ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 283rd day of 2020 and the 18th 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; Sharon Osbourne (1952- ), media personality; Tony Shalhoub (1953- ), actor; Scott Bakula (1954- ), actor; Mike Singletary (1958- ), football player; Guillermo del Toro (1964- ), director; Steve McQueen (1969- ), filmmaker; Annika Sorenstam (1970- ), golfer; Brandon Routh (1979- ), actor; Bella Hadid (1996- ), model.

TODAY'S FACT: Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" is the longest-running show in the history of Broadway, with 13,174 performances as of late September 2019.

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

TODAY'S QUOTE: "The saddest journey in the world is the one that follows a precise itinerary. Then you're not a traveler. You're a tourist." -- Guillermo del Toro

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

TODAY'S MOON: Last quarter moon (Oct. 9).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 282nd day of 2020 and the 17th 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; 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; Darrell Hammond (1955- ), actor/comedian; Matt Damon (1970- ), actor; Nick Cannon (1980- ), actor/TV personality; Bruno Mars (1985- ), singer; Darrell "Bubba" Wallace Jr. (1993- ), race car driver; Bella Thorne (1997- ), actress.

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: "I just write songs that I strongly believe in and that are coming from inside. There's no tricks. It's honesty with big melodies." -- Bruno Mars

TODAY'S NUMBER: $33.2 billion -- estimated cost (in 2020 dollars) of the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bombs, through August 1945.

TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (Oct. 1) and last quarter moon (Oct. 9).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 281st day of 2020 and the 16th day of autumn.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1896, The Wall Street Journal began publishing what is known today as the Dow Jones Industrial Average as a daily feature.

In 1985, the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked in the Mediterranean by Palestinian terrorists.

In 1996, Fox News Channel was launched on cable TV.

In 2001, the United States and Great Britain began air strikes against strategic targets in Afghanistan.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Niels Bohr (1885-1962), physicist; Elijah Muhammad (1897-1975), spiritual/political leader; June Allyson (1917-2006), actress; Al Martino (1927-2009), singer/actor; Desmond Tutu (1931- ), archbishop/Nobel laureate; Thomas Keneally (1935- ), novelist; John Mellencamp (1951- ), singer-songwriter; Vladimir Putin (1952- ), Russian politician; Yo-Yo Ma (1955- ), cellist; Simon Cowell (1959- ), record executive/TV personality; Thom Yorke (1968- ), musician; Charles Woodson (1976- ), football player.

TODAY'S FACT: The first photographs of the far side of the moon were transmitted by the Soviet probe Luna 3 on this day in 1959.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1984, running back Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears broke Jim Brown's career-rushing record of 12,312 yards during a 20-7 victory over the New Orleans Saints.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Language is very powerful. Language does not just describe reality. Language creates the reality it describes." -- Desmond Tutu

TODAY'S NUMBER: 222 -- points scored by the Georgia Tech Engineers in a football game played on this day in 1916. Their opponents, the Cumberland College Bulldogs, were shut out. The final score of 222-0 marked the most lopsided game in college football history.

TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (Oct. 1) and last quarter moon (Oct. 9).