Today is the 269th day of 2016 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 approved the 10 constitutional amendments collectively known as the Bill of Rights and sent them to the states for ratification.

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

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: William Faulkner (1897-1962), author; Walter "Red" Smith (1905-1982), sportswriter; Phil Rizzuto (1917-2007), baseball player; Barbara Walters (1929- ), TV journalist; Shel Silverstein (1930-1999), author; 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.

TODAY'S FACT: Of the 161 nominations to the Supreme Court since 1789, 12 were rejected by the Senate. The most recent nominee, Merrick Garland, was nominated by President Barack Obama on March 16, 2016, and (as of early September 2016) has not yet received a Senate hearing.

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

TODAY'S QUOTE: "The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail." -- William Faulkner

TODAY'S NUMBER: 164 -- Major League Baseball games won by pitcher Tommy John after he underwent the first ulnar collateral ligament replacement surgery on this day in 1974. The procedure, now known as Tommy John surgery, has been performed on dozens of major league pitchers since.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Sept. 23) and new moon (Sept. 30).

Today is the 268th day of 2016 and the third day of autumn.

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

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

In 1968, "60 Minutes," American prime-time television's longest-running 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; Linda McCartney (1941-1998), singer; Lou Dobbs (1945- ), journalist; Phil Hartman (1948-1998), actor; Nia Vardalos (1962- ), actress/screenwriter; Rafael Palmeiro (1964- ), baseball player; Morgan and Paul Hamm (1982- ), gymnasts.

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 tested positive for steroids three days later 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: 1,267 -- height (in feet) 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: Between last quarter moon (Sept. 23) and new moon (Sept. 30).

Today is the 267th day of 2016 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: "We are told about the world before we see it. We imagine most things before we experience them. And those preconceptions, unless education has made us acutely aware, govern deeply the whole process of perception." -- 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: Last quarter moon (Sept. 23).