Talk:January 20

Selected anniversaries for the "On this day" section of the Main Page

Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before editing this box.

January 20: Day of Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan (1990) Icelandic financial crisis protesters 1156 – According to legend, Lalli slew Bishop Henry of Finland with an axe on the ice of Lake Köyliönjärvi in Köyliö. 1843 – Honório Hermeto Carneiro Leão, Marquis of Paraná, became the de facto first prime minister of the Empire of Brazil. 1968 – The Houston Cougars upset the UCLA Bruins in what became known as the "Game of the Century", ending the Bruins' 47-game winning streak, and establishing college basketball as a sports commodity on American television. 1969 – Bengali student activist Amanullah Asaduzzaman was shot and killed by East Pakistani police, an event that led to the Bangladesh Liberation War. 2009 – During a national financial crisis, thousands of people protested (pictured) at the Icelandic parliament in Reykjavík. Li Jitao (d. 924) David Wilmot (b. 1814) Chandra Khonnokyoong (b. 1909) Claudio Abbado (d. 2014) More anniversaries: January 19 January 20 January 21

US Presidents

A US president was/is inaugurated (or reinaugurated) on Jan 20th every four years from 1937 on; do we really need to say it each time? It's not like a coronation, which generally happens more or less at the convenience of the honoree's predecessor. Maybe some of the big ones -- FDR's 3d and 4th, George W. Bush perhaps (given the controversy). But Ike? LBJ? --Charles A. L. 18:31, Dec 16, 2003 (UTC)

I agree. can we come up with a better solution? must we include all the instances of this regular event? Kingturtle 07:34, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes I can, the article should always mention the first and the latest inauguration on the 20th of January. So the 2001 Bush inauguration should remain at least untill the next inauguration on the 20th of January (wich will almost certain be in 2009). User:Allard Thursday 30 August 2007 16:29 CET

I think we should also remove JFK, if all other presidents beside the incumbent are to be removed. Reeeky2001 (talk) 16:25, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

I was totally shocked yesterday to see that someone removed all of the Presidential inaugurations from January 20. Ever since 1937, January 20 has BEEN inauguration day. This is in the 20th amendment to the Constitution, and to dub this "unsupported" is disingenous. In response to the above comment, YES "we really need to say it each time". Unline a coronation, each inauguration is unique for its own reasons. Either it sets a precedent or something unusual, newsworthy and hisory making is uttered during the inaugural address. At a coronation the royalty sits there and says absolutely nothing. At an inauguration, the inauguree is always setting one precedent or the other by his utterances and/or his actions. I'm sorry but I find it appalling that inaugurations were actually deleted from this page. CHRISTMAS is a "regular event". THE FOURTH OF JULY is a "regular event". A CORNONATION is a "regular event". But a Presidential inauguration? No, each one is unique and each one is significant. I don't know what country you folks above are from but you are obviously not Americans. Nghtownclerk (talk) 22:55, 21 January 2010 (UTC)nghtownclerkNghtownclerk (talk) 22:55, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

A couple of things: 1) typically a coronation will take place following the death of the predecessor, therefore hardly at his/her 'convenience'. 2) @Nightownclerk, many of us are indeed not American, but neither is Wikipedia. Your implication that kings and queens do not set the tone of time is rather defeated by the commonly accepted use of phrases like Elizabethan/Victorian/Georgian/Edwardian England. While I agree that these are historical shorthand to a large extent, they do indicate a general acceptance that the tone and values of a time change with the monarch and those associated with him/her. It is however, possible that your objection is based on a British/American English difference of usage of the word 'regular' The other contributors here have used it in the sense of an event happening at recurring and predictable intervals; I think you are interpreting it in the more American sense of 'normal'. Presidential inaugurations do take place on the same date every four years(as you point out) and are therefore demonstrably and intentionally 'regular': coronations take place following the death or abdication of the predecessor, cannot be predicted and are therefore not 'regular'. No-one was attacking or belittling the importance of each new president to the American people, your defensive position was therefore a little unjustified. 3)Both Clinton and George W Bush are listed as the 43rd President. As I don't have an account I would feel uncomfortable making the change: could someone else please do it?--85.72.36.254 (talk) 12:52, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

