What happened on May 17 ?

1521 - Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, is executed for treason.

1590 - Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland.

1642 - Paul Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve (1612?1676) founds the Ville Marie de Montréal.

1673 - Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette begin exploring the Mississippi River.

1775 - American Revolutionary War: The Continental Congress bans trade with Canada.

1792 - The New York Stock Exchange is formed.

1809 - Napoleon I of France orders the annexation of the Papal States to the French Empire.

1814 - Occupation of Monaco changes from French to Austrian.

1814 - The Constitution of Norway is signed and the Danish Crown Prince Christian Frederik is elected King of Norway by the Constitutional assembly.

1846 - The saxophone is patented by Adolphe Sax.

1849 - A fire threatens to burn St. Louis, Missouri, to the ground.

1863 - Rosalía de Castro publishes Cantares Gallegos, her first book in the Galician language.

1865 - The International Telegraph Union (the later International Telecommunication Union) is established.

1875 - Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby.

1900 - Second Boer War: British troops relieve Mafeking.

1902 - Archaeologist Spyridon Stais finds the Antikythera mechanism.

1915 - The last British Liberal Party government (Herbert Henry Asquith) falls.

1918 - Almost the entire leadership of Sinn Féin are arrested.

1919 - Committee of One Thousand forms to oppose Winnipeg General Strike.

1933 - Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form Nasjonal Samling ? the national-socialist party of Norway.

1940 - World War II: Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium.

1943 - The United States Army contracts with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop the ENIAC.

1954 - The United States Supreme Court hands down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.

1967 - Six-Day War: President Abdul Nasser of Egypt demands dismantling of the peace-keeping UN Emergency Force in Egypt.

1969 - Venera program: Soviet Venera 6 begins its descent into the atmosphere of Venus, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure.

1970 - Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II to sail the Atlantic Ocean.

1973 - Watergate scandal: Hearings begin in the United States Senate and are televised.

1974 - Police in Los Angeles, California, raid the Symbionese Liberation Army's headquarters, killing six members, including Camilla Hall.

1974 - Thirty-three people are killed by terrorist bombings in Dublin and Monaghan, Ireland.

1980 - General Chun Doo-hwan of South Korea declares martial law in order to suppress student demonstrations.

1983 - Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

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.

1987 - An Iraqi fighter jet fires two missiles into the U.S. warship USS Stark (FFG-31), killing 37 and injuring 21 of her crew.

1992 - In Thailand, the so-called Black May begins. Thai police and protestors start attacking one another. By midnight, the current Thai government declares a state of emergency, and military troops, equipped with M-16 rifles, open fire.

1995 - After 18 years as the mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac takes office as President of France.

1999 - Ehud Barak is elected prime minister of Israel.

2000 - Beverly Hills 90210 airs its last episode.

2004 - For the first time in American history, homosexuals are allowed to marry one another - in the state of Massachusetts

2006 - The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany sunk in the Gulf of Mexico to be an artificial reef

2006 - FC Barcelona defeats Arsenal F.C at the Stade de France and wins the Champions League for the second time since the foundation of the club.