Wikipedia:VITAL

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This is a list of basic subjects for which Wikipedia should have a corresponding high-quality article, and ideally a featured article. It also serves as a centralized watchlist and tracks the status of some of Wikipedia's most essential articles. Featured articles are marked (Featured article), A-class articles with (A-class article), Good articles with (Good article) and B-class articles with (B-class article). Articles that have cleanup tags on them or are start class or lower need to be improved as soon as possible and are marked in bold.

Ideally this page should list approximately 1,000 of the most vital Wikipedia articles. An expanded version is available at Wikipedia:Vital articles/Expanded.

See also m:List of articles every Wikipedia should have

Contents

People (115 articles)

Artists

  1. Good article Leonardo da Vinci
  2. B-class article Michelangelo
  3. Good article Rembrandt
  4. B-class article Diego Velázquez
  5. B-class article Hokusai
  6. B-class article Claude Monet
  7. Good article Vincent van Gogh
  8. B-class article Pablo Picasso
  9. Featured article Salvador Dalí

Authors

  1. B-class article Homer
  2. Good article Sophocles
  3. B-class article Virgil
  4. B-class article Li Bai
  5. B-class article Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi
  6. B-class article Dante Alighieri
  7. Featured article William Shakespeare
  8. B-class article Miguel de Cervantes
  9. B-class article Molière
  10. B-class article Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  11. Featured article Edgar Allan Poe
  12. B-class article Fyodor Dostoevsky
  13. B-class article Leo Tolstoy
  14. Featured article James Joyce
  15. B-class article Franz Kafka
  16. B-class article Pablo Neruda

Composers and musicians

  1. B-class article Johann Sebastian Bach
  2. B-class article Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  3. B-class article Ludwig van Beethoven
  4. B-class article Frédéric Chopin
  5. B-class article Richard Wagner
  6. B-class article Louis Armstrong
  7. B-class article Igor Stravinsky
  8. B-class article Elvis Presley
  9. Good article The Beatles

Explorers

  1. B-class article Roald Amundsen
  2. B-class article Jacques Cartier
  3. B-class article Christopher Columbus
  4. B-class article James Cook
  5. C-class article Ferdinand Magellan
  6. B-class article Marco Polo
  7. B-class article Ibn Battuta
  8. B-class article Zheng He

Inventors and scientists

  1. B-class article Nicolaus Copernicus
  2. Featured article Charles Darwin
  3. B-class article Thomas Edison
  4. Good article Albert Einstein
  5. Good article Galileo Galilei
  6. B-class article Geber
  7. B-class article Carl Linnaeus
  8. Featured article Isaac Newton
  9. B-class article Nikola Tesla
  10. B-class article Sigmund Freud
  11. B-class article Niels Bohr
  12. B-class article Marie Curie
  13. B-class article Dmitri Mendeleev

Mathematicians

  1. Featured article Archimedes
  2. B-class article Euclid
  3. Featured article Leonhard Euler
  4. B-class article Carl Friedrich Gauss
  5. B-class article Kurt Gödel
  6. B-class article David Hilbert
  7. B-class article Gottfried Leibniz
  8. Featured article Blaise Pascal
  9. B-class article Henri Poincaré
  10. B-class article Pythagoras
  11. Good article Alan Turing
  12. B-class article Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī

Philosophers and social scientists

  1. B-class article Confucius
  2. B-class article Socrates
  3. B-class article Plato
  4. B-class article Aristotle
  5. Start-class article Nagarjuna
  6. B-class article Avicenna
  7. Good article Thomas Aquinas
  8. B-class article Ibn Khaldun
  9. B-class article René Descartes
  10. B-class article John Locke
  11. B-class article Immanuel Kant
  12. B-class article Karl Marx
  13. B-class article Friedrich Nietzsche
  14. Featured article Max Weber

Religious figures

  1. B-class article Abraham
  2. B-class article Gautama Buddha
  3. B-class article Guru Nanak Dev
  4. Good article Jesus
  5. Good article Laozi
  6. B-class article Moses
  7. Good article Muhammad
  8. B-class article Paul the Apostle
  9. B-class article Zoroaster

