The bright red flower called the poinsettia has become a traditional part of American Christmas celebrations. But the flower’s common name, which, while it sounds exotic, has nothing to do with the native name for the plant, is a reference to an American diplomat of whom a 1929 edition of the Baltimore Evening Sun wrote “His Career was as flamboyantly colorful as the poinsettia, and yet he is almost forgotten.”
Since 1928 the figures on bills printed for the general public have remained the same - Our familiar Washington, Lincoln, Hamilton, Jackson, Grant and Franklin. But the United States has had many different kinds of federally printed paper money, and many different people have adorned it.
On February 4, 1859 a “ Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation, between the United States of America and the Republic of Paraguay” was signed. But the two nations had a rather rocky path to friendship, involving an up to then unprecedented deployment of the United States Navy.