Today is the 281st day of 2015 and the 16th day of autumn.
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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, Wisconsin, (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: "Whether a thought is spoken or not it is a real thing and has powers of reality." -- Frank Herbert, "Dune"
TODAY'S NUMBER: $26 billion -- estimated cost (in 2015 dollars) of the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bombs, through August 1945.
TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Oct. 4) and new moon (Oct. 12).