Timeline of California 1962-1983
Return to home
1962 Jan 13,
Ernie Kovacs (b.1919), comedian and TV star, died at age 42 in a car
crash in west Los Angeles. ''Nothing in moderation'' was his credo and
appeared on his epitaph.
(AP,
1/13/98)(www.nytimes.com/1990/05/13/books/nothing-in-moderation.html?scp=4)
1962 Mar 31, Cesar Chavez (d.1993)
founded the United Farm Workers Union on his birthday.
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A14)
1962 Jun 11, Frank Lee Morris,
John Anglin and Clarence Anglin escaped from Alcatraz and disappeared
into the SF Bay. Their fate was never resolved. The 1979 film "Escape
From Alcatraz" with Clint Eastwood was based on this event.
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.A20)(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W38)(SFC,
12/1/98, pA3)
1962 Aug 5, Actress Marilyn
Monroe, 36, was found dead in her Los Angeles home. Her death was ruled
a "probable suicide" from an overdose of sleeping pills.
(AP, 8/5/97)
1962 Aug 18, Pres. J.F. Kennedy
led the official groundbreaking ceremonies for the San Luis Joint-Use
Complex, Ca. In 1961 the state and feds had agreed to the project which
required the B.F. Sisk San Luis Dam for storage of flows pumped from
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The Sisk Dam was named after
Congressman B.F. Sisk of Fresno.
(CDWR, brochure)
1962 Dec, The Surfaris, formed
near LA in September, recorded "Surfer Joe" and the flip side hit
"Wipeout." Band members were Jim Fuller (15) lead guitar, Ron Wilson
(18) drummer, Robert Berryhill (15) rhythm guitar, Pat Conolly (15)
bass. Saxophonist Jim Pash (13) was not there.
(WSJ, 8/15/01, p.A1)
1962 Herbert Palmer, a Los Angeles
art dealer, began compiling an art reference library. It spanned all
areas of art collecting and featured monographs on 20th-century artists.
(HT, 5/97, p.58)
1962 The Marin Civic Center in San
Rafael, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and Aaron Green (d.2001 at 84),
was completed.
(SFEM,10/19/97, p.22)(SSFC, 6/10/01, p.A27)
1962 In Palm Springs a modernist
showplace called the "House of Tomorrow" was built. The residence at
Ladera Circle was later renamed the Elvis Honeymoon Home in memory of
Elvis and Priscilla, who stayed there after marrying in 1967.
(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.T11)
1962 The Philadelphia Warriors
basketball franchise with star Wilt Chamberlain moved to the Bay Area.
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.D4)
1962 Crown Point Press began
operating from a basement art-print shop in Richmond, Ca. It introduced
a whole generation of artists to the art of etching. "Ink, Paper,
Metal, Wood: Painters and Sculptors at Crown Point Press" by Kathan
Brown was published in 1996.
(SFEM, 9/22/96, p.36)(SFC, 1/21/96, p.B4)
1962 Edmund G. "Pat" Brown was
re-elected as democratic governor over Richard Nixon by some 300,000
votes.
(SFC, 10/17/96, C2)(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.18)(SFEC,
12/6/98, p.A1)
1962 Augustus F. Hawkins
(1907-2007) of south Los Angeles became the first black person from
California to be elected to the US Congress.
(SFC, 11/13/07, p.D9)
1962 Fort Ross was named a
National Historical Landmark.
(SFC, 6/15/01, WBb p.7)
1962 The Stauffer Chemical Co.
began buying the Iron Mountain mine in northern California. Stauffer’s
was later bought by the French firm Rhone Poulenc.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1962 The Los Angeles Examiner
merged with the afternoon Herald Express to form the Herald-Express.
(SFC, 3/9/99, p.A22)
1962 Alan Watts held a seminar at
Esalen, then called Big Sur Hot Springs.
(SSFC, 6/16/02, p.A17)
1962 Boyd Stewart, a Marin, Ca.,
cattleman, helped create the Point Reyes National Seashore on 70,000
acres of grassland.
(SFC, 1/1/05, p.A14)
1962-1967 Lawrence Halprin served as the master
designer for the Sea Ranch development on the Northern California
coast. His proposal for the FDR Monument in Washington was accepted in
1974. It was completed in 1998 with 1,600 homes on 4,000 acres. In 2004
Donlyn Lyndon and Jim Alinder authored “The Sea Ranch.”
(SFEM, 8/10/97, p.31)(SSFC, 5/23/04, p.M6)
1962-1978 Zubin Mehta served as music director of the
Los Angeles Philharmonic.
(SFC, 1/6/98, p.D1)
1963 Jan 11, The 1st discotheque
opened, Whiskey-a-go-go in LA.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1963 Mar 6, Jimmy Lee Smith and
Gregory Powell abducted 2 Los Angeles police officers from a Hollywood
street, drove them to an onion field in Bakersfield and shot officer
Ian Campbell to death. Officer Karl Hettinger managed to escape. Smith
served 19 years for his role in the case before he was paroled. In 1973
Joseph Wambaugh authored “The Onion Field,” a novel based on the
murder. The novel was turned into a film in 1979.
(SFC, 6/28/05, p.B8)
1963 Mar 31, LA ended streetcar
service after 90 years.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1963 Jul, Gov. Pat Brown appointed
Joseph Kennedy to the SF Municipal Court bench. He was the city’s 2nd
African American to be appointed judge.
(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.18)
1963 Nov 5, Tatum O'Neal, Mrs.
John McEnroe, (Paper Moon, Little Darlings), was born in LA, Cal.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1963 Nov, Roger Mealman, Clifford
Toycen Jr., and Robert Burns Jr. robbed a bank in Sacramento of $45,000
and headed east. They shot and killed HP officer Glenn Carlson along
Highway 40. All 3 were soon arrested and sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 4/27/01, p.A1,10)
1963 Dec 14, The Baldwin Hills dam
in Los Angeles, Ca., broke. The released water destroyed 65 homes and
left 5 people dead.
(http://damsafety.water.ca.gov/about.htm)
1963 Sonny Bono, songwriter, met
Cherilyn (Cher) Sarkasian La Piere, singer, at a Hollywood coffee shop.
The pair went on to record "I Got You Babe," The Beat Goes On," and
"All I Ever Need Is You."
(SFC, 1/6/98, p.A11)
1963 Roy Nichols (d.2001 at 68)
joined Merle Haggard’s band the Strangers. He helped create the
Bakersfield sound.
(SFC, 7/5/01, p.D2)
1963 Lou Harrison and others
founded the Cabrillo Music Festival in Santa Cruz.
(WSJ, 9/4/01, p.A19)
1963 Harriet Schaffer (d.1998 at
65), a pioneer in early childhood education, began her career at the
Tic Toc Nursery School in Richmond. Under her leadership Tic Toc became
a pilot school for the newly created federal Head Start program.
(SFC, 7/4/98, p.C2)
1963 Pitzer College for women
opened. It was part of the Claremont College group, was founded by John
Atherton (d.2001 at 85) and named after principal donors Russel K.
Pitzer and his wife. Male student were added in 1970.
(SFC, 11/6/01, p.A20)
1963 Mildred and Ray Connett
(d.1997) opened the 90-acre Glen Eden Sun Club, a nudist resort.
(SFEC, 4/21/97, p.A20)
1963 The first Renaissance
Pleasure Faire was held in southern California. In 1967 it expanded to
the SF Bay Area. By 2008 some 150 such events were held across the US.
(SFC, 7/22/98, p.D1)(Econ, 12/6/08, p.44)
1963 Frank Gordon Goble (d.2000 at
83), an aerospace equipment engineer, retired as president of D.B.
Milliken Co. and founded the nonprofit Thomas Jefferson Research Center
in Pasadena to develop educational programs to build character.
(SFC, 2/26/00, p.A19)
1963 Angel Island on the SF Bay
was declared a state park.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W37)
1963 Phillip Burton engineered the
election of Congressman John F. Shelley as mayor of SF. This opened the
seat for Burton.
(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.20)
1963 The Rumford Fair Housing Act,
the state’s first law prohibiting racial discrimination in housing, was
passed. It was authored by Assemblyman Byron Rumford of Oakland.
(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.20)
1963 Amtrak began offering its
weekend Fun Train service from the SF Bay Area to Reno.
(SSFC, 1/22/06, p.E5)
1963 The Humboldt Bay nuclear
power plant began generating power for consumers in Northern
California. It was shut down in 1976.
(SFC, 10/28/99, p.C4)(SFC, 7/17/04, p.B2)
1963 In California the 400-foot
high Cold Spring Canyon Bridge was built on Highway 154 to carry
travelers from San Marcos Pass into the Santa Ynez Valley. By 2009 at
least 48 deaths from suicide off the bridge were recorded.
(SFC, 7/24/09, p.D7)
1963 Pioneer graves in Shasta
county were moved from what would become Whiskeytown Lake to an area
above Redding that became the quirky Whiskeytown cemetery.
(SFC, 5/26/00, p.A19)
1963 Martin Ramirez (b.1895),
institutionalized Mexican-born artist, died in DeWitt State Hospital in
Auburn, Ca.
