ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 269th day of 2024 and the fourth day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1513, Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean.

In 1789, Congress proposed 12 constitutional amendments and sent them to the states for ratification; the 10 that were ratified would eventually be known as the Bill of Rights.

In 1957, U.S. Army troops stood guard as nine Black students were admitted to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, racially integrating the school for the first time.

In 2005, the Irish Republican Army officially disarmed.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: William Faulkner (1897-1962), author; Walter "Red" Smith (1905-1982), sportswriter; Phil Rizzuto (1917-2007), baseball player/broadcaster; Barbara Walters (1929-2022), TV journalist; Shel Silverstein (1930-1999), author/songwriter; Michael Douglas (1944- ), actor; Mark Hamill (1951- ), actor; Christopher Reeve (1952-2004), actor; Heather Locklear (1961- ), actress; Scottie Pippen (1965- ), basketball player; Will Smith (1968- ), actor/rapper; Catherine Zeta-Jones (1969- ), actress; T.I. (1980- ), rapper; Donald Glover (1983- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: Of the 165 nominations to the Supreme Court since 1789, 12 were rejected by the Senate.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1882, Providence and Worcester competed in Major League Baseball's first doubleheader.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "... Father said clocks slay time. He said time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life." -- William Faulkner, "The Sound and the Fury"

TODAY'S NUMBER: $813 million -- estimated total cost of the Mars Observer mission, launched on this day in 1992. The probe failed 11 months later, three days prior to its orbital insertion around Mars.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Sept. 24) and new moon (Oct. 2).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 268th day of 2024 and the third day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1789, Congress passed the Judiciary Act, which provided for the Supreme Court and the office of attorney general.

In 1960, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, was launched.

In 1968, "60 Minutes," American television's longest-running prime-time news program, premiered on CBS.

In 2005, Hurricane Rita hit Texas and southwestern Louisiana.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: John Marshall (1755-1835), chief justice of the United States; F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), author; Jim McKay (1921-2008), sportscaster; Jim Henson (1936-1990), puppeteer/filmmaker; Linda McCartney (1941-1998), singer; Lou Dobbs (1945-2024), journalist; Phil Hartman (1948-1998), actor; Nia Vardalos (1962- ), actress/screenwriter; Rafael Palmeiro (1964- ), baseball player; Eddie George (1973- ), football player/sportscaster.

TODAY'S FACT: Motorcycle builder Soichiro Honda founded the Honda Motor Company in Hamamatsu, Japan, on this day in 1948. Before finding success with motorcycles, Honda tried manufacturing weaving machines, frosted glass windows and bamboo roof panels.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1988, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson won the gold medal in the 100-meter dash at the Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. Johnson later tested positive for steroids and was stripped of the medal.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "I'm not sentimental -- I'm as romantic as you are. The idea, you know, is that the sentimental person thinks things will last -- the romantic person has a desperate confidence that they won't." -- F. Scott Fitzgerald, "This Side of Paradise"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 867 -- height (in feet, from base to summit) of Devils Tower in Wyoming. President Theodore Roosevelt declared the monolithic rock formation the first U.S. national monument on this day in 1906.

TODAY'S MOON: Last quarter moon (Sept. 24).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 267th day of 2024 and the second day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1806, Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery returned to St. Louis from its exploration venture to the Pacific coast.

In 1845, the New York Knickerbockers baseball club was founded.

In 1846, astronomers Urbain Le Verrier, John Couch Adams and Johann Gottfried Galle discovered the planet Neptune.

In 1952, vice presidential candidate Richard Nixon gave his famous "Checkers" speech, denying allegations of improper campaign financing.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Victoria Woodhull (1838-1927), journalist/activist; Walter Lippmann (1889-1974), journalist/philosopher; Mickey Rooney (1920-2014), actor; John Coltrane (1926-1967), saxophonist; Ray Charles (1930-2004), singer-songwriter; Julio Iglesias (1943- ), singer-songwriter; Bruce Springsteen (1949- ), singer-songwriter; Jason Alexander (1959- ), actor; Ani DiFranco (1970- ), singer-songwriter; Anthony Mackie (1978- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: Nintendo, known today as a video game company, was founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi in Kyoto, Japan, on this day in 1889. The company originally produced handmade playing cards.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1988, Jose Canseco of the Oakland A's became the first member of Major League Baseball's "40-40 club," hitting 40 home runs and stealing 40 bases in a single season.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Those whom we love and admire most are the men and women whose consciousness is peopled thickly with persons rather than with types, who know us rather than the classification into which we might fit." -- Walter Lippmann, "Public Opinion"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 33 -- surviving members in Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery. Only one member of the party died during the nearly 8,000-mile expedition.

TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (Sept. 17) and last quarter moon (Sept. 24).