May 17

1527 – Pánfilo de Narváez departs Spain to explore Florida with 600 men on what turns out to be a disastrous voyage of discovery – by 1536 only 4 men, which don’t include Narváez survive to reach Sinaloa, Mexico

1395 –  The warlords of ancient Wallachia defeat invading Turks at Rovine, near the Argeș River in Romania.

1642 – Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve founds the Ville Marie de Montréal, current day Montreal, Quebec.

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

1756 – The Seven Years’ War, more commonly known in the U.S. as the French and Indian War, formally begins when Great Britain declares war on France.

1792 – Under terms of the Buttonwood Agreement of 24 stockbrokers and merchants on Wall Street in New York City, the New York Stock Exchange is formed.

1875 –  Jockey Oliver Lewis riding aboard Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby in 2 minutes, 37.75 seconds.

1900 – The novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, is published in the U.S.

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

1943 – No. 617 Squadron RAF, still in service and currently based at RAF Marham in Norfolk,  bomb the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams in Germany during World War II.

1954 – In the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the Supreme Court hands down a unanimous decision outlawing racial segregation in public schools.

1974 – Police in Los Angeles raid the Symbionese Liberation Army’s headquarters, killing 6 members of the terrorist group.

1977 – Nolan Bushnell opens the first ShowBiz Pizza Place, later renamed Chuck E. Cheese, in San Jose, California.

1983 – In response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Appalachian Observer newspaper, the U.S. Department of Energy declassifies documents confirming 4.2 million pounds of mercury pollution in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

1987 – During the Iran–Iraq War, an Iraqi Dassault Mirage F1 fighter jet fires two missiles into the U.S. Navy warship USS Stark, killing 37 sailors and injuring 21.

1989 – Class 2-89 of Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 10th Infantry Regiment U.S. Army, graduates Basic Combat Training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri

1995 –  Shawn Nelson steals an M60 tank from a National Guard armory in San Diego, California and goes on a rampage, destroying numerous vehicles and other property before being shot by the police who forcibly enter the tank.

2006 – The aircraft carrier CVA-34 USS Oriskany is purposefully sunk in the Gulf of Mexico, off Panama City, Florida to become ‘The Great Carrier Reef’.