TV trivia

I removed "2006 - high school musical is shown in tv in USA." are you kidding me? Tony P 09:01, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

I personally wouldn't have even given it mention on the talk page. -- 97.113.116.173 (talk) 20:58, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Barack Obama

Could someone explain how Barack Obama is the first 'African-American' president when he is just as Causasian as he is Black-therefore he is Biracial. Also, what does the term 'African -American' mean outside the United States? Obama's father was an African, not an African American. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.252.245.194 (talk) 14:52, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

His biographical article (at, not surprisingly, Barack Obama) declares him to be 'African-American'. If you'd like to try out your argument, click on Talk:Barack Obama and give it a shot. However, given that this particular argument has brought up there and shot down multiple times, I don't expect you to have much luck. Nonetheless, there and not here is where you want to make that argument. --CalendarWatcher (talk) 15:53, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

this is a funny discussion. Since I am 1/32nd native american, I guess I can say that I am a native american as well. Kudos to the guy who brought up the biracial bit. But alas, just because he states something he is not, does that mean we have to accommodate this? Or should we just put into the truth that he is in fact biracial? Or even the more archaic term Mulatto? Dasbrick (talk) 23:50, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

One of the many benefits to college education would be knowing that peoples can be ethnically identified both racially and culturally. No where is this more apt than with people of African descent in the United States. RoyBatty42 (talk) 19:12, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

More specifically, you'll want to go here first.

US Presidential Inagurations

There has been a fair amount of adding and removing of US presidential inaugurations to the Events section of this article. The section titled What is not notable or not considered an Event in the guidelines is explicit about this: Repetitive events – e.g. multiple sightings of comets, listing of Super Bowl winners, listing of every significant battle in a war, listings of every person to become president of a country, regardless of the impact of their presidency. Presidential inauguration, no matter how notable the president may be, should not be listed by default. Any notable events that happen during their tenure should be listed instead, and anything that can't be nailed down to a particular day is simply out of scope for these pages, regardless of notability.

I don't think this means that presidential inauguration can never represent notable events, just that they aren't notable in and of themselves, nor are they dependent on future events that may occur during the presidency. An inauguration may still represent a significant social first, and the Barak Obama inauguration may stand as an example of this. The breaking of the color barrier in Major League Baseball is explicitly listed as a significant social milestone, and it could be argued that the Obama inauguration is similar. There certainly are differences, and I'm not convinced that the inauguration is more significant than the election. Either way let's discuss it here instead of in back and forth edit summaries. Winston365 (talk) 05:28, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Agree and therefore Kennedy's should be included because he gave his "Ask not what your country can do for you..." speech, probably the most famous line in American political rhetoric. RoyBatty42 (talk) 19:05, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, I noticed this after I removed these. Inaugurations are not of particular note as they are scheduled events that follow the regular election process. The election of Barack Obama was notable because it was a social milestone. His inauguration is just a formality and it isn't notable. I can think of no other inauguration that should be considered notable. This topic comes up every year at this time. -- Mufka ^{(u) (t) (c)} 23:20, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Listing the election instead of the inauguration makes sense, inaugurations are a bit of a formality. It was the election that had the real impact. As for the Kennedy inauguration, it doesn't strike me as belonging on this page precisely because it is nothing other than "American political rhetoric." It may be a good line, but that doesn't make the speech a notable event in the WP:DOY sense of the word. Winston365 (talk) 03:16, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

Perhaps taking your own advice and reading that it would be more helpful to your understanding, especially the section dealing with what's not notable Wikipedia:DOY#What_is_not_notable_or_not_considered_an_Event. None of those criteria apply. So, honestly ponder this question: if you asked 10 people over the age of 18 to name a John F. Kennedy quote, how many would not name the line in his inauguration? Further more, on Thursday many news outlets noted the 50th anniversary of the speech. I think having the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and NPR note the speech's date pretty much renders this debate moot as to if it is noteworthy.

