Template talk:Did you know

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Did you know

This page Template:Did you know is the "Did you know" section on the Main Page.

See Special:Newpages to look for recently created pages that could be included.
Please keep suggestions NPOV and attempt to have a items from different fields of interest in an update.
Please read the #The Rules before editing the template or making suggestions.
For exact guidelines as to how to update see the Guide to Updating DYK (still a work in progress).

Did you know...

National Windrush Monument

... that the National Windrush Monument (pictured) features a family standing on a pile of suitcases and "surveying their new country"?
... that a drawing of a dog was promoted by the president of El Salvador, caused an unaffiliated song to peak on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, and got its original creator doxxed?
... that the naturalised German Mandenga Diek was denied funds to return to his native Cameroon because he wanted to bring his German wife?
... that Chicago's tornado siren has been described as creepier than the city's actual tornadoes?
... that a snowstorm resulted in Mickey Volcan and Garry Howatt becoming the first active players to officiate a National Hockey League game?
... that Església de Sant Serni de Canillo has the tallest bell tower in Andorra?
... that the director of the lesbian film The First Girl I Loved based the plot on true stories gathered from all-girls school graduates he interviewed?
... that butcher Leo Franciosi was also a four-time Olympian?
... that a homily written by Pseudo-Evodius features Jesus and the devil competing in a fishing tournament in the desert?

Suggestions

Got a new article you think is DYK-worthy but too shy to post it yourself? Best to be bold, add it yourself, just follow the rules. If you're not a bold Wikipedian, however, list it here, along with the date - maybe another Wikipedian will come along and be bold for you.

Today is Monday, June 2, 2025; it is now 02:05 (UTC)
Earliest time for next refreshment is 18:38, January 22, Wikipedia time (UTC).
Stale entries are no fun, but please try to give every entry the exposure it deserves.
If possible, please consider informing the initial creators of the new status of the used articles on their talk pages.
THESE ITEMS MUST BE NO MORE THAN 72 HOURS OLD!!!

The initial creator of the article is named in brackets after the fact. Possible images are suggested after that.
Please sort new submissions by the date of creation (not the date of submission), with the newest entries at the top. When the time comes to refresh, please remember to include the oldest fact first. :)

January 23 suggestions

...that the Blue Eagles are currently the world's only helicopter aerobatic team? (Self nominated by Lommer | ^talk 02:17, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC) - Image:Blue Eagles Historical2.jpg or Image:Blue Eagles Crossed Box.jpg)

...that Labour's Alfred Dobbs was the shortest-serving post-war Member of Parliament - just one day before his death in 1945? Mtiedemann 09:42, 23 Jan 2005 (UTC)

January 22 suggestions

January 21 suggestions

...that 19th century photographer Napoleon Sarony reportedly paid stage actress Sarah Bernhardt 1500 USD to pose for his camera, which would be equivalent to more than 20,000 USD today? (created by User:Postdlf - Image:Sarah_Bernhardt-Sarony.jpg Caption: Sarah Bernhardt portrait by Napoleon Sarony.)

January 20 suggestions

New template, inform these users

Please inform the creators of the newly listed template items about the status of their article by adding {{UpdatedDYK|[[Article name]]}} to their talk page. Then remove or strikethrough the listing in this section.
...that Washingtonia is a genus of palm and produces a fruit, eaten by Native American people as a minor food source and by birds? (created by User:MPF - Image:Washingtonia_filifera.jpg)
...that Salt is an ancient agricultural town in west-central Jordan, famous for the quality of its grape harvest, and therefore speculated to be the root for the English word sultana? (created by User:Nickfraser)
...that Nic Jones suffered multiple broken bones and brain damage after a serious car accident in February 1982? (created by User:MattDP)
...that Labour Member of Parliament Ellen Wilkinson organised the 1936 Jarrow March of 200 unemployed men and women from Tyneside to London to demand jobs? Mtiedemann 15:04, 20 Jan 2005 (UTC)

ARCHIVE USED SUGGESTIONS HERE

Write (picture) behind the fact when its picture has been used on the front page.

...that a Bok globule is a dark cloud of dense dust and gas, first observed by astronomer Bart Bok in the 1940s, in which star formation is taking place within the H II region?
...that L'Origine du monde, Gustave Courbet's most provocative painting, remained in the privacy of its successive owners for almost 130 years before entering the musée d'Orsay?
...that Mexican pilot Alberto Braniff was the first pilot to fly a plane over Mexico City?
...that the British ice hockey team The Blackburn Hawks are often referred to as the Blackhawks, and were briefly called the Lancashire Hawks?

