FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Patricia Campbell Hearst (born February 20, 1954^] is the granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. She first became known for the events following her 1974 kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army. She was found and arrested 19 months after being abducted, by which time she was a fugitive wanted for serious crimes committed with members of the group. She was held in custody, and there was speculation before trial that her family’s resources would enable her to avoid time in prison.

At her trial, the prosecution suggested that Hearst had joined the Symbionese Liberation Army of her own volition. However, she testified that she had been raped and threatened with death while held captive. In 1976, she was convicted for the crime of bank robbery and sentenced to 35 years in prison, later reduced to 7 years. Her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter, and she was later pardoned by President Bill Clinton.

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was a small, American far-left organization active between 1973 and 1975; it claimed to be a vanguard movement. The FBI and American law enforcement considered the SLA to be the first terrorist organization to rise from the American left. Six members died in a May 1974 shootout with police in Los Angeles. The three remaining fugitives recruited a few new members, but nearly all of them were apprehended in 1975 and prosecuted.

The pursuit and prosecution of SLA members lasted until 2003, when former member Sara Jane Olson, another fugitive, was convicted and sentenced for second-degree murder during the SLA 1975 bank robbery in Carmichael, California.

During its active years from 1973 to 1975, the group murdered civilians and police officers, committed armed bank robberies, and attempted bombings, among other violent crimes. Its spokesman was escaped convict Donald DeFreeze, but Patricia Soltysik and Nancy Ling Perry, young, middle-class women, were believed to share the leadership.

The SLA’s first notorious act was the assassination of Marcus Foster, the black Superintendent of Oakland Public Schools, and wounding of his deputy Robert Blackburn in November 1973. The SLA had misunderstood issues in Oakland, and this murder alienated leftists and many in the black community, who admired Foster for his work.

In January 1974 two members, Russell Little and Joseph Remiro were arrested and charged with the murder. They were convicted in 1975 and sentenced to life in prison. Little was later retried on appeal, acquitted, and released.

In February 1974 the SLA became internationally known for kidnapping heiress Patty Hearst; they abducted the 19-year-old from Berkeley, California. About two months later Hearst released taped messages announcing that she had joined the SLA. In April 1974 the SLA committed armed robbery of a bank in San Francisco. They split up after that. In May 1974 six founding members died at a house in Los Angeles, the result of a shootout with the LAPD and a fire at the house.

Emily and William Harris, a married couple who were founding members, remained at large as fugitives with Hearst. Claiming to lead the SLA, they later picked up a few more members and committed more crimes, including the 1975 armed robbery of a bank in Carmichael, California, in which a customer was killed. Most were apprehended in 1975 and brought to trial; most accepted plea deals and served several years in prison. As of 2017, all but one of the surviving SLA members have been released from prison. Joe Remiro remains incarcerated. Little said that Soltysik, Perry, and DeFreeze were the ones who shot Foster and Blackburn. They died in the 1974 shootout in Los Angeles.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Question of the Day

Are rose hips a source of vitamin C?

Yes, they are. You can use rose hips in jam, soup, syrup, and the popular rose hip tea. Some varieties contain more than 20 times the amount of vitamin C found in citrus fruits.

Advice of the Day

Pick pears when the fruit has a faint yellow blush but is still green.

Home Hint of the Day

You can lay a new roof of asphalt shingles over one existing layer but not more than one. Too many layers of shingles add a lot of weight to the roof and may cause it to sag or cave in.

Word of the Day

Perigean Tide

A monthly tide of increased range that occurs when the Moon is at perigee (closest to Earth).

Puzzle of the Day

In schools I’m met with every day; transposed you’ve stories fraught with wonder; again transposed, I’m small, you’ll say; and again, you’ll learn to rob and plunder. (What word fits the first clue, and when rearranged, fits the others?)

Slate – tales – least – steal

Born

• Samuel Johnson (author) – 1709
• Elmer Henry Maytag (manufacturer) – 1883
• Archie Grey Owl” Belaney” (conservationist) – 1888
• Harold Clurman (director) – 1901
• Greta Garbo (actress) – 1905
• Jack Warden (actor) – 1920
• Frankie Avalon (singer & actor) – 1939
• Fred Willard (actor) – 1939
• Darryl Sittler (hockey player) – 1950
• Jada Pinkett Smith (actress) – 1971
• James Marsden (actor) – 1973
• Alison Lohman (actress) – 1979

Died

• Jimi Hendrix (musician) – 1970
• Katherine Anne Porter (author) – 1980
• Vitas Gerulaitis (tennis player) – 1994
• Ernie Coombs (children’s entertainer, Mr. Dressup) – 2001
• Bullet Bob Hayes (Olympic gold medalist and football player) – 2002

Events

• Christopher Columbus landed in what is now Costa Rica– 1502
• New Hampshire territory separated from Massachusetts– 1679
• The cornerstone for the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., was laid– 1793
• The first edition of The New York Daily Times” went on sale. The paper later dropped “Daily” from its title”– 1851
• Shirley Temple made her film debut, at the age of 3, in War Babies– 1932
• First nighttime skywriting in the U.S.– 1937
• Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) founded– 1947
• What had previously been The Toast of the Town on CBS TV since 1948 became The Ed Sullivan Show– 1955
• Final day of streetcar service in Winnipeg, Manitoba– 1955
• The UN accepts East Germany, West Germany and the Bahamas as members– 1973
• Fugitive Patty Hearst was arrested in San Francisco after spending more than six months with the Symbionese Liberation Army– 1975
• Cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez first Latin American in space– 1980
• George Meegan finished an almost seven-year long walk, from the tip of South America to the Arctic Ocean at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska– 1983
• Aquarium of the Bay in California reported that an angel shark had been born– 2007

Weather

• The Great Miami Hurricane brought 27.61 inches of rain and winds over 135 mph to Miami, Florida– 1926
• Hurricane Hugo hit Puerto Rico– 1989
• Hurricane Isabel made landfall on the East Coast of the United States– 2003

COURTESY www.almanac.com