Politicians and leaders

  1. Good article Hammurabi
  2. A-Class article Cyrus the Great
  3. B-class article Alexander the Great
  4. B-class article Qin Shi Huang
  5. B-class article Julius Caesar
  6. B-class article Cleopatra VII
  7. Featured article Augustus
  8. C-class article Attila the Hun
  9. B-class article Charlemagne
  10. B-class article Genghis Khan
  11. Featured article Joan of Arc
  12. Featured article Suleiman the Magnificent
  13. Featured article Elizabeth I of England
  14. Good article George Washington
  15. A-Class article Napoleon I of France
  16. B-class article Simón Bolívar
  17. B-class article Abraham Lincoln
  18. B-class article Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
  19. Featured article Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
  20. B-class article Vladimir Lenin
  21. Good article Winston Churchill
  22. B-class article Joseph Stalin
  23. B-class article Adolf Hitler
  24. B-class article Mao Zedong
  25. Good article Nelson Mandela

History (60 articles)

  1. B-class article History
  2. A-class article Civilization
  3. B-class article History of the world
  4. B-class article History of Africa
  5. History of the Americas
  6. B-class article History of China
  7. B-class article History of Europe
  8. B-class article History of India
  9. B-class article History of Japan
  10. B-class article History of the Middle East

Prehistory to Middle Ages

  1. Prehistory
  2. Stone Age
    1. Mesopotamia
    2. Neolithic Revolution
    3. Sumer
  3. Bronze Age
    1. Featured article Ancient Egypt
    2. Assyria
    3. Good article Indus Valley Civilization
  4. Iron Age
    1. Ancient Greece
    2. Ancient Rome
    3. Macedon
    4. Persian Empire
  5. Middle Ages
    1. Black Death
    2. Featured article Byzantine Empire
    3. Crusades
    4. East-West Schism
    5. Holy Roman Empire
    6. Islamic Golden Age
    7. Mongol Empire
    8. Ottoman Empire
    9. Pre-Columbian
    10. Spanish Inquisition
    11. Viking Age

Renaissance to present

  1. Abolitionism
  2. Age of Discovery
  3. Age of Enlightenment
  4. British Empire
  5. Civil rights movement
  6. A-class article Cold War
  7. Congress of Vienna
  8. Cultural Revolution
  9. European colonization of the Americas
  10. History of the European Union
  11. French Revolution
  12. Great Depression
  13. The Holocaust
  14. Industrial Revolution
  15. Iranian Revolution
  16. Korean War
  17. Napoleonic Wars
  18. Protestant Reformation
  19. Good article Renaissance
  20. Russian Empire
  21. Scientific Revolution
  22. Scramble for Africa
  23. Soviet Union
  24. Space exploration
  25. Taiping Rebellion
  26. History of the United States
  27. Women's suffrage
  28. World War I
  29. World War II

Geography (106 articles)

  1. Geography
  2. City
  3. Continent
  4. Country
  5. Desert
  6. Forest
  7. Glacier
  8. Mountain
  9. Ocean
  10. River

Bodies of water

  1. Amazon River
  2. Atlantic Ocean
  3. Black Sea
  4. Caspian Sea
  5. Danube
  6. A-class articleGood article Great Barrier Reef
  7. Indian Ocean
  8. Mediterranean Sea
  9. Niagara Falls
  10. Nile
  11. Pacific Ocean
  12. Featured article Panama Canal
  13. Suez Canal

Cities

  1. Athens
  2. Beijing
  3. A-class article Berlin
  4. Featured article Delhi
  5. Featured article Hong Kong
  6. Istanbul
  7. Featured article Jerusalem
  8. Good article London
  9. Good article Los Angeles
  10. Mecca
  11. Mexico City
  12. Moscow
  13. Featured article New York City
  14. Paris
  15. Rome
  16. São Paulo
  17. Seoul
  18. Tokyo

Continents and regions

  1. Africa
  2. Featured article Antarctica
  3. Arctic
  4. Asia
  5. Europe
  6. Latin America
  7. Middle East
  8. North America
  9. Oceania
  10. South America