...that polymer banknotes are made from the polymer biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP) and that they incorporate many security features not available to paper banknotes making counterfeiting more difficult? (picture)
...that the Sydney Riot of 1879 was one of international cricket's earliest riots?
...the fire from the Weyauwega derailment on March 4 1996 displayed fireballs up to 300 feet (90 m)?
...that Repenomamus may have been the largest mammal in the Cretaceous period and is the only mammal known to have eaten non-avian dinosaurs?
...that BBC television series Watchdog helped uncover the Hoover Company "free flights" scam?

...that Untersturmführer was the first commissioned officer rank of the German SS? (picture)
..that the Chicken's Neck is a narrow strip of land 24 km in width connecting India to its north-eastern states?

..that the men's adventure genre of pulp magazine often featured damsels in distress menaced by Nazis? (picture)
..that melasma is a skin hyperpigmentation commonly affecting pregnant women that is caused by the overproduction of melanin?
...that modern baby monitors use digital cameras similar to web cams to watch the baby as well as listen to it?
...that George Michael's song I Want Your Sex touted monogamy instead of promiscuity?

...that the term United Nations Medal refers to over two dozen international military awards which have been issued since 1950? (picture)
...that Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, a major division of Lockheed Martin, is manufacturer of some of the world's most advanced military aircraft?
...that Jeopardy's impact on culture has earned it references or parodies in no less than 64 feature films, and appearances on more than 10 television show episodes?

... that gear pumps use the meshing of gears to pump fluid by displacement? (picture)
...that Zentatsu Richard Baker was an influential American Zen priest who played a leading role in founding Tassajara, the first Buddhist training monastery outside of Asia?
... that the Pushkar Fair is the world's largest camel/cattle fair?
... that DVD audio commentaries were introduced as laserdisc features to appeal to hardcore movie fans?

...that metal can grow whiskers? (picture)
...that the U.S. federal government sold the disputed Erie Triangle region to Pennsylvania in 1792 so that state would have a freshwater port?
...that Bewitched actress Elizabeth Montgomery made her acting debut as a regular on her father's popular series Robert Montgomery Presents in 1952?

<all older items have been archived at Wikipedia:Recent additions. Please check the item archives listed at the top of this page to help check if other items are archived at Recent Additions as well.

The Rules

DYK is NOT NOT NOT a general trivia section.
This section is only for items that have been listed on "NEW PAGES" within the last 72 hours.

Selections

Look for articles that are +1,000 characters in size. NO STUBS.
Try to pick articles that are a.) ORIGINAL to Wikipedia (not 1911 or other data sources) and b.) interesting.
The "Did you know?" fact MUST be mentioned in the article.
Try to avoid country-centrism and topic-centrism. No DYK installment should have four entries relating to the United States or computer topics, etc.

Formatting

The title of the new article should be '''BOLD''' and placed on TOP as the FIRST ITEM.
Generally limited to FOUR items, but whatever the case--just make sure it fits whatever else is on the page at that time. Use your common sense.

Images

The standard image code is div style="float:right;margin-left:1em;"> [[Image:filename.jpg|100px|ALT TAG]]</div>, but feel free to use a pixel width smaller than 100px or shift the alignment to the left.
Sometimes new articles won't have images, but you can usually use a flag for a topic with a national connection.
The item with an associated image should be the FIRST ITEM, even if that means breaking the "first in, first out" rule. Try not to add an item to the top of DYK without adding an associated image. If you add one without an image, add it as the 2nd, 3rd or 4th item or hide the picture.
If an article does not have an image, but you use a related image to display on DYK, please add that image to the article.

Updates

Updates can be as often as warranted, but items removed after less than six hours don't really get a fair share of exposure, and items posted more than 24 hours seem to become stale.
The items do not have to be replaced four-for-four (one-by-one additions are fine), but keep the item that has an associated image on top.
Please ARCHIVE expired items in Wikipedia:Recent additions

Did you know...

National Windrush Monument

... that the National Windrush Monument (pictured) features a family standing on a pile of suitcases and "surveying their new country"?
... that a drawing of a dog was promoted by the president of El Salvador, caused an unaffiliated song to peak on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, and got its original creator doxxed?
... that the naturalised German Mandenga Diek was denied funds to return to his native Cameroon because he wanted to bring his German wife?
... that Chicago's tornado siren has been described as creepier than the city's actual tornadoes?
... that a snowstorm resulted in Mickey Volcan and Garry Howatt becoming the first active players to officiate a National Hockey League game?
... that Església de Sant Serni de Canillo has the tallest bell tower in Andorra?
... that the director of the lesbian film The First Girl I Loved based the plot on true stories gathered from all-girls school graduates he interviewed?
... that butcher Leo Franciosi was also a four-time Olympian?
... that a homily written by Pseudo-Evodius features Jesus and the devil competing in a fishing tournament in the desert?

|} Purge to see the updated template here

Questions

Dabbawallah

This section is only for items that have been listed on "NEW PAGES" since the last update of DYK.
- Then why was Dabbawala added to this page? It was made on 3 June and even got listed on WP:FAC!. - Ta bu shi da yu 10:33, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)

My bad. :) jengod 17:08, Sep 30, 2004 (UTC)

Rule change?

