Andrews McMeel Almanac

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 348th day of 2023 and the 83rd 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 1963.

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

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: James Doolittle (1896-1993), military aviator; Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1995), politician; Shirley Jackson (1916-1965), author; Don Hewitt (1922-2009), TV producer; Lee Remick (1935-1991), actress; Patty Duke (1946-2016), actress; Bill Buckner (1949-2019), baseball player; Michael Moloney (1963- ), interior designer; Vanessa Hudgens (1988- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: Historians have estimated that physicians drained 5 to 7 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. Freedom unexercised may be freedom forfeited." -- Margaret Chase Smith

TODAY'S NUMBER: 3 -- points known as the South Pole: the ceremonial pole, the geographic pole and the magnetic pole.

TODAY'S MOON: Between new moon (Dec. 12) and first quarter moon (Dec. 19).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 347th day of 2023 and the 82nd 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 (1929-2021), actor; Ted Nugent (1948- ), singer-songwriter; Ben Bernanke (1953- ), economist; Steve Buscemi (1957- ), actor; Rex and Rob Ryan (1962- ), football coaches/TV analysts; Mike Tirico (1966- ), sportscaster; Jamie Foxx (1967- ), actor/singer; Sergei Fedorov (1969- ), hockey player; Taylor Swift (1989- ), singer-songwriter.

TODAY'S FACT: Jamie Foxx is one of six performers to have both a Billboard No. 1 single and an Oscar win for acting. The others are Will Smith, Barbra Streisand, 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: "People in those old times had convictions; we moderns only have opinions. And it needs more than a mere opinion to erect a Gothic cathedral." -- Heinrich Heine, "On the French Stage"

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 new moon (Dec. 12) and first quarter moon (Dec. 19).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 346th day of 2023 and the 81st day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1787, Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

In 1901, the first trans-Atlantic radio transmission was received by inventor Guglielmo Marconi in Newfoundland.

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 Kwangmyongsong-3 Unit 2, its first satellite.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: John Jay (1745-1829), first chief justice of the United States; Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), novelist; Edvard Munch (1863-1944), artist; Edward G. Robinson (1893-1973), actor; Frank Sinatra (1915-1998), singer/actor; Bob Barker (1923-2023), TV personality; Dionne Warwick (1940- ), singer; Bill Nighy (1949- ), actor; Royce Gracie (1966- ), mixed martial artist; Jennifer Connelly (1970- ), actress; Mayim Bialik (1975- ), actress; Lucas Hedges (1996- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: More than 11,300 individual satellites are currently in orbit around the Earth.

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: "Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars." -- Gustave Flaubert, "Madame Bovary"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 12,345,678,987,654,321 -- product of multiplying 111,111,111 by 111,111,111.

TODAY'S MOON: New moon (Dec. 12).