Today's Highlight in History:
On May 17th, 1792, the New York Stock Exchange was founded by brokers¹ meeting under a tree located on what is now Wall Street.
On this date:
In 1875, the first Kentucky Derby was run; the winner was "Aristides."

In 1938, Congress passed the Vinson Naval² Act, providing for a two-ocean navy.

In 1939, Britain's King George the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth arrived in Quebec on the first visit to Canada by reigning³ British sovereigns.

In 1940, the Nazis⁴ occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War Two.

In 1946, President Truman seized control of the nation's railroads, delaying a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen.

In 1948, the Soviet⁵ Union recognized the new state of Israel.

In 1954, the Supreme⁶ Court ruled in its "Brown versus⁷ Board of Education of Topeka" decision that racially segregated⁸ public schools were inherently unequal.

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 acquitted⁹ 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 US Navy frigate¹⁰ "Stark¹¹" in the Persian Gulf¹². (Iraq and the US called the attack a mistake.)

Ten years ago: Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev met in Moscow with Lithuanian Prime Minister Kazimiera Prunskiene, Gorbachev's first face-to-face meeting with a senior official of the defiant¹³ Baltic republics.

Five years ago: The Senate ethics¹⁴ committee concluded that Senator Bob Packwood (Republican, Oregon) had to face a full-scale Senate investigation¹⁵ of charges that included making improper¹⁶ advances toward women. Jacques Chirac was sworn in as president of France, ending the 14-year tenure¹⁷ of Socialist¹⁸ Francois Mitterrand.

One year ago: The Supreme Court banned states from paying lower welfare benefits to newcomers than to longtime residents. Labor¹⁹ Party leader Ehud Barak unseated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israeli elections. Makah Indians in Washington state harpooned²⁰ a gray whale for the first time in 70 years.