The Grant Memorial gold dollar and silver half dollar were struck by the
United States Bureau of the Mint in 1922 in honor of the 100th
anniversary of the birth of Ulysses S. Grant, a leading Union general
during the Civil War and later the 18th president of the United States.
The two coins are identical in design and were sculpted by Laura Gardin
Fraser. The Ulysses S. Grant Centenary Memorial Association wanted to
sell 200,000 gold dollars to pay for projects in the areas of Grant's
birthplace and boyhood home. Congress authorized 250,000 half dollars,
but only 10,000 gold dollars. About 5,000 of each denomination were
struck with a special mark, a star (example pictured). All of the gold
dollars and most of the half dollars sold. The half dollar with star has
long been priced higher than most commemoratives; its rarity has also
caused it to be counterfeited. Money from the coins was used to help
preserve Grant's birthplace, but other planned projects were not
completed.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Memorial_coinage>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1924:
George Gershwin's composition Rhapsody in Blue premiered at
Aeolian Hall, New York City.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhapsody_in_Blue>
1947:
The French fashion company Dior unveiled its New Look
collection (suit pictured), which revolutionized women's dress and re-
established Paris as the centre of the fashion world after World
War II.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dior>
1968:
Following the deaths of two employees on the job, black
sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, began a strike that lasted
more than two months.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_sanitation_strike>
2001:
The NASA space probe NEAR Shoemaker touched down on Eros,
becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEAR_Shoemaker>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
Darwinian:
1. Senses relating to Charles and Erasmus Darwin.
2. Of or pertaining to the scientific views advanced by the English
biologist, geologist, and naturalist Charles Darwin, especially his
theory that living organisms evolve through the natural selection of
inherited variations that increase organisms' ability to compete,
survive, and reproduce.
3. (by extension) Of or pertaining to Darwinism, which includes the
theories of Charles Darwin and other scientists.
4. (by extension) Competitive, especially in a ruthless manner.
5. (by extension) Exhibiting an ability to adapt or develop in order to
survive; adaptable.
6. (chiefly historical) Of or pertaining to the philosophical and
scientific views, or poetic style, of the natural philosopher,
physiologist, and poet Erasmus Darwin.
7. Of or pertaining to Darwin, the capital city of the Northern
Territory, Australia.
8. Senses relating to Charles and Erasmus Darwin.
9. An adherent of Charles Darwin's theory of the origin of species, or
of Darwinism.
10. (obsolete, rare) An adherent of the philosophical and scientific
views, or poetic style, of Erasmus Darwin.
11. A native or resident of Darwin in the Northern Territory, Australia.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Darwinian>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Our popular Government has often been called an experiment. Two
points in it our people have already settled — the successful
establishing and the successful administering of it. One still remains
— its successful maintenance against a formidable internal attempt to
overthrow it. It is now for them to demonstrate to the world that those
who can fairly carry an election can also suppress a rebellion; that
ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets, and that
when ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided there can be no
successful appeal back to bullets; that there can be no successful
appeal except to ballots themselves at succeeding elections. Such will
be a great lesson of peace, teaching men that what they can not take by
an election neither can they take it by a war; teaching all the folly of
being the beginners of a war.
--Abraham Lincoln
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln>
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