May 17: Facts & Historical Events On This Day

A pair of Michael Jordan’s Air Jordan sneakers sold for a record $560,000 at auction.

The pair of autographed Air Jordan 1s were worn by the famous basketballer during his glory days. They sold for almost four times the estimated auction sale price, beating the previous record by over $100,000.

Blurryface, the fourth studio album by Twenty One Pilots, was released.

It was also the first album ever to have every track gold-certified.

Massachusetts became the first US state to legalize same-sex marriage.

American country music artist Alan Jackson released his “Chattahoochee” single.

It won the Country Music Award Single of the Year and Billboard Song of the Year.

Jack Tramiel founded Atari as Tramel Technology, Ltd.

The company changed its name to Atari just under two months later. Atari released several video gaming consoles and introduced us to some of the most iconic games in history, such as Space Invaders and Pac-Man.

NASA’s SMS-1 satellite launched from Cape Canaveral atop a Delta rocket.

SMS-1 was one of two Synchronous Meteorological Satellites (SMS) placed into geosynchronous orbit to monitor Earth's cloud cover and transmit meteorological data back to Earth.

Stephen Schwartz’s musical “Godspell” premiered off-Broadway.

The first Tim Hortons opened in Hamilton, Ontario, by NHL player Tim Horton.

The original name was Tim Horton Donuts before changing to just Tim Hortons.

The first televised baseball game was broadcasted on NBC, featuring Princeton defeating Colombia 2-1.

The Naval Act of 1938 passed in United States legislation.

It authorized a 20% increase in strength of the United States Navy.

The first-ever color photo was taken.

With the combined efforts of James Clerk Maxwell, a Scottish physicist, and Thomas Sutton, a photographer, they successfully captured the first color photo, which was a photo of a tartan ribbon.

The diaries of Lord Byron were burned by six of the poet’s friends.

Often recognized as the greatest crime in literary history, Lord Byron's friend, Murray, saw the memoirs as scandalous enough to damage Byron's reputation forever. All of this, despite the fact that Byron himself declared that he wished the memoirs to be published.

Great Britain passed the Molasses Act.

This enacted high tariffs on imported rum and molasses to the colonies from any country other than Britain or its territories. The tax was not intended to generate revenue but instead to encourage the purchase of these items directly from Britain.

The first merry-go-round debuted at a fair in Philippopolis, Turkey.