Today is Saturday, May 17, the 138th day of 2008. There are 228 days left in the year. On this date

Today is Saturday, May 17, the 138th day of 2008. There are 228 days left in the year. On this date in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court hands down its Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, which finds that racially segregated public schools are inherently unequal, and therefore unconstitutional.

In 1875, the first Kentucky Derby is run; the winner is Aristides. In 1946, President Truman seizes control of the nation’s railroads, delaying — but not preventing — a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen. In 1973, the Senate begins its televised hearings into the Watergate scandal. In 1978, women are included in the White House honor guard for the first time as President Carter welcomes Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda. In 1980, rioting that claimed 18 lives erupts in Miami after an all-white jury in Tampa, Fla., acquits four former Miami police officers of fatally beating black insurance executive Arthur McDuffie. In 1987, 37 American sailors are killed when an Iraqi warplane attacks the U.S. Navy frigate Stark in the Persian Gulf. (Iraq and the U.S. call the attack a mistake.)

May 17, 1983: Youngstown firemen spend three hours neutralizing 3,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid that spilled from a ruptured storage tank at Ohio Steel Wire Inc. on Wilson Avenue. A small amount is believed to have drained into Dry Run Creek, however authorities said it was diluted and poses no threat.

Joseph A. Hudak, head of the Mahoning County sheriff’s narcotic unit, testifies that Sheriff James A. Traficant Jr. asked Hudak to shoot him “to make it look like the mob put a hit on him.”

May 17, 1968: William E. Bliss, 82, of 1624 Fifth Ave., board chairman of Standard Slag Co., one of the leading Methodists of Ohio, and a leading civic figure, dies in North Side Hospital, three weeks after suffering a stroke. He was the last survivor of “ The Big Three,” unknown young men who came to Youngstown and made names for themselves, the others being L.A. Beeghly and William H. Kilcawley.

May 17, 1958: About 1,000 people observe Armed Forces Day in Central Square, where the Pershing Rifles from Youngstown University and Marine Corps Reserve women’s drill team from Cleveland perform a snappy drill.

Mayor Frank X. Kryzan is elected president of the Mayor’s Association of Ohio at the initial meeting of 60 mayors in Columbus.

May 17, 1933: Subscriptions to the 15th annual Community Corp. drive totals $51,894 of the quota of $250,000 in the first 42 hours of the campaign.

Power sales of the Youngstown division of the Ohio Edison Co. for the first half of May was 2 percent above sales for the same period a year earlier.