The Norfolk, Virginia, Bicentennial half dollar is a half dollar commemorative coin struck by the United States Mint in 1937, though it bears the date 1936. Designed by William Marks Simpson and Marjory Emory Simpson, the coin commemorates the 200th anniversary of Norfolk being designated as a royal borough, and the 100th anniversary of it becoming a city. Virginia Senator Carter Glass sponsored a bill for a Norfolk half dollar, but it was amended in committee to provide for commemorative medals instead. Unaware of the change, Glass and other advocates shepherded it through Congress. A bill calling for coins was passed in 1937, but by then, the anniversaries had passed, and sales were poorer than hoped; almost a third of the coins could not be sold. The Norfolk half dollar is the only U.S. coin to depict the British crown, shown on the reverse on the city's ceremonial mace.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk,_Virginia,_Bicentennial_half_dollar

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1914:

Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated by a Yugoslav nationalist named Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, sparking the outbreak of World War I. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavrilo_Princip

1969:

In response to a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, groups of gay and transgender people began to riot, a watershed event for the worldwide gay rights movement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots

1989:

President Slobodan Milošević gave a speech in which he described the possibility of "armed battles" in the future of Serbia's national development. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gazimestan_speech

2009:

Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was ousted by a local military coup following his attempt to hold a referendum to rewrite the constitution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Honduran_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

onager: 1. The Asiatic wild ass or hemione (Equus hemionus), an animal of the horse family native to Asia; specifically, the Persian onager, Persian wild ass, or Persian zebra (Equus hemionus onager). 2. (military, historical) A military engine acting like a sling which threw stones from a bag or wooden bucket powered by the torsion from a bundle of ropes or sinews operated by machinery; a torsion catapult. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/onager

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Let's not be dazzled by the sententious glitter with which error and lying often cover themselves. Society is not created by the crowd, and bodies come together in vain when hearts reject each other. The truly sociable man is more difficult in his relationships than others; those which consist only in false appearances cannot suit him. He prefers to live far from wicked men without thinking about them, than to see them and hate them. He prefers to flee his enemy rather than seek him out to harm him. A person who knows no other society than that of the heart will not seek his society in your circles.   --Jean-Jacques Rousseau https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau