In the week ending May 12, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance was 222,000, an increase of 11,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 211,000, the Labor Department reported. The four-week moving average was 213,250, a decrease of 2,750 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 216,000. This is the lowest level for this average since December 13, 1969, when it was 210,750.

Thursday, the Dow closed 54.95 points (0.22%) lower at 24,713.98, the NASDAQ decreased 15.82 points (0.21%) to 7,382.47, and the S&P 500 was down 2.33 points (0.09%) at 2,720.13. The Russell 2000 increased 8.92 points (0.55%) to 1,625.29, and the Wilshire 5000 was up 5.85 points (0.02%) at 28,328.84.

ON THIS DATE: In 1652, in Rhode Island, a law was passed that made slavery illegal in North America. It was the first law of its kind. In 1798, the first Secretary of the U.S. Navy, Benjamin Stoddert was appointed. In 1897, a public reading of Bram Stoker’s new novel, “Dracula, or, The Un-dead,” was performed in London. In 1917, Congress passed the Selective Service act, which called up soldiers to fight in World War I. In 1934, Congress approved an act, known as the “Lindberg Act,” that called for the death penalty in interstate kidnapping cases. In 1942, New York ended night baseball games for the duration of World War II. In 1951, the United Nations moved its headquarters to New York City. In 1953, the first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound, Jacqueline Cochran, piloted an F-86 Sabrejet over California at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-hour. In 1983, the Senate revised immigration laws and gave millions of undocumented immigrants legal status under an amnesty program. In 1998, the U.S. federal government and 20 states filed a sweeping antitrust case against Microsoft Corp., saying the computer software company had a “choke hold” on competitors which denied consumer choices by controlling 90% of the software market. In 2012, Facebook Inc. held its initial public offering and began trading on the NASDAQ. The company was valued at $104 billion making it the largest valuation to date for a newly listed public company.