Today in History.....May 17

On this day in …

* 1792, the New York Stock Exchange was founded by brokers meeting under a tree located on what is now Wall Street

* 1875, the first Kentucky Derby was run; the winner was "Aristides"

* 1938, Congress passed the Vinson Naval Act, providing for a two-ocean navy

* 1939, Britain's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrived in Quebec on the first visit to Canada by reigning British sovereigns

* 1940, the Nazis, ym"sh, occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War II

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

* 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its Brown v. Board of Education decision, which found that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal, and therefore unconstitutional

* 1973, the Senate opened its 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

* 1987, 37 American sailors were killed when an Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S. Navy frigate Stark in the Persian Gulf. (Iraq and the U.S. called the attack a mistake.)

* 1996, President Clinton signed a measure requiring neighborhood notification when s ex offenders move in. ("Megan's Law," as it's known, is named for Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old New Jersey girl who was raped and slain in 1994.)

* 2001, President Bush unveiled his energy plan, bracing Americans for a summer of blackouts, layoffs, business closings and skyrocketing fuel costs and warning of "a darker future" without his aggressive plans to drill for more oil and gas and rejuvenate nuclear powe

* 2005, British lawmaker George Galloway denounced U.S. senators in testimony on Capitol Hill, denying accusations that he'd profited from the U.N. oil-for-food program and accusing them of unfairly tarnishing his name