(SFC, 7/14/07, p.E10)
1963-64 The Trinity River was dammed to supply the
California Central Valley Project’s network of reservoirs. This caused
an 85% drop in the population of Chinook salmon. In 2000 the Hoopa
Valley Indian Tribe devised a plan to reduce diverted water to 50%. In
2004 A federal appeals court gave the go-ahead for the plan.
(WSJ, 11/18/98, p.CA3)(SFC, 7/14/04, p.B3)
1964 Jan, A huge storm hit the
state.
(SFC, 1/10/96, p.A21)
1964 Feb, A special election put
Phillip Burton into Congress.
(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.25)
1964 Mar 27, Good Friday, Valdez,
Alaska, in Prince William Sound was rocked by an 8.6 [8.4] earthquake,
the largest ever recorded in North America. It lasted 4 minutes and was
followed by tsunamis and fires and 32 [114] [131] people were killed.
Survivors moved 4 miles west to solid bedrock and rebuilt the town.
Much of Crescent City, Ca., was demolished by a resulting tsunami.
(AP, 3/27/97)(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T5)(SFEC, 4/5/98, Z1
p.8)(SFEC, 10/17/99, p.A3)(SFC, 11/26/99, p.C21)
1964 Mar 29, A tsunami hit
Crescent City. 11 people were drowned and 29 downtown blocks destroyed.
[see Mar 27]
(SFEC, 2/27/00, p.D1)
1964 Sep 1, Justice Stanley Mosk
was appointed to the State Supreme Court by Gov. Brown.
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.A9)
1964 Dec 4, Some 10,000 people
attended a protest rally at Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley, and speakers
included Willie Brown and John Burton.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F4)
1964 Dec, Pres. Johnson summoned
UC Pres. Clark Kerr and said he wanted to name Kerr as Sec. of Health,
Education and Welfare. The FBI came back with a slanted 12-page report
that including unsubstantiated damaging allegations.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F4)
1964 The Los Angeles County Music
Center was dedicated. Dorothy Chandler (1901-1997), wife of Norman
Chandler -3rd publisher of the Los Angeles Times, had led the
fund-raising. In 1971 she became the first woman to receive the Herbert
Hoover Medal for Distinguished Service awarded by the Stanford Univ.
Alumni Assoc. In 1985 she was one of 11 of the first recipients of the
new National Medal of Arts called for by Pres. Reagan.
(SFC, 7/7/97, p.A16)
1964 Sea World opened in San
Diego. Milton C. Shedd (d.2002), Ken Norris, David DeMott and George
Millay, fraternity brothers, developed the project with an initial $1.5
million investment. Its history is described in the 1997 book:
"Spectacular Nature: Corporate Culture and the Sea World Experience" by
Susan G. Davis.
(SFC, 12/4/97, p.E5)(SFC, 5/28/02, p.A18)
1964 John F. Kennedy Univ. was
founded with its main campus in Orinda.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.W21)
1964 Gov. Pat Brown appointed his
brother Harold C. Brown (d.1998 at 90) to the Municipal court Bench of
SF. Justice Brown and Pat Brown formed the SF Chapter of the Order of
Cincinnatus, which had as its credo that elected officials should
promise no favors and that supporters would seek no favors.
(SFC, 5/25/98, p.E3)
1964 John G. Schmitz (d.2001)
became the 1st member of the John Birch Society to be elected to the
state senate. He later authored "Stranger in the Arena: The anatomy of
an Amoral Decade 1964-1974."
(SFC, 1/12/01, p.D5)
1964 Justice Harold C. Brown
(d.1998 at 90) of the Municipal court Bench of SF was elevated to the
California Court of Appeal.
(SFC, 5/25/98, p.E3)
1964 Willie Brown began his
political career when he won his bid for the 18th Assembly District.
His 1962 attempt was unsuccessful. His campaign workers included George
Moscone and Diane Feinstein.
(SFEC, 10/20/96, BR, p.6)
1964 The Bureau of Reclamation
built a $3.2 million debris dam to catch and hold toxics near Iron
Mountain.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1964 Fresno set up a pedestrian
mall as part of an experiment in urban planning. The mall failed as
shoppers drove to malls and franchise stores.
(SFC, 9/1/99, p.A1)
1964 The San Luis Obispo County
board of Supervisors purchased the Rios-Caledonia Adobe for restoration
as a museum and information center. It opened in 1978.
(SB, 3/28/02)
1964 In California the prison gang
Aryan Brotherhood was founded at San Quentin State Prison. Members held
the credo “kill or be killed.” In 2006 the US Justice Dept. hoped to
destroy the organization through capital prosecutions. On July 28,
2006, 4 leaders were convicted for using murder and intimidation to
protect their drug-dealing operations behind bars.
(SFC, 3/14/06, p.A1)(SFC, 7/29/06, p.A3)
1964 California decided to dam Big
Grizzly Creek in Plumas County which in 1966 created Lake Davis. It was
then stocked with trout. In 1994 Pike were discovered in Lake Davis.
Over the next 10 years some $15 million was spent in attempts to
eradicate the fish.
(SFCM, 7/11/04, p.10)(SFC, 9/26/07, p.A13)
1964 A flood wiped out the town of
Klamath in northern Cal. The Douglas Memorial Bridge across the Klamath
River was made useless.
(SFEC, 12/5/99, p.T5)
1964 Francis Harvey Cutting
(b.1872), California artist, died.
(SSFC, 4/18/04, p.J5)
1964-1970 The Buttes Gas & Oil Co. ran a mercury
mine on the Gambonini Ranch northeast of Tomales Bay. In 1998 high
levels of mercury were discovered moving down Walker Creek into Tomales
Bay.
(SFEC, 1/9/00, p.C10)
1965 Feb 23, Stan Laurel, the
"skinny" half of the Laurel and Hardy comedy team, died in Santa
Monica, Calif.
(AP, 2/23/99)
1965 Feb 26, Spoony Singh Sundher
(1922-2006), Indian-born entrepreneur, opened his Hollywood Wax Museum
on Hollywood Blvd. close to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. He charged $1.50
admittance.
(www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Oct21/0,4670,ObitSingh,00.html)
1965 Apr 2, Rodney King, black
motorist brutally beaten by LA cops, was born in Sacramento, Calif.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1965 May 25, Mark Knight, rock
guitarist (Bang Tango-Dancin' on Coals), was born in California.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1965 Jun 18, The state Senate’s
Burns committee issued a report blaming the 1964 fall campus protests
on lax policies of UC Pres. Kerr.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F5)
1965 Aug 1, Sabato "Simon" Rodia,
creator of the Watts Towers, died in Northern California.
(WSJ, 10/16/01, p.A24)
1965 Aug 11, Rioting and looting
broke out in the predominantly black Watts section of Los Angeles. A
small clash between the California Highway Patrol and two black youths
sets off six days of rioting in the Watts area of Los Angeles.
(AP, 8/11/97)(SFEC, 5/23/99, Z1 p.4)(HN,
8/11/00)(MC, 8/11/02)
1965 Aug 16, The Watts riots ended
in south-central LA after six days with the help of 20,000 National
Guardsmen; the riots left 34 dead, 857 injured, over 2,200 arrested,
and property valued at $200 million destroyed. The riots started when
police on August 11th brutally beat a black motorist suspected of
drunken driving in Watts area of LA.
(HN, 8/16/00)(MC, 8/16/02)
1965 Sep 3, Preparing a move to
Anaheim, the LA Angels baseball team change their name to California
Angels.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1965 Sep 8, An AFL-CIO affiliated
Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), a union of mostly
Filipino workers, voted to go on strike in Delano, Ca. They were joined
after eleven days by Cesar Chavez and the National Farm Workers Assoc.
In 1967 John Gregory Dunne (1932-2003) authored "Delano," an account of
the California grape strike.
(SFEC,10/19/97, p.C3)(SFC, 1/1/04, p.A23)
1965 Oct 10, Ronald Reagan spoke
at Coalinga Junior College and called for an official declaration of
war in Vietnam.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F5)
1965 Dec 25, Entertainer Chris
Noel gave her first performance for the USO at two hospitals in
California.
(HN, 12/25/98)
1965 Dec 31, California became the
largest state in population.
(HN, 12/31/98)
1965 Raymond Dasmann (d.2002 at
83) authored "The Destruction of California." He later authored
"Wildlife Biology" (1981) and "Environmental Conservation" (1984). In
2002 he authored "’The Autobiography of a Conservationist."
(SFC, 11/7/02, p.A26)
1965 The 37th Academy Awards were
held at the Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica. Julie Andrews won an
Oscar for her performance in "Mary Poppins."
(SFC, 3/18/02, p.D1)
1965 John Fogarty and his band,
the Golliwogs, had a hit with the song "Brown-Eyed Girl. Under
direction from Saul Zaentz of Fantasy Records they soon changed their
name to Creedence Clearwater Revival.
(SFEM, 3/23/97, p.28)
1965 Albert Frey, Swiss-born
architect, designed a gas station in Palm Springs with a "butterfly"
roof.
(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.T10)
1965 Jim Jones and his wife
Marceline brought his nascent Peoples Temple to California. The family
and about 70 followers set up in the Redwood Valley near Ukiah. The
group later moved to San Francisco.
(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.A18)
1965 Ron Karenga founded US, a
black power movement in Southern California shortly after the Watts
riots. In 2003 Scot Brown authored "Fighting for US: Maulana Karenga,
the US Organization and Black Cultural Nationalism."