To call it "nothing other than 'American political rhetoric'" is to also reveal a pretty thin understanding of recent American history. That line challenged a very polically active generation to become involved socially on a scale that has not been equaled since. It signaled a pro-active approach to citizenship left dormant after WW II. RoyBatty42 (talk) 22:10, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

In the Kennedy case we're not really discussing the notability of an inauguration. We're talking about a speech. You can argue the notability of the speech but the fact that it took place at his inauguration is coincidental. His inauguration is not notable. -- Mufka ^{(u) (t) (c)} 22:39, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

It would seem then either way you will have to mention the inauguration in context to the speech. At this point, the debate seems pretty moot and I would be off getting the references to the anniversary from the previously mentioned sources but I have this feeling you're still going to try to delete it on some overly narrow grounds. Who wants to waste the time doing such? RoyBatty42 (talk) 04:13, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Other birthdays

Lead Belly's birthday is listed as January 20, 1888. Should it be added?22yearswothanks (talk) 08:53, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster

This listing about L.A. Thompson's patent is a bit deceiving and unnoteworthy. Thompson was not the first person to patent the roller coaster, but he is the first person to build a roller coaster from his patent. There were roller coasters long before this. XercesBlue (talk) 20:42, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

750th anniversary of De Montfort's Parliament

20th January 2015 is the 750th anniversary of the first English Parliament.[1] However the article De Montfort's Parliament is not eligible for Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/January 20 because it's tagged with refimprove. Would anyone be able to help clean this up?

The BBC [2] are planning a "Democracy Day" of live events, discussions and debate, produced in partnership with the Speaker’s Office of the House of Commons, including broadcasts from inside Westminster. Whizz40 (talk) 11:09, 21 December 2014 (UTC)

The article has been improved, mainly by User:Hchc2009, and I have added it fully to WP:Selected anniversaries/January 20. Thincat (talk) 19:41, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Births and Deaths

In accordance with the guidelines, I've started weeding the Births and Deaths sections by removing entries for celebrities with 0-4 articles in other languages. Where possible, these have been transferred to the relevant Year in Topic articles. As well as making the lists more manageable, this will help with the globalization effort.Deb (talk) 16:37, 12 April 2015 (UTC)

Trump or not....

I have locked down the page for a week, as this is popping up on my watchlist daily now. We had this discussion (concerning inaugurations) before, but I do not see a clear consensus. So, all involved, have at it. Lectonar (talk) 19:51, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

Thank you for the week-long hiatus. I agree that we need a more explicit consensus than what can be found on this talk page thus far. The edit-warring has to stop.

WP:DOY makes it clear that not every Inauguration Day is historic. In comes routinely every four years and, without more, that's not enough. The most recent insertion of the date of the current president's inauguration was accompanied by an unsourced assertion that this inauguration's historicity hinges on the president's lack of military or political experience. Without a source to back that up, I deleted the assertion. But now I've found a source for this distinction, and one whose place under our reliable sources policy is unassailable. Fortune magazine, in an article titled "Trump Inauguration Makes History Today in More Ways Than One" said

It’s often observed that no one is prepared to be president, that every president must grow into the job. Donald Trump arguably enters the job from further back on the learning curve than any of his predecessors. He is the first president never to have served in any part of government, including the military.

You can find the full article here.

And here are others that can be used to source the proposition that the 2017 Inaugural was historic:

"Donald Trump Poised to Make History at Presidential Inauguration", The Washington Times

"Historic Trump Inauguration Creates Mixed Feelings" WJLA News.

David in DC (talk) 20:44, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

• The User is under a 24 for EW. I was thinking that before I read the sources above that it would be historic for at least the duration of the administration. d.g. L3X1 (distænt write) )evidence( 13:05, 26 May 2017 (UTC)

Not sure where this discussion has ended up but this article currently has Trump's inauguration listed with no explanation of why it was particularly historic Cannolis (talk) 02:50, 19 July 2017 (UTC)

