The Connecticut Tercentenary half dollar is a commemorative fifty-cent
piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1935. The
commemorative coin was designed by Henry Kreis and depicts the Charter
Oak, where according to legend Connecticut's charter was hidden to save
it from confiscation. An eagle appears on the coin's reverse side. The
Connecticut Tercentenary Commission wanted a half dollar issued, with
proceeds from its sale to further its projects. A bill passed through
Congress without dissent and became law on June 21, 1935, when President
Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it, providing for 25,000 half dollars.
Kreis's design was a Public Works Administration project and technically
in violation of the new law, which said the federal government was not
to pay for its design. Nevertheless, the design was approved and the
commission, setting a price of $1 per coin, exhausted the entire issue.
Kreis's design has generally been praised by numismatic writers.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut_Tercentenary_half_dollar>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1822:
Greek War of Independence: Ottoman troops began a massacre of
tens of thousands of Greeks (depicted) on the island of Chios.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chios_massacre>
1961:
Aboard Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin performed the
first human spaceflight, completing one orbit of Earth in 108 minutes.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin>
1980:
Samuel Doe took control of Liberia in a coup d'etat,
overthrowing President William Tolbert and ending over 130 years of
national democratic presidential succession.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Liberian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat>
2014:
A fire broke out in the hills near Valparaíso, Chile,
eventually destroying at least 2,500 homes and leaving approximately
11,000 people homeless.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_Valpara%C3%ADso>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
push the envelope:
(intransitive, idiomatic, originally aeronautics) To go beyond
established limits; to pioneer.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/push_the_envelope>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
There are no words for the horror I have seen in Bucha, the ugly
face of Putin's army terrorising people. And I have so much admiration
for our brave Ukrainian friends fighting against this. They are fighting
our war. It is our fight that they are in. Because it is not only
Ukraine fighting for its sovereignty and integrity, but they are also
fighting for the question whether humanity will prevail or whether
heinous devastation will be the result. It is the question whether
democracy will be stronger or if it is autocracy that will dominate. It
is the question whether there is the right of might dominating or
whether it is the rule of law.
--Ursula von der Leyen
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ursula_von_der_Leyen>
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