TODAY IN CRIME: November 30

1487 Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria, decreed the first German Beer Purity Law (Reinheitsgebot), stating beer should be brewed from only three ingredients—water, malt, and hops.

1523 Amsterdam banned assembly of heretics.

1678 In England, the Cavalier Parliament passed an act under King Charles II “for the more effectuall preserving the Kings Person and Government by disableing Papists from sitting in either House of Parlyament.”

1786 Leopold II, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, promulgated a penal reform, making Tuscany the first modern state to abolish the death penalty. November 30 is celebrated today worldwide as Cities for Life Day.

1804 The U. S. Senate began impeachment proceedings against Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase, accusing him of political bias. He was acquitted.

1902 Police in Knoxville, Tennessee, captured Kid Curry Logan, second-in-command of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang, for killing two policemen in a shootout. The lawmen had tried to arrest him for robbery. Logan was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with hard labor.

1953 Governor of Uganda Sir Andrew Cohen deposed Kabaka (king) of Buganda Edward Mutesa II for promoting Buganda's secession from the Uganda Protectorate and exiled him to London. Widespread discontent with this move forced Cohen to reinstate Mutesa in 1955 as a constitutional monarch. All of Uganda gained independence in 1962.

1957 Members of the Islam group Darul Islam under the leadership of mystic Sekarmadji Maridjan Kartosuwirjo initiated a grenade attack upon Indonesian president Sukarno during a visit to a school in Central Jakarta. The leader was slightly harmed; six children were killed and more than 100 wounded.

1971 The government of the Republic of Ireland stated that it would take the allegations of brutality against the security forces in Northern Ireland to the European Court of Human Rights. Ireland claimed that the "five techniques"—prolonged wall-standing, hooding, subjection to noise, deprivation of sleep, and deprivation of food and drink—used against detainees by Northern Ireland and the UK constituted torture.

1972 In Rome, an illegal fireworks factory on the eighth floor of an apartment building exploded, killing 15 and injuring 100.

1983 Police freed kidnap victim Alfred Heineken in Amsterdam. Five kidnappers held the beer magnate and his chauffeur in a Quonset hut near the harbor for 21 days before the Heineken family paid 11 million dollars— the highest amount paid for a kidnap victim at the time—for their release. The abductors were eventually captured and sent to prison.

1987 The Grand Assembly of Afghanistan under Mohammad Najibullah adopted the constitution of the Republic of Afghanistan.

1988 The United Nations General Assembly (151-2) censured the U.S. for denying the visa of Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat. Arafat was scheduled to speak during a scheduled debate on the Palestinian question at the U.N. in New York on December 1, but U.S. Jewish leaders as well as 51 U.S. senators opposed his visit.

1988 A furrier in New York City sued Mike Tyson for $92,000 for non-payment of purchase.

1989 A roadside bomb killed Deutsche Bank chairman Alfred Herrhausen. Ten kilos of explosives and a copper plate pierced the armor-plated limo of the head of Germany's biggest bank and struck him in the legs. He bled to death before assistance could arrive. No one was ever caught or prosecuted for the murder, although the far-left terrorist group Red Army Faction lead the list of suspects.

1993 Authorities in California arrested career criminal Richard Allen Davis on the Coyote Valley Indian reservation for a parole violation. He was quickly identified as the primary suspect in the abduction and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas of Petaluma.

1993 U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. It required a federal background check and five-day waiting period for handgun purchases.

1998 Inga Vainshtein, the former manager of singer-songwriter Jewel, filed a $10 million lawsuit against the star and her mother, Lenedra Caroll, claiming she was fired after Caroll intentionally caused a rift between her and the singer. Vainshtein discovered Jewel in 1993 when she was performing in coffeehouses and living out of her car.

1999 Protests by anti-globalization demonstrators against a World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, Washington, caught police unprepared and forced the cancellation of opening ceremonies. 40,000 protestors attended. Police arrested 157 individuals but released them for lack of probable cause or hard evidence; in 2004 the city paid them $250,000 in compensation.

2001 Police in Washington state arrested Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer. DNA evidence linked semen left in four victims to a saliva swab taken by police 20 years earlier. Ridgway was convicted of 49 murders committed between 1982 and 1998 and received life in prison without parole.

2006 Same-sex marriage in South Africa became legal. With the Civil Union Act of 2006, South Africa became the fifth country in the world and the first in Africa to enact such legislation.

2017 Def Jam founder Russell Simmons stepped down from Def Jam records, his yoga lifestyle brand, CNNMoney, and other media properties after allegations of sexual misconduct. After the NYPD opened an investigation into the claims, the hip hop mogul fled to Indonesia to avoid extradition.

2018 Marriott Hotels revealed a massive data breach. In one of largest-ever company hacks, cyber-criminals accessed information on as many as 500 million guests, including names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, unencrypted passport numbers, credit card information, arrival and departure information, VIP status, and loyalty information for linked companies like airlines. An investigation revealed the attack went undetected for years.

2019 A gun battle between a drug cartel and security forces at the city hall in Villa Unión, Mexico, killed 19 people—four police officers, two civilians, and 14 criminals. Seeking to retake control of the northern state of Coahuila, members of the Cartel del Noreste—made up of former members of the bloody Los Zetas Cartel—sprayed town offices with bullets from heavily armed pickup trucks painted with skulls and fought Mexican police for more than 90 minutes. Police confiscated various long-range guns, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and 25 vehicles, four with high-caliber guns, in the town about 40 miles south of Eagle Pass, Texas.