On This Day — 30 November
2000s
2022
The AI chatbot ChatGPT is launched by OpenAI.
ChatGPT
2021
Barbados becomes a republic.
Barbados
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.
Oxford High School shooting
2018
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake with its epicenter only 24 km from Anchorage, Alaska causes significant property damage but no deaths.
2018 Anchorage earthquake
2007
Atlasjet Flight 4203 crashes in Keçiborlu while on approach to Isparta Süleyman Demirel Airport, killing 57.
Atlasjet Flight 4203
2005
John Sentamu becomes the first black archbishop in the Church of England with his enthronement as the 97th Archbishop of York.
John Sentamu
2004
A McDonnell Douglas MD-82, operating as Lion Air Flight 538, overran the runway at Adisoemarmo Airport and crashed, killing 25 people.
McDonnell Douglas MD-80
2000
NASA launches STS-97, the 101st Space Shuttle mission.
STS-97
1900s
1999
Exxon and Mobil sign a US$73.7 billion agreement to merge, thus creating ExxonMobil, the world's largest company.
ExxonMobil
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.
Seattle
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.
British Aerospace
1995
Official end of Operation Desert Storm.
Gulf War
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".
Bill Clinton
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.)
Cold War
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.
Vietnam War
1971
Iran seizes the Greater and Lesser Tunbs from the Emirates of Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah.
Pahlavi dynasty
1967
The People's Republic of Southern Yemen gains its independence from the United Kingdom
South Yemen
1967
The Pakistan Peoples Party is founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who becomes its first chairman.
Pakistan People's Party
1967
Pro-Soviet communists in the Philippines establish Malayang Pagkakaisa ng Kabataan Pilipino as its new youth wing.
Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas-1930
1966
Decolonization: Barbados becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
Decolonization
1962
Eastern Air Lines Flight 512 crashes at Idlewild Airport, killing 25 people.
Eastern Air Lines Flight 512
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.
Sylacauga, Alabama
1953
Edward Mutesa II, the kabaka (king) of Buganda is deposed and exiled to London by Sir Andrew Cohen, Governor of Uganda.
Mutesa II of Buganda
1947
Civil War in Mandatory Palestine begins, leading up to the creation of the State of Israel and the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine
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.
Battle of Tassafaronga
1941
The Holocaust: The SS-Einsatzgruppen round up roughly 25,000 Jews from the Riga Ghetto and kill them in the Rumbula massacre.
The Holocaust
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.
Empire of Japan
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.
World War II
1936
In London, the Crystal Palace is destroyed by fire.
The Crystal Palace
1916
Costa Rica signs the Buenos Aires Convention, a copyright treaty.
Costa Rica
1800s
1872
The first-ever international football match takes place at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow, between Scotland and England.
1872 Scotland v England football match
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.
American Civil War
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.
Crimean War
1803
The Balmis Expedition starts in Spain with the aim of vaccinating millions against smallpox in Spanish America and Philippines.
Balmis Expedition
1803
In New Orleans, Spanish representatives officially transfer the Louisiana Territory to the French First Republic.
Louisiana Territory
Before 1800
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).
Grand Duchy of Tuscany
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).
American Revolutionary War
1718
Great Northern War: King Charles XII of Sweden dies during a siege of the fortress of Fredriksten in Norway.
Great Northern War
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.
Queen Anne's War
978
Franco-German war of 978–980: Holy Roman Emperor Otto II lifts the siege of Paris and withdraws.
Franco-German war of 978–980
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.
Al-Mu'tadid