
Behind History For November 30 – Today in History
Behind History For November 30
1916 – Costa Rica signs the Buenos Aires Convention, a copyright treaty.
1934 – The LNER Class A3 4472 Flying Scotsman becomes the first steam locomotive to be authenticated as reaching 100 mph.
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.
1942 – World War II: Battle of Tassafaronga; A smaller squadron of Japanese destroyers led by Raizō Tanaka defeats a U.S. cruiser force under Carleton H. Wright.
1947 – Civil War in Mandatory Palestine begins, 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; this is the only documented case in the Western Hemisphere of a human being hit by a rock from space.
1966 – Barbados becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
1967 – South Yemen becomes independent 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.
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 because troop levels are now down to 27,000.
1979 – Pink Floyd’s rock opera, The Wall is released.
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.)
1982 – Michael Jackson’s sixth solo studio album, Thriller, is released worldwide, ultimately to become the best-selling record album in history.
1994 – MS Achille Lauro catches fire off the coast of Somalia.
1995 – Official end of Operation Desert Storm.
1995 – U.S. President Bill Clinton visits Northern Ireland and speaks in favour of the “Northern Ireland peace process” to a huge rally at Belfast City Hall; he calls terrorists “yesterday’s men”.
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.
2000 – NASA launches STS-97, the 101st Space Shuttle mission.
2001 – Gary Ridgway is apprehended and charged with four murders as the Green River Killer.
2005 – John Sentamu becomes the first black archbishop in the Church of England with his enthronement as the 97th Archbishop of York.
2012 – An Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane belonging to Aéro-Service, crashes into houses near Maya-Maya Airport during a thunderstorm, killing at least 32 people.
2016 – UNESCO adds Belgian beer to its Cultural Heritage List
2017 – Def Jam founder Russell Simmons steps down from his companies after allegations of sexual misconduct
2017 – Disney announces it has cast Chinese actress Liu Yifei to play Mulan in up-coming live action film
2017 – World’s longest recorded rainbow – 8 hrs 58 min in Taipei’s Yangmingshan mountain range
2018 – 7.0 magnitude earthquake near Anchorage, Alaska
2018 – Marriot Hotels reveal massive data breach – 500 million guests affected in one of largest-ever company hacks