The Missouri Centennial half dollar is a commemorative fifty-cent piece
struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1921. It was designed
by Robert Ingersoll Aitken. The U.S. state of Missouri wanted a
commemorative coin to mark its centennial that year. Authorizing
legislation passed through Congress without opposition, and was signed
on March 4, 1921, by President Warren G. Harding on his inauguration
day. The federal Commission of Fine Arts hired Aitken to design the
coin, which depicted Daniel Boone on both sides. The reverse design,
showing Boone with a Native American, was likely intended to symbolize
the displacement of the Indians by white settlers. To increase sales, a
portion of the issue was produced with the mark "2★4", symbolic of
Missouri being the 24th state. Although admired for the design, the
coins did not sell as well as hoped, and almost 60 percent were returned
to the Philadelphia Mint for melting.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Centennial_half_dollar>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1889:
American statistician Herman Hollerith received a patent for
his electromechanical tabulating machine for punched-card data.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Hollerith>
1936:
Reza Shah issued the Kashf-e hijab decree in Iran, ordering
police to physically remove hijabs from any women in public.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashf-e_hijab>
1972:
Following Pakistan's defeat in the Bangladesh Liberation War,
President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto released Bangladeshi politician Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman from prison in response to international pressure.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Mujibur_Rahman>
1991:
Jeremy Wade Delle committed suicide in his high-school class in
Richardson, Texas, inspiring the Pearl Jam song "Jeremy".
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_%28song%29>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
mind-boggling:
That causes the mind to boggle; that is beyond one's ability to
understand or figure out.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mind-boggling>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Hope is the eternal tool in the survival kit for mankind. We hope
for a little luck, we hope for a better tomorrow, we hope — although
it is an impossible hope — to somehow get out of this world alive. And
if we can't and don't, then it is enough to rejoice in our short time
here and to remember how much we loved the view.
--Sidney Poitier
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sidney_Poitier>
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