Today is the 334th day of 2014 and the 70th day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1782, provisional articles of peace were signed in Paris between Britain and the United States, under which Britain recognized U.S. independence.

In 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the Brady Bill, a major gun-control measure.

In 1999, Exxon Corp. and Mobil. Corp. completed their merger, creating the largest publicly held oil company in the world.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), clergyman/satirist; Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910), writer; Winston Churchill (1874-1965), British statesman; Dick Clark (1929-2012), TV personality/producer; Bill Walsh (1931-2007), football coach; Abbie Hoffman (1936-1989), political activist; Ridley Scott (1937- ), filmmaker; Mandy Patinkin (1952- ), singer/actor; Bo Jackson (1962- ), football and baseball player; Ben Stiller (1965- ), actor; Marc Forster (1969- ), filmmaker; Amy Ryan (1969- ), actress; Clay Aiken (1978- ), singer.

TODAY'S FACT: Mark Twain published a number of pieces in newspapers and periodicals under a variety of pen names, including Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass, W. Epaminondas Adrastus Blab and John Snooks.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1991, the U.S. women's soccer team defeated Norway 2-1 to win the first Women's World Cup.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "(The) truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may distort it, but there it is." -- Winston Churchill

TODAY'S NUMBER: $2,520,700 -- total winnings of Ken Jennings during his record-shattering 74-game winning streak on the TV quiz show "Jeopardy!" (not including a $2,000 consolation prize for coming in second in his final game, on this day in 2004).

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (Nov. 29) and full moon (Dec. 6).

Today is the 333rd day of 2014 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; Chuck Mangione (1940- ), musician/composer; Garry Shandling (1949- ), actor/comedian; Joel Coen (1954- ), filmmaker; Howie Mandel (1955- ), actor/TV personality; Don Cheadle (1964- ), actor; Mariano Rivera (1969- ), baseball player; Anna Faris (1976- ), actress.

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 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 QUOTE: "A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you." -- C.S. Lewis, "Mere Christianity"

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: First quarter moon (Nov. 29).

Today is the 332nd day of 2014 and the 68th day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1895, the first automobile race in the United States was held in Chicago.

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 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; Alfonso Cuaron (1961- ), filmmaker; Jon Stewart (1962- ), TV personality.

TODAY'S FACT: Randy Newman was nominated for an Academy Award a record 15 times without winning before finally earning an Oscar in 2001 for the original song "If I Didn't Have You" from "Monsters, Inc."

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1979, Billy Smith of the New York Islanders became the first goalie in NHL 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 QUOTE: "Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained." -- William Blake, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"

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: Between new moon (Nov. 22) and first quarter moon (Nov. 29).