100px|A Peace dollar, obverse side

The Peace dollar is a United States dollar coin minted from 1921 to 1928, and again in 1934 and 1935. Designed by Anthony de Francisci, the coin resulted from a competition seeking designs emblematic of peace, and its reverse depicts an eagle at rest clutching an olive branch, with the legend "PEACE". It was the last United States silver dollar to be struck for circulation. With the passage of the Pittman Act in 1918, the United States Mint was required to strike millions of silver dollars, and began doing so in 1921 using the Morgan dollar design. Numismatists began urging the Mint to issue a coin evoking peace; although they failed to get Congress to pass a bill requiring the redesign, they were able to persuade government officials to take action. The Peace dollar was approved in December 1921, completing the redesign of United States coinage which had begun in 1907. The public believed the announced design, which included a broken sword, was illustrative of defeat, and the Mint hastily acted to remove the sword from the design. The Peace dollar was first struck on December 28, 1921; just over a million were coined bearing a 1921 date. When the Pittman Act requirements were met in 1928, the Mint ceased to strike the dollars. (more...)

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

893:

An earthquake destroyed the city of Dvin, Armenia, causing about 30,000 casualties. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/893_Dvin_earthquake

1907:

The last confirmed sighting of the extinct Huia took place in the Tararua Ranges, North Island, New Zealand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huia

1912:

The San Francisco Municipal Railway, operator of the city's famed cable car system , opened its first line. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Municipal_Railway

1989:

In one of Australia's most serious natural disasters, a 5.6 ML earthquake struck Newcastle, New South Wales, killing 13 people and injuring more than 160 others, and causing an estimated AU$4 billion in damages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Newcastle_earthquake

2008:

War in Somalia: Troops of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government along with their Ethiopian allies captured Mogadishu unopposed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Mogadishu

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___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The external world of physics has … become a world of shadows. In removing our illusions we have removed the substance, for indeed we have seen that substance is one of the greatest of our illusions. ... The sparsely spread nuclei of electric force become a tangible solid; their restless agitation becomes the warmth of summer; the octave of aethereal vibrations becomes a gorgeous rainbow. Nor does the alchemy stop here. In the transmuted world new significances arise which are scarcely to be traced in the world of symbols; so that it becomes a world of beauty and purpose — and, alas, suffering and evil.

The frank realisation that physical science is concerned with a world of shadows is one of the most significant of recent advances. --Arthur Stanley Eddington http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Stanley_Eddington