Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Evolution Day

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was DELETE. postdlf (talk) 03:54, 22 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Evolution Day

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Greetings all! Although this article has been with us since 2005, I had great difficulty finding sources that would verify that this is indeed a recognized 'day'. Your thoughts? Arbitrarily0 ^(talk) 15:17, 13 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Popular culture-related deletion discussions. -- Arbitrarily0 ^(talk) 15:19, 13 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Delete I don't think it ever was recognized. The lone source in the article makes no mention of a special day, and by the time it had been 150 years to the day since Origin of the Species was published, in 2009, the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth had already been observed. While I don't think any of the editors made it up, I think that it got taken off of a website where someone else made it up. Mandsford 16:13, 13 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Just FYI, the link at some point turned into a redirect that wasn't quite working; I will fix it in a min; it should now be [1] -- Limulus (talk) 12:06, 14 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I am being sincere when I say that I appreciate that you've located an example of its use. Still, it appears to me at most to be a suggestion from the Suffolk Humanists that November 24 ought to be recognized as "evolution day". Another interpretation is that this was just the title to a blog entry. Mandsford 13:24, 14 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

A German magazine mentioned it, but in 2011, so that's not really definitive proof that it's real-but-obscure versus wikiality... But I have found evidence that the term was in use in 2004 here besides my vague recollection of having seen it that far back. I will continue to look for instances of use. -- Limulus (talk) 01:01, 15 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Looking through Google News, "Evolution Day" mentioned in this 2010 Italian article: [2], "God and Darwinian Evolution Day Conference" from Nov. 2009 mentioned on [3], end of October 2008 article "Mendocino Beacon: MHS shows Homecoming spirit" which only has a summary available in Google News, but which reads: "The senior class won on Tuesday for Evolution Day when students dressed in different stages from amoebas to monkeys" -- Limulus (talk) 19:23, 15 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Anecdotal evidence: somewhat awkward use in real life: [4] ;) -- Limulus (talk) 19:26, 15 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, interesting; I found that if you do a Google search for "happy evolution day" (esp. WITH the quotes; it gives "About 1,400 results") you find a fair number or mentions including this one from 2006 which does not source Wikipedia: "According to my Geek Holidays calendar, today is the anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species in 1859." That would explain why the mention in the 2004 "thehumorlist" message I linked previously begins "Today is the 329th day of the year, with only 37 days remaining in 2004." I will have to see if I can find a mention of a calendar of "Geek Holidays" online with Evolution Day from 2005 or before; that should establish WP:VNT -- Limulus (talk) 19:40, 15 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The page mentioning the Geek Holidays apparently got them from a Google feed as per [5]. Unfortunately, the calendar that someone set up on Google doesn't have any entries prior to 2006, so that's a dead end. -- Limulus (talk) 20:08, 15 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting; FreakingNews had an Evolution Day contest and they nicely defined the term on the page without linking to Wikipedia... for now that should be sufficient to justify a stub article. -- Limulus (talk) 01:59, 16 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Keep as per the above links I found; while uncommon, the term for the OoS anniversary was in use going back to at least 2004 and is still in use. -- Limulus (talk) 01:59, 16 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Delete I can find no reliable sources that suggest this is a recognized "day" - the reference doesn't mention it. There's a couple of GHits referring to the Darwin anniversary as "Evolution day", but they don't suggest there's anything official. -- Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 22:47, 13 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Events-related deletion discussions. -- • Gene93k (talk) 00:36, 14 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Delete The only thing I could find is this [6], which appears to be a self published blog. Rusty Cashman (talk) 06:19, 14 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Weak Keep Found this: [7], which may put things on the keep side of things. EDIT: Oh dear, the link triggered a spam filter; remove the asterisks in the URL. Stickee (talk) 12:53, 14 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
That's just talking about the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species - it doesn't say anything about there being an annual "day" -- Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 13:03, 14 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.