Countries

See also: List of countries and List of countries by population.
  1. Argentina
  2. Featured article Australia
  3. Austria
  4. Featured article Bangladesh
  5. Featured article Belgium
  6. Good article Brazil
  7. Burma
  8. Featured article Canada
  9. Good article People's Republic of China
  10. Colombia
  11. Democratic Republic of the Congo
  12. Denmark
  13. A-class article Egypt
  14. Ethiopia
  15. Finland
  16. France
  17. Featured article Germany
  18. Greece
  19. Featured article India
  20. Featured article Indonesia
  21. Good article Iran
  22. Iraq
  23. A-class article Republic of Ireland
  24. Featured article Israel
  25. Italy
  26. Featured article Japan
  27. Mexico
  28. Netherlands
  29. Nigeria
  30. Norway
  31. Featured article Pakistan
  32. Philippines
  33. Poland
  34. Good article Russia
  35. A-class article Saudi Arabia
  36. Singapore
  37. Featured article South Africa
  38. South Korea
  39. Spain
  40. Sweden
  41. Switzerland
  42. Good article Republic of China (Taiwan)
  43. Thailand
  44. Featured article Turkey
  45. Ukraine
  46. United Kingdom
  47. Good article United States
  48. Vietnam

Mountains, valleys and deserts

  1. Alps
  2. Andes
  3. Gobi Desert
  4. Grand Canyon
  5. Himalayas
    1. Mount Everest
  6. Sahara

Arts and culture (56 articles)

  1. Art
  2. History of art
  3. A-class article Aesthetics

Artistic movements

  1. Gothic
  2. Baroque
  3. Romanticism
  4. Modernism
  5. Postmodernism
  6. Pop culture

Literature

  1. Literature
  2. History of literature
  3. Prose
    1. Book
    2. Fiction
      1. Novel
      2. Short story
  4. Featured article Poetry
    1. Rhyme
    2. Forms
      1. Epic poetry
      2. Haiku
      3. Sonnet

Music

  1. B-class article Music
  2. B-class article History of music
  3. Musical instrument
  4. Singing
  5. Genres
    1. B-class article Classical music
    2. Folk music
    3. B-class article Hip hop music
    4. A-class article Jazz
    5. B-class article Pop music
    6. B-class article Rock music

Performing arts

  1. Performing arts
  2. Dance
    1. Ballet
  3. Film
    1. Documentary
  4. Opera
    1. Orchestra
  5. Theatre
    1. Comedy
    2. Tragedy

Visual arts

  1. Visual arts
  2. Architecture
    1. Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
    2. Great Wall of China
  3. Comics
  4. Drawing
  5. Painting
    1. Illustration
    2. Portrait
  6. Photography
  7. Sculpture
    1. Pottery
    2. Statue

Philosophy and religion (77 articles)

Philosophy

  1. Philosophy
  2. Philosophical branches
    1. Ethics
    2. Epistemology
      1. Belief
      2. Knowledge
      3. Truth
    3. Logic
    4. Metaphysics
      1. Existence
      2. Ontology
      3. Free will
  3. Philosophy by region and period
    1. Western philosophy
      1. Greek philosophy
      2. Medieval philosophy
      3. Contemporary philosophy
    2. Eastern philosophy
      1. Chinese philosophy
      2. Indian philosophy
      3. Islamic philosophy
  4. Philosophical movements
    1. Confucianism
    2. Existentialism
    3. Idealism
    4. Hedonism
    5. Humanism
    6. Marxism
    7. Nihilism
    8. Rationalism
    9. Realism
    10. Skepticism

Religion

  1. Religion
  2. Deity
    1. Good article God
    2. Goddess
  3. Mythology
  4. Mysticism
  5. Soul
  6. Spirituality
  7. Meditation
  8. Prayer
  9. Worship
  10. Good article Yoga
  11. Theistic philosophies
    1. Theism
    2. Agnosticism
    3. Featured article Atheism
    4. Deism
    5. Gnosticism
    6. Pantheism

Specific religions

  1. Featured article Bahá'í Faith
  2. Buddhism
    1. Mahayana
    2. Theravada
    3. Vajrayana
  3. Christianity
    1. Bible
    2. B-class article Christian Church
    3. Good article Roman Catholic Church
    4. B-class article Eastern Orthodox Church
    5. B-class article Protestantism
    6. A-class article