On This Day in History

May 17

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​Historical Events​

​1792 Twenty-four merchants form the New York Stock Exchange at 70 Wall Street

​1803 John Hawkins and Richard French patent the reaping machine

The first durable color photograph, a tartan ribbon was taken by Thomas Sutton using James Clerk Maxwell's three-color method

​1861 The First Color Photograph, of a tartan ribbon is shown by Scottish scientist James Clerk Maxwell to the Royal Institution in London

​1973 Senate Watergate Committee begins its hearings into the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C.

​2004 Massachusetts becomes the first state to legalize same-sex marriage

​2014 Center-right Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, led by Narendra Modi, wins a landslide general election victory in India

More Historical Events

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​Famous Birthdays​

​Albert of Prussia​ ​1490 - 1568

​Bartholomew Roberts​ ​1682 - 1722

​Edward Jenner​ ​1749 - 1823

​Enya​ ​64th Birthday

Also Sugar Ray Leonard (69)

More Famous Birthdays

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​Famous Deaths​

​Talleyrand​ ​1754 - 1838

​John Deere​ ​1804 - 1886

More Famous Deaths

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​Theodore Roosevelt, the Cowboy President​

President Theodore Roosevelt began a camping trip on this day with naturalist, writer and conservationist John Muir. The trip had a profound effect on Roosevelt

The Cowboy President