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From today's featured article

Reverse of the Apollo 11 gold half eagle

The Apollo 11 50th Anniversary commemorative coins were issued by the United States Mint in 2019 to mark the 50th anniversary of the first crewed landing on the Moon on July 20, 1969, by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. There is a gold half eagle (five-dollar coin), two sizes of silver dollars, and a copper-nickel clad half dollar, all with the same design and curved, with the obverse concave and the reverse convex. The obverse shows a bootprint on the lunar surface, and the reverse (pictured), based on a well-known photo by Armstrong, depicts the visor of Aldrin's space suit, reflecting Armstrong, the U.S. flag and the Lunar Module Eagle. The depiction of Aldrin made him the seventh individual depicted on a U.S. coin to be alive at the time it was struck. The program was the most successful U.S. commemorative coin issue since the 2014 National Baseball Hall of Fame coins, with more than 600,000 Apollo 11 coins sold. The larger silver dollar won the Coin of the Year Award for 2019-dated issues. (Full article...)

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Shanka Basadi

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... that James A. Gilmore reorganized the Federal League, hoping that it would become a third major league?
... that Survivalcraft, a game inspired by Minecraft, was once one of the most downloaded games on Windows Phone and iPad?
... that the slave trader Thomas Leyland won a lottery, transported 22,365 enslaved Africans, and became Lord Mayor of Liverpool?
... that the Women's National Basketball Players Association was the first trade union for professional women athletes?
... that before he died in the Battle of Iwo Jima, Japanese composer Shimaguchi Komao left behind an unfinished song bidding farewell to his family?
... that the coat of arms of Montserrat features Erin holding a Celtic harp, alluding to the Irish immigrants to the island during the 17th century?
... that when Johnny Duncan performed "Last Train to San Fernando" in Liverpool, the audience included John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison?

In the news

Flooding in Esneux, Belgium

Pedro Castillo is elected as president of Peru.
Floods across western Europe (pictured) leave more than 200 people dead.
In South Africa, protests and subsequent unrest over the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma result in 212 deaths and more than 2,500 arrests.
The Supreme Court of Nepal designates Sher Bahadur Deuba as prime minister.
There Is Such a People wins the most seats in the Bulgarian parliamentary election.

On this day

July 20: First day of Eid al-Adha (Islam, 2021)

USS Constitution

1793 – Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie reached the Pacific coast at Bella Coola, British Columbia, completing the first recorded transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico.
1982 – Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated two bombs in Hyde Park and Regent's Park in London, killing eleven British Army personnel and seven horses.
1997 – After being fully restored, USS Constitution (pictured), one of the original six frigates of the United States Navy, sailed for the first time in 116 years.
2001 – Twenty-three-year-old Italian anti-globalist Carlo Giuliani was shot dead by a police officer while protesting outside the 27th G8 summit held in Genoa, Italy.

Robert Wallop (b. 1601)
Patriarch Miron of Romania (b. 1868)
Amanda Clement (d. 1971)

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Today's featured picture

Tranquility Base is the landing site of the Apollo 11 mission on the Moon where, on July 20, 1969, humans first landed and walked on a celestial body other than the Earth. This photograph was taken at Tranquility Base by Neil Armstrong, the Apollo 11 commander, and depicts crewmember Buzz Aldrin with scientific equipment he had just deployed on the lunar surface. In the background on the right of the image is the lunar module, Eagle; the United States flag planted at the site during the mission was blown over the next day by the exhaust of the ascent rocket.

Photograph credit: Neil Armstrong

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