Today is Thursday, May 17, the 138th day of 2012. There are 228
days left in the year. Today's highlight in history: On May 17,
1937, Teddy Hill and His Orchestra recorded "King Porter Stomp"
for RCA Victor's Bluebird label in New York; making his
recording debut was trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. On this date: In
1510, Early Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli died in
Florence, Italy; he was probably in his mid 60s. In 1792, the
New York Stock Exchange had its origins as a group of brokers
met under a tree on Wall Street. In 1849, fire erupted in St.
Louis, Mo., resulting in the loss of three lives, more than 400
buildings and some two dozen steamships. In 1912, the Socialist
Party of America nominated Eugene V. Debs for president at its
convention in Indianapolis. In 1939, Britain's King George VI
and Queen Elizabeth arrived in Quebec on the first visit to
Canada by reigning British sovereigns. In 1946, President Harry
S. Truman seized control of the nation's railroads, delaying —
but not preventing — a threa