(SSFC, 8/3/03, p.M6)
1965 The town of Valencia in Los
Angeles County was established. Philanthropist Peter McBean (d.1997 at
86) helped to prepare its master plan.
(SFC, 4/15/97, p.A20)
1965 Prof. Kenneth Norris
(1924-1998) helped create the UC Natural Reserve System (NRS). In 1998
the system encompassed 120,000 acres of protected habitat across
California.
(SFC, 8/31/98, p.A22)
1965 California State Assemblyman
John Williamson (d.1998 at 85) authored the California Land
Conservation Act that offered tax breaks to farmers who agreed not to
sell their property for at least 10 years. In 1998 the Williamson Act
was amended to increase the farm preservation contracts from 10 to 30
years.
(SFC, 10/14/98, p.C3)
1965 Serpentine was named the
state rock of California.
(CW, Fall ‘03, p.42)
1965 The SF Bay Conservation and
Development Commission was established by the state legislature. It
regulated development in a 100-foot wide band around the SF Bay
shoreline.
(SFC, 11/4/98, p.A29)(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1965 Yuba City gained extensive
water rights based on claims that Marysville would grow as fast as San
Jose. The growth did not materialize and large revenues from the water
rights were used to subsidize county operations.
(SFC, 5/25/98, p.A13)
1965 The Univ of California Santa
Cruz campus began operating. It featured written evaluations instead of
grades.
(SFC, 12/3/99, p.A1)
1965 Bowles Farming Co. was
founded in Los Banos by George Bowles (1929-2005) and siblings Henry
Miller Bowles and Amy Bowles Lawrence. They were the
great-grandchildren of land baron and cattle king Henry Miller.
(SSFC, 6/12/05, p.A21)
1965-1970 Cheryl Scott killed 4 of her children, aged
11 days to 14 months, during this period. 3 died in southern California
and the 4th in Mendocino County. In 2006 Cheryl Athene Miller was
charged in Ukiah, Ca., with the murders after her brother revealed the
secret they had kept for decades. In 2007 Miller was released for lack
of evidence.
(SFC, 11/2/06, p.B1)(SFC, 6/23/07, p.B6)
1966 Jan 4, Ronald Reagan
announced his candidacy for California Governor.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)
1966 Jan 9, Ronald Reagan appeared
on Meet the Press and was asked why he had not disavowed the John Birch
Society. Reagan said a committee had found looked into the group and
"nothing of a subversive nature." In 1960 an informer reported to the
FBI that Reagan was a Beverly Hills chapter member.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)
1966 Mar 23, Charles Garrigus
(d.2000 at 86), a former Assemblyman (1958-1966), was named poet
laureate of California. He served for 34 years.
(SFC, 10/7/00, p.A19)
1966 Apr 12, Jan Berry of the "Jan
and Dean" duo was involved in a car crash that left him in a month-long
coma. Their hit songs from 1960-1966 included: "Little Old lady from
Pasadena," "Deadman’s Curve," and "Surf City."
(SFEC, 7/13/97, DB p.63)
1966 May 12, Ronald Reagan told a
crowd at the Cow Palace that a 153-page report by the Burns committee
accused UC Pres. Kerr of fostering an atmosphere that turned the
university into a haven for protesters and sex deviants.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)
1966 Jun 7, Ronald Reagan defeated
SF Mayor George Christopher in the GOP primary.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)
1966 Aug 20, Ronald Reagan
announced a plan for a new anti-crime academy to be located in Berkeley.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)
1966 Oct 30, The Zodiac killer
murdered a female college student in Riverside. In 1985 Robert
Graysmith authored "Zodiac" in which he identified the killer with the
pseudonym of "Robert Starr," and later identified him as Arthur Leigh
Allen (d.1992), a convicted child molester from Vallejo. Graysmith
authored "Zodiac Unmasked" in 2002. In 2009 Deborah Perez (47) asserted
that her father, Santa Ana resident Guy Ward Hendrickson (d.1983), was
the Zodiac killer and that she had accompanied him on some of the
killings.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W20)(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.M6)(SFC,
4/30/09, p.A9)
1966 Nov 8, Ronald Reagan defeated
Pat Brown by over a million votes to become governor of California.
Reagan had defeated former SF Mayor George Christopher in the primary.
(AP, 11/8/97)(SFEC, 11/28/99, p.A28)(SFC, 9/15/00,
p.A19)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)
1966 Dec 15, Walt Disney (b.1901),
movie producer, actor and director, died in Los Angeles. In 1998 a
CD-ROM was produced titled: “Walt Disney: An Intimate History of the
Man and His magic.” In 2006 Neal Gabler authored “Walt Disney: The
Triumph of the American Imagination.”
(AP, 12/15/97)(SFC, 11/4/98, p.E1)(WSJ, 11/3/06,
p.W6)
1966 Dec 18, Gov. Reagan filled
out a personal Security Questionnaire for a comprehensive FBI
background check. Reagan falsely answered 2 questions, but the FBI
cleared his application.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F7)
1966 The domed Fresno County
Courthouse was toppled to make room for a new highrise structure.
(SFC, 4/13/02, p.A15)
1966 In Los Angeles the 19-story
Century Plaza Hotel, designed by Minoru Yamasaki, was completed. In
2009 the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed it on its list
of most endangered historic places.
(SFC, 4/29/09, p.B4)
1966 Ensemble International, a
folk dance group, was founded by Jules DiCicco with Marion and Ned
Gault as directors and teachers in Sunnyvale, Ca.
(Group flyer, 1996)
1966 Brian Lee Schubert
(1940-2006) and a friend became the first people to parachute from El
Capitan in Yosemite National Park. Schubert was killed in 2006 when his
chute opened late at a jump festival in Fayetteville, West Virginia.
(SSFC, 10/22/06, p.A5)
1966 Gov. Brown appointed Justice
Raymond Sullivan (d.1999 at age 92) to the state Supreme Court.
Sullivan retired in 1977.
(SFC, 10/22/99, p.B7)
1966 Sacramento Congressman John
E. Moss (1915-1997) fathered the 1966 Federal Freedom of Information
Act. He served in Congress from 1952-1979.
(SFC,12/5/97, p.A22)
1966 Ralph Dills (d.2002 at 92)
was elected as state senator and served until 1998, when he was forced
out by term limits.
(SFC, 5/17/02, p.A25)
1966 The Sacramento McGeorge
School of Law merged with the Univ. of the Pacific in Stockton.
(SFC,11/8/97, p.A22)
1966 Journalism professor Lyle M.
Nelson (d.1997 at 79) of Stanford created the John S. Knight fellowship
program for journalists with help from the Ford Foundation. The program
championed ethics in journalism.
(SFEC, 9/7/97, p.C4)
1966 Robert Mondavi and his son
Michael split with relatives running the Charles Krug Winery and
started the Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville, the first new winery in
California since Prohibition.
(USAT, 6/17/98, p.2D)(SSFC, 4/29/01, p.E7)
1966 Lake Davis was created in
Plumas County, Ca., following the completion of a reservoir dam.
(SFC, 9/26/07, p.A13)
1966 Charles W. Goethe (b.1875),
1st chairman of the Sacramento campus of the Univ. of California, died.
The wealthy conservationist and university benefactor was also an
advocate of eugenics, border controls, mandatory sterilization of
immigrants and “Nordic purity.”
(SFC, 10/24/05,
p.A8)(www.csus.edu/cshpe/events/cmg_life_vision.html)
1967 Jan 5, Ronald Reagan was
sworn in as Gov. of California.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F7)
1967 Jan 15, The first Super Bowl
was played as the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League
defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League, 35-10
in Los Angeles. The matchup was officially called the AFL-NFL World
Championship Game.
(WSJ, 1/28/97, p.A16)(AP, 1/15/98)
1967 Jan 16, Gov. Reagan met with
FBI agents at his governor’s mansion in Sacramento for information on
UC campus radicals.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F1)
1967 Jan 20, Clark Kerr, president
of the UC system, was fired by Gov. Reagan and the UC Regents for being
too soft on student protesters at Berkeley. In 2003 Kerr authored vol.
2 of his memoir: "The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the Univ.
of California.
(SSFC, 2/17/02, p.M6)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F6)
1967 Apr 12, Water was 1st pumped
into the San Luis Reservoir, near Los Banos, Ca. It was filled for the
1st time on May 31, 1969.
(CDWR, brochure)
1967 May 30, Robert "Evel" Knievel
(1938-2007) on his motorcycle jumped 16 cars in Gardena, Ca.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evel_Knievel)
1967 Jun 15, Gov. Reagan signed
the Therapeutic Abortion Act, which permitted abortions in the first 20
weeks of pregnancy if a woman's life or health was threatened or the
pregnancy was the result of rape or incest.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)(AP, 6/15/07)
1967 Jun 16, The three-day
Monterey International Pop Music Festival opened in northern California.
(AP, 6/16/07)
1967 Aug, Milton Marks,
Republican, beat Assemblyman John Burton in a special election to
finish the term of state Senator J. Eugene McAteer.
(SFC, 12/5/98, p.A15)
1967 The Renaissance Pleasure
Faire was first held in the Bay Area. In 1994 it was sold to
Colorado-based Renaissance Entertainment Corp. Its last season at Black
Point in Novato was in 1998.
