Oxbow ( foaled 2010) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 2013 Preakness Stakes. A bay colt sired by Awesome Again, a winner of the Breeders' Cup Classic and out of a full sister to Tiznow, another Breeders' Cup Classic winner, he was sold as a yearling at Keeneland for $250,000. Oxbow is owned by Brad Kelley of Calumet Farm, was trained by D. Wayne Lukas, and was ridden in his Triple Crown races by Gary Stevens. His Preakness win was Calumet Farm's first win in a Triple Crown race in 45 years and breeder Richard Santulli's first win in a Triple Crown classic race. It also was Stevens' first Triple Crown win since 2001, following his return to riding in early 2013 after a seven-year retirement, and Lukas' first Triple Crown win since 2000. Oxbow's second-place finish in the Belmont Stakes in June made him only the third horse to have $1 million in purse wins for 2013. Later in the season, he was pulled up shortly after finishing fourth in the Haskell Invitational, whereupon he was found to have suffered a soft tissue injury, was taken out of competition for the remainder of his three-year-old season, and retired to stud in October 2013. ( Full article...)

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• ... that the male frog Allobates femoralis (pictured) carries his tadpoles to pools of water?
• ... that during World War I, Violet Manners, Duchess of Rutland, converted her London house into a hospital?
• ... that " Good Old Arsenal" was the first FA Cup Final record released?
• ... that there is a 19th-century German cannon in People's Park, Nanning, China?
• ... that Emanuel Snowman was famous for dealing in Easter eggs, one of which sold for a world record $9.6 million in 2002?
• ... that Chase Williamson graduated from USC weeks before being cast in John Dies at the End?
• ... that musicians often mimic barnyard animal sounds with voices and instruments in the American blues song " Little Red Rooster"?

• The Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Narendra Modi, wins a majority in the Indian general election.
• An explosion at an underground coal mine in Turkey kills more than 280 miners.
• In association football, Manchester City win the Premier League.
• The ruling African National Congress wins a majority in the South African general election.
• " Rise Like a Phoenix" by Austrian singer Conchita Wurst (pictured) wins the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Syrian government forces capture the city of Homs after three years of siege and a ceasefire agreement allowing rebel withdrawal.

Ongoing: Ukrainian unrest – Chibok kidnapping
Recent deaths: Jean-Luc Dehaene – Stephen Sutton – Jacinto Convit

May 17: Galician Literature Day in Galicia, Spain; Sanja Matsuri begins in Tokyo (2014)

• 1642 – The Société Notre-Dame de Montréal founded a permanent mission known as Ville-Marie ( Notre-Dame Church pictured), which eventually grew into the city of Montreal.
• 1914 – Albania officially recognized the area of Northern Epirus as an autonomous region within the Albanian state, which was never established due to World War I.
• 1954 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, outlawing racial segregation in public schools because "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal".
• 1974 – The Troubles: The Ulster Volunteer Force detonated a series of car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan, Ireland, killing 33 people and injuring over 300 more.
• 2004 – Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage.

More anniversaries: May 16 – May 17 – May 18