The Albany Charter half dollar is a commemorative half dollar struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1936. It was designed by sculptor Gertrude K. Lathrop, who lived in Albany, New York's state capital. In 1936, Congress approved many commemorative coins for issuance, including some of mostly local significance, such as the Albany piece. City officials wanted the coin to mark the 250th anniversary of Albany's 1686 municipal charter, granted by Thomas Dongan, the governor of colonial New York. Congress passed unopposed legislation, and the Philadelphia Mint coined 25,013 Albany half dollars in October 1936. Lathrop's designs have generally been praised: she placed a beaver on one side of the coin and the persons involved in the charter on the other side (depicted). By late 1936, the demand for commemorative coins was falling, and the issue price of $2 was considered high; more than 7,000 were returned to the Mint in 1943. The Albany half dollar now prices in the low hundreds of dollars. (Full article...)

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• Croatia adopts the euro and joins the Schengen Area.
• Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (pictured) dies at the age of 95.
• Brazilian footballer Pelé dies at the age of 82.
• A winter storm causes record-breaking low temperatures and leaves more than 90 people dead across North America.

January 3

• 1521 – Pope Leo X issued the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem, excommunicating Martin Luther for refusing to retract 41 alleged errors found in his 95 Theses and other writings.
• 1888 – The 36-inch (91 cm) refracting telescope (pictured) at the Lick Observatory near San Jose, California, the largest in the world until 1897, was used for the first time.
• 1911 – A gun battle in the East End of London left two dead and sparked a political row over the operational involvement of Winston Churchill, then Home Secretary.
• 1973 – CBS announced the sale of the New York Yankees professional baseball team to a group of investors headed by American businessman George Steinbrenner.
• 1976 – The multilateral International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, part of the International Bill of Human Rights, came into effect.