Today’s Almanac

Today is the 276th day of 2017 and the 12th day of autumn.

TODAY’S HISTORY

› In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln designated the last Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving.

› In 1952, the United Kingdom conducted a successful test of an atomic bomb off the coast of Australia, becoming the world’s third nuclear power.

› In 1990, East and West Germany were reunified.

› In 1995, O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.

› In 2008, President George W. Bush signed into law the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, a bailout of the U.S. financial system.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Thomas Wolfe (19001938), author; Harvey Kurtzman (1924-1993), cartoonist; Gore Vidal (1925-2012), author; Chubby Checker (1941- ), singer-songwriter; Al Sharpton (1954- ), minister/activist; Stevie Ray Vaughan (1954-1990), musician; Fred Couples (1959- ), golfer; Clive Owen (1964- ), actor; Gwen Stefani (1969- ), singer-songwriter; Neve Campbell (1973- ), actress; Lena Headey (1973- ), actress; Talib Kweli (1975), rapper; Seann William Scott (1976- ), actor; Alicia Vikander (1988- ), actress.

TODAY’S FACT

In 1789, President George Washington announced that Nov. 26 of that year would be “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer,” the first in U.S. history.

TODAY’S SPORTS

In 1951, New York Giants player Bobby Thomson hit the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World,” a three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to clinch the National League pennant over the Brooklyn Dodgers.

TODAY’S QUOTE

“Men are odd. If they cannot be first, they don’t in the least mind being last.” -- Gore Vidal, “Julian”

TODAY’S NUMBER

$1 trillion -- amount of public and private funds that eastern Germany received from western Germany in the five years following reunification.

TODAY’S MOON

Between first quarter moon (Sept. 27) and full moon (Oct. 5).