Today in History November 30

977 – Emperor Otto II lifts the siege at Paris and withdraws. His rearguard is defeated while crossing the Aisne River by Frankish forces under King Lothair III.

1707 – The second Siege of Pensacola comes to end with the failure of the British to capture Pensacola, Florida.
1782 –  In Paris, representatives from the United States and the Great Britain sign preliminary peace articles which are later formalized as the 1783 Treaty of Paris.
1786 – The Grand Duchy of Tuscany, under Pietro Leopoldo I, becomes the first modern state to abolish the death penalty.
1803 – In New Orleans, Spanish representatives officially transfer the Louisiana Territory to a French representative. Just 20 days later, France transfers the same land to the United States as the Louisiana Purchase.
1804 – The Democratic-Republican-controlled United States Senate begins an impeachment trial of Federalist Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase.
1853 – The Imperial Russian Navy under Pavel Nakhimov destroys the Ottoman fleet under Osman Pasha at Sinop, a sea port in northern Turkey.
1939 – Soviet forces cross the Finnish border in several places and bomb Helsinki and several other Finnish cities, starting the Winter War.

Finnish officers inspect Soviet skiing manuals gained as loot from the Battle of Suomussalmi

1954 – In Sylacauga, Alabama, United States, the Hodges meteoritecrashes through a roof and hits a woman taking an afternoon nap; this is the only documented case in the Western Hemisphere of a human being hit by a rock from space.
1998 – Exxon and Mobil sign a US$73.7 billion agreement to merge, thus creating ExxonMobil, the world’s largest company.
1999 – In Seattle, United States, demonstrations against a World Trade Organization meeting by anti-globalization protesters catch police unprepared and force the cancellation of opening ceremonies.

1929 – Joan Ganz Cooney, American screenwriter and producer, co-created Sesame Street

1997 – Kathy Acker, American author, poet, and playwright (b. 1947)