TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Sunday, May 17, the 137th day of 2015. There are 228 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 17, 1875, the first Kentucky Derby was run; the winner was Aristides, ridden by Oliver Lewis.
On this date:
In 1792, the New York Stock Exchange had its origins as a group of brokers met under a tree on Wall Street.
In 1814, Norway’s constitution was signed, providing for a limited monarchy.
In 1912, the Socialist Party of America nominated Eugene V. Debs for president at its convention in Indianapolis.
In 1939, Britain’s King George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, arrived in Quebec on the first visit to Canada by a reigning British monarch.
In 1940, the Nazis occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War II.
In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, unanimously struck down racially segregated public schools.
In 1961, Cuban leader Fidel Castro offered to release prisoners captured in the Bay of Pigs invasion in exchange for 500 bulldozers. (The prisoners were eventually freed in exchange for medical supplies.)
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 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.)
In 1995, Jacques Chirac (zhahk shih-RAHK’) was sworn in as president of France, ending the 14-year tenure of Socialist Francois Mitterrand (frahnSWAH’ mee-teh-RAHN’).
In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to allow legal same-sex marriages.
Ten years ago: British lawmaker George Galloway denounced U.S. senators in testimony on Capitol Hill, denying accusations that he’d profited from the U.N. oil-for-food program and accusing them of unfairly tarnishing his name. Los Angeles Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa (vee-yah-ryGOH’-sah) unseated Mayor James Hahn to be elected the city’s first Hispanic mayor in more than a century. Impressionist and actor Frank Gorshin died in Burbank, California, at age 72.
Today’s Birthdays: TV personality Kathleen Sullivan is 62. Actor Bill Paxton is 60. Boxing Hall-of-Famer Sugar Ray Leonard is 59. Actor-comedian Bob Saget is 59. Sports announcer Jim Nantz is 56. Singer Enya is 54. Talk show host-actor Craig Ferguson is 53. Singer-musician Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) is 50. Actor Sendhil Ramamurthy (SEN’-dul rah-mah-MURTH’-ee) is 41. Actor Tahj Mowry is 29. Actress Leven Rambin is 25. Actress Samantha Browne-Walters is 24. Actor Justin Martin is 21.
Thought for Today: “Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”—William Faulkner, American author (18971962).