The Hudson Sesquicentennial half dollar is a fifty-cent piece struck by
the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1935 as a commemorative coin.
The coin was designed by Chester Beach. Its obverse depicts the Half
Moon, flagship of Henry Hudson, after whom the city of Hudson is named.
In addition to showing the ship, the coin displays a version of the
Hudson city seal, with Neptune riding a whale, a design that has drawn
commentary. Although the city of Hudson was a relatively small
municipality, legislation to issue a coin in honor of its
150th anniversary went through Congress without opposition and was
signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, becoming the Act of May 2,
1935. Most of the coins were likely bought by coin dealers, leaving few
for collectors, with the result that prices spiked from the $1 cost at
the time of issue. This caused collector anger, but did not lower the
coin's value, which has continued to increase in the 80-plus years since
it was struck..
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1903:
A rockslide buried the Canadian mining town of Frank under more
than 110 million tonnes (120 million short tons) of rock, killing at
least 70 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Slide>
1945:
The Holocaust: The U.S. Army liberated Dachau, the first Nazi
concentration camp, and killed German prisoners of war.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_liberation_reprisals>
1970:
Vietnam War: South Vietnamese forces began the Cambodian
campaign, aiming to attack North Vietnamese jungle bases.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_campaign>
2015:
The ringleaders of the Bali Nine were executed in Indonesia for
attempting to smuggle 8.3 kg (18 lb) of heroin to Australia in 2005.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bali_Nine>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
curate's egg:
(idiomatic) A thing which has good and bad parts, but is overall spoilt
by the bad.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/curate%27s_egg>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Whatever is right can be achieved through the irresistible power
of awakened and informed public opinion. Our object, therefore, is not
to enquire whether a thing can be done, but whether it ought to be done,
to so exert the forces of publicity that public opinion will compel it
be done.
--William Randolph Hearst
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Randolph_Hearst>