The Monroe Doctrine Centennial half dollar was an American fifty-cent piece struck at the San Francisco Mint in 1923, bearing portraits of former presidents James Monroe and John Quincy Adams. Sculptor Chester Beach is credited with the design, although the reverse closely resembles an earlier work by Raphael Beck. The commemorative coin was issued to raise funds for an exposition in Los Angeles honoring the 100th anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine; the event was organized in part to generate good press for Hollywood during a time of highly publicized scandals, including manslaughter charges against film star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. The exposition was a financial failure. The coins did not sell well, and the bulk of the mintage of over 270,000 was released into circulation. Many of the pieces that had been sold at a premium and saved were spent during the Depression; most surviving coins show evidence of wear.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Doctrine_Centennial_half_dollar
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
706:
In China, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang interred the final bodies in the Qianling Mausoleum, which remained unopened until the 1960s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qianling_Mausoleum
1881:
U.S. President James A. Garfield was fatally shot at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station in Washington, D.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_James_A._Garfield
1900:
Finlandia, a tone poem by Jean Sibelius which forms the basis of one the national songs of Finland, was first performed in Helsinki. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finlandia
1950:
A mentally ill Buddhist monk set fire to the Golden Pavilion at Kinkaku-ji (restoration pictured), destroying what is now one of the most popular tourist destinations in Japan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinkaku-ji
2013:
The International Astronomical Union announced that the fourth and fifth moons of Pluto would be named Kerberos and Styx respectively. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styx_(moon)
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
self-referential: 1. (specifically) In a literary work: referring to the author or the author's other works. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/self-referential
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
For the sake of research, the big picture and definitive conclusions, one would have to transcend time, in which everything scurries and whirls. --Wisława Szymborska https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wis%C5%82awa_Szymborska