The Missouri Centennial half dollar is a commemorative fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1921. It was designed by Robert Ingersoll Aitken. The U.S. state of Missouri wanted a commemorative coin to mark its centennial that year. Authorizing legislation passed through Congress without opposition, and was signed on March 4, 1921, by President Warren G. Harding on his inauguration day. The federal Commission of Fine Arts hired Aitken to design the coin, which depicted Daniel Boone on both sides. The reverse design, showing Boone with a Native American, was likely intended to symbolize the displacement of the Indians by white settlers. To increase sales, a portion of the issue was produced with the mark "2★4", symbolic of Missouri being the 24th state. Although admired for the design, the coins did not sell as well as hoped, and almost 60 percent were returned to the Philadelphia Mint for melting.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1889:

American statistician Herman Hollerith received a patent for his electromechanical tabulating machine for punched-card data. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Hollerith

1936:

Reza Shah issued the Kashf-e hijab decree in Iran, ordering police to physically remove hijabs from any women in public. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashf-e_hijab

1972:

Following Pakistan's defeat in the Bangladesh Liberation War, President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto released Bangladeshi politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from prison in response to international pressure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Mujibur_Rahman

1991:

Jeremy Wade Delle committed suicide in his high-school class in Richardson, Texas, inspiring the Pearl Jam song "Jeremy". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_%28song%29

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

mind-boggling: That causes the mind to boggle; that is beyond one's ability to understand or figure out. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mind-boggling

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Hope is the eternal tool in the survival kit for mankind. We hope for a little luck, we hope for a better tomorrow, we hope — although it is an impossible hope — to somehow get out of this world alive. And if we can't and don't, then it is enough to rejoice in our short time here and to remember how much we loved the view.   --Sidney Poitier https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sidney_Poitier