This section is only for items that have been listed on "NEW PAGES" since the last update of DYK.

Maybe we should change this to:This section is only for items that have been listed on "NEW PAGES" for less that 72 hours. to avoid nominations to not be allowed because of premature updating? [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|^(talk)]] 21:30, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)

Sure thing. jengod 22:05, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)

From rules to instructions

No, I'm not too skeered to add items myself, I'm just too bemused by the whole "template" thing. More after reading the Rules than before. Could the "Rules" please be complemented by a step-by-step "Instruction" on what actually to do? Aimed at the beginner? Not so much focused on what not to do?--[[User:Bishonen|Bishonen (talk)]] 15:20, 11 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I'll have a go at writing an instruction guide to updating the "Did you know" template. Hang in there! [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|^(talk)]] 15:34, Dec 11, 2004 (UTC)

New pages vs new content

I was hoping to list red triangle, for which I've essentially written entirely new content (diff) tonight, but I'm thwarted by the NEWPAGES criterion. Marginally relaxing "new page" to "page that is entirely new content" would recognise the stub slayers and those who rescue copyvios and craptastic VfD candidates too. -- John Fader 04:29, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I second that motion. I've done substantial work to formerly-pathetic ancient articles like Baltic languages, Kanklės and Concertina. Also, I'm sure a lot of us have thrown up a stub just to get things started and only fleshed out the article weeks later, as I did with Chemnitzer concertina. --Theodore Kloba 22:12, Jan 14, 2005 (UTC)

DYK notification template

The DYK notification template links to the DYK template itself... should it link here instead? 68.81.231.127 10:14, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Notification template

I've made a template to notify users of the status of inclusion of an article they created. The template is at Template:UpdatedDYK, and the proper coding to use it is:{{UpdatedDYK|[[test]]}}, which expands to:

On [[Wikipedia:Recent_additions/2016/June#test 2016|test 2016]], Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Example, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. You are welcome to check how many pageviews the nominated article or articles got while on the front page (here's how, Error: Invalid time.&end=Error: Invalid time.&project=en.wikipedia.org&pages=Example Example), and the hook may be added to the statistics page after its run on the Main Page has completed. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

Indent

Hi! Tom, the new indenting looks funny on Firefox. See: Image:Indent-sample-dyk-firefox.jpg. Would you mind reverting or recoding? jengod 21:32, Dec 15, 2004 (UTC)

Hmm, I haven't seen anything funny on my Firefox 1.0. See Image:Did you know Firefox 1.0 screenshot.png. ωhkoh [Т] 11:41, Dec 17, 2004 (UTC)

Sadness...it was fixed and great for a while, and now it's back to being strange. See Image:Firefox-indent-screenshot-2.jpg. This revision had it fixed (at least in my browser), with the neat indenting, and then it got wonky again... jengod 22:12, Dec 17, 2004 (UTC)

Should be fixed again. Although I still can't replicate that problem at all in any version of Firefox. Tom- 22:33, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I'm having similar indenting problems on Mozilla 1.7 right now (took me a while to figure out it was browser-specific). - Nat Kraus e 09:29, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

72 hours

Should we adapt the 72 hour rule to allow for older facts that were suggested on time, but failed to be featured due to main page formatting or dicersitry issues? Mgm|^(talk) 15:02, Dec 27, 2004 (UTC)

DYK fact incorrectly shortened

The DYK fact that I submitted for Matthias W. Baldwin was incorrectly shortened. The patent for gold plating wasn't developed in 1832, it was developed in the 1820s. His first steam locomotive was developed in 1832. slambo 15:27, Jan 10, 2005 (UTC)

L'Origine du monde

...that L'Origine du monde, Gustave Courbet's most provocative painting, remained in the privacy of its successive owners for almost 130 years before entering the musée d'Orsay? (created by Sam Hocevar)

Suggested:Image:Gustave_Courbet-Nadar.jpg -- Mgm|^(talk) 10:45, Jan 19, 2005 (UTC)

Hmm, Id very much prefer Image:L'Origine_du_monde.jpeg, since the line is about it mainly rather than Courbet. This picture is not "obscene", it is a very famous and classical painting. Rama 10:58, 19 Jan 2005 (UTC)

(copied from Raul's talk page) Uh, I don't know if there's a specific policy against it, but common sense would say not to. I'm totally against censoring articles in any way (as my actions and comments on penis, clitories, vagina, 'etc have shown), but that doesn't mean we should go out of our way to put images we know will offend some people on our most visited page. →Raul654 18:03, Jan 19, 2005 (UTC)

Whatever the picture, nice it made it anyway ! :) Rama 08:47, 20 Jan 2005 (UTC)