The Walking Liberty half dollar is a silver 50-cent piece that was
designed by Adolph A. Weinman and issued by the United States Mint from
1916 to 1947. In 1915, the new Mint director, Robert W. Woolley,
incorrectly believed that he was not only allowed but required by law to
retire coin designs that had been in use for 25 years. He began
replacing the Barber coinage: dimes, quarters and half dollars bearing
similar designs, first struck in 1892 by long-time Mint Engraver Charles
E. Barber. Weinman's design of Liberty striding towards the Sun for the
half dollar proved difficult to perfect, and it never struck well, which
may have been a factor in its replacement by the Franklin half dollar
beginning in 1948. Nevertheless, art historian Cornelius Vermeule
considered the piece to be among the most beautiful US coins. Since
1986, a modification of Weinman's obverse design has been used for the
American Silver Eagle, and the half dollar was issued in gold for its
centennial in 2016.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_Liberty_half_dollar>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1857:
A 7.9 Mw earthquake ruptured part of the San Andreas Fault in
California and was felt as far east as Las Vegas.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1857_Fort_Tejon_earthquake>
1917:
First World War: Troops of the British Empire defeated Ottoman
forces at the Battle of Rafa on the Sinai–Palestine border in present-
day Rafah.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Rafa>
1981:
U.S. Representative Raymond Lederer was convicted of bribery
and conspiracy for his role in the Abscam scandal, but continued to
serve his term for three more months.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Lederer>
1992:
Radio astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail announced
the discovery of two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12, the
first definitive detection of exoplanets.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exoplanet>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
cryptodepression:
(geography, limnology) The portion of a lake which lies below sea level.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cryptodepression>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The fact that we are human beings is infinitely more important
than all the peculiarities that distinguish human beings from one
another; it is never the given that confers superiorities: "virtue", as
the ancients called it, is defined at the level of "that which depends
on us". In both sexes is played out the same drama of the flesh and the
spirit, of finitude and transcendence; both are gnawed away by time and
laid in wait for by death, they have the same essential need for one
another; and they can gain from their liberty the same glory. If they
were to taste it, they would no longer be tempted to dispute fallacious
privileges, and fraternity between them could then come into existence.
--Simone de Beauvoir
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir>