Today in history

On Nov. 30, 1782 the United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.

In 1803 Spain completed the process of ceding Louisiana to France, which had sold it to the United States.

In 1804 impeached Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Chase, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, went on trial in the Senate, accused of political bias. (He would be acquitted.)

In 1936 flames destroyed London’s Crystal Palace, which was built for the International Exhibition of 1851.

In 1939 the Soviet Union attacked Finland after failing to obtain territorial concessions in the first Russo Finnish War.

In 1949 Chinese communist troops captured the city of Chungking.

In 1954 Elizabeth Hodges, of Sylacauga, Ala., was slightly injured when an 8 1 ⁄ -pound 2 meteorite crashed through the roof of her house.

In 1962 U Thant, of Burma, was elected United Nations secretary general, succeeding the late Dag Hammarskjold.

In 1966 the former British Caribbean colony of Barbados became independent.

In 1981 the United States and the Soviet Union opened negotiations in Geneva aimed at reducing nuclear weapons.

In 1993 President Bill Clinton signed into law the Brady Bill, which requires a 5-day waiting period for gun purchases and background checks.

In 1994 two passengers died and nearly 1,000 others fled the cruise ship Achille Lauro after it caught fire off the coast of Somalia; the ship sank two days later.

In 1995 Bill Clinton became the first U.S. chief executive to visit Northern Ireland.

In 2004 Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced his resignation. Also in 2004, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume announced he was stepping down after a nearly nine-year tenure. In

2005 Shimon Peres quit Israel’s Labor Party, his political home of six decades, to campaign for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s new organization.