Today is Friday, Nov. 27, the 331st day of 2009. There are 34 days left in the year.

On this date:

In 1701, astronomer Anders Celsius, inventor of the Celsius temperature scale, was born in Uppsala, Sweden.

In 1901, the US Army War College was established in Washington, D.C.

In 1909, author, poet and critic James Agee was born in Knoxville, Tenn.

In 1910, the Pennsylvania Railroad began regularly serving New York's Pennsylvania Station.

In 1939, the play "Key Largo," by Maxwell Anderson, opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York.

In 1942, during World War II, the French navy at Toulon scuttled its ships and submarines to keep them out of the hands of German troops.

In 1953, playwright Eugene O'Neill died in Boston at age 65.

In 1970, Pope Paul VI, visiting the Philippines, was slightly wounded at the Manila airport by a dagger-wielding Bolivian painter disguised as a priest.

In 1978, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay-rights activist, were shot to death inside City Hall by former supervisor Dan White.

In 1983, 181 people were killed when a Colombian Avianca Airlines Boeing 747 crashed near Madrid's Barajas airport.

In 1989, a bomb blamed on drug traffickers destroyed a Colombian Avianca Boeing 727, killing all 107 people on board and three people on the ground.

Thought for Today:

"You must be in tune with the times and prepared to break with tradition." — James Agee (1909-1955).