(SFC, 7/22/98, p.D1)
c1967 The 18th Street gang of Los
Angeles formed about this time.
(SFC, 8/30/97, p.A7)
1967 The Tassara Zen Mountain
Center in Carmel began a bread making program for students. The
popularity of the bread grew and its recipes were published in 1970. In
1976 the Zen Center opened a bakery in SF, which was sold to Just
Deserts in 1992.
(SFC, 4/10/99, p.D2)
1967 The Friends of Photography
was founded in Carmel by Ansel Adams and friends. The organization
ceased operations in 2001 and closed its SF facility.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.B1)
1967 The Reagans left the
Victorian-style governor’s mansion in Sacramento. Nancy Reagan called
it a firetrap. They built a new mansion on the American River for $1.3
million. Jerry Brown later refused to live there. It was sold in 1982.
(SSFC, 12/30/01, p.A25)(Econ, 2/25/06, p.34)
1967 The state
Lanterman-Petris-Short Act (1967) and the Short-Doyle Act (1969)
changed how the state dealt with the mentally ill. New standards were
set and a system of community treatment centers was created.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)(SSFC, 12/15/02, p.A29)
1967 Aaron Mitchell was executed
in San Quentin’s gas chamber for murdering a Sacramento police officer
during a holdup.
(SFC, 12/7/01, WB p.G9)
1967 Ray Knisley, owner of Camp
Richardson at Lake Tahoe, Ca., deeded the land to the government to
keep it out of the hands of developers. It was initially developed by
entrepreneur Alonzo Richardson in 1924, who in 1921 had begun ferrying
guests between Placerville and Lake Tahoe in his fleet of Pierce Arrow
touring cars.
(SSFC, 8/31/08, p.E6)
1967 The American Newspaper Guild
struck the Los Angeles Harold Express over wages. The strike lasted 10
years.
(SFC, 3/9/99, p.A22)
1967 Northern California’s
Humboldt Times newspaper merged with the Humboldt Standard to form the
Times-Standard. The two papers had been under the same owner since 1941.
(SFCM, 8/13/06, p.13)
1967 The US Army Corps of
Engineers sought to keep the San Pedro Dam in northern California about
35% empty to catch flood waters. Local interests favored a fuller dam
for irrigation water and power and a 17% figure was settled.
(SFEC, 3/3/97, p.A8)
1967 The California Packing Co.
(Calpak) changed its name to Del Monte.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.B1)(SSFC, 10/3/04, p.J1)
1967 The South Coast Plaza, a
planned retail center owned by the Segerstrom family, opened in Orange
County, Ca., as the 405 neared completion.
(Econ, 7/1/06, p.62)
1967 In Livermore a small amount
of plutonium accidentally leaked out of the Lawrence Livermore Lab. and
into the sewer system. The sewer sludge was sold to Tri-Valley
residents as a soil conditioner for gardens and lawns. The 4.2-acre Big
Trees Park later tested higher than background for plutonium but
experts assured residents that there was no real danger.
(SFC, 2/27/98, p.A22)
1967-1973 William R. Gianelli served as director of
the California Dept. of Water Resources. The pumping generating plant
between San Luis Reservoir and O'Neill Forebay is named after him.
(CDWR, brochure)
1967-1996 The Paso Robles Daily Press was published
by Ben Reddick (d.1997 at age 82).
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A20)
1968 Mar 10, Robert Kennedy
visited Delano, Ca., in his bid for the presidency. He joined Cesar
Chavez in a chapel where Chavez broke his fast on behalf of organizing
farmworkers.
(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.18)
1968 May, The Lawrence Hall of
Science opened in the Berkeley Hills. It was built in honor of Ernest
Orlando Lawrence, who developed the cyclotron. The octagonal shape
represented the 8 branches of physical science.
(LHS, 2/12/1998)
1968 Jun 4, Robert Kennedy won the
California democratic Presidential Primary whose candidates included
Eugene McCarthy. Vice-Pres. Hubert Humphrey had declined to enter the
California primary. Kennedy was shot the next day in LA by Sirhan
Sirhan and died on June 6.
(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.26)
1968 Jun 5, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy
was shot and mortally wounded at the Ambassador Hotel in LA just after
claiming victory in California's Democratic presidential primary.
Gunman Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was immediately arrested.
(HFA, '96, p.32)(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(AP, 6/5/97)
1968 Jun 6, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy
died at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, a day after he was shot
by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan. In 2000 Ronald Steel authored "In Love With
Night: The American Romance With Robert Kennedy." In 1969 Jack Newfield
(d.2004) authored “Robert Kennedy: A Memoir.” In 2000 Evan Thomas
authored "Robert Kennedy: His Life."
(AP, 6/6/97)(SFEC, 1/16/00, BR p.1)(WSJ, 9/7/00,
p.A24)(SFC, 12/22/04, p.B5)
1968 Jun 7, Michael Robert Smith
(25) escaped from California’s Soledad prison while serving time for a
robbery conviction. He headed to Nevada, then New Jersey and into a
marriage that didn't work out. In 2001 Smith moved to a tiny trailer in
a heavily wooded area of Creek County, Okla., where he was recaptured
in 2006.
(AP, 5/20/06)
1968 Jun 13, Johnny Cash performed
a live concert at California’s Folsom Prison. Applause from the inmates
was dubbed into his "At Folsom Prison" album.
(WSJ, 11/26/97, p.CA4)(Econ, 9/18/04, p.88)
1968 Oct 2, Pres. Johnson
established Redwood National Park in northern California under Public
Law 90-545. Congress created the Redwood National Park in California at
a cost of $306 million. Large portions of the Arcata Redwood Corp.
lands were detached to form sections of Redwood National Park. The land
was initially assembled by Michigan timber baron Arthur Hill. His son,
Harry Hill, built the French Renaissance townhouse that is now the
Italian consulate.
{California, JohnsonL, USA}
(www.eoearth.org/article/Redwood_National_Park,_United_States)(SFC,
9/9/97, p.A19)(SFEC, 12/5/99, p.T1)
1968 Oct 2, The 2,650-mile Pacific
Crest Trail, spanning Mexico to Canada, was designated a National
Scenic Trail as part of the US National Trails System Act.
{USA, California, Oregon, Washington}
(SFC, 7/16/08,
p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Crest_Trail)
1968 Oct 10, James A. Moe,
engineer, was appointed by Ronald Reagan to serve as the chief of
Caltrans and served from this day to Dec 30, 1973. He was the first
director of Caltrans and came over from the Dept. of Public Works.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.A14)
1968 Oct 30, Ramon Samaniego
Novarro (b.1899), the 1st successful Latin star in Hollywood (Ben Hur),
was killed by 2 male hustlers. In 2002 Andres Soares authored "Beyond
Paradise: The Life of Ramon Novarro.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramon_Novarro)(SSFC,
1/5/03, p.M4)
1968 Nov 5, Alan Cranston
(1914-2000), former California state controller (12959-1967), was
elected for his 1st term as US Senator.
(SFC, 1/1/01,
p.A5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Cranston)
1968 Dec 18, Carolyn Olsen was
murdered during a robbery that netted $18 on a Santa Monica tennis
court. Black Panther leader Geronimo Pratt was accused of the murder
though he maintained that he was in Oakland on the night the 27-year
old teacher was shot to death. He was arrested in 1970 and convicted in
1972 and sentenced to a life term in prison. Julius "Buffo" Butler, a
police informant who spied on the Black Panther Party, told police that
he believed Pratt killed Olsen. In 1997 a judge ruled to reverse
Pratt’s conviction based on the credibility of Butler. He was released
on $25,000 bail on 6/10/97. In 2000 Pratt was awarded $4.5 million to
be paid by Los Angeles and the FBI.
{Black History, SF Bay Area, USA}
(SFC, 4/18/96, C-1)(SFC, 6/7/97, p.A5)(SFC, 6/11/97,
p.C2)(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A3)
1968 Dec 20, Two teenagers, David
Farraday and Betty Lou Jensen, were shot to death in a parked car on
Lake Herman Road outside Vallejo, Ca. The murder was attributed to the
Zodiac killer.
(SFC, 10/2/00, p.A19)(SFC, 4/7/04, p.A7)
1968 Dec, The California Zodiac
killer first identified himself with a letter to the Times-Harold in
Vallejo. He later claimed to have killed 37 people but the police
connected him to only five deaths.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W20)
1968 Cecile Nelken (1917-2009),
sculptor and publisher, founded Artweek, the first US West Coast weekly
art newspaper.
(SFC, 7/17/09, p.D5)
1968 The Royal Chapel at Carmel,
Ca., became a cathedral for a second time as the Diocese of Monterey
was reorganized.
(SSFC, 1/4/09, p.B3)
1968 David “Moses” Berg of
Oakland, Ca., founded the Children of God. He combined the free love of
the sexual revolution with the fervor of the American evangelical
movement. [see May, 2, 1978]
(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.A1)
1968 William Hartman (d.1997 at
78) and Marilyn Fithian founded the Center for Marital and Sexual
Studies in Long Beach, Ca. They later published "Treatment of Sexual
Dysfunction" based on their studies.
