Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 January 11

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From today's featured article

The Lexington-Concord Sesquicentennial half dollar is a fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1925 as a commemorative coin in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. It was designed by Chester Beach. Members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation introduced legislation in 1924 to authorize a commemorative half dollar for the anniversary. The bill passed both houses of Congress and was signed by President Calvin Coolidge. Beach had to satisfy committees from both Lexington and Concord, and the Commission of Fine Arts passed the design only reluctantly, feeling he had been given poor materials to work with. The coins were sold for $1, and were vended at the anniversary celebrations in Lexington and in Concord; they were sold at banks across New England. Although just over half of the authorized mintage of 300,000 was struck, almost all the coins that were minted were sold. Depending on condition, they are catalogued in the hundreds of dollars. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Painting of the Wallace Oak in Elderslie

... that oak trees associated with William Wallace stood in Elderslie (pictured), Port Glasgow and Torwood in Scotland?
... that scientist KC Claffy was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame for her work on measuring the Internet?
... that the hymn "Gott, der du warst und bist und bleibst" ('God, you who were, are, and will be') was composed for the opening of the Sankt Georgen seminary church in Frankfurt?
... that a night-time guard at the Bank of the Metropolis once left the bank unprotected when he went out for a drink?
... that Mexican soldier Jorge López Pérez is wanted for high treason, but has been a fugitive since 2003?
... that school officials in Palm Springs were not successful in using radio station KPSH-FM as a vocational tool, so they turned it over to the University of Southern California?
... that Kim A. Wagner, a Danish author of books on India, is named after Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim?
... that high mountains can remain standing on Jupiter's moon Io because of heat-pipe tectonics?

In the news

Qaboos bin Said al Said

In Oman, Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said (pictured), the Arab world's longest-serving ruler, dies at the age of 79.
Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 is shot down shortly after takeoff from Tehran, Iran, killing all 176 people on board.
After a U.S. airstrike kills Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, at least 56 people die in a stampede during his burial procession in Kerman, and Iranian forces attack two military bases in Iraq.

On this day

January 11

Gateway Bridge

1055 – Theodora Porphyrogenita became sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire after the death of her brother-in-law Constantine IX Monomachos.
1693 – The most powerful earthquake in Italian history, registering 7.4 M_w, struck the island of Sicily.
1943 – Italian-American journalist and trade-union activist Carlo Tresca, a leading public opponent of the Mafia infiltration of unions, was assassinated in New York City.
1986 – The Gateway Bridge (pictured) was opened in Brisbane, Australia, as the largest prestressed concrete, single-box bridge in the world.
2013 – French special forces failed in an attempted rescue of a DGSE agent, who had been taken hostage in 2009 by Al-Shabaab, in Buulo Mareer, Somalia.

Vincenzo Borg (b. 1777) · Eva Le Gallienne (b. 1899) · Emanuel Lasker (d. 1941)

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Today's featured picture

Aggstein Castle is a ruined castle on the right bank of the Danube in Wachau, Austria. It was built in a strategic position on a rocky crag in the 12th century, but little of the original structure remains. In 1429, it was razed and rebuilt by Jörg Scheck von Wald, and the three-storey women's tower, the palace and the Gothic chapel date back to this period, as does the famous rose garden. Anna Freiin von Polheim und Parz carried out renovations in the early 17th century, but after her death, the building deteriorated and stones and timber were removed for use in the construction of a nearby Servite convent.

Photograph credit: Uoaei1

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