TODAY IN HISTORY

May 17, 1968

Nine men and women, including brothers Daniel and Philip Berrigan, entered the Selective Service office in Catonsville, Maryland, seized several hundred draft files and burned them outside to protest the Vietnam War before being arrested. (The “Catonsville Nine,” as they came to be known, received federal prison sentences ranging from 24 to 42 months.)

ON THIS DATE

1792

The New York Stock Exchange had its beginnings as a group of brokers met under a tree on Wall Street and signed the Buttonwood Agreement.

1954

A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court handed down its Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision which held that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal, and therefore unconstitutional.

1996

President Bill Clinton signed a measure requiring neighborhood notification when sex offenders move in. (”Megan’s Law,” as it’s known, was named for Megan Kanka, a seven-year-old New Jersey girl who was raped and murdered in 1994.)