UNIVERSAL UCLICK ALMANAC

Today is the 348th day of 2013 and the 84th day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1799, George Washington died at Mount Vernon, his home in Virginia.

In 1819, Alabama was admitted as the 22nd U.S. state.

In 1911, explorer Roald Amundsen and his party became the first humans to reach the South Pole.

In 2001, after Hurricane Michelle devastated Cuba, a commercial shipment of food left the United States for the island nation for the first time since 1962.

In 2012, a 20-year-old gunman killed 26 people, including 20 first-graders, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., before taking his own life.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: James Doolittle (1896-1993), military aviator; Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1995), politician; Shirley Jackson (1919-1965), author; Don Hewitt (1922-2009), TV producer; Lee Remick (1935-1991), actress; Patty Duke (1946- ), actress; Bill Buckner (1949- ), baseball player; Michael Moloney (1963- ), interior designer; Vanessa Hudgens (1988- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: Historians have estimated that physicians drained five to seven pints of blood from President George Washington in the day prior to his death, in an attempt to cure him.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1988, after losing the first 17 games of the season, the Miami Heat defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 89-88 for the franchise's first win.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Our freedoms today are not so much in danger because people are consciously trying to take them away from us as they are in danger because we forget to use them." -- Margaret Chase Smith

TODAY'S NUMBER: 3 -- actual poles at the South Pole: the ceremonial pole, the geographical pole and the magnetic pole.

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (Dec. 9) and full moon (Dec. 17).

UNIVERSAL UCLICK ALMANAC

Today is the 347th day of 2013 and the 83rd day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1577, Sir Francis Drake left England on a three-year voyage around the world.

In 1972, American astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt began the third and final lunar excursion of the Apollo 17 mission. They remain the most recent humans to set foot on the moon.

In 2002, Cardinal Bernard Law resigned as archbishop of Boston following sex abuse scandals in the archdiocese.

In 2003, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. military forces in a small underground hideout near Tikrit, Iraq.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), poet; Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882), first lady; Dick Van Dyke (1925- ), actor; Christopher Plummer (1929- ), actor; Ted Nugent (1948- ), singer-songwriter; Steve Buscemi (1957- ), actor; Rex and Rob Ryan (1962- ), football coaches; Mike Tirico (1966- ), sportscaster; Jamie Foxx (1967- ), actor; Sergei Fedorov (1969- ), hockey player; B.J. Penn (1978- ), mixed martial artist; Taylor Swift (1989- ), singer-songwriter.

TODAY'S FACT: Jamie Foxx is one of five performers to have both a Billboard No. 1 single and an Oscar win. The others are Barbara Steisand, Cher, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 2007, the "Mitchell Report" was released, indicating widespread steroid use in professional baseball and naming dozens of players involved.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "There are more fools in the world than there are people." -- Heinrich Heine

TODAY'S NUMBER: 6 -- Mary Todd Lincoln's age when her mother died. Abraham Lincoln's mother died when he was 9.

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (Dec. 9) and full moon (Dec. 17).

UNIVERSAL UCLICK ALMANAC

Today is the 346th day of 2013 and the 82nd day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1901, the first trans-Atlantic radio transmission was received by inventor Guglielmo Marconi in Newfoundland.

In 1963, Kenya gained its independence from Great Britain.

In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of George W. Bush in Bush v. Gore, effectively resolving the 2000 presidential election.

In 2012, North Korea successfully launched its first satellite.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: John Jay (1745-1829), first chief justice of the United States; William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879), journalist/abolitionist; Henry Wells (1805-1878), co-founder of Wells Fargo; Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), novelist; Edvard Munch (1863-1944), artist; Edward G. Robinson (1893-1973), actor; Frank Sinatra (1915-1998), singer; Bob Barker (1923- ), TV personality; Dionne Warwick (1940- ), singer; Bill Nighy (1949- ), actor; Mike Golic (1962- ), football player/radio host; Royce Gracie (1966- ), mixed martial artist; Jennifer Connelly (1970- ), actress; Mayim Bialik (1975- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: Frank Sinatra once wrote that rock 'n' roll music was "the most brutal, ugly, degenerate, vicious form of expression it has been my displeasure to hear."

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1965, rookie running back Gale Sayers of the Chicago Bears scored an NFL record-tying six touchdowns (four rushing, one receiving and one punt return) in a 61-20 win over the visiting San Francisco 49ers.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live." -- Gustave Flaubert

TODAY'S NUMBER: 537 -- popular votes by which George W. Bush officially won the state of Florida's electoral votes in 2000.

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (Dec. 9) and full moon (Dec. 17).