Today in history—April 17

1524:  Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazano reaches what is now New York harbor.  A bridge named for him will later make him as famous as Major Deegan.

1790:  Benjamin Franklin dies, a hundred years before the Federal income tax.  Today, when taxes are taken into account, his “A penny saved” is actually worth nearly two cents earned.

1837:  John Pierpont Morgan is born at Hartford, Connecticut.  In 1901 he’ll form United States Steel, which will become the world’s first billion-dollar business enterprise.

1852:  Adrian Constantine “Cap” Anson is born at Marshalltown, Iowa.  While playing for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1875, he and several other players will breach their contracts by talking about a future contract with a rival team in Chicago.  The Chicago owner, to avoid discipline, will start a new circuit that he calls the “National League.”

1924:  Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and the Louis B. Mayer Co. merge to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

1937:  Daffy Duck debuts in a Warner Bros. cartoon called Porky’s Duck Hunt.

1964:  Ford Motor Co. unveils its new sports car at the New York World’s Fair.  They call it the Mustang.

1982: In Ottawa, Queen Elizabeth II signs the Canada Act, an important step in the promulgation of the Canadian constitution.

1991:  The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 3,000 for the first time ever.