.
1955 - The first Bandung Conference was held in Bandung, Indonesia, with the aim of promoting Afro-Asian economic and cultural co-operation and opposing colonialism or neocolonialism.
1955 - Albert Einstein dies in Princeton, New Jersey, United States
1980 - The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) came into being.
1983 - A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.
1996 - Over 100 Lebanese civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces shell the UN compound at Qana (see Qana Massacre).
2002 - A new order of insects, Mantophasmatodea, is announced.

Regarding the 1947 anniversary, is there any source that says that the intention was to destroy Heligoland? According to the (German) citation in the Heligoland page, it was used as a bombing range, and the British wished to destroy the German military fortifications, but I cannot see anything that indicates the British wanted to destroy the island itself. Indeed, the article says the opposite (using Google Translate)^[1]. Could an administrator with access to the page please fix this? I suggest changing it to "...in a concentrated attempt to destroy German World War II fortifications on the small island of..." 68.42.243.198 (talk) 00:10, 18 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/zeitgeschichte/0,1518,477076,00.html&usg=ALkJrhj_DdXVIIiERHT-Ri66Y1VqGSJ1LQ

2012 notes

Moved to Ineligible: 1996 shelling of Qana (maintenance)
Omitted: Paul Revere/William Dawes/Samuel Prescott (Dawes is ineligible—maintenance); 1906 San Francisco earthquake; Heligoland
Included: 1689 Boston revolt (first appearance); Superman (4th appearance, last in 2006; previously appeared on June 1); Doolittle Raid (7th appearance, last in 2010; 70th anniversary); Republic of Ireland (3rd appearance, last in 2005; previously appeared on December 29)
Repeats: St. Peter's Basilica (5th consecutive appearance, 9 total)

—howcheng {chat} 16:00, 17 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

2013 notes

Omitted: Superman; Doolittle Raid (ineligible—maintenance)
Included: Yankee Stadium (1923) (first appearance; 90th anniversary); Heligoland (3rd appearance, last in 2011); 1996 shelling of Qana (5th appearance, last in 2010; rescued from Ineligible)
Repeats: St. Peter's Basilica (6th consecutive appearance, 10 total); 1689 Boston revolt (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total); Republic of Ireland (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total)

—howcheng {chat} 16:02, 17 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

2014 notes

Omitted: St. Peter's Basilica (ineligible—Pietà (Michelangelo) is POTD for 2014); Yankee Stadium (1923) (ineligible—maintenance); Superman; Heligoland (ineligible—maintenance); Republic of Ireland (ineligible—maintenance)
Included: Battle of Cerro Gordo (first appearance); 1906 San Francisco earthquake (8th appearance, last in 2011); Ezra Pound (first appearance)
Repeats: 1689 Boston revolt (3rd consecutive appearance, 3 total); 1996 shelling of Qana (2nd consecutive appearance, 6 total)

—howcheng {chat} 08:22, 17 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

2015 notes

Omitted: 1689 Boston revolt; 1906 San Francisco earthquake (ineligible—maintenance); Ezra Pound
Included: St. Peter's Basilica (11th appearance, last in 2013; rescued from Ineligible); Paul Revere (2nd appearance, last in 2011; rescued from Ineligible; blurb previously also featured William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, but Dawes is currently ineligible and it doesn't make sense to feature Prescott if Dawes isn't also featured, but Revere can be featured by himself since he's the most famous); Superman/Action Comics 1 (Superman: 6th appearance, last in 2013; Action Comics: first appearance)
Repeats: Battle of Cerro Gordo (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total); 1996 shelling of Qana (3rd consecutive appearance, 7 total)

—howcheng {chat} 10:43, 16 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

2016 notes

Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Bolesław I the Brave
Omitted: Paul Revere
Included: 1689 Boston revolt (4th appearance, last in 2014)
Repeats: St. Peter's Basilica (2nd consecutive appearance, 12 total); Battle of Cerro Gordo (3rd appearance, 3 total); Superman/Action Comics 1 (both: 2nd consecutive appearance Superman: 7 total; Action: 2 total); 1996 shelling of Qana (4th consecutive appearance, 8 total; 20th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 06:16, 17 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

