Today inhistory

Today is Monday, Nov. 30, the 335th day of 2020. There are 31 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Nov. 30, 2000, Al Gore’s lawyers battled for his political survival in the Florida and U.S. Supreme Courts; meanwhile, GOP lawmakers in Tallahassee moved to award the presidency to George W. Bush in case the courts did not by appointing their own slate of electors.

On this date:

In 1782, the United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris for ending the Revolutionary War; the Treaty of Paris was signed in September 1783.

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

In 1835, Samuel Langhorne Clemens — better known as Mark Twain— was born in Florida, Missouri.

In 1874, British statesman Sir Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace.

In 1900, Irish writer Oscar Wilde died in Paris at age 46.

In 1936, London’s famed Crystal Palace, constructed for the Great Exhibition of 1851, was destroyed in a fire.

In 1940, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were married at the Byram River Beagle Club in Greenwich, Connecticut. ( Themarriage ended in divorce in 1960.)

In 1960, the last DeSoto was built by Chrysler, which had decided to retire the brand after 32 years.

In 1981, the United

States and the Soviet Union opened negotiations in Geneva aimed at reducing nuclear weapons in Europe.

In 1987, American author James Baldwin died in Saint Paul de Vence, France, at age 63.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the Brady Bill, which required a fiveday waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks of prospective buyers.

In 2018, former President George H.W. Bush, a World War II hero who rose through the political ranks to the nation’s highest office, died at his Houston home at the age of 94; his wife of more than 70 years, Barbara Bush, had died in April.