November 30

Historic Events

2022

The generative AI chatbot ChatGPT is launched by OpenAI. ›

2021

Barbados becomes a republic. ›

2021

A 15-year-old gunman murders four students and injures seven people, including a teacher, in a mass shooting at Oxford High School in Oxford Township, Michigan. ›

2018

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake with its epicenter only 24 km from Anchorage, Alaska causes significant property damage but no deaths. ›

2007

Atlasjet Flight 4203 crashes in Keçiborlu while on approach to Isparta Süleyman Demirel Airport, killing 57. ›

2005

John Sentamu becomes the first black archbishop in the Church of England with his enthronement as the 97th Archbishop of York. ›

2004

A McDonnell Douglas MD-82, operating as Lion Air Flight 538, overran the runway at Adisoemarmo Airport and crashed, killing 25 people. ›

2000

NASA launches STS-97, the 101st Space Shuttle mission. ›

1999

Exxon and Mobil sign a US$73.7 billion agreement to merge, thus creating ExxonMobil, the world's largest company. ›

1999

In Seattle, United States, demonstrations against a World Trade Organization 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. ›

1995

Official end of Operation Desert Storm. ›

1995

U.S. President Bill Clinton visits Northern Ireland and speaks in favor of the "Northern Ireland peace process" to a huge rally at Belfast City Hall; he calls IRA fighters "yesterday's men". ›

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 end inconclusively on December 17.) ›

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 because troop levels are now down to 27,000. ›

1971

Iran seizes the Greater and Lesser Tunbs from the Emirates of Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah. ›

1967

The People's Republic of Southern Yemen gains its independence from the United Kingdom ›

1967

The Pakistan Peoples Party is founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who becomes its first chairman. ›

1967

Pro-Soviet communists in the Philippines establish Malayang Pagkakaisa ng Kabataan Pilipino as its new youth wing. ›

1966

Decolonization: Barbados becomes independent from the United Kingdom. ›

1962

Eastern Air Lines Flight 512 crashes at Idlewild Airport, killing 25 people. ›

1954

In Sylacauga, Alabama, United States, the Hodges meteorite crashes through a roof and hits a woman taking an afternoon nap; this is the only documented case in the Western Hemisphere of a human being hit by a rock from space. ›

1953

Edward Mutesa II, the kabaka (king) of Buganda is deposed and exiled to London by Sir Andrew Cohen, Governor of Uganda. ›

1947

Civil War in Mandatory Palestine begins, leading up to the creation of the State of Israel and the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. ›

1942

World War II: Battle of Tassafaronga; A smaller squadron of Imperial Japanese Navy destroyers led by Raizō Tanaka defeats a U.S. Navy cruiser force under Carleton H. Wright. ›

1941

The Holocaust: The SS-Einsatzgruppen round up roughly 25,000 Jews from the Riga Ghetto and kill them in the Rumbula massacre. ›

1940

World War II: Signing of the Sino-Japanese Treaty of 1940 between the Empire of Japan and the newly formed Wang Jingwei-led Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China. This treaty was considered so unfair to China that it was compared to the Twenty-One Demands. ›

1939

World War II: The Soviet Red Army crosses the Finnish border in several places, bombing Helsinki and several other Finnish cities, starting the Winter War. ›

1936

In London, the Crystal Palace is destroyed by fire. ›

1916

Costa Rica signs the Buenos Aires Convention, a copyright treaty. ›

1872

The first-ever international football match takes place at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow, between Scotland and England. ›

1864

American Civil War: The Confederate Army of Tennessee led by General John Bell Hood suffers heavy losses in an attack on the Union Army of the Ohio under General John Schofield in the Battle of Franklin. ›

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. ›

1803

The Balmis Expedition starts in Spain with the aim of vaccinating millions against smallpox in Spanish America and Philippines. ›

1803

In New Orleans, Spanish representatives officially transfer the Louisiana Territory to the French First Republic. ›

1786

The Grand Duchy of Tuscany, under Pietro Leopoldo I, becomes the first modern state to abolish the death penalty (later commemorated as Cities for Life Day). ›

1782

American Revolutionary War: Treaty of Paris: In Paris, representatives from the United States and Great Britain sign preliminary peace articles (later formalized as the 1783 Treaty of Paris). ›

1718

Great Northern War: King Charles XII of Sweden dies during a siege of the fortress of Fredriksten in Norway. ›

1707

Queen Anne's War: The second Siege of Pensacola comes to end with the failure of the British Empire and their Creek allies to capture Pensacola, Spanish Florida. ›

978

Franco-German war of 978–980: Holy Roman Emperor Otto II lifts the siege of Paris and withdraws. ›

883

Abu al Abbas celebrates a victory parade in Bagdhad following the surpression of the Zanj Rebellion, the largest slave revolt in the Arab world. ›