UPI Almanac for Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2015

Today is Wednesday Sept. 23, the 266th day of 2015 with 99 to follow.

This is the first day of autumn.

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 Greek playwright Euripides in 480 B.C.; Roman Emperor Augustus in 63 B.C.; Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan in 1215; educator William McGuffey, author of the McGuffey "eclectic readers" for schoolchildren, in 1800; feminist/presidential candidate Victoria Woodhull in 1838; surgeon William Halsted, who introduced operations for hernia and breast cancer, in 1852; journalist Walter Lippmann in 1889; actor Walter Pidgeon in 1897; actor Mickey Rooney in 1920; jazz saxophonist John Coltrane in 1926; soul singer/pianist Ray Charles in 1930; singer Julio Iglesias in 1943 (age 72); actor Paul Petersen in 1945 (age 70); actor Mary Kay Place in 1947 (age 68); guitarist Dan Toler (Allman Brothers Band) in 1948; musician Bruce Springsteen in 1949 (age 66); actor Jason Alexander in 1959 (age 56); actor Elizabeth Pena in 1959; singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco in 1970 (age 45); writer Ana Marie Cox in 1972 (age 43).

On this date in history:

In 1806, U.S. explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark returned to St. Louis on their historic journey from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Coast and back.

In 1846, German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle discovered the planet Neptune at the Berlin Observatory. Neptune generally is the eighth planet from the sun.

In 1909, Gaston Leroux's "Phantom of the Opera" was published.

In 1950, the U.S. Congress adopted the Internal Security Act, which provided for the registration of communists. (It was later ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.)

In 1966, a Rolling Stones' concert at England's Royal Albert concert hall was halted temporarily when screaming girls attacked Mick Jagger onstage. (The riotous enthusiasm of the fans resulted in a ban of pop concerts at the hall.)

In 1973, Juan Peron was again elected president of Argentina after 18 years in exile. (His second wife, Isabel, who became vice president, and succeeded him after he died 10 months later.)

In 1991, 44 U.N. inspectors were detained in Baghdad after attempting to remove secret Iraqi plans for building nuclear weapons. (They were freed five days later.)

In 2005, a fire killed 23 people on a bus carrying Texas nursing home evacuees from Hurricane Rita.

In 2007, Yasuo Fukuda, a longtime political force and son of a former prime minister, was chosen prime minister of Japan, succeeding Shinzo Abe, who resigned amid financial scandals involving government officials. (Fukuda was in office one year and Abe became PM again in 2012.)

In 2008, a 22-year-old student killed 11 adult students and himself at a vocational college in Finland 205 miles north of Helsinki.

In 2010, the U.S. Congress enacted the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act, a multibillion-dollar package of tax breaks and government loans to aid small businesses. (President Barack Obama signed the bill into law four days later.)

In 2013, the Pittsburgh Pirates, who had losing seasons for 20 straight years, clinched a playoff berth in the National League with a 2-1 win over the Chicago Cubs. (The Pirates were eliminated in the post-season by the St. Louis Cardinals.)

In 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking at a U.N. Climate Summit, warned of the "urgent and growing threat of climate change." Obama said countries such as the United States and China must lead the way in efforts to reduce pollution. "We have a responsibility to lead," Obama said. "That's what big nations have to do."

A thought for the day: British Prime Minister David Cameron, in a 2013 speech on making the Internet safer for children, said, "I want to talk about the Internet, the impact it is having on the innocence of our children, how online pornography is corroding childhood and how, in the darkest corners of the Internet, there are things going on that are a direct danger to our children, and that must be stamped out."