HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY
Today’s highlight:
On 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:
1536: Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declared the marriage of England’s King Henry VIII to Anne
Boleyn invalid after she failed to produce a male heir; Boleyn, already condemned for high treason, was executed two days later.
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.
1875: The first Kentucky Derby was run; the winner was Aristides, ridden by Oliver Lewis.
1938: strengthened Congress U.S. passed Navy. The the radio Second quiz Vinson show Act, “Information, providing for a Please!” made its debut on the NBC Blue Network. 1948: The Soviet Union recognized the new state of Israel. 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. 1973: A special committee convened by the U.S. Senate began its televised hearings into the Watergate scandal. 1978: Women were included in the White House honor guard for the first time as President Jimmy Carter welcomed Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda. 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.
1987: 37 American sailors were killed when an Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S. Navy frigate Stark in the Persian Gulf. Iraq apologized for the attack, calling it a mistake, and paid more than $27 million in compensation. 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-yearold New Jersey girl who was raped and murdered in 1994. 2004: Massachusetts became the first state to allow same-sex marriages. Ten years ago: Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., was flown to a Boston hospital after suffering a seizure at his Cape Cod home (he was later diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor, and died in August 2009).