Today is Monday, Nov. 30, the 334th day of 2015. There are 31 days left in the year.

Today is Monday, Nov. 30, the 334th day of 2015. There are 31 days left in the year.

Associated Press

On this date in:

1782: The U.S. and Britain sign preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.

1803: Spain completes the process of ceding Louisiana to France, which had sold it to the U.S.

1835: Samuel Langhorne Clemens – better known as Mark Twain – is born in Florida, Mo.

1874: British statesman Sir Winston Churchill is born at Blenheim Palace.

1900: Irish writer Oscar Wilde dies in Paris at age 46.

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

1939: The Winter War begins as Soviet troops invade Finland. (The conflict ended the following March with a Soviet victory.)

1940: Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are married at the Byram River Beagle Club in Greenwich, Conn. (The marriage ends in divorce in 1960.)

1954: Ann Elizabeth Hodges of Oak Grove, Ala., is slightly injured when an 81/2-pound chunk of meteor crashes through the roof of her house, hits a radio cabinet, then hits her as she naps on a couch.

1965: “Unsafe at Any Speed” by Ralph Nader, a book highly critical of the U.S. auto industry, is first released in hardcover by Grossman Publishers.

1966: The former British colony of Barbados becomes independent.

1982: The Michael Jackson album “Thriller” is released by Epic Records.

2005: President George W. Bush gives an unflinching defense of his Iraq war strategy in a speech at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., refusing to set a timetable for troop withdrawals and asserting that once-shaky Iraqi troops are proving increasingly capable.

2010: Pentagon leaders call for scrapping the 17-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban after releasing a survey about the prospect of openly gay troops.

2014: Pope Francis and the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, issue a joint declaration at the end of Francis’ visit to Turkey demanding an end to violent persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

VINDICATOR FILES

1990: Youngstown’s first quadruplets, Brianne, Brandon, Bradley and Bryan, children of Janet and Keith Ericsson, turn 1 year old.

Appearing in Youngstown for his Capital for a Day program, Gov. Richard Celeste says funding of schools must be a partnership between the state and local communities.

Verson International Group PLC of London agrees to acquire Taylor Winfield Corp. in a deal that will give Taylor’s owners a “sizable stake” in the acquiring company.

Mahoning County’s long-distance telephone service is cut off because it didn’t pay its bill. Auditor George Tablack says it is an example of the failure of commissioners and the purchasing department’s failure to pay bills promptly, which he says he has been complaining about for years.

1975: Figures from the Trumbull County treasurers and auditor’s office compiled by The Vindicator indicate that county residents could pay as much as $3.6 million more in real-estate taxes due to re-evaluation.

Real property-tax exemptions in Mahoning County increased 58 percent over a decade, reaching $102.4 million.

The Ohio attorney general and state Legislature are being asked to investigate the torture of a female patient from Youngstown at a state mental hospital amid reports that a doctor at the hospital faces dismissal.

1965: A two-inch snow and slick roads catch area motorists by surprise, resulting in king-size traffic jams throughout the county, but no accidents with serious injuries.

Construction on the Mahoning-West Federal Expressway is held up indefinitely by lack of a bid on moving 11 Westlake Terrace housing units out of the road’s path.

The FBI reports crime in Youngstown increased by 8 percent in six of seven major categories for the first nine months of the year.

The first of six adults charged with sodomy involving a teenage boy pleads guilty to a reduced charge in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court and is sent to Lima State Hospital for up to 60 days of assessment before sentencing.

1940: James M. Williams, boys’ work secretary of the Youngstown YMCA, resigns to take a similar position with the YMCA in Wichita, Kan.

A five-cent increase in the East Ohio Gas Co.’s service rate boosts the minimum cost of 300 cubic feet of gas from 83 cents to 88 cents.

Richman Brothers sale: an overcoat, suit or tuxedo with vest, just $22.50.