2017 notes

Omitted: Zimbabwe (ineligible—maintenance); St. Peter's Basilica (ineligible—maintenance); Battle of Cerro Gordo
Included: Bolesław I the Brave (6th appearance, last in 2010); Ezra Pound (2nd appearance, last in 2014)
Repeats: 1689 Boston revolt (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total); Superman/Action Comics 1 (both: 3rd consecutive appearance; Superman: 8 total; Action: 3 total); Qana massacre (5th consecutive appearance, 9 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:59, 18 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

2018 notes

Omitted: Bolesław I the Brave (deleted—exact date is unknown); 1689 Boston revolt; Lucrezia Borgia; John Leland (antiquary); Albert Einstein
Included: Real Academia de la Historia (first appearance); Roland Georges Garros (first appearance); Stephen Lekapenos (first appearance); Ludwig Levy (first appearance); Bertha Isaacs (first appearance)
Repeats: Superman (2nd consecutive appearance; blurb previously also featured Action Comics 1, which is now ineligible, and is making its 4th consecutive appearance, 5 total); Ezra Pound (2nd consecutive appearance, 3 total; 60th anniversary); Qana massacre (6th consecutive appearance, 10 total)

—howcheng {chat} 04:27, 18 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2019 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Battle of Cerro Gordo (maintenance)
Omitted: Superman; Ezra Pound; Qana massacre; Stephen Lekapenos; Ludwig Levy; Bertha Isaacs
Included: Paul Revere (3rd appearance, last in 2015); Republic of Ireland (5th appearance, last in 2013; rescued from Ineligible; 70th anniversary); Bandung Conference (first appearance); Theobald of Bec (first appearance); Clara Elsene Peck (first appearance); Universo 2000 (first appearance)
Repeats: Real Academia de la Historia (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total); Roland Garros (aviator) (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

—howcheng {chat} 15:55, 18 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

2020 notes

Omitted: Paul Revere; Roland Garros (aviator); Bandung Conference; Theobald of Bec; Clara Elsene Peck; Universo 2000
Included: 1689 Boston revolt (6th appearance, last in 2017); Ezra Pound (4th appearance, last in 2018); Robert Mugabe (8th appearance, last in 2015; moved from March 4); Ippolita Maria Sforza (first appearance); Justus von Liebig (2nd appearance, last in 2019; also appeared on May 12, his birthday); Martha Ripley (first appearance)
Repeats: Real Academia de la Historia (3rd consecutive appearance, 3 total); Republic of Ireland (2nd consecutive appearance, 6 total)

—howcheng {chat} 21:29, 19 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

2021 notes

New articles (unused): Pigmeat Markham; Robert Christgau
Omitted: 1689 Boston revolt; Real Academia de la Historia; Republic of Ireland; Ezra Pound; Ludwig Levy; Martha Ripley
Included: Paul Revere (4th appearance, last in 2019); Roland Garros (aviator) (3rd appearance, last in 2019); Superman/Action Comics 1 (Superman: 10th appearance, last in 2018; AC: 4th appearance, last in 2017, was previously ineligible); Qana massacre (11th appearance, last in 2018; 25th anniversary); Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran (first appearance); Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (first appearance)
Repeats: Robert Mugabe (2nd consecutive appearance, 9 total); Ippolita Maria Sforza (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

—howcheng {chat} 06:43, 20 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

2022 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Real Academia de la Historia (maintenance); Bandung Conference (maintenance)
Omitted: Paul Revere; Action Comics 1 (blurb previously also featured Superman, which is currently ineligible); Qana massacre; Ippolita Maria Sforza; Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran; Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
Included: 1689 Boston revolt (7th appearance, last in 2020); Republic of Ireland (7th appearance, last in 2020); Ezra Pound (5th appearance, last in 2020); Mueller report (first appearance); Gratian (first appearance); Polydore Vergil (first appearance); Robert Christgau (first appearance; 80th birthday)
Repeats: Roland Garros (aviator) (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total)

—howcheng {chat} 06:47, 19 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

[1] ttp://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/zeitgeschichte/0,1518,477076,00.html&usg=ALkJrhj_DdXVIIiERHT-Ri66Y1VqGSJ1LQ

[1]