Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/March 20

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This is the talk page for making suggestions or discussing improvements to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/March 20.

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 20 article, see Talk:March 20 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 20, 2025
The Sun, viewed through a clear solar filter The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating energy from its surface mainly as light and infrared radiation. It is a G-type main-sequence star (G2V), informally called a yellow dwarf, though its light is actually white. It formed about 4.6 billion years ago and is by far the most important source of energy for life on Earth. From Earth the Sun is 1 astronomical unit (1.496×108 km) or about 8 light-minutes away. Its diameter is about 1,391,400 km (864,600 mi), 109 times that of Earth. Its mass is about 330,000 times that of Earth, making up about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System. Every second, the Sun fuses about 600 billion kilograms (kg) of hydrogen into helium and converts 4 billion kg of matter into energy. Venerated in many cultures, it is a central subject for astronomical research since antiquity. (This article* is part of a featured topic: Solar System.)* Archive By email More featured articles About view – talk – edit – history – watch
Picture of the day for March 20, 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 19 * Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/March 21 →

Dachau

As of March 2004 [[Dachau concentration camp] is a stub

1933 - Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp, is completed.

No longer a stub, and it's now posted. -- PFHLai 21:55, 2005 Mar 19 (UTC)

Fire in Boston

Is there an article about the Great Fire of Boston? If not, let's delete it from this page. RickK | Talk 07:09, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Not yet, but Boston has that info in it. Item restored. --mav 09:34, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I removed it as this fire seems not too significant, esp. when compared to Great Boston Fire of 1872 and Cocoanut Grove fire. And, we do have bigger 'old news' items with decent Wikipages to feature this year. -- PFHLai 21:55, 2005 Mar 19 (UTC)

Equinox

I don't know if this is the right place to say this but it's odd how the equinox is considered "2004" since it's really every year. How can we fix this?

So does Christmas. See Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/December 25. --mav 17:30, 20 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Actually, the Vernal equinox can be anywhere from March 19 to 22. It's off by a few hours every year, more in a leap year. Please see Gregorian Calendar#Calendar seasonal error. -- PFHLai 07:19, 2005 Mar 18 (UTC)

Invasion of Iraq

2003 - Invasion of Iraq: In the early hours of the morning, U.S.-led forces entered Iraqi territory.

As of March 19, 2004 there are NPOV and accuracy disputes on that page. When/if this changes then this entry can be placed back in. --mav 22:36, 19 Mar 2004 (UTC)

The NPOV tag is still on the page 2003 invasion of Iraq this year. This anniversary will probably have to stay off the MainPage for another year. The template is full, anyway. -- PFHLai 21:55, 2005 Mar 19 (UTC)

Same problem persists in 2006. --PFHLai 07:24, 9 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Valentine's Alternative

Steak and Blowjob day Steak & Blowjob day is a waste of time effort and energy... Because lets face it most men DON'T make an effort on Valentines Day.

Lots of non-Gregorian based observations in 2008

Looks like a bunch of non-Gregorian calendar based holidays and observations that are normally on these Selected anniversaries pages will fall on the same day in 2008. Of course, the WP:SA currently says "a maximum of ... 3 holidays/observances per day", but it would feel POV to pick one or more of these observations to omit this year just to strictly observe the Wikipedia guideline, right? Zzyzx11 (Talk) 06:01, 28 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

2012 notes

Omitted: Dutch East India Company; Arts Club of Chicago; Landing on Emirau; Zidovudine
Included: Linköping Bloodbath (first appearance); Hundred Days (4th consecutive appearance, last on February 26, 2011—not a particularly relevant date); Uncle Tom's Cabin (6th appearance, last in 2010); Cyclone Larry (2nd appearance, last in 2010)
Repeats: Maximinus Thrax (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

—howcheng {chat} 04:54, 19 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

2013 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (maintenance + short); 2003 invasion of Iraq (maintenance)
Omitted: Independence Day in Tunisia (ineligible—maintenance); Maximinus Thrax; Linköping Bloodbath; Hundred Days; Uncle Tom's Cabin; Cyclone Larry
Included: Dutch East India Company (6th appearance, last in 2011); Arts Club of Chicago (2nd appearance, last in 2011; 90th anniversary); Douglas MacArthur's escape from the Philippines/Douglas MacArthur (both: first appearance); Zidovudine (8th appearance, last in 2011); Warrington bomb attacks (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 07:10, 19 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