All are historic or none are (I didn't find the prior discussion). Presidents are hugely important legally and politically and the U.S. has had only 45, of whom only a handful were inaugurated on January 20. Each one was historic for some reason and it's virtually certain that some reliable secondary source said so at the time. Each was historic for a reason evident on or before inauguration day and that lasted long enough to support reporting on this page and presumably the Wikipedia article about each President should say so in the lead; sources should go into those articles. An argument against listing inaugurations is the volume, because the same arguments for listing them applies to heads of state worldwide; we now have about 190 nations and presumably whatever decision applies to January 20 should apply to all dates. Nick Levinson (talk) 04:46, 23 July 2017 (UTC)

Then I would say it needs more eyes....Lectonar (talk) 20:45, 23 July 2017 (UTC)

Another argument against including every January 20 US presidential inauguration

I quickly skimmed the multiple discussions on this page regarding US presidential inaugurations, so I may have missed something, but I didn't notice any mention of the presidents of other countries. If other countries regularly install theirs according to a schedule, are they listed in the Events sections of their respective dates? I checked one other country that I am familiar with, South Korea. Every five years and continuing for nearly thirty years (from 1987 to 2013), the South Korean president was inaugurated on February 25. However, there is no mention of any of them on the February 25 page. Would readers generally support adding all of them to that page? Or just the socially significant ones? Whatever standard is used for South Korea and other countries' presidential inaugurations should also apply to the Americans. -- BlueResistance (talk) 02:58, 20 January 2019 (UTC)

We should either have every US presidential inauguration, or we should have Inauguration Day listed as a holiday or observance pbp 01:25, 27 January 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 20 January 2019

Under Events, there is a period missing at the end of this sentence: "Franklin D. Roosevelt and John Nance Garner are sworn in for their second terms as U.S. President and U.S. Vice President, the first occasion a Presidential Inauguration to take place on January 20 following the ratification of the 20th Amendment" 98.210.124.96 (talk) 22:36, 20 January 2019 (UTC)

 Already done by Deb DannyS712 (talk) 23:27, 20 January 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 26 September 2020

Change the unicode character: - (U+002D) with: – (U+2013) on the last item of the 'Deaths' section (Tom Fisher Railsback) to match the rest of the article. Soltra45 (talk) 00:10, 26 September 2020 (UTC)

 Done –Deacon Vorbis (carbon • videos) 02:30, 26 September 2020 (UTC

Semi-protected edit request on 14 January 2021

On January 20th 2021 Prisedent Joe Biden become the oldest to be in office. Can't figure out how to mainly edit the information page but delete the 2018 where is says trump is the oldest President in Office. PLease cause I can't figure it out.,

I've amended the wording in line with your request. Deb (talk) 10:36, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

2021 entry

Should the 2021 entry be there yet? That event won't take place until nearly nine hours from now. Gildir (talk) 08:13, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

I think it should. I don't see any harm in including it, even though it's in the (near) future. 101090ABC (talk) 09:22, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 21 January 2022

20th January 304 – St. Sebastian is martyred during the Decian persecution. ErrolFarrugia (talk) 07:50, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

This is the talk page for January 20, not January 21. Please clarify exactly which date you want this entry added to, and also provide a reference. Thanks, Kiwipete (talk) 09:03, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 12:45, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 20 January 2024

In the births area, a notable birth to add would be Sid Wilson for 1977. He is the turntablist for Slipknot. Tamezsus (talk) 16:33, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

 Done Liu1126 (talk) 18:59, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

Inauguration Day should be added

Hello, early today I tried to add inauguration day in the USA but was reverted, wrongfully I believe. Inauguration Day in the U.S. has been scheduled for January 20 quadrennially since 1937 and there are many celebrations to commemorate it. CLEARLY a holiday or observances. Many citations exist for that date, this is one. pbp 00:38, 27 January 2024 (UTC)

No. As per WP:EVENTDOY, this does not occur annually. Kiwipete (talk) 03:42, 28 January 2024 (UTC)

Fix dash formatting

Under "Ray Anthony", "–" should be changed to "–" to match with the rest of the article and WP:DOYSTYLE

2604:3D08:4F7A:BA30:0:0:0:CFD5 (talk) 21:37, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

 Done Kline • talk to me! • contribs 22:59, 6 April 2024 (UTC)