The Grant Memorial gold dollar and silver half dollar were struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1922 in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ulysses S. Grant, a leading Union general during the Civil War and later the 18th president of the United States. The two coins are identical in design and were sculpted by Laura Gardin Fraser. The Ulysses S. Grant Centenary Memorial Association wanted to sell 200,000 gold dollars to pay for projects in the areas of Grant's birthplace and boyhood home. Congress authorized 250,000 half dollars, but only 10,000 gold dollars. About 5,000 of each denomination were struck with a special mark, a star (example pictured). All of the gold dollars and most of the half dollars sold. The half dollar with star has long been priced higher than most commemoratives; its rarity has also caused it to be counterfeited. Money from the coins was used to help preserve Grant's birthplace, but other planned projects were not completed.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Memorial_coinage
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1924:
George Gershwin's composition Rhapsody in Blue premiered at Aeolian Hall, New York City. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhapsody_in_Blue
1947:
The French fashion company Dior unveiled its New Look collection (suit pictured), which revolutionized women's dress and re- established Paris as the centre of the fashion world after World War II. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dior
1968:
Following the deaths of two employees on the job, black sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, began a strike that lasted more than two months. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_sanitation_strike
2001:
The NASA space probe NEAR Shoemaker touched down on Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEAR_Shoemaker
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
Darwinian: 1. Senses relating to Charles and Erasmus Darwin. 2. Of or pertaining to the scientific views advanced by the English biologist, geologist, and naturalist Charles Darwin, especially his theory that living organisms evolve through the natural selection of inherited variations that increase organisms' ability to compete, survive, and reproduce. 3. (by extension) Of or pertaining to Darwinism, which includes the theories of Charles Darwin and other scientists. 4. (by extension) Competitive, especially in a ruthless manner. 5. (by extension) Exhibiting an ability to adapt or develop in order to survive; adaptable. 6. (chiefly historical) Of or pertaining to the philosophical and scientific views, or poetic style, of the natural philosopher, physiologist, and poet Erasmus Darwin. 7. Of or pertaining to Darwin, the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. 8. Senses relating to Charles and Erasmus Darwin. 9. An adherent of Charles Darwin's theory of the origin of species, or of Darwinism. 10. (obsolete, rare) An adherent of the philosophical and scientific views, or poetic style, of Erasmus Darwin. 11. A native or resident of Darwin in the Northern Territory, Australia. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Darwinian
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Our popular Government has often been called an experiment. Two points in it our people have already settled — the successful establishing and the successful administering of it. One still remains — its successful maintenance against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it. It is now for them to demonstrate to the world that those who can fairly carry an election can also suppress a rebellion; that ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets, and that when ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided there can be no successful appeal back to bullets; that there can be no successful appeal except to ballots themselves at succeeding elections. Such will be a great lesson of peace, teaching men that what they can not take by an election neither can they take it by a war; teaching all the folly of being the beginners of a war. --Abraham Lincoln https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln