Talk:List of articles every Wikipedia should have

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Please add new topics to the bottom of this page

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Guidelines being agreed upon:

1. A change of the list needs more support than opposition
2. Proposals should be provided with a reason
3. A change needs at least 5 supporters on the discussion page
4. Swapping like for like (category switch only with reason)
5. Single swaps (no mass changes)
6. List stays at 1000 (every article added gets one removed)

Expanded list Female biographies list

Add Ethiopian Empire (Q207521), remove Middle Ages (Q12554)

Regarding African history, I think Ethiopia is due for the list, not just for its significance in precolonial times and surviving the Scramble, but also for heavily influencing Pan-African ideology. I think you can make a strong argument that the Enlightenment is due for its scientific and technological achievements and their eventual impact globally (less so for the Renaissance), but it's much harder to justify the Middle Ages, and having all three of these periods/movements doesn't seem due. Kowal2701 (talk) 20:29, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

Didn’t make this clear, but the reasoning was that we have 3 European periods (4 if counting the Industrial Revolution), which seems disproportionate Kowal2701 (talk) 09:08, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

Oppose

1.  Oppose The Middle Ages, despite the imprecision of its boundaries, covers too long a period and too many key concepts (feudal-vassal relations...) to be removed from the list. Best regards, --Nicolas Eynaud (talk) 05:34, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

   It only covers Europe Kowal2701 (talk) 08:26, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

   Post-classical history on a global scale is also called the “medieval era”. Maybe that should be swapped in instead? LightProof1995 (talk) 02:20, 31 March 2026 (UTC)

2.  Oppose The Middle Ages is a central period in European history and imagination. One can even, to some extent, define medieval periods in other regions. By comparison, Ethiopia does not hold the same historical significance, even within African history. --Tegest Vonis (talk) 17:19, 24 February 2026 (UTC)
3.  Oppose A regional power doesn't strike me as an adequate replacement for a continental-scale historical period. Even the sheer volume of scientific work on these two is simply incomparable. --Deinocheirus (talk) 14:02, 2 March 2026 (UTC)
4.  Oppose Per above.飞车过大关 (talk) 17:05, 24 March 2026 (UTC)
5.  Oppose Per above, especially LightProof1995. --Toku (talk) 07:11, 18 April 2026 (UTC)

Remove Vietnam War (Q8740)

The Vietnam War is within the scope of Cold War, and United States. What should go in it's place, I don't know. I was going to suggest Scramble for Africa (Q179848), but then European colonization of the Americas (Q184716) is also similarly due. Osama bin Laden (Q1317) and Climate change (Q125928) are other options. Civilization (Q8432) can probably also be removed, we already have State (polity), and AFAIK it's rather old-fashioned terminology. Epic of Manas (Q690174) may be due? Kowal2701 (talk) 20:53, 23 February 2026 (UTC)

Oppose

1.  Oppose None of the proposed replacements are satisfactory. The proposal doesn't seem fully developed yet, given this hesitation. Best regards, --Nicolas Eynaud (talk) 05:36, 24 February 2026 (UTC)
2.  Oppose Invalid proposal. A swap must be proposed. --Tegest Vonis (talk) 17:21, 24 February 2026 (UTC)
3.  Oppose The Vietnam War became an important backdrop in the history of the anti-conscriptionist movement and had a colossal impact on world culture. Many films that have won prestigious academic awards in various categories are dedicated to this very topic. Much of the classic psychiatric literature is closely linked to the Vietnam War, as it sparked the study of PTSD. That's why I'm unlikely to support replacing it with anything.--Reprarina (talk) 12:10, 7 April 2026 (UTC)
4.  Oppose per Nicolas Eynaud, Tegest Vonis and Reprarina LightProof1995 (talk) 18:47, 7 April 2026 (UTC)
5.  Oppose Per above. --Toku (talk) 07:11, 18 April 2026 (UTC)
6.  Oppose This is not a valid proposal because no swap is proposed. Minoo (talk) 10:57, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Add Engineers subcategory

As it stands, the "Artists and architects" subcategory under Biographies is problematic. "Artists" includes authors, poets, musicians, composers, actors and actresses, directors, dancers, etc as well as the painters and sculptors currently listed under the subcategory. Really this subcategory is more accurately "Visual artists", although that somewhat takes away from the uniqueness of architects, who require engineering skills just as much as aesthetics, if not more so depending on what they're building!

Engineering is a major and broad field worldwide that includes aerospace, architectural, chemical, civil, computer, electrical, environmental, materials, and nuclear engineering. Many famous people in history are called "engineers" first and foremost, but there aren't many on this list probably because there isn't an "engineers" subcategory!

