May 17
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.
1792 - The New York Stock Exchange was established when a group of 24 brokers and merchants met by a tree on what is now Wall Street and signed the Buttonwood Agreement.
1829 - John Jay, American statesman and the first chief justice of the Supreme Court, died at age 83.
1940 - The Nazis occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War II.
1946 - President Harry S. Truman seized control of the nation's railroads, delaying a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen.
1954 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously against segregation in schools in its Brown v. Board of Education decision.
1973 - Televised Watergate hearings opened, headed by North Carolina Sen. Sam Ervin.
1980 - Rioting that claimed 18 lives erupted in Miami's Liberty City neighborhood after an all-white jury in Tampa acquitted four former Miami police officers of fatally beating a black man.
1987 - An Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S.S. Stark in the Persian Gulf, killing 37 American sailors and wounding 62; both countries called the attack a mistake, and Iraq paid $27 million in compensation.
1992 - Orchestra leader Lawrence Welk died at age 89.
1996 - President Bill Clinton signed "Megan's Law," a measure requiring neighborhood notification when sex offenders move in. (The law was named for Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old New Jersey girl who was raped and murdered in 1994.)
1997 - Laurent Kabila declared himself president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
1999 - Labor Party leader Ehud Barak unseated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israeli elections.
2000 - Two former Ku Klux Klansmen were arrested on murder charges in the 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, Ala., that killed four black girls.
2004 - In Massachusetts, same-sex couples exchanged marriage vows for the first time in the United States.
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.
2011 - Actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a statement confirming a Los Angeles Times report that he had fathered a child with a woman on his household staff more than a decade earlier.
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.
2017 - Pvt. Chelsea Manning, the soldier who was sentenced to 35 years in a military prison for giving classified materials to WikiLeaks, walked free after serving seven years behind bars, her sentence having been commuted by President Barack Obama.
2021 - The Supreme Court agreed to consider a major rollback of abortion rights by hearing a challenge to a Mississippi abortion law that would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
2021 - AT&T announced a deal to combine its massive media operations, including HBO and CNN, with Discovery, the owner of lifestyle networks including the Food Network and HGTV.
Birthdays
28 - Justin Martin (actor)
28 - Elettra Lamborghini (reality star)
31 - Samantha Browne-Walters (actress)
32 - Leven Rambin (actress)
32 - Charlotte Crosby (reality star)
34 - Nikki Reed (actress)
34 - Karrueche Tran (model/actress)
37 - Derek Hough (dancer/TV personality)
37 - Matt Ryan (football player)
40 - Tony Parker (basketball player)
44 - Kat Foster (actress)
46 - Kandi Burruss (singer)
46 - Rochelle Aytes (actress)
48 - Andrea Corr (singer)
49 - Sasha Alexander (actress)
52 - Jordan Knight (singer)
57 - Paige Turco (actress)
58 - David Eigenberg (actor)
60 - Craig Ferguson (actor/comedian)
61 - Enya (singer)
63 - Jim Nantz (sportscaster)
66 - Sugar Ray Leonard (boxer)
69 - Kathleen Sullivan (TV personality)
82 - Peter Gerety (actor)
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Today in Sports History - May 17
1875 - The first Kentucky Derby was held at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.
1925 - Tris Speaker of the Cleveland Indians records his 3,000th career hit.
1927 - The Chicago Cubs beat the Boston Braves, 4-3, in 22 innings.
1953 - The New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians set a record when they used 41 players in a game.
1959 - Sam Snead sets a PGA record for 36 holes with a score of 122.
1969 - The Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers agreed to move from the NFC to the AFC.
1970 - Hank Aaron becomes the ninth player in MLB history to reach 3,000 career hits.
1983 - The New York Islanders sweep the Edmonton Oilers to win their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup.
1987 - Eric "Sleepy" Floyd of the Golden State Warriors set an NBA playoff record with 29 points in a quarter.
1992 - Gary Carter of the Montreal Expos becomes the third player in MLB history to play catcher in 2,000 games.
1998 - New York Yankees pitcher David Wells became the 13th player in modern major league baseball history to throw a perfect game in a 4-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins.
2018 - Michigan State University agrees to pay $500 million in claims to 300 survivors of sexual abuse involving Larry Nassar.
2020 - Michael Jordan's autographed Air Nike 1s trainers from 1985 sell for a record $500,000 in an online auction.
