Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 December 1b

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From today's featured article

The Cleveland Centennial half dollar is a commemorative United States half dollar, dated 1936, issued to mark the 100th anniversary of Cleveland, Ohio, as an incorporated city, and in commemoration of the Great Lakes Exposition, held in Cleveland that year. In the mid-1930s, commemorative coins were increasing in value, and Cincinnati businessman Thomas G. Melish, a coin collector, lobbied Congress to authorize several new issues, for which he would be the sole distributor. He was successful with the Cincinnati Musical Center half dollar and the Cleveland piece, and profited from both. Brenda Putnam designed the Cleveland coin, which was approved by the Commission of Fine Arts after suggestions by sculptor Lee Lawrie. Melish distributed the Cleveland coins through the exposition, at local banks, and by mail order from his office in Cincinnati. Sales were good, and the full authorized mintage of 50,000 was struck at the Philadelphia Mint. (Full article...)

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In the news

Magdalena Andersson

Magdalena Andersson (pictured), who resigned a week earlier after less than one day as prime minister–designate, is re-elected as Prime Minister of Sweden.
Barbados becomes a republic, with Sandra Mason replacing Queen Elizabeth II as the head of state.
In baseball, the Tokyo Yakult Swallows defeat the Orix Buffaloes to win the Japan Series.
American musical theatre composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim dies at the age of 91.

On this day

December 1: World AIDS Day; Great Union Day in Romania (1918)

Francis Walsingham

1577 – Francis Walsingham (pictured), Elizabeth I of England's principal secretary and spymaster, was knighted.
1821 – On the island of Hispaniola, General José Núñez de Cáceres established the Republic of Spanish Haiti, which only lasted three months.
1941 – The Civil Air Patrol, the civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force, was founded.
1971 – A period of political and economic reforms known as the Croatian Spring came to an end as the League of Communists of Yugoslavia decided to purge the reformist leadership of Croatia.
1991 – A referendum to ratify the 24 August Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine passed with more than 92 percent of the votes.

Archie MacLaren (b. 1871)
Zhu De (b. 1886)
Anna Roosevelt Halsted (d. 1975)

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Today's featured picture

The northern royal albatross (Diomedea sanfordi) is a large seabird in the albatross family, Diomedeidae. It nests only on the Chatham Islands, on Enderby Island, and at Taiaroa Head on the Otago Peninsula of New Zealand. It spends the rest of the year away from land, in circumpolar flights over the Southern Ocean, feeding on squid, fish, crustaceans, salps and carrion. The species is listed on the IUCN Red List as endangered, but predators have been eliminated from the islands where it breeds, and conservation efforts have proved successful at the Taiaroa Head colony. This northern royal albatross was photographed off the southeastern coast of Tasmania, Australia.

Photograph credit: John Harrison

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