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.A19)
1968 California governor Ronald
Reagan signed an Inmate Bill of Rights. It was amended in 1994 to limit
rights only to those guaranteed in the California and US constitutions.
It was again amended in 1996 to make personal visits a privilege, not a
right.
(SFC, 7/9/96, p.A17)(http://tiny.cc/kOk1t)
1968 The California Air Resources
Board (ARB) was established to regulate the state’s ambient air quality.
(SFEC,11/10/97, p.A10)
1968 The California State Fair
moved to the 356-acre CalExpo grounds in Sacramento.
(SSFC, 8/7/05, p.F7)
1968 Sidney W. Brossman (d.1999 at
76) became head of the new California Community Colleges and served to
1977.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.D6)
1968 Architect Henry Schubart
(d.1998 at 81) moved his family to Salt Spring Island in British
Columbia due to his opposition to the Vietnam War. He had designed the
campus buildings of the Dominican College in Marin, Ca., the St. Louis
Bertrand Church in Oakland and the Holy Names Church in SF among other
works. In BC he introduced the use of skylights.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A23)
1968 Myth has it that the Nuestra
Familia prison gang was organized after a stolen shoe incident at San
Quentin prison. It set the Mexican Mafia, a gang rooted in East Los
Angeles, against the Familia based in San Jose.
(SFEC, 6/29/97, Z1 p.1)
1968 A newspaper strike shut down
the SF Chronicle, the Examiner and the News-Call Bulletin for 53 days.
Bill O'Brien (d.2004) became president of the SF-Oakland Newspaper
Guild the next day and supported the strike, which had originated with
Hearst papers in LA.
(SFC, 2/05/04, p.A27)
1968 Al Brounstein (d.2006 at 86)
purchased 80 acres on Diamond Mountain in Napa, Ca., for a little over
$100,000. He began developing a vineyard and later admitted to
smuggling cuttings from Bordeaux, France, by way of Tijuana. His first
crop from Diamond Creek Vineyards was produced in 1972.
(SFC, 6/28/06, p.B7)
1968 Robert Mondavi made a dry
wine from Sauvignon Blanc and renamed it Fume Blanc.
(SFC, 5/17/08, p.A7)
1968-1973 The TV show "Mod Squad" was about 3 hip
young cops who worked undercover in LA. A film version was begun in
1998.
(SFEC, 8/2/98, Par p.8)
1969 Jan 26, California was
declared a disaster area after two days of flooding and mud slides.
(HN, 1/26/99)
1969 Jan 29, An undersea oil well
off Santa Barbara, Ca., suffered a blowout and over the next 11 days
released some 200,000 gallons of oil that spread over 800 square miles
of ocean and soiled 35 miles of coastline.
(www.geog.ucsb.edu/~jeff/sb_69oilspill/69oilspill_articles2.html)
1969 Feb 11, A Lockheed SP2E
Neptune crashed in the Santa Ana Mountains of Orange County, Ca., while
on night training. 7 seamen were killed.
(SFC, 5/7/08,
p.B8)(http://home.att.net/~jbaugher/thirdseries15.html)
1969 Feb 28, A Los Angeles court
refused Robert Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan's request to be executed.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1969 Apr 17, A jury in Los Angeles
convicted Sirhan Sirhan of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. 6 days
later he was sentenced to death.
(AP,
4/17/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy_assassination)
1969 Apr 18, George Whittell, Jr.
(b.1881), born in SF to wealth amassed in real estate and mining, died.
His construction of a lakefront estate at lake Tahoe, the Thunderbird
Lodge, began in 1937 and was completed in 1939.
(SFC, 7/21/07,
p.F1)(www.thunderbirdlodge.org/theman.html)
1969 May 15, Univ. of California
officials fenced People’s Park and planned to build dormitories. This
prompted some 3,000 protesters to try to seize it back. Gov. Reagan
placed Berkeley under martial law and dispatched tear gas-spraying
helicopters and riot police who shot and killed one man.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F7)
1969 May 25, Matt Borlenghi, actor
(Brian Bodine-All My Children), was born in Los Angeles, CA.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1969 Jan 27, Byron Vaughn Booth
and fellow convict Clinton Robert Smith, also a robber, escaped from
the California Institution for Men at Chino. The next day they bought a
ticket for a flight from Los Angeles to Miami with a connection in New
Orleans. National Airlines Flight 64 was hijacked over the Gulf of
Mexico after the plane left New Orleans. The plane ended up landing at
Camaguey, Cuba, where Cuban officials removed the hijackers. The flight
continued on to Miami. Booth was arrested in Nigeria in 2001 and
returned to the US.
(SFC, 2/24/01,
p.C14)(http://articles.latimes.com/2001/may/17/local/me-64627)
1969 Jul 4, Darlene Ferrin (22), a
waitress, was shot and killed at the Blue Rock Springs Golf Club in
Vallejo. She was parked with Michael Mageau (19), who survived the
shooting. The Zodiac killer reported the shooting within an hour from a
pay phone.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W20)(SFC, 10/2/00, p.A19)
1969 Aug 8, Actress Sharon Tate
(26) and four other people were brutally murdered in her Beverly Hills
home; cult leader Charles Manson and a group of his disciples were
later convicted of the crime. The best writing on the Manson murders
was by Joan Didion in "The White Album."
(SFEC, 3/16/97, Z1 p.4)(AP, 8/9/97)(HN,
8/9/98)(SFEC, 9/19/99, BR p.6)
1969 Aug 9, Actress Sharon Tate
and four other people were found brutally murdered in her Los Angeles
home; cult leader Charles Manson and a group of his disciples were
later convicted of the crime. Charles Manson's followers killed actress
Sharon Tate and her three guests in her Beverly Hills home. The dead
included Abigail Folger and Voyteck Freykowski.
(SFEC, 3/16/97, z1 p.4)(AP, 8/9/97)(HN, 8/9/98)(MC,
8/9/02)
1969 Aug 10, Leno and Rosemary
LaBianca were murdered in their Los Angeles home by members of Charles
Manson's cult, one day after actress Sharon Tate and four other people
were found slain.
(AP, 8/10/97)
1969 Sep 4, In California Gov.
Ronald Reagan signed the first no-fault divorce package into law,
effective January 1, 1970.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, Z1
p.6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-fault_divorce)
1969 Sep 27, The California Zodiac
killer pulled a gun on two teenagers at Lake Berryessa. He stabbed them
repeatedly and killed the girl.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W20)
1969 Oct 11, The Zodiac killer
shot and killed SF cab driver Paul Stine (29) at Cherry and Washington
in Presidio Heights. This was his last known murder. His last
authenticated communication was in 1974.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W20)(SFC, 10/2/00, p.A19)
1969 Dec 6, The Rolling Stones
staged a rock concert at the Altamount Speedway in Livermore, Ca. for
some 300,000 fans. The Stones hired the Hells Angels for security. Fans
were beaten and one person, Meredith Hunter, was stamped and stabbed to
death by a Hell's Angel during the show. Alan Passaro (21) was tried
and found not guilty because Hunter was carrying a gun. One man drowned
in a nearby canal and2 people were crushed to death by a runaway car.
The 1970 documentary film “Gimme Shelter” was about the Rolling Stones
concert at Altamount.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, Z1 p.4)(AP, 12/6/99)(SFC, 6/10/00,
p.B5)(SFC, 5/26/05, p.B2)
1969 Dec 8, The Los Angeles Police
made a surprise attack on Black-Panthers. At two separate locations,
400 officers arrested Party members and children. During one shoot-out,
Roland Freeman's body was riddled with bullets, but he survived.
(www.itsabouttimebpp.com/Chapter_History/BPP_Pieces_of_History.html)
1969 Claire Falkenstein
(1908-1997), sculptor and painter, created the doors, gates and tall
windows in St. Basil’s Church on Wilshire Boulevard in LA.
(SFC,10/24/97, p.A22)
1969 Terry Schoonhoven (d.2001),
muralist, co-founded the Los Angeles Fine Arts Squad.
(SFC, 12/24/01, p.A18)
1969 Mark Hurley (d.2001 at 81)
was appointed Catholic bishop of the Santa Rosa diocese. In 1970 he
consecrated his younger brother Frank as a bishop.
(SFC, 2/8/01, p.C5)
1969 Singer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti of
Nigeria visited California for 10 months.
(WSJ, 2/24/99, p.A10)
1969 People’s Park in Berkeley,
Ca., again became the site of a dispute between the University, who
wanted to build student housing, and activists, who wanted it kept as a
mecca for poor people.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A17)(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.B3)
1969 Skyline College in San Bruno
opened.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.W21)
1969 The medical volunteer
organization Interplast, specializing in reconstructive surgery, was
founded at Stanford by Dr. Donald Laub.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, Z1 p.1,4)
1969 Sam Yorty was elected mayor
of Los Angeles. He defeated Tom Bradley 53 to 47%.
(SFC, 9/30/98, p.A13)
1969 Archie "Red" Emerson took his
Sierra Pacific logging company public.
(SFC, 6/26/00, p.A1)
1969 After a heavy rain some 1,600
fish, mostly adult and yearling salmon, died of copper poisoning below
the Kewick Dam.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1969 Euphemia Charlton Fortune
(b.1885), artist, died. She was born in Edinburgh but received most of
her training in the US and became one of the West Coast’s most
acclaimed painters.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.B1)
1969-1979 Dr. Dale P. Wren (1919-1996) served as the
first president of the Feather River College, when the school was part
of the Peralta Community College District.
