It happened today – this day in history – November 30

1016: Canute, King of Denmark, claims the English throne after the death of Edmund ‘Ironside’.

1523: Amsterdam bans the assembly of heretics.

1648: The Parliamentary army captures Charles I.

1667: Author and satirist Jonathan Swift is born in Dublin.

1678: Roman Catholics are banned from Parliament.

1731: An earthquake kills 100,000 in Beijing.

1776: Captain James Cook begins his third and last trip to the Pacific.

1782: Britain signs an agreement recognising US independence.

1803: Spain cedes claims to Louisiana Territory to France.

1835: Author Mark Twain (Samuel Clemons) is born in Missouri.

1838: Mexico declares war on France.

1872: In the first international soccer game, Scotland draws with England 0-0 in Glasgow.

1874: Winston Churchill is born at Blenheim Palace.

1876: Archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann finds the gold Mask of Agamemnon at Mycenae (modern Greece) “the Mona Lisa of prehistory”.

1886: The Folies Bergère stages its first revue in Paris.

1900: Oscar Wilde dies in Paris aged 46.

1902: Wild west outlaw Kid Curry Logan is sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour.

1909: The House of Lords rejects David Lloyd George’s “People’s Budget”, which tried to shift the tax burden to the wealthy.

1924: The first photo facsimile is transmitted by radio across the Atlantic from London to New York.

1928: Don Bradman makes an inauspicious Test debut for Australia, scoring 18 & 1 vs England in the first Test in Brisbane.

1931: His Master’s Voice and Columbia Records merge into EMI.

1936: Crystal Palace is destroyed by fire.

1939: The USSR invades Finland and bombs Helsinki.

1940: Actress Lucille Ball marries Desi Arnaz in Connecticut.

1944: Launch of Britain’s biggest battleship HMS Vanguard.

1948: The Soviets set up a separate municipal government in East Berlin.

1950: US President Harry Truman threatens China with the atom bomb.

1956: Floyd Patterson becomes the youngest world heavyweight boxing champion and the first Olympic gold medallist to win a professional champ when he defeats Archie Moore in Round 5 in Chicago.

1957: An assassination attempt on Indonesian President Sukarno kills eight.

1961: The USSR vetoes Kuwait’s application for UN membership.

1962: U Thant of Burma becomes Secretary-General of the United Nations.

1966: Barbados gains independence from Britain.

1967: The Pakistan People’s Party is founded by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

1968: The Trade Descriptions Act comes into force which makes it a crime for any trader to knowingly sell an item with a misleading label or description. On the same day, a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march in Armagh is stopped by the Royal Ulster Constabulary because of the presence of a Loyalist counter demonstration led by Ian Paisley and Ronald Bunting.

1972: An Illegal fireworks factory in Rome explodes, killing 15.

1975: Dahomey is renamed the People’s Republic of Benin.

1980: Singles chart:

1. Super Trouper – ABBA
2. The Tide Is High – Blondie
3. Banana Republic – The Boomtown Rats
4. Embarrassment – Madness
5. To Cut A Long Story Short – Spandau Ballet
6. I Could Be So Good For You – Dennis Waterman
7. Never Knew Love Like This Before – Stephanie Mills
8. Celebration – Kool and The Gang
9. Do You Feel My Love – Eddy Grant
10. (Just Like) Starting Over – John Lennon

Album chart:

1. Super Trouper – ABBA
2. Sound Affects – The Jam
3. Guilty – Barbra Streisand
4. Autoamerican – Blondie
5. Dr Hook’s Greatest Hits – Dr Hook
6. Chart Explosion – Various Artists
7. Not The Nine Of Clock News – Show’s Cast
8. Inspirations – Elvis Presley
9. Foolish behaviour – Rod Stewart
10. Zenyatta Mondatta – The Police

1981: In Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union begin to negotiate intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe.

1982: A letter bomb sent by animal activists explodes inside 10 Downing Street, injuring a member of staff.

1990: Film star Burt Lancaster suffers a stroke.

1991: The US beats Norway, 2-1, to win the FIFA Women’s World Cup final in China.

1994: Almost 1,000 passengers and crew are forced to abandon the liner Achille Lauro after it catches fire in the Indian Ocean.

1995: Bill Clinton becomes the first serving US president to visit Northern Ireland, getting a rapturous welcome by both Catholics and Protestants.

1996: Singer and ukulele player Tiny Tim (Herbert Khaury) died from a heart attack on stage while playing his hit Tiptoe Through the Tulips at a club in Minneapolis.

2002: Probate details show George Harrison left his £99m fortune in a trust to his wife Olivia and son Dhani, depriving the taxman, of whom he wrote one of his best known Beatles songs, of £40m.

2005: Actor David Jason marries Gill Hinchcliffe a day before receiving his knighthood from the Queen.

2007: Motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel dies of pulmonary disease aged 69.

2013: Fast and Furious star Paul Walker dies in a car crash aged 40.

2018: Former US President George Bush Sr dies aged 94.

BIRTHDAYS: Sir Ridley Scott, director, 83; Frank Ifield, singer, 83; Terrence Malick, director, 77; Roger Glover, bassist (Deep Purple) 75; David Mamet, playwright, 73; Mandy (Mandel) Patinkin, actor, 68; David Sancious, keyboardist, 67; Andy Gray, football pundit, 65; Billy Idol (William Broad) singer, 65; Richard Barbieri, keyboardist (Japan/Porcupine Tree), 65; Lorraine Kelly, TV presenter, 61; Gary Lineker, footballer/TV presenter, 60; Ben Stiller, actor/director, 55; John Bishop, comedian, 54; Steve Aoki, DJ, 43; Gael García Bernal, actor, 42; Elisha Cuthbert, actress, 38; Tony Bellew, boxer, 38; Nigel de Jong, Dutch footballer, 36; Chrissie Teigen, model, TV personality, 35; Kaley Cuoco, actress, 35; Dougie Poynter, bass/vocals (McFly) 33.