Wikipedia:Main Page history/2015 July 4

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The United States Bicentennial coins are commemorative versions of the Washington quarter, Kennedy half dollar and Eisenhower dollar (pictured). They bear the double date 1776–1976, though some were struck in 1975 as well as 1976. The US Mint had opposed issuing commemorative coins since the 1950s, but beginning in 1971, members of Congress introduced bills authorizing coins to honor the Bicentennial. New legislation required the temporary redesign of the reverse of the quarter, half dollar and dollar; a nationwide competition yielded designs of a Colonial drummer for the quarter, Independence Hall for the half dollar, and the Liberty Bell superimposed against the moon for the dollar. The coins that circulated were in copper nickel, and so many were struck that they remain common today. Congress also mandated that 45,000,000 part-silver pieces be available for collectors; the Mint sold over half before withdrawing them from sale in 1986 and melting the remainder. (Full article...)

Part of the United States Bicentennial coinage series, one of Wikipedia's featured topics.

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Did you know...

... that the Moulin de Vertain, Templeuve (pictured) was sold on 24 Vendémiaire 6, as its owner had fled France?
... that ten Cuman chieftains took their customary oath upon a dog cut into two at the wedding of Stephen V of Hungary and Elizabeth the Cuman?
... that during the 2003 Cricket World Cup, Zimbabwean cricketers Andy Flower and Henry Olonga wore black armbands?
... that Philomena Lynott insisted on washing Brian Robertson's hair before he performed on TV with Thin Lizzy?
... that sponges, worms, and molluscs bore into the stony skeleton of the intermediate valley coral?
... that Craig Novitsky is the first player in the history of UCLA Bruins football to start every game of a four-year career?
... that in 1773, during the voyage of James Cook's HMS Resolution, crew members referred to the beer on board the ship that was prepared from malt as experimental beer?
... that the owner of the world's largest collection of Nazi memorabilia sleeps in Hitler's bed, but has "changed the mattress"?

In the news

Nicholas Winton (pictured), dubbed the "British Schindler" for saving more than 600 children – the majority Jewish – from the Nazis, dies at the age of 106.
More than 140 people are killed when a Lockheed C-130 Hercules crashes into a residential area of Medan, Indonesia.
Hisham Barakat, Egypt's prosecutor general, is assassinated in a bombing.
SpaceX CRS-7, an unmanned resupply mission to the International Space Station, fails when the Falcon 9 launch vehicle disintegrates shortly after liftoff.
A dust explosion at a theme park in New Taipei City, Taiwan, kills 2 people and injures nearly 500 others.
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of recognizing same-sex marriage nationwide.

Ongoing events:
- FIFA Women's World Cup
- Greek debt crisis
Recent deaths:

On this day...

July 4: Feast day of Ulrich of Augsburg (Roman Catholicism); Republic Day in the Philippines (1946); Independence Day in the United States (1776)

1054 – Chinese astronomers recorded the sudden appearance of a "guest star", which was in actuality the supernova that created the Crab Nebula.
1862 – In a rowing boat on the River Thames from Oxford to Godstow, author Lewis Carroll told Alice Liddell and her sisters a story that would eventually form the basis for his book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
1945 – The Brazilian cruiser Bahia was accidentally sunk by one of its own crewmen, killing more than 300 and stranding the rest in shark-infested waters.
1965 – The first Annual Reminder, a series of early pickets organized by homophile organizations, one of the earliest LGBT demonstrations in the United States, took place at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
2005 – The NASA space probe Deep Impact impacted (pictured) the nucleus of the comet Tempel 1, excavating debris from its interior so that its composition could be studied.

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Today's featured picture

The United States Capitol as seen from the eastern side at dusk. Located atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the building was designed by William Thornton (the first Architect of the Capitol) and completed in 1800. It serves as the seat of the United States Congress, the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government.

Photograph: Martin Falbisoner

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