Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Years

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Harej (talk) 16:58, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Empty years

Does this project have a policy about empty "year" articles? A number are currently being created and coming through as stubs in Category:Stubs, containing nothing except navigation - eg 1997 in North Korea, created 2nd Jan, which I've nominated for Speedy Deletion as "no content", and 1940 in the Soviet Union, created by a different editor on 15th Jan. Are these a useful asset to the encyclopedia, or is the reader better served by a red link in relevant templates which shows "nothing to see here"? PamD 12:17, 16 January 2015 (UTC)

There is no policy that I know of. Personally I agree with Speedy Delete and redlinks. Cheers, DerbyCountyinNZ ^{(Talk Contribs)} 20:24, 16 January 2015 (UTC)

Years before 1752

In the UK at least, the year began on 25 March, meaning that January 1749 would have followed December 1749. Therefore all year articles for 1752 and earlier which have January, February and events up to (and including) 24 March at the top of the page are not in chronological order. Mjroots (talk) 16:11, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

I'm not a historian, but I have read that it is accepted practice among historians to treat the year as beginning on January 1 even in times and places where that was not the practice. Maybe you can find some well-regarded source on how to write about history that will confirm or deny my recollection.

Of course, this would mean putting an event that would have been recorded by an eyewitness as January 1, 1666 under Wikipedia's year 1667. Jc3s5h (talk) 16:53, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

1665, actually! Mjroots (talk) 22:57, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

The problem with treating the year as beginning on 1 January is that it puts things out of chronological order - q.v. List of shipwrecks in 1748, where it can be seen from the issue numbers of the various editions of Lloyd's List that the correct order is maintained by placing Jan, Feb and Mar 1-24 at the end of the year, not the beginning. Mjroots (talk) 22:54, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

The 1751 article explains it well. That year had only 282 days, starting on 25 March and ending on 31 December, which was followed by 1 January 1752. Mjroots (talk) 23:06, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

See Wikipedia talk:Citing sources/Archive 31#Gregorian calendar. Normal practice is to use double dating. I'll do that when I get round to it. 156.61.250.250 (talk) 10:39, 2 February 2015 (UTC)

Misplaced death of Plato?

Hello I would like to warn you that in the page of 340s BC and in the section "Deaths" it mentions the name of Plato which is not correct. He died at the 350s. Check the entry Plato. Keep on with the good job. Thanks for all your efforts.
(Orphiwn (talk) 00:24, 11 March 2015 (UTC))

@Orphiwn: 348/347 BCE (according to the article Plato) is in the 340s BC(E). — Arthur Rubin (talk) 17:25, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

Decades?

Your site say's the decade of the 1970's started in 1970 and ended in 1979. this is incorrect just as saying the 21st century started on Jan1 2000. The gregorian calender did not start with the year 0. It started with the year1. So the first decade ended in the year 10. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. 10 years in a decade. So with that said the first millenia was from the year 1 to the year 1000. Therefore the first year of any decade is the year that ends in a 1. 1971 was the first year of the 1970's. 1970 was the last year of the 1960's. So the 1970's actually went from 1971-1980. Do the math. This is an irrifutable fact. Numbers don't lie. Don't feel bad it's a common mistake. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.187.12.83 (talk) 13:35, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

It would be petty to note that the claim of date errors has a number of spelling and grammar errors. Suffice it to say that this has been discussed many times, and found to be, if not exactly incorrect (being a matter of definition, not of fact), inappropriate for use on Wikipedia. — Arthur Rubin (talk) 17:21, 1 April 2015 (UTC)