On Nov. 30, 1939, the Russo-Finnish War, also known as the Winter War, began as Soviet troops invaded Finland. (The conflict ended the following March with a Soviet victory.)
On this date:
In 1731, a series of earthquakes struck China. More than 100,000 people died.
In 1782, the United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.
In 1803, Spain completed the process of ceding Louisiana to France, which had sold it to the United States.
In 1804, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase went on trial, accused of political bias. He was acquitted by the Senate.
In 1835, Samuel Langhorne Clemens — better known as Mark Twain — was born in Florida, Mo.
In 1874, British statesman Sir Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace.
In 1936, London's famed Crystal Palace, constructed for the Great Exhibition of 1851, was destroyed in a fire.
Sixty years ago, in 1949, Chinese communist troops captured Chongqing.
In 1962, U Thant of Burma, who had been acting secretary-general of the United Nations following the death of Dag Hammarskjold the year before, was elected to a four-year term.
In 1966, the former British colony of Barbados became independent.
In 1975, Israel pulled its forces out of a 93-mile-long corridor along the Gulf of Suez as part of an interim peace agreement with Egypt.
In 1981, the United States and the Soviet Union opened negotiations in Geneva aimed at reducing nuclear weapons in Europe.
In 1988, the Soviet Union stopped jamming broadcasts of Radio Free Europe for the first time in 30 years.
In 1989, rebels launched a fifth major coup attempt against Philippine President Corazon Aquino. Also in 1989, Czechoslovakia announced an end to travel restrictions and said it planned to dismantle some of the fortifications along the Austrian border.
In 1990, the three Baltic republics -- Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia -- had an historic joint parliamentary session to consider a common course.
In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Brady bill, which requires a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks of prospective buyers.
In 1995, President Bill Clinton became the first U.S. chief executive to visit Northern Ireland.
In 1997, the government of Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic resigned after Klaus's Civic Democratic Party was accused of accepting contributions from foreign sources.
In 1999, the opening of a 135-nation trade gathering in Seattle was disrupted by at least 40,000 demonstrators, some of whom clashed with police.
In 2004, flash floods and landslides killed more than 300 people in the storm-swept Philippines. Also in 2004, the International Committee of the Red Cross charged that the U.S. military intentionally abused prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced his resignation. NAACP President Kweisi Mfume announced he was stepping down after a nearly nine-year tenure. President George W. Bush tried to repair strained U.S.-Canada relations during a visit to Ottawa.
In 2007, an AtlasJet Airlines plane traveling from the Turkish capital of Istanbul, to Isparta, Turkey, crashed near the Isparta airport, killing all 56 people on board. Also in 2007, police arrested a man who claimed to have a bomb and took several people hostage at the presidential campaign office of Hillary Clinton in Rochester, N.H. No one was injured in the almost six-hour ordeal.
In 2008, space shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth after a nearly 16-day mission to repair and upgrade the international space station. The world's most comprehensive legalized heroin program became permanent with overwhelming approval from Swiss voters, who simultaneously rejected the decriminalization of marijuana. The owners of a Ukrainian arms ship hijacked off Somalia more than two months previously agreed to pirates' $20 million ransom demands, an official says. Also in 2008, India's home minister resigned in the wake of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, saying he took "moral responsibility" for the wave of coordinated assaults that killed at least 173 people.
Today's Birthdays: Historian Jacques Barzun is 102. Actor Efrem Zimbalist Jr. is 91. Actor Robert Guillaume is 82. TV personality and producer Dick Clark is 80. Radio talk show host G. Gordon Liddy is 79. Country singer-recording executive Jimmy Bowen is 72. Movie director Ridley Scott is 72. Singer Rob Grill (The Grassroots) is 66. Movie writer-director Terrence Malick is 66. Rock musician Roger Glover (Deep Purple) is 64. Playwright David Mamet is 62. Actress Margaret Whitton is 59. Actor Mandy Patinkin is 57. Musician Shuggie Otis is 56.Country singer Jeannie Kendall is 55. Singer Billy Idol is 54. Historian Michael Beschloss is 54. Rock musician John Ashton (The Psychedelic Furs) is 52. Comedian Colin Mochrie is 52. Former football and baseball player Bo Jackson is 47. Rapper Jalil (Whodini) is 46. Actor-director Ben Stiller is 44. Rock musician Mike Stone is 40. Actress Sandra Oh is 39. Country singer Mindy McCready is 34. Singer Clay Aiken is 31. Actress Elisha Cuthbert is 27. Actress Kaley Cuoco is 24.
Today In Entertainment History November 30
In 1913, Charles Chaplin made his screen debut in Mack Sennett's short film "Making a Living."
In 1965, the state of Colorado declared "Rolling Stones Day," in honor of the Stones concert in Denver.
Forty years ago, in 1969, Simon and Garfunkel's first TV special was broadcast in the US.
In 1976, singers-songwriters Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson got married.
In 1977, David Bowie sang a duet of "Little Drummer Boy" with Bing Crosby on his Christmas special.
In 1979, the album "The Wall" by Pink Floyd was released.
In 1988, LL Cool J performed the first rap concert in Africa, in Cote D'Ivoire.
In 1996, entertainer Tiny Tim died after performing his signature song, "Tiptoe Thru' The Tulips," at a benefit concert in Minneapolis. Reports put his age at either 64 or 66.
In 2000, Loverboy bassist Scott Smith was washed off his boat about four miles off the coast of San Francisco. His body was never found.
In 2004, "Jeopardy!" fans saw Ken Jennings end his 74-game, $2.5 million winning streak as he lost to real estate agent Nancy Zerg.
Thought for Today: "'Plain English' — everybody loves it, demands it — from the other fellow." — Jacques Barzun, French-born American historian, born on this date [102 yrs. ago. Damn. — Ed.] as was Jonathan Swift, who, the UPI claims, wrote: "I never saw, heard, nor read that the clergy were beloved in any nation where Christianity was the religion of the country. Nothing can render them popular but some degree of persecution."
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