The Monroe Doctrine Centennial half dollar was an American fifty-cent
piece struck at the San Francisco Mint in 1923, bearing portraits of
former presidents James Monroe and John Quincy Adams. Sculptor Chester
Beach is credited with the design, although the reverse closely
resembles an earlier work by Raphael Beck. The commemorative coin was
issued to raise funds for an exposition in Los Angeles honoring the
100th anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine; the event was organized in
part to generate good press for Hollywood during a time of highly
publicized scandals, including manslaughter charges against film star
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. The exposition was a financial failure. The
coins did not sell well, and the bulk of the mintage of over 270,000 was
released into circulation. Many of the pieces that had been sold at a
premium and saved were spent during the Depression; most surviving coins
show evidence of wear.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Doctrine_Centennial_half_dollar>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
706:
In China, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang interred the final bodies in
the Qianling Mausoleum, which remained unopened until the 1960s.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qianling_Mausoleum>
1881:
U.S. President James A. Garfield was fatally shot at the
Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station in Washington, D.C.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_James_A._Garfield>
1900:
Finlandia, a tone poem by Jean Sibelius which forms the basis
of one the national songs of Finland, was first performed in Helsinki.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finlandia>
1950:
A mentally ill Buddhist monk set fire to the Golden Pavilion at
Kinkaku-ji (restoration pictured), destroying what is now one of the
most popular tourist destinations in Japan.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinkaku-ji>
2013:
The International Astronomical Union announced that the fourth
and fifth moons of Pluto would be named Kerberos and Styx respectively.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styx_(moon)>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
self-referential:
1. (specifically) In a literary work: referring to the author or the
author's other works.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/self-referential>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
For the sake of research, the big picture and definitive
conclusions, one would have to transcend time, in which everything
scurries and whirls.
--Wisława Szymborska
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wis%C5%82awa_Szymborska>
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