12 History Lessons + 7 Births & 7 Deaths for November 30, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1782 – Representatives of the United States and Great Britain sign preliminary peace articles in Paris, laying the groundwork for the Treaty of Paris that ends the American Revolutionary War.
- 1786 – The Grand Duchy of Tuscany under Leopold I becomes the first modern state to abolish the death penalty, a date now commemorated globally as Cities for Life Day.
- 1803 – The Balmis Expedition departs Spain carrying smallpox vaccine to immunize millions across Spanish America and the Philippines, an early example of a large-scale public health campaign.
- 1876 – Yale defeats Princeton 2–0 in Hoboken, New Jersey, in the first Thanksgiving college football game, helping cement the holiday’s link with the sport.
- 1936 – London’s iconic Crystal Palace, a symbol of the Victorian era and the Great Exhibition of 1851, is destroyed by a massive fire.
- 1939 – The Soviet Red Army invades Finland, beginning the Winter War and drawing international condemnation of the USSR.
- 1940 – Japan signs the Sino-Japanese Treaty with the Wang Jingwei collaborationist regime in China, formalizing a deeply unequal relationship that Chinese critics liken to the earlier “Twenty-One Demands.”
- 1941 – In the Rumbula massacre near Riga, roughly 25,000 Jews from the Riga Ghetto are murdered by Nazi Einsatzgruppen and collaborators over two days.
- 1966 – Barbados formally gains independence from the United Kingdom, becoming a sovereign nation within the Commonwealth.
- 1993 – U.S. President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, introducing federal background checks and a waiting period for handgun purchases.
- 1999 – About 40,000 demonstrators clash with police in Seattle during protests against a World Trade Organization meeting, a defining moment for the global anti-globalization movement.
- 2004 – Ken Jennings’ record 74-game winning streak on Jeopardy! ends, after he amasses more than $2.5 million in regular-play winnings.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1937 – Sir Ridley Scott, English film director and producer (Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator) (88).
- 1955 – Billy Idol, British rock singer and punk icon known for hits like “White Wedding” and “Rebel Yell” (70).
- 1965 – Ben Stiller, American actor, writer, and director (Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Severance producer) (60).
- 1982 – Elisha Cuthbert, Canadian actress known for 24, The Girl Next Door, and Happy Endings (43).
- 1985 – Kaley Cuoco, American actress best known for The Big Bang Theory and The Flight Attendant (40).
- 1985 – Chrissy Teigen, American model, cookbook author, and television personality (40).
- 1990 – Magnus Carlsen, Norwegian chess grandmaster and multiple-time World Chess Champion (35).
Today’s Deaths:
- 1900 – Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright and wit, author of The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray (46).
- 1996 – Tiny Tim (Herbert Khaury), American singer and ukulele player famous for “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” (64).
- 2013 – Paul Walker, American actor best known for the Fast & Furious franchise, killed in a car crash in California (40).
- 2018 – George H. W. Bush, 41st president of the United States and former vice president, World War II veteran and diplomat (94).
- 2022 – Christine McVie, British singer-songwriter and keyboardist for Fleetwood Mac (79).
- 2022 – Jiang Zemin, former president of China and Communist Party leader who oversaw the country’s 1990s economic expansion (96).
- 2023 – Shane MacGowan, Irish singer-songwriter and frontman of The Pogues, known for “Fairytale of New York” (65).
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