The Walking Liberty half dollar is a silver 50-cent piece that was designed by Adolph A. Weinman and issued by the United States Mint from 1916 to 1947. In 1915, the new Mint director, Robert W. Woolley, incorrectly believed that he was not only allowed but required by law to retire coin designs that had been in use for 25 years. He began replacing the Barber coinage: dimes, quarters and half dollars bearing similar designs, first struck in 1892 by long-time Mint Engraver Charles E. Barber. Weinman's design of Liberty striding towards the Sun for the half dollar proved difficult to perfect, and it never struck well, which may have been a factor in its replacement by the Franklin half dollar beginning in 1948. Nevertheless, art historian Cornelius Vermeule considered the piece to be among the most beautiful US coins. Since 1986, a modification of Weinman's obverse design has been used for the American Silver Eagle, and the half dollar was issued in gold for its centennial in 2016.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_Liberty_half_dollar

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1857:

A 7.9 Mw earthquake ruptured part of the San Andreas Fault in California and was felt as far east as Las Vegas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1857_Fort_Tejon_earthquake

1917:

First World War: Troops of the British Empire defeated Ottoman forces at the Battle of Rafa on the Sinai–Palestine border in present- day Rafah. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Rafa

1981:

U.S. Representative Raymond Lederer was convicted of bribery and conspiracy for his role in the Abscam scandal, but continued to serve his term for three more months. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Lederer

1992:

Radio astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail announced the discovery of two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12, the first definitive detection of exoplanets. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exoplanet

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

cryptodepression: (geography, limnology) The portion of a lake which lies below sea level. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cryptodepression

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The fact that we are human beings is infinitely more important than all the peculiarities that distinguish human beings from one another; it is never the given that confers superiorities: "virtue", as the ancients called it, is defined at the level of "that which depends on us". In both sexes is played out the same drama of the flesh and the spirit, of finitude and transcendence; both are gnawed away by time and laid in wait for by death, they have the same essential need for one another; and they can gain from their liberty the same glory. If they were to taste it, they would no longer be tempted to dispute fallacious privileges, and fraternity between them could then come into existence.   --Simone de Beauvoir https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir