TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

May 17, 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.

ON THIS DATE

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.

2004

Massachusetts became the first state to allow same-sex marriages.