On This Day: 17 May

Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn is annulled; her brother George Boleyn, 2^nd Viscount Rochford, is executed for treason (along with four others) in respect of his alleged incestuous relationship with her		1536
Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland		1590
Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette set out to explore the Mississippi		1673
Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, dies		1727
Frederick the Great of Prussia defeats the Austrians at Czaslau and Chotusitz		1742
The Buttonwood Agreement: 24 merchants meet under a buttonwood tree in Wall Street, New York, and agree to found the New York Stock Exchange		1792
Muhammad Ali becomes Wāli of Egypt		1805
Napoleon orders the annexation of the Papal States to the French Empire		1809
The Constitution of Norway is signed, and Crown Prince Christian Frederick of Denmark is elected as King		1814
Members of the Melbourne Football Club codify the first rules of Australian rules football		1859
Thomas Cook's first package holiday leaves London for Paris		1861
The first colour photographs are displayed at the Royal Institution		1861
The International Telegraph Union (later the International Telecommunication Union) is established in Paris		1865
Aristidies wins the first Kentucky Derby, at Louisville		1875
Revised English Bible (New Testament) published		1881
Comic Cuts – the first weekly comic – published by Alfred Harmsworth		1890
Queen Victoria lays the foundation stone of London's Victoria & Albert Museum		1899
Baden Powell's British garrison at Mafeking is relieved by Colonel Plumer, after a 217–day siege by the Boers		1900
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, is first published in the United States; the first copy is given to the author's sister		1900
Norway claims its independence from Sweden		1905
Britain's last Liberal Party government, led by H. H. Asquith, falls		1915
Parliament passes the Daylight Saving Act		1916
KLM's first flight		1920
Chiang Kai–Shek made supreme war lord in Canton		1926
Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form Nasjonal Samling – the national–socialist party of Norway		1933
The Marquess of Bute sells half of the city of Cardiff for £20 million		1938
Columbia Lions and Princeton Tigers play in the United States' first televised sporting event – a collegiate baseball game in New York		1939
German forces invade France and occupy Brussels		1940
The 'Dam Busters' raid: 617 squadron bursts the Mohne and Eder dams		1943
German forces begin a major offensive against Tito's partisans in Yugoslavia		1943
England's game against Argentina in Buenos Aires is abandoned after 21 (or 36) mins due to heavy rain		1953
US Supreme Court rules segregation in public schools unconstitutional		1954
Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden hosts a ground–breaking half–hour television election programme for the Conservative Party – echoing the first televised press conference, staged earlier in the same year by US president Dwight D. Eisenhower		1955
The much–heralded 'Big Four' summit in Paris (between the USA, USSR, UK and France) fails after U2 spy plane recriminations		1960
Hong Kong erects a wall to keep out Chinese immigrants		1962
Bob Dylan plays the Royal Albert Hall – his first major London appearance		1964
President Gamal Abdel Nasser demands dismantling of the peace–keeping UN Emergency Force in Egypt		1967
The Soviet spacecraft Venera 5 begins its descent into the atmosphere of Venus – sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure		1969
Dubliner Tom McLean becomes the first person to row across the Atlantic		1969
Televised Watergate hearings begin in the US Senate		1973
33 civilians are killed and 300 injured when the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) detonates four car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan		1974
The Symbionese Liberation Army's headquarters in Los Angeles are raided by police; six members, including Camilla Hall, are killed		1974
Charlie Chaplin's body is found, in its coffin, ten miles from where it was stolen on 2 March		1978
On the eve of presidential elections, Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path attacks a polling location in Chuschi (a town in Ayacucho), starting the Internal conflict in Peru		1980
37 crew members are killed and 21 injured, when the USS Stark is hit by two missiles fired from an Iraqi Dassault Mirage F1 fighter jet		1987
The General Assembly of the WHO eliminates homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases		1990
Three days of anti–government protests begin in Bangkok, leading to a military crackdown that results in 52 officially confirmed deaths, hundreds of injuries, many disappearances, and more than 3,500 arrests		1992
Malawi holds its first multi–party elections		1994
US Army veteran Shawn Nelson is shot and killed by police after going on a rampage in an M60 tank that he stole from the California Army National Guard Armory in San Diego		1995
US Admiral Jeremy 'Mike' Boorda shoots himself as revelations that he wore decorations to which he may not have been entitled are made public		1996
Nazir Mohammed, Kashmiri guerrilla leader, announces that the four Western hostages kidnapped on 4 July 1995 were shot in December		1996
President Mobutu flees to Morocco as Laurent Kabila's rebel troops march into Kinshasa; Zaire is renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo		1997
Ehud Barak, Israel's most decorated soldier, replaces Binyamin Netanyahu as prime minister in a sweeping election victory (58% to 41.5%)		1999
Arsenal and Galatasaray fans clash at the UEFA Cup Final in Copenhagen – an event viewed by the media as part of a retaliation for the killing of two Leeds United fans by Galatasaray supporters on 5 April		2000
Braving severe weather conditions on as little as half a cup of porridge a day, Royal Marine commandos Charlie Paton and Corporal Alan Chambers become the first Britons to reach the geographical North Pole without outside support		2000
Izzedin Salim, head of the American–appointed Iraqi Governing Council, is assassinated by a car bomb in Baghdad – just six weeks before the USA is due to cede power		2004
Police foil what would have been one of the biggest robberies in British history – it would have dwarfed the Great Train Robbery and Brinks–Mat – at Heathrow Airport		2004
The USA's first legal same–sex marriages are performed in Massachusetts		2004
Independent (former Labour) MP George Galloway defends charges that he profited from Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, before the US Senate		2005
Rob Gauntlett becomes the youngest Briton to climb Mount Everest, one week after his 19^th birthday		2006
In a test run agreed by both governments, trains from North and South Korea cross the 38th Parallel for the first time since 1953		2007

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On This Day: 17 May