2014 notes

Omitted: Arts Club of Chicago; Douglas MacArthur's escape from the Philippines/Douglas MacArthur; Zidovudine; Warrington bomb attacks
Included: Tunisia (rescued from Ineligible); Hundred Days (7th appearance, last in 2012); Republican Party (United States) (first appearance); Landing on Emirau (2nd appearance, last in 2011; 70th anniversary); Cyclone Larry (3rd appearance, last in 2012)
Repeats: Dutch East India Company (2nd consecutive appearance, 7 total)

—howcheng {chat} 01:33, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Officially start of the Hundred Days???

One of the item of "On this day" is that "After escaping from exile in Elba, Napoleon Bonaparte (pictured) entered Paris, officially beginning his "Hundred Days" rule."
Really? Did Napoleon proclaim of Hundred Days rule? Did he perhaps state he would only be back for a short time. With just enough time to travel to Waterloo have a chat with |Wellington and then take a long holiday?
The term "Hundred Days" was invented after this period so there never was an official start. Better would it be to say that historians see his arrival in Paris as the start of the Hundred Days. Scafloc (talk) 09:31, 20 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Rewrote it as beginning the period known as the "Hundred Days". Thanks. —howcheng {chat} 15:41, 20 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

2015 notes

Omitted: Dutch East India Company; Hundred Days (normally would repeat, seeing as it's the 200th anniversary, but Napoleon was just featured on February 26, also for its 200th); Landing on Emirau; Cyclone Larry
Included: Maximinus Thrax (3rd appearance, last in 2012); Linköping Bloodbath (2nd appearance, last in 2012); Uncle Tom's Cabin (7th appearance, last in 2012); Arts Club of Chicago (3rd appearance, last in 2013); Warrington bomb attacks (2nd appearance, last in 2013)

—howcheng {chat} 06:39, 18 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

2016 notes

Rescued from Ineligible (unused): 2003 invasion of Iraq
Omitted: Maximinus Thrax; Linköping Bloodbath; Uncle Tom's Cabin; Arts Club of Chicago; Warrington bomb attacks
Included: Dutch East India Company (8th appearance, last in 2014); Great Boston Fire of 1760 (first appearance); Douglas MacArthur's escape from the Philippines/Douglas MacArthur (Escape: 2nd appearance; MacArthur: 5th appearance; both last in 2013); Zidovudine (9th appearance, last in 2013); Cyclone Larry (4th appearance, last in 2014; 10th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 10:43, 18 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The old ineligible link for the March equinox from 2011 was pointing to a different article, new dedicated article has no cleanups; added to section as well (note: both google and facebook are leading with a March equinox page today). — xaosflux ^Talk 05:13, 20 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

There has been a mistake with Naw-Rúz (Bahá'í calendar). It varies with the spring equinox and is on March 20 in 2016. It should be included on the March 20 page (it was accidentally placed on the March 21 page).

Reference:  http://www.religiouslife.emory.edu/documents/Baha_i%20Holy%20Days%2050%20year%20calendar.pdf  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 120.22.5.196 (talk) 00:58, 21 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

2017 notes

Moved to Ineligible: 2003 invasion of Iraq (maintenance)
Omitted: Dutch East India Company (ineligible—maintenance); Great Boston Fire of 1760; Douglas MacArthur's escape from the Philippines/Douglas MacArthur; Zidovudine; Cyclone Larry
Included: Maximinus Thrax (4th appearance, last in 2015); Linköping Bloodbath (3rd appearance, last in 2015); Hundred Days (8th appearance, last in 2014); Landing on Emirau (3rd appearance, last in 2014); Warrington bomb attacks (3rd appearance, last in 2015); Isaac Newton (first appearance); Amanda Clement (first appearance); Fernando Torres (first appearance)