My proposal is to edit the biography subcategories as follows:

Inventors, scientists, and mathematicians --> Scientists and mathematicians

Artists and architects --> Painters and sculptors

New subcategory: Engineers, inventors and architects

Support

1.  Support as nom LightProof1995 (talk) 18:46, 7 April 2026 (UTC)
2.  Support good idea. Best Minoo (talk) 11:02, 19 May 2026 (UTC)

Oppose

1.  Oppose Without examples, this risks creating an empty category or one that will be difficult to fill. Indeed, since many inventors have also been researchers, and vice versa, this risks creating difficulties in determining who is more of an engineer than a researcher. I think our time is more precious than that, and therefore, I don't think the idea is good. Best regards, --Nicolas Eynaud (talk) 04:30, 8 April 2026 (UTC)

   Thanks for the feedback, Nicolas Eynaud! I'm more than willing to curate this list in a quick timeframe, given its incredible importance to information on a global scale.

   Scientists and Mathematicians:

   1. Avicenna

   2. Brahmagupta

   3. Copernicus, Nicolaus

   4. Curie, Marie

   5. Darwin, Charles

   6. Einstein, Albert

   7. Euclid

   8. Faraday, Michael

   9. Fermi, Enrico

   10. Galen

   11. Galileo Galilei

   12. Gauss, Carl Friedrich

   13. Hilbert, David

   14. Joule, James Prescott

   15. Kepler, Johannes

   16. al-Khwarizmi, Muhammad ibn Musa

   17. Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm

   18. Linnaeus, Carl

   19. Mendeleev, Dmitri

   20. Newton, Sir Isaac

   21. Pasteur, Louis

   22. Planck, Max

   23. Rutherford, Ernest

   24. Schrödinger, Erwin

   Painters and Sculptors:

   1. Dalí, Salvador

   2. Dürer, Albrecht

   3. Gogh, Vincent van

   4. Goya, Francisco

   5. Hokusai

   6. Kahlo, Frida

   7. Leonardo da Vinci

   8. Matisse, Henri

   9. Michelangelo

   10. Picasso, Pablo

   11. Raphael

   12. Rembrandt

   13. Rubens, Peter Paul

   14. Velázquez, Diego

   15. Warhol, Andy

   Engineers, Inventors and Architects:

   1. Archimedes

   2. Berners-Lee, Tim

   3. Edison, Thomas

   4. Euler, Leonhard

   5. Ford, Henry

   6. Gutenberg, Johannes

   7. Le Corbusier

   8. Maxwell, James Clerk

   9. Sinan, Mimar

   10. Tesla, Nikola

   11. Turing, Alan

   12. Watt, James

   13. Wright, Frank Lloyd

   Note the "Religoius figures and Theologians" subcategory has 10 people listed, and the "Explorers and Travelers" subcategory has 12 people listed. So, even without adding any more "Engineers, Inventors and Architects" to the list, this subcategory would be larger than two others that currently exist.

   Note also there is also some overlap when it comes to polymaths, but their most famous works guide their subcategory, e.g. da Vinci remains in the Painters subcategory!

   Here's 50 names that aren't included that would be in this new subcategory (there's not room for them all, of course):

   1. Imhotep

   2. Thales

   3. Vitruvius

   4. Heron

   5. Cai Lun

   6. Zhang Heng

   7. Shen Kuo

   8. Ismail al-Jazari

   9. Filippo Brunelleshi

   10. Jang Yeong-Sil

   11. Ibn Ma'ruf

   12. Ustad Ahmad Lahori

   13. Evangelista Torricelli

   14. Blaise Pascal

   15. Christiaan Huygens

   16. Robert Hooke

   17. Alessandro Volta

   18. Robert Fulton

   19. André-Marie Ampère

   20. George Stephenson

   21. Charles Babbage

   22. John Deere

   23. Isambard Kingdom Brunel

   24. Elisha Otis

   25. Nicolaus August Otto

   26. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel

   27. Alfred Nobel

   28. Gottlieb Daimler

   29. Joesphine Cochrane

   30. Alexander Graham Bell

   31. Ada Lovelace

   32. Wright Brothers

   33. Guglielmo Marconi

   34. Willis Carrier

   35. Garrett Morgan

   36. Robert Goddard

   37. Igor Sikorsky

   38. Vannevar Bush

   39. Percy Spencer

   40. Philo Farnsworth

   41. Grace Hopper

   42. Edward Teller

   43. John Bardeen

   44. J.C.R. Licklider

   45. I.M. Pei

   46. Richard Feynman

   47. Robert Noyce

   48. Fazlur Rahman Khan

   49. Raymond Damadian

   50. Zaha Hadid

   I got these names from a list of 100+, so we'd have to narrow it down more to see who truly might belong here, but my point is it's not as difficult to fill this category as it may first seem!

