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Ghost Stories (magazine)

Ghost Stories (magazine).
Ghost Stories was a U.S. pulp magazine that published 64 issues between 1926 and 1932. It was one of the earliest competitors to Weird Tales, the first magazine to specialize in the fantasy and occult fiction genre. Ghost Stories was a companion magazine to True Story and True Detective Stories, and focused almost entirely on stories about ghosts, many of which were written by staff writers but presented under pseudonyms as true confessions. These were often accompanied by faked photographs to make the stories appear more believable. Ghost Stories also ran original and reprinted contributions, including works by Robert E. Howard, Carl Jacobi, and Frank Belknap Long. Among the reprints were Agatha Christie's "The Last Seance" (under the title "The Woman Who Stole a Ghost"), several stories by H. G. Wells, and Charles Dickens's "The Signal-Man". The magazine was initially successful, but had begun to lose readers by 1930, and ceased publication at the start of 1932.

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San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge half dollar

San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge half dollar.
The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge half dollar is a fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1936 as a commemorative coin. One of many commemoratives issued that year, it was designed by Jacques Schnier and honors the opening of the Bay Bridge that November. One side of the coin depicts a grizzly bear, a symbol of California, and the other shows the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, with the Ferry Building. Congress passed authorizing legislation for the coin in 1936. Schnier's models were approved and the coins were struck at the San Francisco Mint. Just over 70,000 coins were sold, by mail, in person, and from booths at the Bay Bridge's approaches, making it the first commemorative coin to be sold on a drive-in basis. The coins were taken off sale in February 1937, with the unsold remainder returned to the Mint for redemption and melting. The Bay Bridge half dollar catalogs in the low hundreds of dollars, depending on condition.

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Prince Romerson

Prince Romerson.
Prince Romerson (c. 1840 – 1872) was a Native Hawaiian who fought in the American Civil War at a time when the Kingdom of Hawaii was an independent nation. Living in the American Northeast before the war, Romerson enlisted in the Union Navy in 1863 and served in the Atlantic Blockading Squadron. After being discharged, he reenlisted in the 5th Regiment Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry, a United States Colored Troops (USCT) regiment, in April 1864. Romerson rose to the rank of sergeant and was mustered out in October 1865, due to illness. After the war, like many USCT veterans, he remained in the army as a member of the Buffalo Soldiers (pictured), serving on the western frontier. In 2010, he was commemorated with over 100 other Native Hawaiian and Hawaiian-born "Hawaiʻi Sons of the Civil War" when a bronze plaque was erected along the memorial pathway at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

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