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.
1792 - The New York Stock Exchange was established when a group of 24 brokers and merchants met by a tree on what is now Wall Street and signed the Buttonwood Agreement.
1829 - John Jay, American statesman and the first chief justice of the Supreme Court, died at age 83.
1940 - The Nazis occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War II.
1946 - President Harry S. Truman seized control of the nation's railroads, delaying a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen.
1954 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously against segregation in schools in its Brown v. Board of Education decision.
1973 - Televised Watergate hearings opened, headed by North Carolina Sen. Sam Ervin.
1980 - Rioting that claimed 18 lives erupted in Miami's Liberty City neighborhood after an all-white jury in Tampa acquitted four former Miami police officers of fatally beating a black man.
1987 - An Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S.S. Stark in the Persian Gulf, killing 37 American sailors and wounding 62; both countries called the attack a mistake, and Iraq paid $27 million in compensation.
1992 - Orchestra leader Lawrence Welk died at age 89.
1996 - President Bill Clinton signed "Megan's Law," a measure requiring neighborhood notification when sex offenders move in. (The law was named for Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old New Jersey girl who was raped and murdered in 1994.)
1997 - Laurent Kabila declared himself president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
1999 - Labor Party leader Ehud Barak unseated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israeli elections.
2000 - Two former Ku Klux Klansmen were arrested on murder charges in the 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, Ala., that killed four black girls.
2004 - In Massachusetts, same-sex couples exchanged marriage vows for the first time in the United States.
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.
2011 - Actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a statement confirming a Los Angeles Times report that he had fathered a child with a woman on his household staff more than a decade earlier.
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.
2017 - Pvt. Chelsea Manning, the soldier who was sentenced to 35 years in a military prison for giving classified materials to WikiLeaks, walked free after serving seven years behind bars, her sentence having been commuted by President Barack Obama.
2021 - The Supreme Court agreed to consider a major rollback of abortion rights by hearing a challenge to a Mississippi abortion law that would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
2021 - AT&T announced a deal to combine its massive media operations, including HBO and CNN, with Discovery, the owner of lifestyle networks including the Food Network and HGTV.
Birthdays
28 - Justin Martin (actor)
28 - Elettra Lamborghini (reality star)
31 - Samantha Browne-Walters (actress)
32 - Leven Rambin (actress)
32 - Charlotte Crosby (reality star)
34 - Nikki Reed (actress)
34 - Karrueche Tran (model/actress)
37 - Derek Hough (dancer/TV personality)
37 - Matt Ryan (football player)
40 - Tony Parker (basketball player)
44 - Kat Foster (actress)
46 - Kandi Burruss (singer)
46 - Rochelle Aytes (actress)
48 - Andrea Corr (singer)
49 - Sasha Alexander (actress)
52 - Jordan Knight (singer)
57 - Paige Turco (actress)
58 - David Eigenberg (actor)
60 - Craig Ferguson (actor/comedian)
61 - Enya (singer)
63 - Jim Nantz (sportscaster)
66 - Sugar Ray Leonard (boxer)
69 - Kathleen Sullivan (TV personality)
82 - Peter Gerety (actor)
====================================
Today in Sports History - May 17
1875 - The first Kentucky Derby was held at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.
1925 - Tris Speaker of the Cleveland Indians records his 3,000th career hit.
1927 - The Chicago Cubs beat the Boston Braves, 4-3, in 22 innings.
1953 - The New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians set a record when they used 41 players in a game.
1959 - Sam Snead sets a PGA record for 36 holes with a score of 122.
1969 - The Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers agreed to move from the NFC to the AFC.
1970 - Hank Aaron becomes the ninth player in MLB history to reach 3,000 career hits.
1983 - The New York Islanders sweep the Edmonton Oilers to win their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup.
1987 - Eric "Sleepy" Floyd of the Golden State Warriors set an NBA playoff record with 29 points in a quarter.
1992 - Gary Carter of the Montreal Expos becomes the third player in MLB history to play catcher in 2,000 games.
1998 - New York Yankees pitcher David Wells became the 13th player in modern major league baseball history to throw a perfect game in a 4-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins.
2018 - Michigan State University agrees to pay $500 million in claims to 300 survivors of sexual abuse involving Larry Nassar.
2020 - Michael Jordan's autographed Air Nike 1s trainers from 1985 sell for a record $500,000 in an online auction.