(SFC, 1/9/96, p.C4)
1969-1987 The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles
at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.D5)
1970 Jan 1, The Family Law Act
took effect in California. It included no-fault divorce.
(SFC, 7/20/07, p.B12)(www.jstor.org/pss/351519)
1970 Feb 28, Bicycles were
permitted to cross the Golden Gate Bridge.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1970 Apr 10, In California grape
grower Lionel Steinberg (d.1999 at 79) signed the initial contract with
Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers.
(SFC, 3/12/99, p.A23)
1970 May 25, [Rachel] Lindsay
Greenbush and Sidney [Robin] Greenbush, twin actresses (Carrie-Little
House on Prairie), were born in Hollywood, CA.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1970 Jul 4, Casey Kasem (b.1932)
debuted his "American Top 40" on LA radio.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Kasem)
1970 Jul 26, The SF Chronicle
received a letter from the Zodiac killer with an unsubstantiated claim
of killing 13 people.
(SFC, 10/2/00, p.A19)
1970 Aug 7, Jonathon P. Jackson,
the younger brother of George L. Jackson, attempted an armed rescue
attempt at the Marin Civic Center. A shootout in the parking lot
followed and 4 people were killed and 5 injured. Among the dead were
Jackson, Judge Harold Haley, Black Panther James McClain, and convict
William A. Christmas. Angela Davis was charged with murder, kidnapping
and conspiracy, but was acquitted in 1972 after spending a year in jail.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W21)(SFC, 8/19/98, p.A18)
1970 Aug 29, Ruben Salazar (42), a
Latino journalist for KMEX, was killed by a tear gas canister fired by
a sheriff’s deputy following an anti-war demonstration in East Los
Angeles. In 2008 a US postage stamp was issued in his honor.
(SFC, 4/21/08, p.A1)
1970 Sep 12, US professor Timothy
Leary, LSD proponent, escaped from a California jail. Leary escaped
from the State Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo with the help of his
third wife, Rosemary and the Weather Underground. He went to Algiers
and joined Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver, who kidnapped the
Learys after a political disagreement. They soon escaped and made their
way to Afghanistan. In 1974 he was caught and revealed his
collaborators to the FBI.
(http://tinyurl.com/4ncp8t)(SFC, 6/1/96, p.A7)(SFC,
7/1/99, p.A9)
1970 Nov 18, Warren Harding
(d.2002 at 77) and Dean Caldwell scaled a new route up El Capitan in
Yosemite Valley after a 27 days effort. Harding 1st scaled El Capitan
in 1958.
(SFC, 3/9/02, p.A24)
1970 Oct 4, Janis Joplin (b.1943)
was found dead in a seedy Hollywood motel of a heroin overdose at age
27. Her classic songs included: "Down on Me," "Ball and Chain," and
"Piece of My Heart." In 1992 Laura Joplin authored “Love, Janis.”
(WSJ, 1/9/97, p.A8)(SFEC, 3/16/97, Z1 p.4)(SSFC,
8/21/05, p.F1)
1970 Oct 19, Amdahl Corp.,
a manufacturer of IBM mainframe compatible products, was formed at
Sunnyvale, California by Dr. Gene Amdahl, a former IBM employee. It has
been a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu since 1997.
(www.wordiq.com/definition/Amdahl)
1970 Oct 19, John Linley Frazier
murdered Dr. Victor Ohta, his wife, 2 children and secretary in Santa
Cruz, Ca. He was convicted in Dec. 1971, and sentenced to death. The
sentence was changed to life in prison after the state Supreme Court
struck down capital punishment in California. In 2009 Frazier (62)
committed suicide at Mule Creek State Prison.
(www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/frazier.htm)(SFC,
1/27/05, p.B7)(SFC, 8/20/09, p.D6)
1970 Nov 3, Gov. Reagan won a 2nd
term. He defeated Jesse Unruh.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F7)
1970 Robert Earl Burton, aka "The
Teacher," founded the Fellowship of Friends while living in Berkeley.
The group incorporated in 1971 and moved to Yuba County, Ca., where
they bought and cleared land with donations and volunteer labor on an
estate called Apollo. The group’s philosophy was based on the teachings
of George Gurdjieff and Peter Ouspensky. The group has been charged
with brainwashing and sexual exploitation.
(SFC, 10/12/97, p.A10)
1970 Ron Dellums (34) was elected
as representative of the East Bay’s 7th Congressional District. He was
later re-elected by the 9th District and stayed in Congress for 27
years.
(SFC,11/17/97, p.A1)
1970 Wilson Riles was elected over
Max Rafferty as the state superintendent of schools. Riles became the
first black to hold statewide office.
(SFC, 4/3/99, p.A17)
1970 California enacted a no-fault
divorce policy.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1970 The California Welfare Reform
Act allowed women to receive public funding for abortions.
(WSJ, 1/30/97, p.A16)
1970 The California Environmental
Quality Act was passed. It required developers to produce an
environmental impact report on any new project.
(PacDis, Summer ’97, p.13)
1970 California and Nevada
approved The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1970 The Ryan Act essentially
eliminated art-course training requirements for elementary
schoolteachers.
(SFC, 5/13/02, p.A9)
1970 Warren Winiarski and
investors purchased an orchard next to Nathan Fay’s vineyard in Napa
County, Ca., and began planting what would become Stag’s Leap Wine
Cellars. His 1973 grapes became the Cabernet Sauvignon that won the
famous 1976 tasting in Paris.
(SFC, 1/5/06, p.F5)(SFC, 3/28/08, p.F4)
1970s Judy Chicago and Miriam
Schapiro cofounded the Feminist art program at the California Institute
of Arts.
(WSJ, 3/15/00, p.A24)
1970s The California native Plant
Society was formed.
(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1971 Jan 8, 29 pilot whales
beached themselves and died at San Clemente Island, off Calif.
(www.jwildlifedis.org/cgi/content/abstract/7/4/324)
1971 Jan 18, Two Standard Oil
tankers collided in the fog a quarter mile west of the Golden Gate
Bridge. The Arizona Standard ripped into the Oregon Standard and caused
the spill of some 1.9 million gallons of heavy bunker oil. 800,000
gallons of oil was dumped into the Bay. The spill spread over 50 miles
along the California coast.
(SFEC, 2/23/96, z-1 p.5)(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W39)(SFEC,
6/27/99, p.A14)
1971 Jan 25, Charles Manson and
three female followers were convicted in Los Angeles of murder and
conspiracy in the 1969 slayings of seven people, including actress
Sharon Tate.
(AP, 1/25/98)(SFEC, 5/23/99, Z1 p.4)
1971 Feb 9, In San Fernando a 6.5
earthquake killed 65 people.
(SFEC, 10/17/99, p.A3)
1971 Mar 29, A jury in Los Angeles
recommended the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female
followers for the 1969 Tate-La Bianca murders. The sentences were later
commuted.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Manson)
1971 Apr 19, Charles Manson and 3
accomplices were sentenced to death for the Sharon Tate murders.
(www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/manson/23.html)
1971 May 19, A California supreme
court decision allowed minors to obtain an abortion without parental
consent as long as their doctors believed they were mature enough to
make the decision.
(SFC, 5/5/97, p.A4)
1971 May 23, In California poet
Lou Welch (b.1926) walked away from Gary Snider’s residence in the
Sierra foothills and was never seen again.
(SFC, 8/15/97,
p.A21)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lew_Welch)
1971 Jul 12, Kristi Tsuya
Yamaguchi, figure skater (Olympic-Gold-92), was born in Hayward, Calif.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1971 Jul 12, Juan Corona was
indicted for 25 murders. Corona, a farm labor contractor from Yuba City
in California, had killed and mutilated 25 farm workers. He was
convicted to life in prison.
(SFEC, 5/4/97, p.B12)(MC, 7/12/02)
1971 Aug 21, Three prisoners,
George Jackson (29), Ronald Kane (28), John Lynn (29), and 3 guards,
Jere Graham (39), Frank DeLeon (44) and Paul Krasenes (52), were killed
during an attempted prison escape at San Quentin, California. Jackson
after meeting with his lawyer, Stephen Bingham, pulled a hidden
automatic pistol from his hair and began to release other prisoners.
Jackson’s prison letters were published as "Soledad Brother."
(WUD, 1994, p. 1688)(SFC, 8/25/96, z1 p.5)(SSFCM,
8/19/01, p.7)
1971 Sep 11, The body of a woman
was found in the Delta-Mendota Canal near Westley, Ca. she had been
stabbed 65 times. In 2008 DNA evidence identified her as Mary Alice
Willey (23) of San Francisco. It was suspected that she had played a
role in the Aug 29 black Panther attack at the Ingleside police station
that left one officer dead.
(SFC, 10/7/08, p.B2)(SSFC, 5/24/09, p.A1)
1971 Aug 23, Shamu the Whale, the
1st of a number of Shamus, died at Sea World in San Diego, Ca., after 6
years in captivity.
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8934865)
1971 Oct 21, Half Moon Bay, Ca.,
held its 1st Art and Pumpkin Festival. The 1-day event was thought up
by Dolores Mullin to raise money for the Main Street Beautification
Committee to buy trees. John Minaidis of Half Moon Bay won with a
132-pound pumpkin.
