TODAY IN HISTORY
On May 17, 1954, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, holding that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal, and therefore unconstitutional.
Also on this date
In 1940, the Nazis occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War II.
In 1946, President Harry S. Truman seized control of the nation’s railroads, delaying – but not preventing – a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen.
In 1973, a special committee convened by the U.S. Senate began its televised hearings into the Watergate scandal.
In 1980, rioting that claimed 18 lives erupted in Miami’s Liberty City after an all-white jury in Tampa acquitted four former Miami police officers of fatally beating Black insurance executive Arthur McDuffie.
In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed “Megan’s Law,” a measure requiring neighborhood notification when sex offenders move in.
In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to allow same-sex marriages.
In 2017, the Justice Department appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller special counsel to oversee an investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the 2016 Donald Trump campaign.
Ten years ago: Washington’s envoy to Israel, Dan Shapiro, told the Israel Bar Association the U.S. had plans in place to attack Iran if necessary to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.
Five years ago: Pvt. Chelsea Manning, the soldier who was sentenced to 35 years in a military prison for giving classified materials to WikiLeaks, walked free after serving seven years behind bars, her sentence having been commuted by President Barack Obama.
One year ago: The Supreme Court agreed to consider a major rollback of abortion rights by hearing a challenge to a Mississippi abortion law that would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. (A decision is expected next month.)