Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
May 17, 1954: Brown v. Board of Ed is decided
In a major civil rights victory, the U.S. Supreme Court hands down an unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, ruling that racial segregation in public educational facilities is unconstitutional. The historic decision, which brought an end to federal tolerance of racial segregation, specifically dealt with Linda Brown, a young African American girl who had been denied admission to her local elementary school in Topeka, Kansas, because of the color of her skin.
In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that "separate but equal" accommodations in railroad cars conformed to the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection. That ruling was used to justify segregating all public facilities, including elementary schools. However, in the case of Linda Brown, the white school she attempted to attend was far superior to her black alternative and miles closer to her home. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) took up Linda's cause, and in 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka reached the Supreme Court. African American lawyer (and future Supreme Court justice) Thurgood Marshall led Brown's legal team, and on May 17, 1954, the high court handed down its decision.
In an opinion written by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the nation's highest court ruled that not only was the "separate but equal" doctrine unconstitutional in Linda's case, it was unconstitutional in all cases because educational segregation stamped an inherent badge of inferiority on African American students. A year later, after hearing arguments on the implementation of their ruling, the Supreme Court published guidelines requiring public school systems to integrate "with all deliberate speed."
The Brown v. Board of Education decision served to greatly motivate the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and ultimately led to the abolishment of racial segregation in all public facilities and accommodations.
218 - Seventh recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
352 - Liberius begins his reign as Catholic Pope replacing Julius I
884 - St Adrian III begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1521 - Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, is executed for treason.
1525 - Battle at Zabern: duke of Lutherans beats rebels
1527 - Pánfilo de Narváez departs to explore Florida
1536 - Anne Boleyns 4 "lovers" executed
1540 - Afghan chief Sher Khan defeated Mongul Emperor Humayun at Kanauj.
1544 - Scot earl Matthew van Lennox signs secret treaty with Henry VIII
1579 - Artois/Henegouwen/French-Flanders sign Treaty/Peace of Parma recognizing Spanish duke van Parma as land guardian
1590 - Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland.
1620 - 1st merry-go-round seen at a fair (Philippapolis, Turkey)
1630 - Italian Jesuit Niccolo Zucchi became the first to see 2 belts on Jupiter surface
1631 - Earl Johann Tilly attacks Maagdenburg
1648 - Emperor Ferdinand III defeats Maximilian I of Bavaria
1672 - Frontenac becomes governor of New France (Canada)
1673 - Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette begin exploring Mississippi
1678 - King Charles II and Louis XIV sign secret treaty
1681 - Louis XIV sent an expedition to aid James II in Ireland. As a result, England declares war on France.
1712 - Maximilian Emanuel of Bavaria honored as "sovereign of Netherlands"
1733 - England passes Molasses Act, putting high tariffs on rum and molasses imported to the colonies from a country other than British possessions
1742 - Frederick great (Emperor of Prussia) beats Austrians
1744 - French army takes Austrian Netherlands
1750 - -18] Tax revolt in Gorinchem
1756 - Britain declared war on France (7 Years' or the French and Indian War as it is known in the United States)
1775 - American Revolutionary War: the Continental Congress bans trade with Canada.
1787 - English slave ship Sisters, from Africa to Cuba, capsizes
1792 - The New York Stock Exchange was established at 70 Wall Street when a group of 24 brokers and merchants met by a tree on what is now Wall Street and signed the Buttonwood Agreement.
1794 - Hard frost in southern New England
1803 - John Hawkins & Richard French patent the Reaping Machine
1804 - Lewis and Clark begin exploration of Louisiana Purchase
1809 - Papal States annexed by France
1814 - Denmark ceded Norway to Sweden. Norway's constitution, which provided a limited monarchy, was signed. (National Day)
1814 - Norwegian constitution passed by constitutent assembly at Eidsvoll
1814 - Occupation of Monaco changes from French to Austrian.
1837 - Royal Decides installs the Weapon of Belgium firm(ly)
1845 - Rubber band patents
1848 - Premier earl Schimmelpenninck resigns
1849 - Fire destroy Centrum in St Louis Missouri
1853 - Thorbeckes liberals win 2nd-Parliamentary election
1859 - Australian Rules Football first 'laws of the game' published
1860 - German football club TSV 1860 München is founded
1862 - Battle of Princeton WV, ends, about 128 casualities
1863 - Battle of Big Black River Bridge, MS
1863 - Rosalía de Castro publishes Cantares Gallegos, her first book in the Galician language.
1864 - Battle of Adairsville Georgia, Union forces Confederates to retreat
1865 - The International Telegraph Union (later the International Telecommunication Union) is established.
