Today is Friday, Sept. 25, the 268th day of 2015 with 97 to follow.
The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars, Uranus and Venus. Evening stars are Mercury, Neptune and Saturn.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include HMS Bounty mutiny leader Fletcher Christian in 1764; novelist William Faulkner in 1897; sports columnist Walter “Red” Smith in 1905; Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich in 1906; convicted spy Ethel Rosenberg in 1915; baseball Hall of Fame member Phil Rizzuto in 1917; actor Aldo Ray in 1926; TV personality Barbara Walters in 1929 (age 86); humorist Shel Silverstein in 1930; Canadian composer Glenn Gould in 1932; actor Juliet Prowse in 1936; actor Robert Walden in 1943 (age 72); actor/producer Michael Douglas in 1944 (age 71); model Cheryl Tiegs in 1947 (age 68); actor Anson Williams in 1949 (age 66); actor Mark Hamill in 1951 (age 64); actor Christopher Reeve in 1952; actor Heather Locklear in 1961 (age 54); actor Tate Donovan in 1963 (age 52); basketball Hall of Fame member Scottie Pippen in 1965 (age 50); actor Will Smith in 1968 (age 47); actor Catherine Zeta-Jones in 1969 (age 46).
On this date in history:
In 1513, Spanish explorer Vasco Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and became the first known European to see the Pacific Ocean.
In 1690, the first American newspaper, called “Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestic,” appeared in Boston.
In 1789, the first U.S. Congress adopted 12 amendments to the Constitution. (Ten were ratified and became known as “The Bill of Rights.”)
In 1882, the first Major League Baseball doubleheader was played between the Providence, R.I., and Worchester, Mass., teams.
In 1957, under escort from the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, nine black students entered all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Ark.
In 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor was sworn in as the first female U.S. Supreme Court justice.
In 1984, Jordan announced it would restore relations with Egypt, something no Arab country had done since 17 Arab nations broke relations with Cairo over the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty of 1979.
In 1992, a judge in Orlando, Fla., granted a 12-year-old boy’s precedent-setting petition to “divorce” his mother.
In 1996, Israeli police opened fire on Palestinians rioting over a new tunnel entrance beneath the Temple Mount. (The fighting ended four days later, with about 70 people killed and hundreds injured.)
In 2004, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights said more than 1 million people relocated by the Darfur conflict in Sudan were living in a “climate of fear.”
In 2007, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad assured the United Nations that Iran wouldn’t allow “arrogant powers” to force it to give up its nuclear program. Earlier, he was denied permission to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center memorial.
In 2008, federal regulators seized Washington Mutual in what officials said was the biggest bank failure in U.S. history.
In 2010, a federal judge gave California the go-ahead to resume executions after an almost five-year ban while procedures were reformed and a new death chamber was built.
In 2011, Saudi Arabian King Abdullah granted women the right to vote and run for local office in future elections, starting in 2015, but turned down a bid for them to be allowed to drive.
In 2012, China christened its first aircraft carrier. Officials said it would be used for training and testing but critics said it was a waste of money and likely would never be used in combat.
In 2013, Oracle Team USA, which had been down 8-1, completed a stunning comeback with a victory in a winner-take-all final race in San Francisco Bay and won the 34th America’s Cup. The score was 9-8.
In 2014, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced he was resigning after six years in the post. He said he would stay on until a successor was named. (Loretta Lynch was sworn-in to the office in April 2015.)
A thought for the day: “We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” — Thomas Jefferson
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