Today is Saturday, Sept. 12, the 255th day of 2015 with 110 to follow.
The moon is waning. 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 Virgo. They include British explorer Henry Hudson in 1575; Richard Gatling, inventor of the Gatling gun, in 1818; newspaperman Charles Dudley Warner in 1829; critic H.L. Mencken in 1880; French entertainer Maurice Chevalier in 1888; publisher Alfred A. Knopf in 1892; French Nobel chemistry prize laureate Irene Joliot-Curie in 1897; comedian Ben Blue in 1901; bandleader Shep Fields in 1910; U.S. Olympic track star Jesse Owens in 1913; singer/bandleader Eddy Howard in 1914; singer Ella Mae Morse in 1924; British actor Ian Holm in 1931 (age 84); American country music singer George Jones in 1931; circus animal trainer Gunther Gebel-Williams in 1934; actor Linda Gray in 1940 (age 75); singer Maria Muldaur in 1943 (age 71); singer Barry White in 1944; actor Peter Scolari in 1955 (age 60); actor Rachel Ward in 1957 (age 58); actor Darren E. Burrows in 1966 (age 49); comedian Louis C.K. in 1967 (age 48); singer Ruben Studdard in 1978 (age 37); singer/actor Jennifer Hudson in 1981 (age 34); singer/actor Emmy Rossum in 1986 (age 29).
On this date in history:
In 1609, Henry Hudson discovered what is now known as the Hudson River.
In 1940, near Montignac, France, a collection of prehistoric cave paintings, believed to be 15,000-17,000 years old, was discovered by four teenagers who stumbled upon the ancient artwork after following their dog down a narrow entrance into a cavern.
In 1953, six months after the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev succeeded him following his election as first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
In 1958, Little Rock High School in Arkansas was ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court to admit black students.
In 1974, military officers deposed Emperor Haile Selassie from the Ethiopian throne he had occupied for more than half a century.
In 1977, Steven Biko, leader of South Africa’s “Black Consciousness Movement,” died of severe head trauma on the stone floor of a prison cell in Pretoria. Six days earlier, he had suffered a major blow to his skull during a police interrogation.
In 1992, actor Anthony Perkins, best known for his role of Norman Bates in “Psycho,” died from complications of AIDS. He was 60.
In 1994, a pilot crashed his small plane on the White House lawn, killing himself and creating an alarm about presidential security.
In 2001, after meeting with his national security team, U.S. President George W. Bush said at a news conference: “The deliberate and deadly attacks which were carried out yesterday against our country were more than acts of terror. They were acts of war. …. The American people need to know that we’re facing a different enemy than we have ever faced. This enemy hides in shadows. …This enemy attacked not just our people, but all freedom-loving people everywhere in the world. … This will be a monumental struggle of good versus evil. But good will prevail.”
In 2004, Iran announced it planned to start processing 37 tons of uranium yellowcake, which Western intelligence officials estimated could be used to build five nuclear bombs.
In 2005, the last of Israeli troops left the Gaza Strip, as planned, and the Palestinians immediately reclaimed the area Israel had controlled since the 1967 war.
In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI, in his first papal trip to his native Bavaria, in Germany, angered Muslims in a speech with a 14th-century quote criticizing Islam, leading to church bombings and other protests. The pope apologized for any offense caused, saying the words didn’t reflect his own views.
In 2007, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resigned after just one year in office amid a series of financial scandals.
In 2008, a commuter train ran through a stop signal near Chatsworth, Calif., and slammed into an oncoming freight train, killing 25 people and injuring more than 130. (Federal officials said they confirmed the commuter engineer, who was killed, had been using his cellphone for text messaging shortly before the crash.)
In 2009, thousands of tax protesters gathered at the U.S. Capitol in the largest anti-government demonstration since U.S. President Barack Obama took office. The rally marked the final stop for the Tea Party Express in a 30-city protest campaign.
In 2010, U.S. hiker Sarah Shourd, imprisoned in Iran on charges of espionage for more than a year after she and two male companions were accused of illegally crossing into Iranian territory, was released on $500,000 bail. (The men — Shane Bauer, her fiance, and Josh Fattal –were freed just over a year later.)
In 2011, a leaking gasoline pipeline exploded into flames in a densely populated slum in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, engulfing a crowd of onlookers in an inferno that killed more than 100 people and injured a similar number. Police said the fire may have been touched off after the pipeline was punctured in an effort to steal fuel.
In 2012, North Korea, reported to be in dire need of help from storms and flooding that killed dozens of people, rejected an offer of aid from South Korea.
In 2013, officials in Britain announced that Prince William, 31, had left the armed forces after more than 7½ years of service — first in the army, then as a Royal Air Force search-and-rescue helicopter pilot — “to focus on royal duties and charity work.”
In 2014, Ian Paisley, longtime, hardline Protestant leader in Northern Ireland who eventually made peace with Irish Catholics, died in Belfast. He was 88
A thought for the day: “There are terrible, terrible memories of September 11th, things that I saw, people that I lost, the devastation, the identification of bodies. I mean, all these memories come back to you at different times. And then the other side of it — this tremendous response with the firefighters and the police officers saving people, the rescue workers.” – Rudy Giuliani in a 2007 interview
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