November 30 - Events

Events

• 1700 – Battle of Narva – A Swedish army of 8,500 men under Charles XII defeats a much larger Russian army at Narva.
• 1718 – Swedish king Charles XII dies during a siege of the fortress Fredriksten in Norway.
• 1782 – American Revolutionary War: Treaty of Paris – In Paris, representatives from the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain sign preliminary peace articles (later formalized as the 1783 Treaty of Paris).
• 1783 – A 5.3 magnitude earthquake strikes New Jersey.
• 1786 – Peter Leopold Joseph of Habsburg-Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, promulgates a penal reform making his country the first state to abolish the death penalty. Consequently, November 30 is commemorated by 300 cities around the world as Cities for Life Day.
• 1803 – In New Orleans, Louisiana, Spanish representatives officially transfer the Louisiana Territory to a French representative. Just 20 days later, France transfers the same land to the United States as the Louisiana Purchase.
• 1804 – The Democratic-Republican-controlled United States Senate begins an impeachment trial against Federalist-partisan Supreme Court of the United States Justice Samuel Chase.
• 1824 – First ground is broken at Allenburg for the building of the original Welland Canal.
• 1829 – First Welland Canal opens for a trial run, 5 years to the day from the ground breaking.
• 1853 – Crimean War: Battle of Sinop – The Imperial Russian Navy under Pavel Nakhimov destroys the Ottoman fleet under Osman Pasha at Sinop, a sea port in northern Turkey.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Franklin – The Army of Tennessee led by General John Bell Hood mounts a dramatically unsuccessful frontal assault on Union positions commanded by John McAllister Schofield around Franklin, Tennessee, with Hood losing six generals and almost a third of his troops.
• 1868 – The inauguration of a statue of King Charles XII of Sweden takes place in the King's garden in Stockholm.
• 1872 – The first-ever international football match takes place at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow, between Scotland and England.
• 1886 – The Folies Bergère stages its first revue.
• 1902 – American Old West: Second-in-command of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang, Kid Curry Logan, is sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with hard labor.
• 1908 – A mine explosion in the mining town of Marianna, Pennsylvania kills 154.
• 1916 – Costa Rica becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
• 1934 – The steam locomotive Flying Scotsman becomes the first to officially exceed 100mph.
• 1936 – In London, the Crystal Palace is destroyed by fire.
• 1939 – Winter War: Soviet forces cross the Finnish border in several places and bomb Helsinki and several other Finnish cities, starting the war.
• 1940 – Lucille Ball marries Desi Arnaz in Greenwich, Connecticut.
• 1942 – World War II: Guadalcanal Campaign: Battle of Tassafaronga – A smaller squadron of Japanese destroyers led by Raizō Tanaka defeats a US cruiser force under Carleton H. Wright.
• 1947 – 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine begins on this day, leading up to the creation of the state of Israel.
• 1953 – Edward Mutesa II, the kabaka (king) of Buganda is deposed and exiled to London by Sir Andrew Cohen, Governor of Uganda.
• 1954 – In Sylacauga, Alabama, United States, the Hodges Meteorite crashes through a roof and hits a woman taking an afternoon nap in the only documented case of a human being hit by a rock from space.
• 1966 – Barbados becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
• 1967 – The People's Republic of South Yemen becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
• 1967 – The Pakistan Peoples Party is founded by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who becomes its first Chairman later as the Head of state and Head of government after the 1971 Civil War.
• 1971 – Iran seizes the Greater and Lesser Tunbs from the United Arab Emirates.
• 1972 – Vietnam War: White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler tells the press that there will be no more public announcements concerning American troop withdrawals from Vietnam due to the fact that troop levels are now down to 27,000.
• 1981 – Cold War: In Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union begin to negotiate intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe (the meetings ended inconclusively on December 17).
• 1982 – Michael Jackson's Thriller, the best-selling album of all time, is released.
• 1989 – Deutsche Bank board member Alfred Herrhausen is killed by a Red Army Faction terrorist bomb.
• 1993 – U.S. President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (the Brady Bill) into law.
• 1994 – MS Achille Lauro fire off Somalia coast.
• 1995 – Official end of Operation Desert Storm.
• 1995 – Bill Clinton, then President of the United States, visited Northern Ireland, and spoke in favour of the "Northern Ireland peace process" to a huge rally at Belfast City Hall. He called terrorists "yesterday's men".
• 1998 – Exxon and Mobil sign a $73.7 billion USD agreement to merge, thus creating Exxon-Mobil, the world's largest company.
• 1999 – In Seattle, Washington, United States, protests against the WTO meeting by anti-globalization protesters catch police unprepared and force the cancellation of opening ceremonies.
• 1999 – British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems merge to form BAE Systems, Europe's largest defense contractor and the fourth largest aerospace firm in the world.
• 2001 – In Renton, Washington, United States, Gary Ridgway aka The Green River Killer is arrested.
• 2004 – Longtime Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings of Salt Lake City, Utah finally loses, leaving him with US$2,520,700, television's biggest game show winnings.
• 2004 – Lion Air Flight 538 crash lands in Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia, killing 26.
• 2005 – John Sentamu becomes the first black archbishop in the Church of England with his enthronement as the 97th Archbishop of York.