1973Also in Washington, a US Senate committee begins public hearings to investigate the Watergate scandal. Senator Sam Ervin, Democrat from North Carolina is in the committee chair. “If the many allegations made to this state true, then the burglars who broke into the Headquarters of the Democratic Nation Committee at the Watergate will effect breaking into the home of every citizen of the United States.”

The following year, the scandal forces Richard Nixon to become the first president to resign from office. 1792Birth of the New York Stock Exchange, as a group of brokers meets under a tree located on what is now Wall Street.

And 1875The horse Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby, held at a track in Louisville, Kentucky that eventually becomes known as Churchill Downs. Today in History, May 17th, Ross Simpson, the Associated Press.