1871 - Indians fighter Gen Sherman escapes in ambulance vs Comanches
1872 - Bohemian Club incorporated
1875 - The first Kentucky Derby was held at Churchill Downs, in Louisville, Kentucky. Oliver Lewis aboard Aristides wins in 2:37.75
1876 - 7th US Cavalry under Custer leaves Ft Lincoln
1877 - The first telephone switchboard burglar alarm was installed by Edwin T. Holmes.
1881 - Frederick Douglass was appointed recorder of deeds for Washington, DC.
1881 - 7th Kentucky Derby: Jim McLaughlin aboard Hindoo wins in 2:40
1881 - Revised version of New Testament
1883 - Buffalo Bill Cody's 1st wild west show premieres in Omaha
1884 - Alaska becomes a US territory
1890 - Clyde Fitch's "Beau Brummel," premieres in NYC
1890 - Comic Cuts, 1st weekly comic paper, published in London
1890 - Pietro Mascagni's opera "Rustic Chivalry" premieres in Rome at the Teatro Costanzi
1894 - 19th Preakness: Fred Taral aboard Assignee wins in 1:49.25
1895 - W G Grace completes his 100th 100 v Somerset at Bristol
1898 - Camp Merritt forms in Presidio [see 0503]
1899 - Victoria and Albert Museum foundation laid, London, England
1900 - British troops relieve Mafeking (Cape Colony)
1902 - Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.
1903 - Cleve Indians beat NY Highlanders 9-2 in Columbus Ohio
1904 - Maurice Ravel's "Shéhérazade," premieres in Paris
1905 - Waseda U of Tokyo defeats LA High School 5-3 in baseball
1906 - Switzerland's Simpion Tunnel open to rail traffic
1909 - White firemen on Georgia RR strike to protest hiring blacks
1910 - Canada sets the designs for the 1-50 cent coins
1911 - 36th Preakness: Eddie Dugan aboard Watervale wins in 1:51
1915 - 40th Preakness: Douglas Hoffman aboard Rhine Maiden wins in 1:58
1915 - Cubs George "Zip" Zabel relieves with 2 outs in 1st & winds up with 4-3 19-inning win over Brooklyn in longest relief job ever
1915 - Last liberal British government of Asquith falls
1915 - National Baptist Convention chartered
1916 - British Summer Time (Daylight Savings), first introduced
1919 - War Department (UK) orders use of National Star Insignia on all airplanes.
1920 - First De Havilland double-decker flight (London) lands in Schiphol
1920 - First flight by Dutch airlines KLM (Koninklijke-Luchtvaart-Maatschappij)
1921 - Belgian-Luxembourg sign customs union
1921 - President Harding opens (via telephone) 1st Valencia Orange Show
1923 - Fire during closing day ceremonies at Grover Cleveland School (SC)
1924 - 50th Kentucky Derby: John Mooney aboard Black Gold wins in 2:05.2
1925 - Cleveland Indian Tris Speaker gets his 3,000th hit
1926 - Chiang Kai-shek is made supreme war lord in Canton
1926 - German government of Marx takes power
1926 - The American. Embassy in Buenos Aires was damaged by bombs that were believed set by sympathizers of Sacco and Vanzetti.
1927 - Chicago Cubs beat Boston Braves, 4-3, in 22 innings
1927 - U.S. Army aviation pioneer, Major Harold Geiger, dies in the crash of his Airco DH.4 de Havilland plane at Olmstead Field, Pennsylvania
1928 - 9th modern Olympic games opens in Amsterdam
1930 - 56th Kentucky Derby: Earl Sande aboard Gallant Fox wins in 2:07.6
1932 - The U.S. Congress changed the name "Porto Rico" to "Puerto Rico."
1933 - Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form Nasjonal Samling — the national-socialist party of Norway.
1937 - Juan Negrin succeeds Largo Caballero as Spain's premier
1938 - Congress approves Vinson Naval Act, which funds a two-ocean navy
1938 - NBC aired the Information Please quiz show on the radio for the first time.
1939 - First sports telecast-Columbia vs Princeton-college baseball
1939 - The first fashion to be shown on television was broadcast in New York from the Ritz-Carleton Hotel.
1940 - Germany occupied Brussels, Belgium and began the invasion of France.
1940 - Nazi's bombs Middelburg/B IJzerdrat begins illegal defiance
1941 - Pennsylvania declares legal holiday to honor A's manager Connie Mack
1942 - Dutch SS vows loyalty to Hitler
1943 - The United States Army contracts with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop the ENIAC.
1943 - World War II: the Dambuster Raids by No. 617 Squadron RAF on German dams.