(Ind, 9/29/01, 5A)(SFC, 10/10/06, p.B3)
1971 Oct 30, Mack Ray Edwards,
California serial killer, hanged himself while on death row. He
admitted to 6 sexually motivated murders in the 1950s and 1960s and
later told a jailer that the number was closer to 20.
(SSFC, 10/12/08,
p.B7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_Ray_Edwards)
1971 The D.Q. University,
California’s only Indian tribal college, was founded on 643 acres of
federal surplus property 7 miles west of Davis.
(SFC, 4/5/00, p.A15,22)
1971 The Berkeley-Oakland Support
Services program began. It was renamed in 1996 to Building
Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS).
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.2)
1971 George Lucas moved his film
operations to Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, Ca.
(WSJ, 1/22/00, p.B1)
1971 The last passenger train from
SF to Monterey was put into retirement. A project to bring it back was
initiated by Monterey in 1997.
(SFC, 5/5/97, p.A20)
1971 Swami Vishnu-devananda
(1927-1993), a student of Swami Sivananda (1887-1963), set up the
Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm in Grass Valley, Ca.
(SSFC, 10/3/04,
p.D5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Vishnu-devananda)
1971 The American Indian Council
of Mariposa County, Ca., was formed.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, Z1 p.4)
1971 John Belton Dewitt
(1937-1996) became the executive director of the Save-the-Redwoods
League, a California organization established in 1918. Under his
24-years as secretary and director $65 million was raised and 30,000
acres of virgin forest was acquired for public parks and preserves.
(SFC, 8/29/96,
p.C4)(www.savetheredwoods.org/league/timeline.shtml)
1971 Stanley "Tookie" Williams and
Raymond Washington formed the Crips gang as an alliance to combat
rivals in East Los Angeles, Ca.
(SFEC, 11/19/00, p.C2)
1971 California state income taxes
began to be withheld from worker's paychecks. California was the last
state to do so.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1971 The Serrano-Priest decision
ruled that California’s state system of primarily using property tax
revenue to finance schools was unconstitutional. The decision was
written by Justice Raymond Sullivan.
(SFC, 10/22/99, p.B7)
1971 California’s Gov. Reagan
approved a major increase in aid to welfare recipients.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1971 California had 12 state
prisons. By 2001 the number rose to 33.
(SSFCM, 8/19/01, p.7)
1971 In California Francis Dale
Calhoon (73) was convicted in the murder of his wife, Marian. He served
3 years in prison and during that time began writing books on the
California Gold Rush. Calhoon died in 1999 and his 5 Gold Country sagas
were still in print along with a story of his prison experience.
(SFC, 1/1/00, p.A25)
1971 John Linley Frazier, hippie
revolutionary, was convicted of killing 5 people in Santa Cruz, Ca.,
and was sentenced to death.
(SSFC, 2/8/04, p.A28)
1971 The first Ralph Lauren Polo
store opened on Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive.
(SFC, 4/14/96, EM,
p.10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polo_Ralph_Lauren)
1971 Mervyns, a California-based
department store chain, went public with a stock sale of 300,000 shares.
(WSJ, 9/4/08, p.B6)
1971 Toyota Corp. established the
Calty Design facility in Newport Beach, Ca., an automotive design
center.
(IBCC, 10/97, #9)
1971 In northern California
students at San Rafael High School, who smoked pot and called
themselves the Waldos, coined the term 420 (four-twenty) as a shorthand
code for meeting at the campus statue of Louis Pasteur at 4:20 pm to
smoke pot.
(SFC, 4/20/00, p.A20)
1971 The "Sickle Slayer" hacked 2
campers to death near Nevada City, Ca.
(SFC, 1/12/01, p.A3)
1971-1974 Norman Mineta served as mayor of San Jose.
(SSFC, 8/26/01, p.E1)
1972 Feb 18, The California
Supreme Court struck down the state's death penalty.
(HN, 2/18/98)(AP, 2/18/98)
1972 Nov 7, California voters
passed Proposition 20 allowing the creation of the Coastal Commission
to regulate construction along the coast. In 2002 a state appeals court
ruled it unconstitutional.
(SFC, 12/31/02,
p.A1)(http://igs.berkeley.edu/library/htCoastalCommission2003.html)
1972 Sep 11, The first trial of
serial killer Juan Corona began in Colusa County, Ca. It ended up
costing $350,000.
(www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/juan_corona/8.html)(SFC,
2/25/99, p.A13)
1972 Oct 12, US House Resolution
16444, establishing the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA),
was passed by Congress and was signed by President Richard Nixon 15
days later. The island of Alcatraz was incorporated into this park.
California Congressman Phillip Burton pushed through legislation
preserving thousands of acres of forested hills, valleys and rugged
shoreline. Burton got Congress to agree to transfer the Presidio in San
Francisco to the park service if the army ever pulled out.
(www.sftravel.com/Alcatraz1950on.html)(SFEC,
6/27/99, Z1 p.1,4)(SFCM, 4/25/04, p.18)(SFC, 10/4/96, p.A21)
1972 Dec 25, Lois Petrie was raped
and killed in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles. In 2003 Adolph
Theodore Laudenburg (77) was arrested for the murder based on DNA
evidence. He was suspected in a total of 6 murders between 1972 and
1975, 3 in LA and 3 in SF.
(SFC, 9/9/03, p.A13)
1972 Dec, Steven Stayner (7) was
kidnapped while on his way home from school in Merced. Stayner (d.1989)
was held and sexually abused for 7 years by Kenneth Eugene Parnell. A
1989 NBC miniseries "I Know My First Name Is Steven" told his story and
was based on book by the same name. In 1999 Cary Stayner, Steven’s
younger brother, killed 4 women near Yosemite. In 2002 Parnell (71) was
arrested in Berkeley for attempting to buy a 4-year-old boy.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A13)(SSFC, 1/5/03, p.A1,12)
1972 Carlos Bueno (d.2001 at 60),
painter and muralist, encouraged Self-Help Graphics to sponsor the 1st
Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration in Los Angeles.
(SFC, 9/6/01, p.E8)
1972 Johnny Carson moved the
“Tonight Show” from New York to Burbank, Ca., and established Los
Angeles as the center of popular culture.
(Econ, 1/29/05, p.32)
1972 The US government outlawed
the pesticide DDT. It followed the suit filed by Ralph Abascal (d.1997
at 63) of California Rural Legal Assistance on behalf of six
farmworkers. The federal law prevented California’s Montrose Chemical
Co. from dumping DDT into the ocean off the Palos Verdes peninsula.
(SFC, 1/18/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 3/18/97, p.A22)(Pac.
Disc., summer, ‘96, p.5)
1972 Ken Bannister began handing
out Chiquita banana stickers at photo trade shows to garner attention.
People responded by sending him banana-related items. This led him to
found his Int’l. Banana Museum in Altadena.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, DB p.49)
1972 Judge Allen Broussard
(1929-1996) was the first African American to be elected president of
the California Judges Assoc.
(SFEC, 11/24/96, Z1 p.7)
1972 Privacy was added to the
California state Constitution as an inalienable right.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1972 The Marin Town and Country
Club was closed after area residents passed a ballot measure that
required voter approval prior to any new development.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A19)
1972 LA Mayor Sam Yorty switched
from the Democratic to the Republican Party.
(WSJ, 6/8/98, p.A1)
1972 Psychiatrist Dennis Cantwell
(1939-1997) began serving as director of the UCLA Neuropsychiatric
Institute and stayed there until 1991. He helped edit 5 textbooks that
included: "Developmental Speech and Language Disorders" with Lorian
Baker, "Psychiatric and Developmental Disorders in Children with
Communication Disorder," and "Fundamentals of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry" with Syed Husein.
(www.universityofcalifornia.edu/senate/inmemoriam/DennisP.Cantwell.htm)
1972 Four locomotives of the
Northwestern Pacific Railroad derailed in the Eel River Canyon.
(SFEC, 9/7/97, Z1 p.1)
1972 Saul Alinsky, founder of the
Industrial Areas Foundation, died in Carmel.
(SFC, 9/16/98, p.A5)
1972-73 Edmund Kemper III (b.1948) murdered 6 female
college students and chopped up their bodies in the Santa Cruz, Ca.,
area. In 1964, at age 15, he had shot and killed his grandparents. He
killed his mother and a friend of hers in Santa Cruz on Easter weekend,
1973, and soon surrendered. He was sentenced to life in prison at
Vacaville, Ca.
(www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/kemper/edmund_1.html)
1973 Feb 5, Juan Corona was
sentenced in Fairfield, Ca., to 25 consecutive life terms for the 25
murders of migrant workers.
(www.trivia-library.com/a/longest-prison-sentences-in-history.htm)
1973 Mar 27, The 45th Academy
Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. "The
Godfather" won the Academy Award for best picture of 1972, but its
star, Marlon Brando, refused to accept his Oscar for best actor. Liza
Minnelli won best actress for "Cabaret."
(AP, 3/27/98)(SFC, 3/19/02, p.D1)
1973 Apr 28, In Roseville, Ca., a
huge explosion of military ordnance occurred on a trainload of bombs
and ammunition headed for the Port Chicago Naval Weapons Station and
then to US troops in Vietnam. Nobody was killed. 18 government-owned
boxcars, each with more than 330 250-pound bombs, exploded in a daylong
series of blasts.
