The almanac

Today is Tuesday, Sept. 25, the 269th day of 2012 with 97 to follow.

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

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 83); Canadian composer Glenn Gould in 1932; actors Juliet Prowse in 1936 and Robert Walden in 1943 (age 69); actor/producer Michael Douglas in 1944 (age 68); model Cheryl Tiegs in 1947 (age 65); actors Mark Hamill in 1951 (age 61), Christopher Reeve and Anson Williams (age 60), both in 1952, Heather Locklear in 1961 (age 51), Tate Donovan in 1963 (age 49), Will Smith in 1968 (age 44) and Catherine Zeta-Jones in 1969 (age 43); and basketball Hall of fame member Scottie Pippen in 1965 (age 47).

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 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 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 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. Most of the "WaMu" assets were quickly sold to JP Morgan Chase for $1.9 billion.

In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in a joint TV appearance for a Group of 20 summit, accused Iran of building a secret nuclear enrichment facility.

In 2010, a federal judge gave California the go-ahead to resume executions after an almost 5-year ban while procedures were reformed and a new death chamber was built.

Also in 2010, the Afghan Election Complaints Commission said it received more than 3,000 charges of fraud in the recent parliamentary vote, including strong-arm tactics, stuffing of ballot boxes and other dubious practices.

In 2011, Saudi Arabian King Abdullah granted women the right to vote and run for local office in future elections, effective 2015, but turned down a bid to be allowed to drive. Saudi Arabia is reported the only country in the world that prohibits its heavily restricted women from driving.

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