ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 318th day of 2017 and the 54th day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1851, the first American edition of Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick" was published.

In 1889, New York World reporter Nellie Bly set out to travel around the world in less than 80 days, inspired by Jules Verne. It took her 72 days.

In 1995, the U.S. federal government temporarily closed national parks and museums as a result of a budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

In 2008, the first G-20 economic summit began in Washington, D.C.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Robert Fulton (1765-1815), inventor; Claude Monet (1840-1926), painter; Aaron Copland (1900-1990), composer; Joseph McCarthy (1908-1957), politician; Ed White (1930-1967), astronaut; Wendy Carlos (1939- ), composer; P.J. O'Rourke (1947- ), journalist/author; Prince Charles (1948- ), Prince of Wales; Condoleezza Rice (1954- ), former secretary of state; Yanni (1954- ), musician; Patrick Warburton (1964- ), actor; Curt Schilling (1966- ), baseball player; Josh Duhamel (1972- ), actor; Betsy Brandt (1973- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: In 1910, the first airplane takeoff from the deck of a ship occurred near Hampton Roads, Virginia.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1970, a plane carrying 37 Marshall University football players, as well as the team's coach, doctors, athletic director and 25 team boosters, crashed outside an airport near Huntington, West Virginia, killing all on board.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Keeping house is as unpleasant and filthy as coal mining, and the pay's a lot worse." -- P.J. O'Rourke, "The Bachelor Home Companion"

TODAY'S NUMBER: $87.3 million -- highest amount paid for an original Claude Monet painting. "Le Bassin aux Nympheas" was sold at a Christie's auction in London on June 24, 2008.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Nov. 10) and new moon (Nov. 18).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 317th day of 2017 and the 53rd day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1887, "Bloody Sunday" took place in London, as violent clashes broke out between mostly Irish demonstrators and British police.

In 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation in Alabama was illegal.

In 1970, the Bhola cyclone in Bangladesh killed an estimated 500,000 people.

In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C.

In 2015, a series of coordinated terror attacks in Paris killed 130 people and injured 368 others.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), writer; Louis Brandeis (1856-1941), U.S. Supreme Court justice; Buck O'Neil (1911-2006), baseball player; Jack Elam (1920-2003), actor; Garry Marshall (1934-2016), filmmaker; Joe Mantegna (1947- ), actor; Whoopi Goldberg (1955- ), actress/talk show host; Jimmy Kimmel (1967- ), comedian/TV host; Steve Zahn (1967- ), actor; Gerard Butler (1969- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: The Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba was established in 1903, when a stipulation in the Cuban-American Treaty designated the Guantanamo Bay area to be perpetually leased to the United States.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1985, Lynette Woodard made her debut as the first female member of the Harlem Globetrotters.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "In every part and corner of our life, to lose oneself is to be a gainer; to forget oneself is to be happy." -- Robert Louis Stevenson, "Old Mortality"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 8,310 -- Broadway performances of Disney's "The Lion King" since its debut on this day in 1997, making the musical the third-longest-running show in Broadway history (as of Oct. 29, 2017).

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Nov. 10) and new moon (Nov. 18).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 316th day of 2017 and the 52nd day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1936, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened to traffic.

In 1969, journalist Seymour Hersh broke the story of the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam over The Associated Press wire service.

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter ordered a halt to oil imports from Iran due to an ongoing hostage crisis.

In 1997, Ramzi Yousef was found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

In 2014, the European Space Agency's Philae lander became the first space probe to achieve a soft landing on the surface of a comet.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902), activist; Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), sculptor; Harry A. Blackmun (1908-1999), U.S. Supreme Court justice; Grace Kelly (1929-1982), actress/Princess of Monaco; Booker T. Jones (1944- ), musician; Al Michaels (1944- ), sportscaster; Neil Young (1945- ), singer-songwriter; Megan Mullally (1958- ), actress; Nadia Comaneci (1961- ), gymnast; Sammy Sosa (1968- ), baseball player; Ryan Gosling (1980- ), actor; Anne Hathaway (1982- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: Grace Kelly's movies were banned in Monaco by order of her husband, Prince Rainier.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1993, Royce Gracie, a 178-pound jiujitsu black belt from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, defeated 216-pound kickboxer Gerard Gordeau to win the first Ultimate Fighting Championship.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "When at last I took the time to look into the heart of a flower, it opened up a whole new world; a world where every country walk would be an adventure, where every garden would become an enchanted one." -- Grace Kelly

TODAY'S NUMBER: 20 -- cases of dynamite used by the Oregon Highway Division in an attempt to remove a sperm whale carcass from a beach in Florence, Oregon, on this day in 1970. The explosion sent whale parts flying over 800 feet away.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Nov. 10) and new moon (Nov. 18).