ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 334th day of 2018 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 politician; 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; Billy Idol (1955- ), singer-songwriter; Bo Jackson (1962- ), football and baseball player; Ben Stiller (1965- ), actor; Amy Ryan (1969- ), actress; Clay Aiken (1978- ), singer; Magnus Carlsen (1990- ), chess grandmaster.

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: "Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't." -- Mark Twain, "Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 66 million -- copies sold of Michael Jackson's "Thriller," making it the best-selling album of all time, according to Guinness World Records. The album was released on this day in 1982.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Nov. 29) and new moon (Dec. 7).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 333rd day of 2018 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 (1949-2016), 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; Lucas Black (1982- ), actor; Russell Wilson (1988- ), football player.

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: "Human minds are more full of mysteries than any written book and more changeable than the cloud shapes in the air." -- Louisa May Alcott, "The Abbot's Ghost: A Christmas Story"

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: Last quarter moon (Nov. 29).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 332nd day of 2018 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 2016, a chartered plane carrying the Chapecoense football team of Brazil crashed in Colombia, killing 71 of its 77 passengers.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: William Blake (1757-1827), poet/artist/philosopher; Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), social philosopher; Claude Levi-Strauss (1908-2009), social anthropologist; Berry Gordy Jr. (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; Karen Gillan (1987- ), actress; Chase Elliott (1995- ), race car driver.

TODAY'S FACT: Berry Gordy Jr. fought 17 times as an amateur and professional boxer, winning 12 bouts, before founding Motown Records (as Tamla Records) in 1959 using an $800 loan from his family.

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: "When I tell any Truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it but for the sake of defending those who do." -- William Blake

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 full moon (Nov. 22) and last quarter moon (Nov. 29).