What happened on November 30 ?

1782 - American Revolutionary War: In Paris, representatives from the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain sign preliminary peace articles (later formalized in the 1783 Treaty of Paris).

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. November 30 is therefore commemorated by 300 cities around the world as Cities for Life Day.

1803 - In New Orleans, Spanish representatives officially transfer 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 Jeffersonian Republican-controlled United States Senate begins an impeachment trial against Federalist-partisan Supreme Court of the United States Justice Samuel Chase.

1853 - Crimean War: The Russian navy destroys the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Sinop.

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 around Franklin, Tennessee (Hood lost six generals and almost a third of his troops).

1868 - A statue of King Charles XII of Sweden is inaugurated in the King's garden in Stockholm.

1872 - The first-ever international football match takes place at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow, between Scotland and England.

1874 - Winston Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace (the Duke of Marlborough's official seat).

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.

1916 - Costa Rica becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

1936 - In London, the Crystal Palace is destroyed by fire.

1939 - Winter War: Soviet forces invade Finland and reach the Mannerheim Line, starting the war.

1940 - Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are married in Greenwich, Connecticut.

1943 - World War II: Tehran Conference ? U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Josef Stalin establish an agreement concerning a planned June 1944 invasion of Europe codenamed Operation Overlord.

1954 - In Sylacauga, Alabama, United States, an 8.5 lb (3.4 kg) sulfide meteorite crashes through a roof and hits Mrs. Elizabeth Hodges in her living room after bouncing off her radio, giving her a bad bruise, in the only unequivocally known case of a human being hit by a space rock.

1960 - Production of the DeSoto automobile brand ceases.

1962 - The United Nations General Assembly elects U Thant of Burma as the new UN Secretary-General.

1966 - Barbados becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

1967 - The People's Republic of South Yemen becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

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.

1979 - Pink Floyd release the album The Wall.

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 - British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher receives a parcel bomb at 10 Downing Street.

1988 - Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. buys RJR Nabisco for $25.07 billion.

1989 - Deutsche Bank board member Alfred Herrhausen is killed by a Red Army Faction terrorist bomb.

1989 - Richard Mallory of Palm Harbor, Florida becomes female serial killer Aileen Wuornos's first victim.

1993 - U.S. President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (the Brady Bill) into law.

1994 - Hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur is robbed of $40,000 in jewelry and survives being shot five times in a New York music studio.

1998 - Deutsche Bank announces a $10 billion deal to buy Bankers Trust, thus creating the largest financial institution in the world.

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 defence contractor and the fourth largest aerospace firm in the world.

2000 - The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 comes into force in the UK.

2004 - Longtime Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings finally loses, leaving him with $2,520,700, television's all-time biggest game show haul.

2004 - Lion Air Flight 538 crashlands in Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia, killing 26.

2005 - Rt Rev John Sentamu becomes the first black archbishop in the Church of England as Archbishop of York.