May 17 in History

In 1792, twenty-four New York brokers signed the Buttonwood Agreement, a short pact that set the foundations for what became the New York Stock Exchange. The document was modest, but it marked the beginning of organized securities trading in the United States and, over the next two centuries, of one of the most influential financial institutions in the world.

In 1954, the United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the Constitution. The decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka overturned the principle of "separate but equal" in public education and became one of the most consequential rulings in American history. It gave legal force and moral momentum to the movement for racial equality, though the changes it set in motion unfolded slowly and unevenly.