On this Day ~ May 17th
218
7th 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
1444
Sandro Botticelli Italian painter (Birth of Venus)
1536
Anne Boleyn's 4 "lovers" executed
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, 1st to see 2 belts on Jupiter surface
1672
Frontenac becomes Governor of New France (Canada)
1733
England passes Molasses Act, putting high tariffs on rum & molasses imported to the colonies from a country other than British possessions
1727
Catherine I Empress of Russia, dies
1744
French army takes Austrian Netherlands
1804
Lewis & Clark begin exploration of the Louisiana Purchase
1845
Rubber band patents
1846
Saxophone is patents by Antoine Joseph Sax
1849
Fire destroy Centrum in St Louis MO
1875
1st Kentucky Derby: Oliver Lewis aboard Aristides wins in 2:37.75
1881
Revised version of New Testament
1883
Buffalo Bill Cody's 1st wild west show premieres in Omaha
1884
Alaska becomes a US territory
1899
Victoria & Albert Museum foundation laid England
1910
Canada sets the designs for the 1¢-50¢ coins
1916
British Summer Time (Daylight Savings), 1st introduced
1920
1st flight by Dutch airlines KLM (Koninklijke-Luchtvaart-Maatschappij)
1928
9th modern Olympic games open in Amsterdam
1940
Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium & begins invasion of France
1948
Soviet Union recognized Israel
1961
Castro offers to exchange Bay of Pigs prisoners for 500 bulldozers
1967
Dylan's 1965 UK Tour is released as the film "Don't Look Back"
1968
European Space Research Organization launches 1st satellite
1969
Russian probe Venera 6 landed on Venus
1970
Hank Aaron becomes 9th player to get 3,000 hits
1971
Washington State bans sex discrimination
1973
Stevie Wonder releases "You are the Sunshine of my Life"
1975
Mick Jagger punches a restaurant window, gets 20 stitches
1975
NBC paid $5 million for rights to show "Gone with the Wind" one time
1980
Kumar Anandan sets record of balancing on 1 foot for 33 hours
1983
Israel & Lebanon sign a peace treaty
1987
USS Stark hit by Iraqi missiles, 37 sailors die
1989
Nelson Mandela receives a BA degree from University of South Africa
1990
Cheers' star Kelsey Grammer sentenced to jail for 30 days for DWI
1992
Lawrence Welk Dies
1993
Intel's new Pentium processor is unveiled
1995
After 18 years as the mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac takes office as President of France.
2004
Same-sex marriage becomes legal in Massachusetts.