November 30
3340 B.C.: The Solar eclipse of 3340 B.C. occurs. Geometric designs on a stone in Ireland may depict the eclipse; if so, the stone is the earliest known record of an eclipse.
1602: Scientist, inventor, and politician Otto von Guericke born. Von Guericke will pioneer the physics of vacuums, and discover an experimental method for demonstrating electrostatic repulsion.
1827: Physicist, musician, and academic Ernst Chladni dies. He has been called both the father of acoustics and the father of meteoritics.
1835: Writer, entrepreneur, publisher and lecturer Mark Twain born.
1888: Electronics researcher Ralph Hartley born. He will invent the Hartley oscillator and the Hartley transform, and contribute to the foundations of information theory.
1937: Film director and producer Ridley Scott born.
1954: In Sylacauga, Alabama, United States, the Hodges meteorite crashes 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.