Today is the 255th day of 2015 and the 84th day of summer.
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TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1609, English explorer Henry Hudson entered the river that would later bear his surname.
In 1940, four teenagers discovered prehistoric paintings, estimated to be 15,000 to 17,000 years old, in a cave in Lascaux, France.
In 1953, Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts married Jaqueline Lee Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island.
In 1992, Dr. Mae Carol Jemison, science mission specialist aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, became the first African-American woman in space.
In 2011, the National September 11 Memorial opened to the public in New York City.
TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), journalist/critic; Jesse Owens (1913-1980), Olympic athlete; Ian Holm (1931- ), actor; George Jones (1931-2013), singer-songwriter; Barry White (1944-2003), singer-songwriter; Joe Pantoliano (1951- ), actor; Ben Folds (1966- ), singer-songwriter/musician; Louis C.K. (1967- ), actor/comedian; Jason Statham (1967- ), actor; Paul Walker (1973-2013), actor; Yao Ming (1980- ), basketball player; Jennifer Hudson (1981- ), actress/singer; Andrew Luck (1989- ), football player.
TODAY'S FACT: The Western series "Bonanza" premiered on NBC on this day in 1959.
TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1984, Dwight "Doc" Gooden of the New York Mets threw his 246th strikeout, breaking the rookie record for strikeouts in a single season. He finished the season with 276, a record that still stands.
TODAY'S QUOTE: "To the man with an ear for verbal delicacies -- the man who searches painfully for the perfect word, and puts the way of saying a thing above the thing said -- there is in writing the constant joy of sudden discovery, of happy accident." -- H.L. Mencken, "A Book of Prefaces"
TODAY'S NUMBER: 76 -- bronze plates on the walls of the memorial pools at the September 11 Memorial and Museum, inscribed with 2,983 names: the 2,977 victims of the 9/11 terror attacks and the 6 victims of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
TODAY'S MOON: New moon (Sept. 12).