The Columbian half dollar is the first US commemorative coin, struck at the Mint from November 19, 1892, until early 1893. It was issued both to raise funds for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and to mark the quadricentennial of the first voyage to the Americas of Christopher Columbus, the first historical person to be depicted on an American coin (pictured). Fair official James Ellsworth wanted the new half dollar to be based on a 16th-century painting he owned by Lorenzo Lotto, reputedly of Columbus, and pushed for this throughout the design process. When initial sketches by Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber proved unsatisfactory, the fair's organizers turned to a design by artist Olin Levi Warner that was modified by Barber and his assistant, George T. Morgan. Some five million half dollars were struck, far beyond the actual demand, and half of them were returned to the Mint and melted after the fair closed. Sales of the coins did not cure the fair's financial woes; fewer than 400,000 were sold at a premium price. Some two million were released into circulation, where they remained as late as the 1950s. (Full article...)
... that after the mutineer sailors involved in the Revolt of the Lash were granted amnesty, many were discharged from the Brazilian Navy, put in prison, or sent to work on rubber plantations?
... that the Golden Ball pub in Bishophill is owned by a local community cooperative?
... that St John Harmsworth designed the iconic Perrier bottle, based on Indian exercise clubs he used after being paralysed from the waist down in a 1906 car crash?
An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 strikes near Kaikoura, north of Christchurch, New Zealand, triggering tsunami warnings, causing widespread damage, and killing at least two people.
Canadian singer, songwriter, and poet Leonard Cohen(pictured) dies at the age of 82.
A tram derails on the Tramlink in Croydon, London, killing seven people and injuring more than fifty others.
Oecophylla longinoda, a species of weaver ant found in the forested regions of tropical Africa. Weaver ants are arboreal and known for their unique nest building behaviour, in which workers construct nests by weaving together leaves using larval silk. These highly territorial ants live in colonies that can consist of more than a hundred nests spanning numerous trees and contain more than half a million workers. Like many other ant species, weaver ants prey on small insects and supplement their diet with carbohydrate-rich honeydew excreted by small insects.
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