1944 - -18] Allied air raid on Surabaja, Java
1944 - Chinese/US arm forces take Myitkyina Airport, Burma
1944 - General Eisenhower sets D-Day for June 5th
1944 - Operation Straightline: Allies land in Neth New-Guinea
1945 - 2 US P-47 Thunderbolts bomb Kiushu
1946 - KVP Labor/Communists win first post-WWII Dutch parliamentary elections
1946 - President Truman seized control of the nation's railroads, delaying a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen.
1947 - "Street Scene" closes at Adelphi Theater NYC after 148 performances
1948 - Israel liberated Acre, Nebi Yusha & Telel-Kadi
1948 - Soviet Union officially recognized Israel
1949 - British government recognized Republic of Ireland
1952 - 78th Preakness: Conn McCreary aboard Blue Man wins in 1:57.4
1953 - Yanks and Browns use record 41 players in a game
1954 - The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled for school integration in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. The ruling declared that racially segregated schools were inherently unequal, reversing the Supreme Court's 1896 "separate but equal" Plessy Vs Ferguson decision
1955 - Dutch government of Drees resigns
1956 - The first synthetic mica (synthamica) was offered for sale in Caldwell Township, NJ.
1957 - Prayer Pilgrimage, biggest civil rights demonstration to date (DC)
1957 - School desegregation law, Brown v Board of education
1958 - 84th Preakness: Ismael Valenzuela aboard Tim Tam wins in 1:57.2
1958 - Emergency crisis proclaimed in Algeria
1959 - Sam Snead sets PGA record for 36 holes at 122
1960 - First atomic reactor system patents, J W Flora of Canoga Park CA
1961 - Castro offers to exchange Bay of Pigs prisoners for 500 bulldozers
1962 - Marin County withdraws from BART district
1963 - Bruno Sammartino beats Buddy Rogers in NY, to become WWF champ
1963 - Houston Colt .45's Don Notterbart no-hits Phillies, 4-1
1963 - US performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site
1964 - Phillies triple play Houston Colt .45s
1966 - KFDO (now KVIJ) TV channel 8 in Sayre, OK (ABC) begins broadcasting
1967 - Dylan's 1965 UK Tour is released as film "Don't Look Back"
1968 - European Space Research Org launches 1st satellite
1968 - Frank Howard belts record 8th HR in 5th straight game
1968 - US performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site
1969 - "My Wife, My Dog, My Cat," by Maskman & The Agents hits #92
1969 - 95th Preakness: Bill Hartack aboard Majestic Prince wins in 1:55.6
1969 - The Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns, and the Pittsburgh Steelers agree to go from NFC to AFC in NFL
1969 - Russian probe Venera 6 landed on Venus
1970 - Hank Aaron becomes 9th player to get 3,000 hits
1970 - Thor Heyerdahl crosses Atlantic on reed raft Ra
1971 - Stephen Schwartz' musical "Godspell," premieres off-Broadway
1971 - Washington State bans sex discrimination
1972 - Netherlands and; China PR exchange ambassadors
1972 - Tottenham Hotspur wins 1st UEFA Cup in London
1973 - "Nash at Nine" opens at Helen Hayes Theater NYC for 21 performances
1973 - Joe Ferguson, hits the 6,000th Dodger home run
1973 - Televised Senate Watergate Committee hearings opened, headed by North Carolina senator Sam Ervin.
1973 - Stevie Wonder releases "You are the Sunshine of my Love"
1973 - US performs 3 nuclear tests at Rifle Colorado
1973 - Angels outfielder Bobby Valentine breaks his leg trying to scale wall to prevent a Dick Green home run during a 5-4 loss to the A's
1974 - Bayern Munchen wins 20th Europe Cup 1 at Brussels
1974 - Dmitri Shostakovitch completes his 15th String quartet
1975 - "Funky Gibbon" by The Goodies hits #79
1975 - 101st Preakness: Darrel McHargue aboard Master Derby wins in 1:56.4
1975 - 10cc releases "I'm Not in Love"
1975 - Mick Jagger punches a restaurant window, gets 20 stitches
1975 - NBC TV bought the rights to show "Gone With the Wind." The one time rights cost NBC $5,000,000.
1976 - 28th Emmy Awards: Mary Tyler Moore Show, Jack Albertson & M Learned
1976 - Earthquake in Uzbekistan: 1000's killed
1977 - Menahem Begins Likoed-party wins election in Israel
1978 - Lee Lacy hits record 3rd consecutive pinch-hit home run
1979 - -12°F (-11°C), on top of Mauna Kea, Hawaii (state record)
1979 - Emmy 6th Daytime Award presentation
1979 - Phillies beat Cubs, 23-22, on 50 hits with 11 HRs
1980 - 106th Preakness: Angel Cordero Jr aboard Codex wins in 1:54.2
1980 - Kumar Anandan balanced on one foot for 33 hours
1980 - Major race rioting erupted in Miami's Liberty City neighborhood after an all-white jury in Tampa acquitted four former Miami police officers of fatally beating black insurance executive Arthur McDuffie. Eight people were killed in the rioting, and 300 were injured.
