On this day: November 30

Events on November 30

• 1700 Great Northern War: Swedish forces led by King Charles XII defeated the Russian army at the Battle of Narva. Wikipedia
• 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). Wikipedia
• 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). Wikipedia
• 1803 An expedition led by Francisco Javier de Balmis departed A Coruña, Spain, with the aim of vaccinating millions in South America and Asia against smallpox. Wikipedia
• 1853 Russian warships led by Pavel Nakhimov destroyed an Ottoman fleet of frigates at the Battle of Sinop, prompting France and the United Kingdom to enter the Crimean War. Wikipedia
• 1872 The first international football match took place at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow, between Scotland and England. Wikipedia
• 1934 Flying Scotsman became the first steam locomotive officially to exceed 100 miles per hour (161 km/h). Wikipedia
• 1935 A college football game between the SMU Mustangs and the TCU Horned Frogs became the first game in Texas to be broadcast nationally on radio. Wikipedia
• 1936 English mathematician Alan Turing published the first details of the Turing machine, an abstract device that can simulate the logic of any computer algorithm by manipulating symbols. Wikipedia
• 1936 In London, the Crystal Palace is destroyed by fire. Wikipedia
• 1941 The Holocaust: The SS-Einsatzgruppen round up roughly 25,000 Jews from the Riga Ghetto and kill them in the Rumbula massacre. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: Japanese warships defeated the U.S. Navy in a nighttime naval battle off Tassafaronga, Guadalcanal. Wikipedia
• 1947 After the United Nations voted to adopt a partition plan for Palestine, a civil war broke out between the region's Jewish and Arab communities. Wikipedia
• 1953 Mutesa II, Kabaka of Buganda, was temporarily deposed and exiled to London by Andrew Cohen, the British governor of Uganda. Wikipedia
• 1954 A meteorite crashed through a roof in Sylacauga, Alabama, and hit a sleeping woman in the first verified case of a human being injured by an extraterrestrial object. Wikipedia
• 1957 President Sukarno of Indonesia escapes a grenade attack that kills multiple bystanders. Wikipedia
• 1966 Decolonization: Barbados becomes independent from the United Kingdom. Wikipedia
• 1967 The Pakistan Peoples Party is founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who becomes its first chairman. Wikipedia
• 1979 The Wall, a rock opera and concept album by the English band Pink Floyd, was first released. Wikipedia
• 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.) Wikipedia
• 1995 Official end of Operation Desert Storm. Wikipedia
• 1999 A series of protests by anti-globalization activists against the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1999 in Seattle forced the cancellation of the opening ceremonies. Wikipedia
• 2000 NASA launches STS-97, the 101st Space Shuttle mission. Wikipedia
• 2005 John Sentamu was enthroned as Archbishop of York, becoming the first black archbishop in the Church of England. Wikipedia
• 2018 A magnitude-7.1 earthquake hit Anchorage, Alaska, causing 117 injuries. Wikipedia
• 2022 The generative AI chatbot ChatGPT is launched by OpenAI. Wikipedia

Born on November 30

• 1508 Andrea Palladio, Italian architect and theoretician, designed the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore and Teatro Olimpico (died 1580) Wikipedia
• 1554 Philip Sidney, English soldier, courtier, and poet (died 1586) Wikipedia
• 1667 Jonathan Swift, Irish satirist and essayist (died 1745) Wikipedia
• 1817 Theodor Mommsen, German jurist, historian, and scholar, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1903) Wikipedia
• 1825 William-Adolphe Bouguereau, French painter and educator (died 1905) Wikipedia
• 1835 Mark Twain, American novelist, humorist, and critic (died 1910) Wikipedia
• 1858 Jagadish Chandra Bose, Indian physicist, biologist, botanist, and archaeologist (died 1937) Wikipedia
• 1869 Gustaf Dalén, Swedish physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1937) Wikipedia
• 1874 Winston Churchill, English colonel, journalist, and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1965) Wikipedia
• 1874 Lucy Maud Montgomery, English-Canadian author and poet (died 1942) Wikipedia
• 1889 Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian, English physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1977) Wikipedia
• 1924 Shirley Chisholm, American activist, educator and politician (died 2005) Wikipedia
• 1935 Woody Allen, American actor, director, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1937 Ridley Scott, English director, producer, and production designer Wikipedia
• 1943 Terrence Malick, American director, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1952 Mandy Patinkin, American actor and singer Wikipedia
• 1960 Gary Lineker, English footballer and sportscaster Wikipedia
• 1965 Ben Stiller, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1978 Gael García Bernal, Mexican actor and producer Wikipedia
• 1982 Elisha Cuthbert, Canadian actress Wikipedia
• 1985 Kaley Cuoco, American actress Wikipedia
• 1990 Magnus Carlsen, Norwegian chess player Wikipedia

Died on November 30

• 1016 Edmund Ironside, English king (born 993) Wikipedia
• 1603 William Gilbert, English scientist (born 1544) Wikipedia
• 1647 Bonaventura Cavalieri, Italian mathematician and astronomer (born 1598) Wikipedia
• 1694 Marcello Malpighi, Italian physician and biologist (born 1628) Wikipedia
• 1718 Charles XII of Sweden (born 1682) Wikipedia
• 1900 Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright, novelist, and poet (born 1854) Wikipedia
• 1930 Mary Harris Jones, American Labor organizer (born 1837) Wikipedia
• 1935 Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese poet, philosopher, and critic (born 1888) Wikipedia
• 1953 Francis Picabia, French painter and poet (born 1879) Wikipedia
• 1994 Guy Debord, French theorist and author (born 1931) Wikipedia
• 2013 Paul Walker, American actor (born 1973) Wikipedia
• 2015 Fatema Mernissi, Moroccan sociologist and author (born 1940) Wikipedia
• 2018 George H. W. Bush, American politician, 41st President of the United States and 43rd Vice President of the United States (born 1924) Wikipedia
• 2022 Jiang Zemin, Chinese politician, former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (paramount leader) and President of China (born 1926) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Bonifacio Day (Philippines) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Andrew and its related observances. Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Joseph Marchand (one of Vietnamese Martyrs) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Cuthbert Mayne Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Thaddeus Liu Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: November 30 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Commemoration Day (United Arab Emirates) Wikipedia
• Day to Mark the Departure and Expulsion of Jews from the Arab Countries and Iran (Israel) Wikipedia
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Barbados from the United Kingdom in 1966 Wikipedia
• National Day (Benin) Wikipedia
• Regina Mundi Day (South Africa) Wikipedia
• Saint Andrew's Day (Scotland) Wikipedia
• Day of Remembrance for All Victims of Chemical Warfare (United Nations) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “November 30” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/November 30” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “November 30” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for November 30 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.