Today is the 334th day of 2012 and the 69th day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1929, Richard Byrd and Brent Balchen became the first men to fly over the South Pole.

In 1947, the United Nations approved the partition of Palestine between Arabs and Jews.

In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson formed the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

In 1972, the first commercially successful video game, "Pong," was released in California.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), author; C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), scholar/author; Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (1908-1972), civil rights leader/politician; Vin Scully (1927- ), sportscaster; Jacques Chirac (1932- ), former French president; Chuck Mangione (1940- ), musician/composer; Joel Coen (1954- ), filmmaker; Howie Mandel (1955- ), actor/TV personality; Don Cheadle (1964- ), actor; Mariano Rivera (1969- ), baseball player.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1997, legendary Grambling State University Tigers football coach Eddie Robinson coached his last game, a 30-7 loss to the Southern University Jaguars. Robinson had coached the Tigers for 55 seasons.

TODAY'S FACT: One of the first video games was created in 1958 by William Higginbotham, a physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven lab. The game, "Tennis for Two," was very similar to "Pong."

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive." -- C.S. Lewis

TODAY'S NUMBER: 8,327 -- feet below sea level at the lowest point in Antarctica's Bentley Subglacial Trench, the world's lowest elevation not covered by ocean.

TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (Nov. 28) and last quarter (Dec. 6).

Today is the 333rd day of 2012 and the 68th day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1905, Arthur Griffith formed the Sinn Fein political party, with the goal of independence for all of Ireland.

In 1925, the Grand Ole Opry debuted as the WSM Barn Dance.

In 1975, East Timor first declared its independence from Portugal.

In 1995, President Bill Clinton signed legislation repealing the federal 55-mph speed limit.

TODAY'S HISTORY: William Blake (1757-1827), poet/artist/philosopher; Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), social philosopher; Claude Levi-Strauss (1908-2009), social anthropologist; Berry Gordy (1929- ), Motown Records founder; Randy Newman (1943- ), composer; Paul Shaffer (1949- ), bandleader; Ed Harris (1950- ), actor; Jon Stewart (1962- ), TV personality.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1979, Billy Smith of the New York Islanders became the first goalie in National Hockey League history to be credited with a goal. After a Colorado Rockies player mistakenly hit the puck into his own team's net, Smith was awarded the goal as the last Islander to touch the puck.

TODAY'S FACT: Randy Newman was nominated for an Academy Award a record 15 times without winning before finally earning an Oscar in 2002 for the original song "If I Didn't Have You" from "Monsters, Inc."

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Language is a form of human reason, which has its internal logic of which man knows nothing." -- Claude Levi-Strauss

TODAY'S NUMBER: 7 -- Enron's rank among the largest U.S. companies before it went bankrupt in December 2001. Enron stock, which had reached a high of $90 per share in August 2000, plunged below $1 on this day in 2001.

TODAY'S MOON: Full moon (Nov. 28).

Today is the 332nd day of 2012 and the 67th day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, establishing the Nobel Prize.

In 1942, the French navy sank its fleet at Toulon to prevent its use by the Nazis.

In 1973, the U.S. Senate approved the nomination of House Minority Leader Gerald Ford, a Michigan Republican, as vice president.

In 2005, French surgeons completed the first known partial face transplant, grafting a new nose, lips and chin.

TODAY'S HISTORY: Anders Celsius (1701-1744), scientist/inventor; Robert Livingston (1746-1813), diplomat; Charles A. Beard (1874-1948), historian; Bruce Lee (1940-1973), actor/martial arts expert; Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970), musician; Bill Nye (1955- ), science educator/TV personality; Caroline Kennedy (1957- ), presidential daughter and writer; Michael Vartan (1968- ), actor.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1985, Vince Coleman became the fourth person ever to be unanimously named National League Rookie of the Year. He had stolen 110 bases for the St. Louis Cardinals.

TODAY'S FACT: Pierre and Marie Curie are the only husband and wife to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics (1903).

TODAY'S QUOTE: "The Nobel is a ticket to one's funeral. No one has ever done anything after he got it." -- T.S. Eliot

TODAY'S NUMBER: 44 -- Nobel Prizes that have been awarded to women since 1901.

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter (Nov. 20) and full moon (Nov. 28).