The almanac

Today is Friday, Sept. 25, the 268th day of 2009 with 97 to follow.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mercury, Saturn, Mars and Venus. The evening stars are Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include novelist William Faulkner in 1897; sports columnist Walter "Red" Smith in 1905; Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich in 1906; actor Aldo Ray in 1926; TV personality Barbara Walters in 1929 (age 80); actor Robert Walden in 1943 (age 66); actor/producer Michael Douglas in 1944 (age 65); actors Mark Hamill ("Star Wars") in 1951 (age 58), Christopher Reeve ("Superman") in 1952, Heather Locklear in 1961 (age 48), Tate Donovan in 1963 (age 46), Will Smith in 1968 (age 41) and Catherine Zeta-Jones in 1969 (age 40).

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 woman 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 1991, President Alfredo Christiani of El Salvador and five commanders of the guerrilla forces reached an agreement that was seen as prelude to a cease-fire.

In 1992, a judge in Orlando, Fla., granted a 12-year-old boy's precedent-setting petition to "divorce" his mother.

Also in 1992, NASA launched a $511 million probe to Mars in the first U.S. mission to the planet in 17 years. Eleven months later, the probe would fail.

In 1996, Israeli police opened fire on Palestinians rioting over the new tunnel entrance beneath the Temple Mount. The fighting ended four days later with about 70 people killed and hundreds injured.

In 2000, Yugoslav voters rejected incumbent Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in his bid for re-election but he refused to accept the results.

In 2003, the U.S. House of Representatives gave the Federal Trade Commission explicit authority to create a national "do not call" directory to protect against telemarketers and other unwanted telephone calls.

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 2005, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Hurricane Rita pushed more water over crippled New Orleans-area levees that had unleashed devastating flooding to much of the city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina a month earlier but didn't create additional structural damage.

In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI met with Muslim leaders at his summer home outside Rome and called for "inter-religious" dialogue. The pope had been criticized by angry Muslims over a speech he gave in Germany.

In 2007, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad assured the United Nations in a New York address 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. Most of the "WaMu" assets were quickly sold to JP Morgan Chase for $1.9 billion.

A thought for the day: Spanish painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso said, "Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth."