Today is the 282nd day of 2014 and the 18th day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1635, Rhode Island founder Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony as a religious dissident.

In 1888, the Washington Monument opened to the general public.

In 1967, guerrilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara was executed for attempting to lead revolutionaries in Bolivia.

In 1986, the musical "The Phantom of the Opera" opened in London's West End.

In 2006, North Korea claimed it had performed its first nuclear test.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Alastair Sim (1900-1976), actor; John Lennon (1940-1980), singer-songwriter; Jackson Browne (1948- ), singer-songwriter; Tony Shalhoub (1953- ), actor; Scott Bakula (1954- ), actor; Mike Singletary (1958- ), football player; Guillermo del Toro (1964- ), director; David Cameron (1966- ), British prime minister; Annika Sorenstam (1970- ), golfer; Brandon Routh (1979- ), actor; Scotty McCreery (1993- ), singer.

TODAY'S FACT: Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" is the longest-running show in the history of Broadway, with 11,087 performances as of mid-September 2014.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1915, Woodrow Wilson became the first sitting president to attend a World Series game.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn't been an Elvis, there wouldn't have been the Beatles." -- John Lennon

TODAY'S NUMBER: 36,491 -- marble bricks used to build the Washington Monument.

TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (Oct. 8) and last quarter moon (Oct. 15).

Today is the 281st day of 2014 and the 17th day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire leveled three square miles, leaving 100,000 homeless and more than 300 dead.

In 1945, President Harry Truman announced that the United States would share its knowledge of the atomic bomb exclusively with Britain and Canada.

In 2005, an earthquake on the border of India and Pakistan killed more than 75,000 people and left 3 million homeless.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Otto Heinrich Warburg (1883-1970), physiologist/physician; Frank Herbert (1920-1986), author; Paul Hogan (1939- ), actor; Harvey Pekar (1939-2010), writer; Jesse Jackson (1941- ), civil rights leader; Chevy Chase (1943- ), comedian/actor; R.L. Stine (1943- ), children's author; Sigourney Weaver (1949- ), actress; Jeremy Davies (1969- ), actor; Matt Damon (1970- ), actor; Nick Cannon (1980- ), actor/TV personality; Bruno Mars (1985- ), singer; Angus T. Jones (1993- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: On the same day as the Great Chicago Fire, a fire in Peshtigo, Wis., (about 250 miles outside of Chicago) destroyed the town and claimed more than 1,200 lives.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1956, New York Yankee Don Larsen pitched the first and only perfect World Series game, against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic." -- Frank Herbert

TODAY'S NUMBER: $26 billion -- estimated cost (in 2014 dollars) of the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bombs, through August 1945.

TODAY'S MOON: Full moon (Oct. 8).

Today is the 280th day of 2014 and the 16th day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1896, The Wall Street Journal began publishing what is known today as the Dow Jones Industrial Average as a daily feature.

In 1985, the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked in the Mediterranean by Palestinian terrorists.

In 1996, Fox News Channel was launched on cable TV.

In 2001, the United States and Great Britain began air strikes against strategic targets in Afghanistan.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Niels Bohr (1885-1962), physicist; Elijah Muhammad (1897-1975), spiritual/political leader; June Allyson (1917-2006), actress; Al Martino (1927-2009), singer/actor; Desmond Tutu (1931- ), archbishop/Nobel laureate; Thomas Keneally (1935- ), novelist; John Mellencamp (1951- ), singer-songwriter; Vladimir Putin (1952- ), Russian politician; Yo-Yo Ma (1955- ), cellist; Simon Cowell (1959- ), record executive/TV personality; Thom Yorke (1968- ), musician; Taylor Hicks (1976- ), singer; Charles Woodson (1976- ), football player.

TODAY'S FACT: In 2003, the sitting governor of California, Gray Davis, was voted out of office during a recall election. Actor and Republican candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected as the state's 38th governor.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1984, running back Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears broke Jim Brown's career-rushing record of 12,312 yards during a 20-7 victory over the New Orleans Saints.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world." -- Desmond Tutu

TODAY'S NUMBER: 222 -- points scored by the Georgia Tech Engineers in a football game played on this day in 1916. Their opponents, the Cumberland College Bulldogs, were shutout. The final score of 222-0 marked the most lopsided game in college football history.

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (Oct. 1) and full moon (Oct. 8).