Today is the 349th day of 2014 and the 85th day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1791, the Bill of Rights took effect after ratification by Virginia.

In 1939, the film "Gone With the Wind" premiered in Atlanta.

In 1961, Adolf Eichmann, considered the architect of the Nazis' "final solution," was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death by an Israeli court.

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter announced his intention to grant diplomatic recognition to Communist China, severing ties with Taiwan, on Jan. 1, 1979.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923), engineer/architect; Maxwell Anderson (1888-1959), playwright; J. Paul Getty (1892-1976), oil tycoon/philanthropist; Betty Smith (1896-1972), author; Tim Conway (1933- ), actor/comedian; Dave Clark (1942- ), musician; Don Johnson (1949- ), actor; Julie Taymor (1952- ), director; Rodney Harrison (1972- ), football player; Adam Brody (1979- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: In 2001, the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy was reopened after being closed for more than a decade for stabilization and reconstruction efforts.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1982, Bill Parcells became the coach of the NFL's New York Giants.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory." -- Betty Smith, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"

TODAY'S NUMBER: $17 million -- ransom demanded of billionaire J. Paul Getty by the kidnappers of his 16-year-old grandson in 1973, which Getty refused to pay. After the kidnappers sent his grandson's severed ear by mail a few weeks later, Getty secured his grandson's release by agreeing to pay no more than $2.2 million (the maximum amount that would be tax deductible).

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Dec. 14) and new moon (Dec. 21).

Today is the 348th day of 2014 and the 84th 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 1962.

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

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: James Doolittle (1896-1993), military aviator; Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1995), politician; Shirley Jackson (1919-1965), author; Don Hewitt (1922-2009), TV producer; Lee Remick (1935-1991), actress; Patty Duke (1946- ), actress; Bill Buckner (1949- ), baseball player; Michael Moloney (1963- ), interior designer; Vanessa Hudgens (1988- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: Historians have estimated that physicians drained five to seven 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: "No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality." -- Shirley Jackson, "The Haunting of Hill House"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 3 -- actual poles at the South Pole: the ceremonial pole, the geographical pole and the magnetic pole.

TODAY'S MOON: Last quarter moon (Dec. 14).

Today is the 347th day of 2014 and the 83rd 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- ), actor; Ted Nugent (1948- ), singer-songwriter; Steve Buscemi (1957- ), actor; Rex and Rob Ryan (1962- ), football coaches; Mike Tirico (1966- ), sportscaster; Jamie Foxx (1967- ), actor; Sergei Fedorov (1969- ), hockey player; B.J. Penn (1978- ), mixed martial artist; Taylor Swift (1989- ), singer-songwriter.

TODAY'S FACT: Jamie Foxx is one of five performers to have both a Billboard No. 1 single and an Oscar win. The others are Barbara Steisand, 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: "I fell asleep reading a dull book, and I dreamed that I was reading on, so I awoke from sheer boredom." -- Heinrich Heine

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 full moon (Dec. 6) and last quarter moon (Dec. 14).