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 at Churchill Downs in Louisville. The winner was Aristides, ridden byOliver Lewis.
1936, Actor Dennis Hopper was born today. He died in 2010.
1954, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark Brown v. Board of Education Of Topeka ruling. It declared that racially separated educational facilities are “inherently unequal.” The ruling reversed the high court’s 1896 “separate but equal” decision in Plessy v. Ferguson.
1973, the Senate opened its hearings into the Watergate scandal with continuous daytime coverage shown on all three broadcast networks.
1975, NBC paid $5 million for the rights to show Gone With The Wind just one time. It was the top price paid for a single opportunity to show a film on television.
1978, Philips announced the coming of the compact disc.
1980, rioting that claimed 18 lives erupted in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood after an all-white jury in Tampa acquitted four former Miami police officers of fatally beating black insurance executive Arthur McDuffie.
1985, Bobby Ewing died on the season finale of Dallas. Bobby, played by actor Patrick Duffy, died in a violent car explosion, only to come back to life the following season.
1987, Thirty-seven American sailors were killed when an Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S. Navy frigate Starkin the Persian Gulf.
1989, A court in Frankfurt, West Germany, sentenced Mohammed Ali Hamadi to life in prison for his role in the 1985 TWA hijacking.
1990, a record price was paid for a painting sold at auction when Vincent Van Gogh’s “Portrait Of Dr. Gachet” sold for $82.5 million.
1995, Jacques Chirac was sworn in as president of France, ending the 14-year tenure of SocialistFrancois Mitterrand.
1996, President Bill Clinton signed a measure requiring neighborhood notification when sex offenders move in. Called Megan’s Law, it was named for Megan Kanka, a seven-year-old New Jersey girl who was raped and killed in 1994 by a convicted sex offender who lived nearby.
1998, New York Yankees pitcher David Wells became the 13th player in modern major league baseball history to throw a perfect game. Wells retired all 27 batters he faced in a 4-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium.
1999, Makah Indians in Washington state harpooned a gray whale for the first time in 70 years.
2000, two former Ku Klux Klansmen were arrested on murder charges in the 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four black girls. Both were eventually convicted and sentenced to life in prison.