5 Things to Know This Morning

— -- Your look at the five biggest and most buzz-worthy stories of the morning.

1. Spacecraft Begins Descending to Comet 67P's Surface

The European Space Agency's unmanned Rosetta probe successfully released a lander toward the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Wednesday, putting it on its final seven-hour journey to a historic rendezvous with the fast-moving lump of dust and ice.

The audacious landing attempt is the climax of a decade-long mission to study the 2.5-mile wide comet. It is also the end of a 4 billion-mile journey on which Rosetta carried its sidekick lander Philae piggyback.

"It's on its own now," said Stephan Ulamec, Philae Lander Manager at the DLR German Aerospace Center. "We'll need some luck not to land on a boulder or a steep slope."

2. Chinese President Xi Declines To Directly Answer Tough US Questions

It’s what you didn’t hear at President Obama's joint press conference with Chinese President Xi that stands out most.

Xi, who rarely takes questions from the press, refused to directly answer several very tough questions from the New York Times about Obama’s Asia pivot and access for foreign journalists, surprising even the president, who looked at the U.S. press and just shrugged.

While not entirely unexpected, it was quite a sight to see.

3. Tomas Young, Iraq War veteran and Antiwar Activist, Dead at 34

Tomas Young, an Iraq War Army veteran who was paralyzed by a sniper's bullet and became one of the first veterans to oppose the war, has died at age 34.

Young passed away in his sleep early Monday morning at his home in Seattle, just one day before Veterans Day, his wife Claudia Cuellar Young told ABC News.

4. Martin Jacobson Wins the World Series of Poker's Main Event

The poker world has a new champion – Martin Jacobson, 27.

Jacobson won the World Series of Poker’s no-limit Texas Hold 'em main event in Las Vegas Tuesday, winning on a hand of three 10s to opponent Felix Stephensen’s pair of 9s to earn the $10 million prize.

Jacobson, a native of Sweden, has been playing professionally for the past six years, getting his start in online poker – effort that culminated Tuesday in his first World Series of Poker bracelet.

5. Amazing 1970s Video Shows Christoph Waltz Singing and Dancing in a Rainbow Unitard

Christoph Waltz was forced to face his past Tuesday.

The “Horrible Bosses 2” actor, who grew up in Austria, has been acting since his late teens.

“It wasn’t [Quentin Tarantino]-type stuff, it was always heavy,” Waltz said on Tuesday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

Kimmel provided film evidence from Waltz’s past – a 1970s children’s TV program called “Am Dam Des,” showing Waltz singing and dancing, depicting the new year in a form-fitting, rainbow-striped unitard. Waltz lowered his head and covered his eyes as the clip played.