   I hope this addresses your concerns -- If not, I'm happy to keep up the discussion!

   Best regards, LightProof1995 (talk) 05:44, 8 April 2026 (UTC)

1.  Oppose This will complicate the organization of the "biography" section for an uncertain benefit. --Toku (talk) 07:10, 18 April 2026 (UTC)

   Thank you for your concise response, Toku! I feel you speak for everyone as still unconvinced of the importance of editing this list and of the importance of engineering as a field, as both ideas come across as complicated. Let me explain:

   1. My proposal is a simplification of the Biography section.

   Combining "Artists" with "Architects" creates a difficult, unwieldy subcategory where two largely unrelated fields coexist.

   2. Le Corbusier was both a visual artist and an architect, but most architects have an engineering background, e.g. Vitruvius. (I don't think Le Corbusier deserves to be listed.)

   3. "Scientists and Mathematicians" focus on research to develop the theory that "Engineers, Inventors and Architects" apply. (This also addresses your last concern, Nicolas Eynaud!)

   4. As for benefit, having "Engineers" listed in a subcategory will ensure many of these people critical to history aren't overlooked! (e.g. the Wright brothers!!)

   Best regards, LightProof1995 (talk) 17:15, 18 April 2026 (UTC)

Discussion

LightProof1995 (talk) 18:46, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Add Secularism, remove Charles de Gaulle

Biographies is overquota (impressive considering the quota is 200, which is absurd considering the correct amount would be 0 to 30) and religion is underquota. Charles de Gaulle was a french president in a period that french decline in its previous position of a world power and its hardly even a top 300 most important person, his importance was being the leader of france in WW2, in which france was not a major player, stabilizing the 5th republic of France and gave France nukes. Of the many people more important than him not listed there is Shapur I, Emperor Taizong of Tang, Ronald Reagan, Khosrow I, Frederick II, Ptolemy I Soter, Hatshepsut and more. Secularism basically the default principal of most modern states, its ideias and principals are the reason why many people are even listed, like if wasn't for Attarturk secularism i doubt he even be consider for this list.

Support

1.  Support As nom. Ipedecha (talk) 00:59, 18 April 2026 (UTC)

Oppose

1.  Oppose Not convinced by the need to remove Charles de Gaulle + not convinced of the benefit of a swap between two categories. --Toku (talk) 07:08, 18 April 2026 (UTC)

   The benefit is the quota for bios is 200 and there is 204. Ipedecha (talk) 09:17, 18 April 2026 (UTC)

   This benefit does not seem sufficient to me to justify intervening on a list that is used to structure several Wikipedia projects. --Toku (talk) 07:26, 19 April 2026 (UTC)

2.  Oppose I am not sure that secularism is about Religion, to be honest. Secularism can also be placed in Politics, but our Social sciences section already exceeds its quota.--Reprarina (talk) 07:10, 18 April 2026 (UTC)

   It can be place in religion just like fundamentalism is place in religion. You can see this in the much more active and define en-v3. Ipedecha (talk) 09:19, 18 April 2026 (UTC)

3.  Oppose Per Toku and Reprarina. Best regards, --Nicolas Eynaud (talk) 18:44, 19 April 2026 (UTC)

Discuss

Welcome, Ipedecha! The quotas here are different than those at English Wikipedia's Vital Articles, as there is no consensus on them. They were developed around the number of articles that already existed in those categories, not vice-versa. Thus, a reason for a swap between categories must relate the two articles being swapped together such that it's an obvious improvement, rather than only adhering to the quotas. For example, if you'd proposed "Remove Mustafa Ataturk, Add Secularism" with the reason you state yourself: "If wasn't for Atarturk's secularism [ideals], I doubt he'd even be considered for this list. [So, let's add the theory instead of a single person known for it.]", then your proposal would be easier for us to follow and adapt. Best regards, LightProof1995 (talk) 17:33, 18 April 2026 (UTC)

Redirect all entries to their respective Wikipedia page

Methinks it is exhausting to find their respective Wikipedia pages by scrolling down on mobile, but it is possible that ye can redirect them to their Wikipedia articles. Skipperton (talk) 10:00, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

What is the connection to the organization of the list ? --Toku (talk) 13:49, 20 June 2026 (UTC)

With the help of pagepile and petscan you can get direct links to articles in a Wikipedia, like this. Boivie (talk) 05:42, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Agreed. No clue how to edit the item template though. When we figure it out, perhaps we can just add a button at the top that says "Jump to Wikipedia entries". Best, LightProof1995 (talk) 22:01, 30 June 2026 (UTC)