Today in History, November 30th
On November 30, 1782, the US and Britain signed preliminary peace articles recognizing American independence. Plus the Winter War and ChatGPT.
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November 30 is best known for 1782, when American and British negotiators in Paris signed the preliminary articles of peace that recognized American independence. The date also saw the Soviet invasion of Finland in 1939 and the release of ChatGPT in 2022, and it is the birthday of both Mark Twain and Winston Churchill.
The big story: Britain and America sign a preliminary peace (1782)
On November 30, 1782, American negotiators in Paris signed preliminary articles of peace with Great Britain, the first formal step toward ending the Revolutionary War. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and John Jay came away with terms that would have sounded like fantasy a few years earlier. Britain, under a government led by Lord Shelburne, accepted the independence of the United States and recognized its boundaries. The articles also settled disputes over the fishing grounds off Newfoundland, dealt with prewar debts owed to British creditors, addressed property taken from Loyalists, and provided for British troops to leave the thirteen states. There was one string attached. The agreement would take effect only after Britain and France, America’s wartime ally, signed a similar deal of their own. France did so on January 20, 1783, and the final Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783. The fighting had mostly stopped after Yorktown, but this was the moment the paperwork caught up.
More events on November 30
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1609 | Galileo began studying the Moon through his telescope and found its surface rough, with mountains and valleys. |
| 1718 | King Charles XII of Sweden was killed during the siege of the Fredriksten fortress in Norway (Old Style date; December 11 on the modern calendar). |
| 1864 | At the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, Confederate General John Bell Hood’s frontal assault failed, costing him six generals and close to a third of his force. |
| 1936 | Fire nearly destroyed London’s Crystal Palace, the glass hall built to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. |
| 1939 | The Soviet Union invaded Finland, starting the Russo-Finnish War, also called the Winter War. |
| 1954 | A meteorite crashed through a house roof in Sylacauga, Alabama, and injured Elizabeth Hodges, the first modern case of a meteorite striking a person. |
| 1966 | Barbados became fully independent from Britain. |
| 1982 | Michael Jackson released Thriller. |
| 1993 | President Bill Clinton signed the Brady Bill, which set a waiting period and background check for handgun purchases. |
| 1996 | The Stone of Scone went back to Scotland, 700 years after Edward I carried it off to England. |
| 2004 | Ken Jennings’s run on Jeopardy! ended after 74 straight wins. |
| 2022 | OpenAI released ChatGPT, the generative AI chatbot. |
Born on November 30
- 1554: Sir Philip Sidney, English poet, courtier and statesman.
- 1667: Jonathan Swift, Irish satirist and author of Gulliver’s Travels.
- 1835: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), American writer, born in Florida, Missouri.
- 1874: Winston Churchill, British prime minister during World War II, born at Blenheim Palace.
- 1924: Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to the U.S. Congress.
Sources
- On This Day: November 30, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- This Day in History: November 30, History.com
- Treaty of Paris, 1783, Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State
- Jonathan Swift, Encyclopaedia Britannica
