On May 17, 1792, the New York Stock Exchange was founded by brokers meeting under a tree located on what is now Wall Street.
In 1814 Norway’s constitution was signed, providing for a limited monarchy.
In 1849 a fire in St. Louis destroyed more than 400 buildings and two dozen steamships.
In 1875 the first Kentucky Derby was run; the winner was Aristides.
In 1938 Congress passed the Vinson Naval Act, providing for a two-ocean navy.
In 1939 Britain’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrived in Quebec on the first visit to Canada by reigning British sovereigns.
In 1946 President Harry Truman seized control of the nation’s railroads, delaying a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen.
In 1948 the Soviet Union recognized the new state of Israel.
In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka decision, which found that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal and therefore unconstitutional.
In 1961 Cuban leader Fidel Castro offered to exchange prisoners captured in the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion for American heavy tractors.
In 1973 the Senate opened its 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 an Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S. Navy frigate Stark in the Persian Gulf, killing 37 crew members. (Both countries later would call the attack a mistake.)
In 1989 more than 1 million people swarmed into central Beijing to express support for Chinese students fasting for democracy.
In 1994 the UN Security Council approved a peacekeeping force and a weapons embargo for violence-racked Rwanda.
In 1995 Jacques Chirac was sworn in as president of France, ending the 14-year tenure of Socialist Francois Mitterrand.
In 1996 President Bill Clinton signed a measure, which became better known as Megan’s Law, requiring neighborhood notification when sex offenders move in.
In 1997 Silver Charm won the Preakness, two weeks after winning the Kentucky Derby. (However, he failed to win the Belmont Stakes.)
In 1998 New York Yankees pitcher David Wells became the 13th player in modern major league baseball history to throw a perfect game as he retired all 27 batters he faced in a 4-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins.
In 1999 Makah Indians in Washington state harpooned a gray whale for the first time in 70 years.
In 2004 city clerks across Massachusetts began accepting marriage license applications from same-sex couples.
In 2005 Los Angeles Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa trounced Mayor James Hahn to be elected the city’s first Hispanic mayor in more than a century.
