From today's featured articleThe Gadsden Purchase half dollar was a proposed commemorative coin to be issued by the United States Bureau of the Mint. El Paso coin dealer L. W. Hoffecker (pictured) wanted a coin issued he could control and distribute. He gained the support of several members of Congress, and a bill was introduced. Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon sent a letter and two officials in opposition to the bill at its committee hearing, but it passed both houses of Congress without dissent. On April 21, 1930, President Herbert Hoover vetoed the bill, deeming commemorative coins abusive; the House of Representatives sustained his veto. No commemorative coins were struck during the remainder of the Hoover administration, and although they began again after Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated, in 1938, Roosevelt vetoed one, citing Hoover's action, as would Truman and Eisenhower. No commemorative coins were struck from 1955 until after the Treasury Department changed its position in 1981. (Full article...)
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On this dayAugust 9: International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples; National Women's Day in South Africa
Annie Malone (b. 1869) · Ernst Haeckel (d. 1919) · Jason Heyward (b. 1989) |
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The BBC Sports Team of the Year Award is an award given annually as part of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony each December. The award is given "[f]or the team in an individual sport or sporting discipline that has achieved the most notable performance in the calendar year to date. The team should have significant UK interest or involvement". From 2012, the award's recipient is decided by an expert panel selected by the BBC. The Team of the Year Award was first presented in 1960, six years after the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award was introduced. The first recipient of the award was the Cooper Formula One Racing team. The England national rugby union team and the Ryder Cup team have won the award the most times; both teams have won five times and have shared the award on one of those occasions. Six nations have been represented by the award-winning team. Football has had the highest representation among the winners, with thirteen recipients. The most recent award was presented in 2018 to the England national netball team. (Full list...)
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Béatrice et Bénédict is an opéra comique in two acts by French composer Hector Berlioz. Berlioz wrote the French libretto himself, based closely on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. He had been interested in setting Shakespeare's comedy since his return from Italy in 1833, but only composed the score of the opera following the completion of Les Troyens in 1858. It was first performed at the opening of the Theater Baden-Baden on 9 August 1862. Berlioz conducted the first two performances of a German version in Weimar in 1863, where, as he wrote in his memoirs, he was "overwhelmed by all sorts of kind attention". This picture is the title page of the first edition vocal score of Béatrice et Bénédict, published in 1863, with an illustration by French illustrator Antoine Barbizet. Illustration credit: Antoine Barbizet; restored by Adam Cuerden
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