Today in History: February 4, Heiress Patricia Hearst kidnapped

"Today in history: On Feb. 4, 1974, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst, 19, was kidnapped in California by the radical Symbionese Liberation Army. Hearst was caught on camera participating in a bank robbery with the extremist group that April and subsequently found guilty of bank robbery and sentenced to seven years in prison. (President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence, and she was later pardoned.)"

"Also on this date: In 1789, electors unanimously chose George Washington to be the first president of the United States. In 1801, John Marshall took office as chief justice of the United States, a position he would hold for 34 years. In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a wartime conference at Yalta. In 1976, more than 23,000 people died when a severe earthquake struck Guatemala with a magnitude of 7.5."

"In 1997, a civil jury in Santa Monica, California, found O.J. Simpson liable for the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, ordering Simpson to pay $33.5 million to the victims' families. In 2004, Facebook had its beginnings as Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched TheFacebook. In 2013, British scientists announced that skeletal remains they had discovered during an excavation beneath a Leicester, England parking lot were, beyond reasonable doubt, the remains of 15th century monarch King Richard III."

Feb. 4, 2026 is recorded as the 35th day of the year with 330 days remaining. The date includes Patricia Hearst’s 1974 kidnapping and subsequent conviction and later commutation and pardon. Historic political milestones include George Washington’s unanimous 1789 election and John Marshall assuming the chief justice role in 1801. Major 20th-century events include the 1945 Yalta conference and the deadly 1976 Guatemala earthquake. Legal and cultural moments include the 1997 O.J. Simpson civil verdict and Facebook’s 2004 launch. Scientific identification of King Richard III’s remains in 2013 and a 2023 U.S. shootdown of a suspected Chinese spy balloon are also noted.

Read at www.mercurynews.com