Today in History May 17

1536 – The annulment of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn’s marriage.

1673 – Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette begin exploring the Mississippi River.

1775 – American Revolutionary War: Continental Congress bans trade with Quebec

1792 – The New York Stock Exchange is formed under the Buttonwood Agreement.

1808 – Napoleon I of France orders the annexation of the Papal States to the French Empire.

1849 – A large fire nearly burns St. Louis, Missouri to the ground.

1939 – The Columbia Lions and the Princeton Tigers play in the United States’ first televised sporting event, a collegiate baseball game in New York City.

1954 – The Supreme Court hands down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.

1970 – Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II to sail the Atlantic Ocean.

1973 – Watergate scandal: Televised hearings begin in the United States Senate.

1983 – The U.S. Department of Energy declassifies documents showing world’s largest mercury pollution event in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (ultimately found to be 4.2 million pounds), in response to the Appalachian Observer’sFreedom of Information Act request.

1990 – The General Assembly of the World Health Organization eliminates homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases.

1995 – Shawn Nelson steals a tank from a military installation and goes on a rampage in San Diego resulting in a 25-minute police chase. Nelson is killed by an officer after the tank got stuck on a concrete barrier and tried to break free.

2004 – The first legal same-sex marriages in the U.S. are performed in the state of Massachusetts.

1732 – Francesco Pasquale Ricci, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1817)

1882 – Karl Burman, Estonian architect and painter (d. 1965)

1912 – Archibald Cox, American lawyer and politician, 31st United States Solicitor General (d. 2004)

1922 – Jean Rédélé, French race car driver, founded Alpine (d. 2007)

	Cass Gilbert

1936 – Dennis Hopper, American actor and director (d. 2010)

1956 – Sugar Ray Leonard, American boxer

290 – Emperor Wu of Jin, Chinese emperor (b. 236)

1510 – Sandro Botticelli, Italian painter (b. 1445)

1886 – John Deere, American blacksmith and businessman, founded the Deere & Company (b. 1804)

1934 – Cass Gilbert, American architect responsible for 90 West Street, the Woolworth Buildings, the Custom House, and other buildings of note in Lower Manhattan (b. 1859)

2004 – Tony Randall, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1920)