DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Tuesday, May 17, the 137th day of 2022. There are 228 days left in the year. On this date in:
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.
1940: The Nazis occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War II.
1946: President Harry S. Truman seized control of the nation’s railroads, delaying – but not preventing – a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen.
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.
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: Thirty-seven 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 7-year-old New Jersey girl who was raped and murdered in 1994.)
2004: Massachusetts became the first state to allow same-sex marriages.
2010: The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that young people serving life prison terms should have “a meaningful opportunity to obtain release” provided they didn’t kill their victims.
2015: A shootout erupted between bikers and police outside a restaurant in Waco, Texas, leaving nine of the bikers dead and 20 people injured.
2017: The Justice Department appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as a special counsel to oversee a federal investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the 2016 Donald Trump campaign.
2020: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was tested for the coronavirus on live TV as he announced that all people in the state who were experiencing flu-like symptoms were eligible for tests.
Singer Taj Mahal is 80. Drummer Bill Bruford of Yes and King Crimson is 73. Singer-guitarist George Johnson of The Brothers Johnson is 69. TV personality Kathleen Sullivan is 69. Singer Enya is 61. Actor Craig Ferguson
(“The Late Late Show,” “The Drew Carey Show”) is 59. Keyboardist Page Mcconnell of Phish is 59. Actor David Eigenberg
(“Sex and the City”) is 58. Guitarist O’dell of Mint Condition is 57. Musician Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails is 57. Actor Paige Turco (“The 100”) is 57. Actor Hill Harper (“CSI: NY,” “He Got Game”) is 56. TV personality-interior designer Thom Filicia (“Queer Eye For The Straight Guy”) is 53. Singer Jordan Knight of New Kids on the Block is 52. ancer Derek Hough is 37.