—howcheng {chat} 07:03, 20 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

2018 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Cyclone Larry (maintenance)
Omitted: Linköping Bloodbath (ineligible—maintenance); Hundred Days (ineligible—maintenance); Landing on Emirau; Warrington bomb attacks; Isaac Newton; Amanda Clement; Fernando Torres
Included: Uncle Tom's Cabin (8th appearance, last in 2015); USS Langley (CV-1) (first appearance); Zidovudine (10th appearance, last in 2016); Adrienne Lecouvreur (first appearance); Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck (first appearance); Willie Brown (politician) (first appearance)
Repeats: Maximinus Thrax (2nd consecutive appearance, 5 total); Warrington bomb attacks (2nd consecutive appearance, 4 total; 20th anniversary)

—howcheng {chat} 07:03, 20 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2019 notes

Moved to Ineligible: Great Boston fire of 1760 (maintenance); Isaac Newton (maintenance)
Omitted: March equinox (ineligible—maintenance); Tunisia (ineligible—maintenance); USS Langley (CV-1); Zidovudine; Adrienne Lecouvreur; Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck; Willie Brown (politician)
Included: Arts Club of Chicago (4th appearance, last in 2015); 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania (first appearance; 80th anniversary); Alexios III of Trebizond (first appearance); Elizabeth Rona (2nd appearance, last in 2017; also appears on July 27, her death anniversary); Ai (poet) (first appearance)
Repeats: Maximinus Thrax (3rd consecutive appearance, 6 total); Uncle Tom's Cabin (2nd consecutive appearance, 9 total); Warrington bomb attacks (3rd consecutive appearance, 5 total)

—howcheng {chat} 17:21, 20 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

2020 notes

Rescued from Ineligible (unused): Isaac Newton
Omitted: Arts Club of Chicago; 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania; Alexios III of Trebizond; Elizabeth Rona; Ai (poet) (ineligible—maintenance)
Included: Douglas MacArthur's escape from the Philippines/Douglas MacArthur (Escape: 3rd appearance, MacArthur: 6th, both last in 2016); Zidovudine (11th appearance, last in 2018); Maurice Csák (first appearance); Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck (2nd appearance, last in 2018; 150th birthday); Dorothy Campbell (first appearance; 75th anniversary)
Repeats: Maximinus Thrax (4th consecutive appearance, 7 total); Uncle Tom's Cabin (3rd consecutive appearance, 10 total); Warrington bombings (4th consecutive appearance, 6 total)

—howcheng {chat} 16:45, 21 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

2021 notes

Omitted: Maximinus Thrax; Uncle Tom's Cabin; Douglas MacArthur's escape from the Philippines/Douglas MacArthur; Warrington bombings; Maurice Csák; Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck; Dorothy Campbell
Included: Republican Party (United States) (2nd appearance, last in 2014; rescued from Ineligible); Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (5th appearance, last in 2009; rescued from Ineligible); 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania (2nd appearance, last in 2019); 2014 Kabul Serena Hotel attack (first appearance); Muhammad bin Tughluq (first appearance); Isaac Newton (2nd appearance, last in 2017); Eva Burrows (first appearance)
Repeats: Zidovudine (2nd consecutive appearance, 12 total)

—howcheng {chat} 07:19, 23 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

2022 notes

Deleted: Elizabeth Rona (appears elsewhere)
Omitted: Republican Party (United States); Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property; 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania; Zidovudine; Muhammad bin Tughluq; Isaac Newton; Eva Burrows
Included: Maximinus Thrax (8th appearance, last in 2020); Hundred Days (9th appearance, last in 2017); USS Langley (CV-1) (2nd appearance, last in 2018; 100th anniversary); Douglas MacArthur's escape from the Philippines/Douglas MacArthur (Escape: 4th appearance; MacArthur: 7th; both last in 2020; 80th anniversary); Benjamin Truman (first appearance); Maud Menten (first appearance); S. Arasaratnam (first appearance)
Repeats: 2014 Kabul Serena Hotel shooting (2nd consecutive appearance, 2 total)

—howcheng {chat} 16:08, 21 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]