The New Rochelle 250th Anniversary half dollar is a fifty-cent piece
struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1937 as a
commemorative coin to mark the 250th anniversary of the settling of New
Rochelle in Westchester County, New York. The coin's obverse (pictured)
depicts a fatted calf being led by John Pell, who sold the land on which
New Rochelle now stands; a "fatt calfe" was to be presented to him
annually on June 24 if he asked for it, lest New Rochelle's land be
forfeited back to him. The other side shows a fleur-de-lis, an element
of the city seal of New Rochelle and of France's La Rochelle, its
eponym. The piece is dated 1938 but was minted the previous year. Artist
Gertrude K. Lathrop designed the coin; she was hired based on her work
on the 1936 Albany Charter half dollar. New Rochelle's coin committee
sold the half dollar for $2.00 both locally and by mail order, sending
them to all 48 states and internationally, distributing them during 1937
and early 1938. Lathrop's work has been both praised and criticized by
numismatic commentators.
Read more:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Rochelle_250th_Anniversary_half_dollar>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1812:
Napoleonic Wars: Led by Napoleon, the French Grande Armée
crossed the Neman, beginning their invasion of Russia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_invasion_of_Russia>
1880:
"O Canada" (audio featured), the present-day national anthem of
Canada, was first performed in Quebec City during a Saint-Jean-Baptiste
Day banquet.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Canada>
1937:
The U.S. Navy's first two fast battleships, North Carolina and
Washington of the North Carolina class, were ordered from the New York
and Philadelphia Naval Shipyards, respectively.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina-class_battleship>
2010:
John Isner defeated Nicolas Mahut at the Wimbledon
Championships, concluding the longest match in tennis history, which
lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes over three days.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isner%E2%80%93Mahut_match_at_the_2010_Wimbledon_Championships>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
adynaton:
(rhetoric) A form of hyperbole that uses exaggeration so magnified as to
express impossibility; an instance of such hyperbole.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/adynaton>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Well, I play purely from the heart, y'know, and so if it doesn't
work the first couple of hours, forget it. Unless we feel like we're
somehow on the right track then I'll keep on going. That's it, really; I
don't have any magic where I just press a button and it happens. It'll
either happen or it won't.
--Jeff Beck
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jeff_Beck>