The Pilgrim Tercentenary half dollar was a commemorative fifty-cent coin
struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1920 and 1921 to mark
the 300th anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrims in North America.
It was designed by Cyrus E. Dallin. Massachusetts congressman Joseph
Walsh was involved in joint federal and state efforts to mark the
anniversary. He saw a reference to a proposed Maine Centennial half
dollar and realized that a coin could be issued for the Pilgrim
anniversary in support of the observances at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
The bill moved quickly through the legislative process and became the
Act of May 12, 1920, with the signature of President Woodrow Wilson.
Sculptor James Earle Fraser criticized some aspects of the design, but
the Treasury approved it. After a promising start, sales tailed off, and
tens of thousands of coins from each year were returned to the
Philadelphia Mint for melting.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrim_Tercentenary_half_dollar>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1895:
The first automobile race in the United States, the Chicago
Times-Herald race, was held in Chicago.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Times-Herald_race>
1925:
Grand Ole Opry, the longest-running radio broadcast in the
U.S., first aired on WSM in Nashville, Tennessee.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Ole_Opry>
1967:
Jocelyn Bell Burnell noticed a "bit of scruff" in data from a
radio telescope, which turned out to be from PSR B1919+21, the first
discovered pulsar.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSR_B1919%2B21>
1979:
Air New Zealand Flight 901 crashed into Antarctica's Mount
Erebus, killing all 257 people on board.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_New_Zealand_Flight_901>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
turducken:
(US, cooking) A dish, usually roasted, consisting of a deboned turkey
stuffed with a deboned duck that has been stuffed with a small deboned
chicken, and also containing stuffing.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/turducken>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Lord, for the erring thought Not into evil wrought: Lord, for
the wicked will Betrayed and baffled still: For the heart from itself
kept, Our thanksgiving accept. For ignorant hopes that were Broken to
our blind prayer: For pain, death, sorrow, sent Unto our chastisement:
For all loss of seeming good, Quicken our gratitude.
--William Dean Howells
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Dean_Howells>