Today In History

On This Day: May 17, 2008

Birthdays:

1749	Edward Jenner, English pioneer of vaccination
1866	Erik Satie, French composer
1911	Maureen O'Sullivan, American film actress
1938	Dennis Hopper, American film actor
1955	Grace Jones, Singer
1956	Sugar Ray Leonard, American boxer

Events:

1890	The first weekly comic was published, in London
1899	Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of the Victoria & Albert museum
1900	The British troops at Mafeking were relieved after holding out against Boer forces
1939	Sweden, Norway & Finland rejected Germany's non-aggression pact
1940	The Belgian government moved to Ostend because of invading German forces
1961	Guildford Catherderal was consecrated
1973	The Senate Select Committee hearings on Watergate opened
1987	Thirty seven Americans on the USS Stark were killed by an Iraqi missile
1992	Former Somalia leader Mohammed Siad Barre flies into Nigeria and is granted temporary political asylum.
1993	Rebecca Stephens became the first British woman to climb Mount Everest