Wikipedia:Main Page history/2016 January 25

The 1804 dollar is one of the rarest and most valuable American coins. Proof coin sets, including the dollar, were created for use as diplomatic gifts carried by envoy Edmund Roberts on his trips to Siam and Muscat. Though the dollars are dated 1804, none were struck until the 1830s; the earlier date was a mistake based on misunderstood U.S. Mint records from 1804. Later, Mint officials struck some of the coins to trade with collectors in exchange for rare coins needed for the Mint's coin cabinet. In response to numismatic demand, Mint officials surreptitiously produced several coins, one of which lacked the correct edge lettering. The coins produced for the diplomatic mission, the dollar struck without edge lettering and the later examples with lettering are known as "Class I", "Class II" and "Class III" dollars, respectively. Altogether, only fifteen specimens are known to exist, and in 1999, one sold for $4.14 million, the highest price paid for any coin up to that time. These coins have been frequent targets of counterfeiting and other deceptions. (Full article...)

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January 25: Feast Day of Gregory of Nazianzus (Eastern Orthodox Church); Tu Bishvat (Judaism, 2016); Burns Night (Scots culture); Dydd Santes Dwynwen in Wales

• 1554 – Jesuit missionaries José de Anchieta and Manoel da Nóbrega established a mission at São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga, which grew to become São Paulo, Brazil.
• 1890 – American journalist Nellie Bly (pictured) completed a circumnavigation of the globe, inspired by Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, in a then-record 72 days.
• 1949 – The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences presented the first Emmy Awards to honor excellence in the American television industry.
• 1995 – A team of Norwegian and American scientists launched a Black Brant XII sounding rocket, which was mistaken for a Trident missile by Russian forces.
• 2006 – Three independent observing campaigns announced the discovery of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, a super-Earth extrasolar planet 21,500 ±3,300 light years away from Earth near the center of the Milky Way.

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  • January 24
  • January 25
  • January 26

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Road Maker, or Aríìhiriš, a 19th-century Hidatsa chief.

The Hidatsa are Siouan people. Hidatsa are enrolled in the federally recognized Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. Their language is related to that of the Crow, and they are sometimes considered a parent tribe to the modern Crow in Montana.

Illustration: Karl Bodmer; restoration: Chris Woodrich

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