Today is the 336th day of 2012 and the 71st day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of a bus in Montgomery, Ala., sparking a new era in the civil rights movement.

In 1969, the United States instituted its first draft lottery since World War II.

In 2008, the National Bureau of Economic Research declared that the United States had been in an official recession since December 2007.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Marie Tussaud (1761-1850), museum founder; Mary Martin (1913-1990), actress; Lou Rawls (1933-2006), singer; Woody Allen (1935- ), filmmaker; Lee Trevino (1939- ), golfer; Richard Pryor (1940-2005), actor/comedian; Bette Midler (1945- ), singer/actress; Sarah Silverman (1970- ), actress/comedian.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1924, Brooklyn pitcher Dazzy Vance (28 wins, 2.16 ERA, 262 strikeouts) won the National League MVP award over Rogers Hornsby, who batted .424 for the season.

TODAY'S FACT: At the time of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, about 70 percent of bus riders in the city were African-American.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Life doesn't imitate art. It imitates bad television." -- Woody Allen

TODAY'S NUMBER: 1.7 million -- men inducted into the U.S. armed forces between 1965 and 1973 through the Selective Service System.

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

Today is the 335th day of 2012 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 2004, Ken Jennings' record 74-game winning streak on the TV quiz show "Jeopardy!" came to an end.

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; Abbie Hoffman (1936-1989), political activist; Ridley Scott (1937- ), director; Mandy Patinkin (1952- ), singer/actor; Ben Stiller (1965- ), actor; Ivan Rodriguez (1971- ), baseball player; Clay Aiken (1978- ), singer.

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 FACT: Mark Twain was not a fan of fellow novelist Jane Austen, at one point writing in a letter, "Every time I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin-bone."

TODAY'S QUOTE: "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." -- Winston Churchill

TODAY'S NUMBER: $2,520,700 -- total winnings of Ken Jennings during his record-shattering "Jeopardy!" run (not including a $2,000 consolation prize for coming in second in his final game).

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

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).