The first Congress of the United States approved 12 amendments
to the U.S. Constitution, and sent them to the states for ratification.

The amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were designed to
protect the basic rights of U.S. citizens, guaranteeing the freedom
of speech, press, assembly, and exercise of religion; the right to
fair legal procedure and to bear arms; and that powers not
delegated to the federal government were reserved for the states
and the people.

Influenced by the English Bill of Rights of 1689, the Bill of Rights
was also drawn from Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, drafted by
George Mason in 1776.

Singer-songwriter Terry Kirkman, a founding member of the
1960s folk-rock band the Association, has died at 83.

In the years following his departure from the Association,
Kirkman retired from the music industry, and worked in
California as an addictions counselor.

Kirkman lived in Montclair, California with his wife Heidi.

James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990)

Jim Henson was puppeteer, animator, cartoonist, actor,
inventor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide
notability as the creator of the Muppets (below).

THE WARREN COMMISSION HANDING OVER THEIR VOLUMINOUS REPORT ON THE ASSASSINATION
TO PRESIDENT JOHNSON (right).

On September 24, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson received
the Warren commission’s special report on the assassination of President John  F. Kennedy, which had occurred on November
22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.

Since the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was killed by a man
named Jack Ruby almost immediately after murdering
Kennedy, Oswald’s motive for assassinating the president
remained unknown.

The commission was led by Chief Justice Earl Warren and
became known as the Warren Commission. It concluded that
Oswald had acted alone and that the Secret Service had made
poor preparations for JFK’s visit to Dallas and had failed to
sufficiently protect him.

German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle (below) 
discovered the planet Neptune at the Berlin
Observatory.

Johann Gottfried Galle
(9 June 1812 – 10 July 1910)

The the Berlin Observatory. 

The 1829 9"/24cm refractor telescope of New Berlin
Observatory that discovered Neptune.

Artist’s impression of the planet Neptune.

The blue gas giant, which has a diameter four
times that of Earth, was named for the Roman
god of the sea. It has eight known moons, of
which Triton is the largest, and a ring system
containing three bright and two dim rings.

It completes an orbit of the sun once every
165 years. In 1989, the U.S. planetary
spacecraft Voyager 2 was the first human
spacecraft to visit Neptune.