There is a very special 2-year-old in Massachusetts today, although some want to kill it in its cradle.
TODAY IN HISTORY (May 17):
1792 - The New York Stock Exchange was established when a group of 24 brokers and merchants met by a tree on what is now Wall Street and signed the Buttonwood Agreement.
1846 - The saxophone is patented by Adolphe Sax.
1875 - The first Kentucky Derby was held at Churchill Downs, in Louisville, Kentucky.
1954 - The Supreme Court ruled unanimously against segregation in schools in Brown v. Board of Education.
1963 - African American writer James Baldwin was featured on the cover of Time magazine.
1971 - Mayor Lindsay of New York City announced his support for a gay rights bill.
1973 - Televised Watergate hearings opened, headed by North Carolina senator Sam Ervin.
1983 - Reagan administration officials refused to allow congressional investigators access to federal files on AIDS so they could prepare for a hearing on the federal government's response to AIDS.
1987 - AIDS Walk New York drew 12,000 participants and raised $1.6 million for the Gay Men's Health Crisis. Actress Lynn Redgrave and Mayor Ed Koch participated in the opening ceremony.
1987 - Six men, one of the a Philadelphia police officer, severely beat 23-year-old Carl Vetter after shouting anti-gay slurs at him from their car. They were arrested when they tried to get back in the car to flee.
1987 - An Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S.S. Stark in the Persian Gulf, killing 37 American sailors and wounding 62.
1992 - Swiss voters approve a wide-ranging reform of the country's laws, including the deletion of all discriminatory language related to homosexuality, with 73 percent voting in favor.
1995 - After 18 years as the mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac takes office as President of France.
2000 - Say this like Professor Frink: Matthew Glavin, an anti-gay/anti-Clinton right-wing activist, was charged with public indecency for masturbating in a public park and propositioning a male undercover police officer for sex.
1999 - Ehud Barak is elected prime minister of Israel.
2004 - Same-sex marriage becomes legal in Massachusetts. Born on this day:
1749 - Edward Jenner, English medical researcher (d. 1823)
1868 - Horace Elgin Dodge, American automobile manufacturer (d. 1920)
1900 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian Muslim cleric (d. 1989)
1911 - Maureen O'Sullivan, Irish actress (d. 1998)
1936 - Dennis Hopper, American actor and director
1955 - Bill Paxton, American actor
1956 - Sugar Ray Leonard, American boxer
1956 - Bob Saget, American actor
1959 - Jim Nantz, American broadcaster
1961 - Enya, Irish singer and songwriter
1965 - Trent Reznor, American singer and songwriter (Nine Inch Nails)
1969 - Thom Filicia, American TV-personality, "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"
1970 - Jordan Knight, Lead singer of New Kids On The Block
1974 - Andrea Corr, Irish singer (The Corrs)
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