November 30 in history — What Happened Today in History

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".

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.)

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.

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

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

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

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

Decolonization: Barbados becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

In London, the Crystal Palace is destroyed by fire.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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).

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).

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

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.

Rebecca Rittenhouse, American actress

Tomi Saarelma, Finnish footballer

Vasilisa Bardina, Russian tennis player

Christel Khalil, American actress

Naomi, American wrestler, model, and dancer

Daniel Noboa, Politician and businessman, President of Ecuador

Dougie Poynter, English singer-songwriter and bass player

Jordan Farmar, American basketball player

Evgenia Linetskaya, Israeli tennis player

Kaley Cuoco, American actress

Hikari Mitsushima, Japanese actress and singer

Chrissy Teigen, American model

Luis Valbuena, Venezuelan baseball player (died 2018)

Minas Hatzisavvas, Greek actor and screenwriter (born 1948)

Marcus Klingberg, Polish-Israeli physician and biologist (born 1918)

Fatema Mernissi, Moroccan sociologist and author (born 1940)

Shigeru Mizuki, Japanese author and illustrator (born 1922)

Eldar Ryazanov, Russian director and screenwriter (born 1927)

Nigel Buxton, British travel writer and wine critic (born 1924)

Qayyum Chowdhury, Bangladeshi painter and academic (born 1932)

Jarbom Gamlin, Indian lawyer and politician, 7th Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh (born 1961)

Martin Litton, American rafter and environmentalist (born 1917)

Anthony Dryden Marshall, American CIA officer and diplomat (born 1924)

Go Seigen, Chinese-Japanese Go player (born 1914)

Kent Haruf, American novelist (born 1943)

Paul Crouch, American broadcaster, co-founded Trinity Broadcasting Network (born 1934)