Today is the 283rd day of 2015 and the 18th day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1845, the U.S. Naval Academy (then known as the U.S. Naval School) opened in Annapolis, Maryland.

In 1957, the core of a nuclear reactor caught fire in Cumbria, England.

In 1973, Spiro Agnew resigned the vice presidency after being charged with tax evasion.

In 2002, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to give President George W. Bush authority to use military force in Iraq.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), composer; Helen Hayes (1900-1993), actress; Thelonious Monk (1917-1982), jazz pianist/composer; Harold Pinter (1930-2008), director/playwright; Ben Vereen (1946- ), actor/singer/dancer; David Lee Roth (1954- ), singer-songwriter; Bradley Whitford (1959- ), actor; Brett Favre (1969- ), football player; Dale Earnhardt Jr. (1974- ), race car driver; Aimee Teegarden (1989- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: The London Bridge that had spanned the River Thames in London since 1831 was disassembled in 1967 and reconstructed in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. It opened there on this day in 1971.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1948, the Green Bay Packers played so badly in a 17-7 loss to the Chicago Cardinals that coach Curly Lambeau legendarily fined his team and released two players as "an apology to the people who paid good money to see it."

TODAY'S QUOTE: "The piano ain't got no wrong notes." -- Thelonious Monk

TODAY'S NUMBER: 360,760 -- shareholders in the Green Bay Packers in 2015. It is the only publicly owned NFL franchise.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Oct. 4) and new moon (Oct. 12).

Today is the 282nd day of 2015 and the 17th 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 11,503 performances as of mid-September 2015.

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

TODAY'S QUOTE: "They say it can't be won, / The way the game is run. / But if you choose to stay / You wind up playin' anyway." -- Jackson Browne, "Boulevard"

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

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Oct. 4) and new moon (Oct. 12).

Today is the 281st day of 2015 and the 16th 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, 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).