Today is the 349th day of 2016 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 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, before taking his own life.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: James Doolittle (1896-1993), military aviator; Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1995), politician; Shirley Jackson (1916-1965), author; Don Hewitt (1922-2009), TV producer; Lee Remick (1935-1991), actress; Patty Duke (1946-2016), 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: "Our freedoms today are not so much in danger because people are consciously trying to take them away from us as they are in danger because we forget to use them. Freedom unexercised may be freedom forfeited." -- Margaret Chase Smith

TODAY'S NUMBER: 3 -- points known as the South Pole: the ceremonial pole, the geographical pole and the magnetic pole.

TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (Dec. 13) and last quarter moon (Dec. 20).

Today is the 348th day of 2016 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 Barbra Streisand, 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: "Oh what lies there are in kisses! / And their guile so well prepared! / Sweet the snaring is; but this is / Sweeter still, to be ensnared." -- Heinrich Heine, "The Home-coming"

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: Full moon (Dec. 13).

Today is the 347th day of 2016 and the 82nd day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1787, Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

In 1901, the first trans-Atlantic radio transmission was received by inventor Guglielmo Marconi in Newfoundland.

In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of George W. Bush in Bush v. Gore, effectively resolving the 2000 presidential election.

In 2012, North Korea successfully launched Kwangmyongsong-3 Unit 2, its first satellite.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: John Jay (1745-1829), first chief justice of the United States; William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879), journalist/abolitionist; Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), novelist; Edvard Munch (1863-1944), artist; Edward G. Robinson (1893-1973), actor; Frank Sinatra (1915-1998), singer; Bob Barker (1923- ), TV personality; Dionne Warwick (1940- ), singer; Bill Nighy (1949- ), actor; Royce Gracie (1966- ), mixed martial artist; Jennifer Connelly (1970- ), actress; Mayim Bialik (1975- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: Ten nations/organizations are currently capable of putting satellites in orbit using their own launch vehicles: the United States, Japan, China, the intergovernmental European Space Agency, India, Israel, Ukraine, Russia, Iran and North Korea.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1965, rookie running back Gale Sayers of the Chicago Bears scored an NFL record-tying six touchdowns (four rushing, one receiving and one punt return) in a 61-20 win over the visiting San Francisco 49ers.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry." -- Gustave Flaubert

TODAY'S NUMBER: 537 -- popular votes by which George W. Bush officially won the state of Florida's electoral votes in 2000.

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (Dec. 7) and full moon (Dec. 13).