The Hawaii Sesquicentennial half dollar was struck in 1928 by the United
States Mint in honor of the 150th anniversary of the arrival of
Europeans. It depicts Captain James Cook on the obverse and a Hawaiian
chieftain on the reverse. Only 10,000 coins were struck for the public,
making them rare and valuable. In 1927, the legislature of the Territory
of Hawaii passed a resolution calling on the U.S. government to produce
a commemorative coin for the anniversary. Treasury Secretary Andrew
Mellon thought the occasion important enough that, unusually for him, he
was not opposed to the new coin. Sculptor Chester Beach made the plaster
models for the coins from sketches by Juliette May Fraser. Approval for
his designs was delayed by concerns raised by the Mint and by Victor S.
K. Houston, Hawaii Territory's delegate to Congress. Although the issue
price, at $2, was the highest for a commemorative half dollar to that
point, the coins sold out quickly and have risen in value to over $1000.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_Sesquicentennial_half_dollar>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1867:
Work began on the covering of the Senne, burying the polluted
main waterway in Brussels to allow urban renewal in the centre of the
city.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covering_of_the_Senne>
1913:
Thubten Gyatso, the 13th Dalai Lama, declared the independence
of Tibet from the Republic of China.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13th_Dalai_Lama>
1981:
Sewer explosions caused by the ignition of hexane vapors
destroyed more than 13 miles (21 km) of streets in Louisville,
Kentucky, U.S.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisville_sewer_explosions>
2017:
Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-
un, was assassinated using VX nerve agent in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Kim_Jong-nam>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
caressive:
1. Having the nature of a caress; gentle, soothing.
2. (linguistics) Of a diminutive: indicating affection or endearment.
3. (linguistics) A type of diminutive indicating affection or
endearment.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/caressive>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The world never knows, and cannot for the life of it imagine,
what this man sees in that maid and that maid in this man. The world
cannot think why they fell in love with each other. But they have their
reason, their beautiful secret, that never gets told to more than one
person; and what they see in each other is what they show to each other;
and it is the truth. Only they kept it hidden in their hearts until the
time came.
--Eleanor Farjeon
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eleanor_Farjeon>
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