1980 - Paul and Linda McCartney appear on Saturday Night Live
1981 - "Inacent Black" closes at Biltmore Theater NYC after 14 performances
1981 - Islanders score 5 power play goals against Flyers in a playoff game
1981 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Coca-Cola Golf Classic
1983 - Israel and Lebanon sign a peace treaty
1983 - Stanley Cup: NY Islanders sweep Edmonton Oilers in 4 games
1984 - Cincinnati Reds Mario Soto throws 4 strikeouts in one inning
1984 - Prince Charles calls a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend," sparking controversies on the proper role of the Royal Family and the course of modern architecture.
1985 - Les Anderson, catches record 97 lb 4 oz Chinook Salmon, off Alaska
1985 - Bobby Ewing died on the season finale of "Dallas" on CBS-TV. He returned the following season.
1986 - "Chicken Song" by Spitting Image hit #1 on the UK pop chart
1986 - 112th Preakness: Alex Solis aboard Snow Chief wins in 1:54.8
1987 - An Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S.S. Stark in the Persian Gulf, killing 37 American sailors and wounding 62. Both Iraq and the United States called the attack a mistake.
1987 - "Stardust" closes at Biltmore Theater NYC after 102 performances
1987 - Eric ‘Sleepy’ Floyd of the Golden State Warriors set a playoff record for points in a single quarter with 29.
1989 - Longest Cab Ride Ever: 14,000 miles cost $16,000!
1989 - Napoli wins 18th UEFA Cup in Stuttgart
1989 - Nelson Mandela receives a BA from University of South Africa
1989 - Vincent Van Gogh's "Portrait of Dr Gachet" auctioned for $825M
1990 - Cheers' star Kelsey Grammer sentenced to jail for 30 days for DWI
1990 - Dow Jones avg hits a record 2,831.71
1990 - European court rules pension rights for both men and women
1990 - The WHO takes Homosexuality out of its list of mental illnesses.
1992 - Expos Gary Carter is 3rd to catch 2,000 games (joins Boone & Fisk)
1993 - Intel's new Pentium processor is unveiled
1994 - Bakili Muluzi's UDF wins Malawi presidents/parliamentary election
1996 - U.S. President Clinton signed a measure requiring neighborhood notification when sex offenders move in. Megan's Law was named for 7-year-old Megan Kanka, who was raped and killed in 1994.
1996 - Alicia Machado, 18, of Venezuela crowned 45th Miss Universe
1996 - Habib and Whitaker make 320 for 5th Cricket wkt, Leics v Worcs
1997 - 123rd Preakness: Gary Stevens aboard Silver Charm wins in 1:54
1997 - WIBC Bowling Queens won by Sandra Jo Shiery-Odom
1997 - Laurent Kabila declared himself president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), as his troops marched into Kinshasa.
1998 - New York Yankees pitcher David Wells became the 13th player in modern major league baseball history to throw a perfect game.
1999 - Eric Ford, a tabloid photographer, was sentenced to 6 months at a halfway house, 3 years probation and 150 hours of community service. The sentence stemmed from a charge that Ford had eavesdropped on a call between Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman and then sold a recording of the conversation.
1999 - Alex Trebek received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2000 - Thomas E. Blanton Jr. and David Luker surrendered to police in Birmingham, AL. The two former Ku Klux Klan members were arrested on charges from the bombing of a church in 1963 that killed four young black girls.
2000 - Austria, the U.S. and six other countries agreed on the broad outline of a plan that would compensate Nazi-Era forced labor.
2000 - In the Philippines an explosion rocks Glorietta 2 injuring 13 persons, mostly teenagers. According to local authorities, the homemade bomb was placed in front of a toilet beside a video arcade.
2000 - It was announced that Terra Networks SA and Lycos would be merging with the new name to be Terra Lycos. Terra made the deal happen with the purchase of $12.5 billion in stock.
2001 - The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp based on Charles M. Schulz's "Peanuts" comic strip.
2004 - Massachusetts becomes the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage. Same-sex couples exchanged marriage vows for the first time in the United States.
2006 - The U.S. aircraft carrier Oriskany was sunk about 24 miles off Pensacola Beach in the Gulf of Mexico. It was the first vessel sunk under a Navy program to dispose of old warships by turning them into diving attractions. It was the largest man-made reef at the time of the sinking.
2007 - Trains from North and South Korea cross the 38th Parallel in a test-run agreed by both governments. This is the first time that trains have crossed the Demilitarized Zone since 1953.
These are the web pages that I used to complete this blog:
http://www.historyorb.com/events/may/17
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/may17.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory/May-17
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