This Day in History for May 17

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 the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth arrived in Quebec on the first visit to Canada by reigning British sovereigns.

1940 - the Nazis occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War Two.

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

1948 - the Soviet Union recognized the new state of Israel.

1954 - the Supreme Court ruled in its "Brown versus Board of Education of Topeka" decision that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal.

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 US Navy frigate "Stark" in the Persian Gulf. (Iraq and the US called the attack a mistake.)