(SFC, 10/8/97, p.A20)(SFC, 10/9/97, p.A28)
1973 May 29, Tom Bradley (d.1998)
was elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles, defeating incumbent
Sam Yorty. He served to 1993.
(AP, 5/29/97)(SFC, 9/30/98, p.A1)
1973 Jun 5, Doris A. Davis becomes
the first African-American woman to govern a city in a major
metropolitan area when she is elected mayor of Compton, California.
(HN, 6/5/00)
1973 Aug 19, In Santa Cruz, Ca.,
Herbert Mullin (b.1947) was declared guilty of first-degree murder in
the cases of Jim Gianera and Kathy Francis, because they were
premeditated, while for the other eight murders he was found guilty of
second-degree murder because they were more impulsive. His story was
later told by Donald T. Lunde and Jefferson Morgan in “The Die Song: A
Journey in the Mind of a Mass Murderer.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Mullin)
1973 Aug 21, Teamster's Union and
AFL-CIO's United Farm Workers' union came to a settlement with regard
to organizing grape growers in California. In response Cesar Chavez
called an end to the UFW grape strike. A nationwide boycott of
California’s non-union grapes, lettuce and Gallo wines was stepped up.
(SFEM, 4/13/97,
p.8)(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1973-8/1973-08-21-ABC-16.html)
1973 Aug, Kenneth Patrick (40),
Point Reyes National Seashore park ranger, was shot to death after he
stopped a car of suspected bow-and-arrow deer poachers. Veronza Bowers,
a Black Panther, was convicted of the murder and sentenced to 30 years
in prison. In 2005 Bowers (59), who denied the charges, was schedule
for release under a mandatory parole law.
(SFC, 2/4/05, p.B4)
1973 Nov 6, The Symbionese
Liberation Army (SLA) assassinated Oakland school superintendent Marcus
Foster and wounded his assistant. The SLA warned against a proposed
student ID program.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W22)(SFC, 1/23/01, p.A13)
1973 Kevin Starr wrote the first
volume of his California State history: "Americans and the California
Dream, 1850-1915." The 5th volume "The Dream Endures: California Enters
the 1940s" was published in 1997. The series included "Endangered
Dreams: The Great Depression in California."
(SFEC, 3/30/97, BR. p.4)(WSJ, 11/26/97, p.CA4)(SFEC,
2/22/98, BR p.5)
1973 John Weaver (d.2002) authored
"Los Angeles: El Pueblo Grande."
(SFC, 12/7/02, p.A25)
1973 BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
opened a station in downtown Walnut Creek, Ca.
(SFC, 7/17/06, p.B5)
1973 Timothy Leary (d.1996) was
captured in Afghanistan and returned to jail in California. He was
pardoned by Gov. Brown in 1976.
(SFC, 2/9/02, p.A22)
1973 In Marin County, California,
Sylvia Siegel (1918-2007) founded “Toward Utility Rate Normalization”
(TURN), a consumer group to battle utility prices increases.
(SFC, 8/21/07, p.B5)
1973 Count Robert Jean de Vogue,
French chairman of Moet-Hennessey, purchased 350 acres in Yountville
for his new winery that debuted as Domaine Chandon in 1977.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, Z1 p.16)
1973 Dun-Rite, a Fresno, Ca.,
maker of a pop-up timer for roasting turkeys, was sold to 3M Co. of St.
Paul, Minn. In 1982 3M sued the Volk Enterprises, another Fresno maker
of pop-up timers developed by Tony Volk. A few years later a settlement
was negotiated. In 1991 Volk acquired 3M’s pop-up business.
(WSJ, 11/22/05, p.A1)
1974 Jan 20, Howard C. Ulrich was
appointed by Ronald Reagan to serve as the chief of Caltrans and served
from this day to Aug 8, 1975.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.A14)
1974 Jan 25, Ray Kroc (1902-1984),
the head of McDonald's Corp., bought the SD Padres for $12 million and
prevented the team's planned move to Washington DC.
(www.addictsports.com/baseball/archive/index.php/t-28507.html)(SFC,
10/13/03, p.A19)
1974 Feb 4, Newspaper heiress
Patricia Hearst (19) was kidnapped in Berkeley, Calif., by the
Symbionese Liberation Army. Her boyfriend Steven Weed was beaten. Patty
Hearst ran away to join an underground revolutionary group, the
Symbionese Liberation Front.
(TMC, 1994, p.1974)(SFC, 2/8/97, p.A7)(AP,
2/4/97)(AP, 2/4/97)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W22)
1974 Feb 12, The SLA sent a letter
a tape with the voices of Patty Hearst and "general field marshal
Cinque" to KPFA. They demanded free food to the poor of the Bay Area,
prison reform and social justice. Symbionese Liberation Army asked the
Hearst family for $230 million in food for the poor.
(HN, 2/12/97)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W22)
1974 Feb 16, Rev. Cecil Williams
of Glide Memorial Church received a tape from the SLA wherein Cinque
said a "reasonable" food giveaway would be acceptable as a condition
for the release of Patty Hearst.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W22)
1974 Feb 18, In California
Randolph Hearst was to give $2 million in free food for the poor in
order to open talks for his daughter Patty.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1974 Feb 19, Randolph Hearst
announced a $2 million food program called People in Need.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W22)
1974 Feb 23, William F. Knowland,
former Cal. state senator and Oakland Tribune newspaper publisher and
editor, committed suicide. In 1998 Gayle B. Montgomery and James W.
Johnson, in collaboration with Paul G. Manolis, published the biography
"One Step from the White House: The Rise and Fall of Senator William F.
Knowland."
(SFEC, 5/17/98, BR
p.5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Knowland)
1974 Mar 8, Snow fell in
Bakersfield.
(SFC, 1/26/99, p.A19)
1974 Apr 3, A tape from the SLA
announced Patty Hearst’s decision to "stay and fight" with the SLA.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W22,23)
1974 Apr 15, SLA members including
Patty Hearst robbed the Sunset Branch of the Hibernia Bank of more than
$10,000. The wounded 2 passersby as they fled.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W23)
1974 May 16, SLA members William
and Emily Harris were identified with Patty Hearst in LA during a
shoplifting attempt at Mel's Sporting Goods store. They escaped in a
stolen van with an 19-year-old kidnapped victim.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W23)(SFC, 2/4/99, p.A8)
1974 May 17, LA police and FBI
agents engaged in a gun battle with SLA members in a bungalow. The
house caught fire and 6 bodies were recovered that included Cinque and
William Wolfe. Patty Hearst was not there.
(SFEC, 5/16/99,
p.A10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbionese_Liberation_Army)
1974 Jun 29, In Fresno, Ca.,
Clarence Ray Allen (44) robbed Fran’s market. Soon after Mary Sue Kitts
(17) was murdered on orders from Allen (44) for revealing Allen’s role
in a robbery. In 1997 Allen was convicted for her murder and was
sentenced to life in prison. Allen faced execution in 2006.
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.B3)(SFC, 1/13/06,
p.A15)(http://tinyurl.com/4s4pqp)
1974 Jul 9, Former California
governor and U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren died in Washington D.C. In
1997 Ed Cray authored the Warren biography "Chief Justice."
(AP, 7/9/99)(SFC, 2/28/01, p.A18)
1974 Aug 31, William P. Benedict,
was killed while dropping fire retardant in the Ukiah area of
California on the labor day weekend. In 1952 Lieutenant Colonel
Benedict and Lieutenant Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher of Oklahoma piloted
the 1st airplane to land at the geographic North Pole. In 2002 Charles
B. Compton later authored "Born to Fly: Some Life Sketches of
Lieutenant Colonel William P. Benedict."
(CBC, 11/13/03)
1974 Dec 1, The L.A. Skid Row
slasher killed Charles Jackson (46), an alcoholic drifter. In 1975
police arrested Vaughn Greenwood, a black loner and homosexual, who had
drifted back and forth between Chicago and California. In 1977
Greenwood, who was indicted on 11 counts of murder, was convicted on 9
counts and sentenced to life in prison.
(www.crimezzz.net/serialkillers/G/GREENWOOD_vaughn_orrin.php)
1974 Kent Twitchell painted the
20-foot high mural "The Old Woman of the Freeway" in Los Angeles. It
was painted over in the mid 80s and Twitchell worked to restore it in
the 90s.
(SFC, 1/25/99, p.A20)
1974 The J. Paul Getty Museum was
established in Malibu, Ca., by the billionaire oilman. It was designed
by Robert E. Langdon Jr. (d.2004) and Ernest C. Wilson Jr.
(WSJ, 1/30/97, p.A14)(SFC, 8/26/04, p.B6)
1974 The Federal Correctional
Institution in Dublin was built.
(SFC, 6/16/98, p.A15)
1974 James Wishard Robertson
(d.2001 at 66) and his wife Carolyn founded the Yolla Bolly Press in
Covelo, Ca.
(SFC, 12/22/01, p.A28)
1974 Gov. Ronald Reagan appointed
Judge Frank K. Richardson (d.1999 at age 85) to the California Supreme
Court. Richardson retired in 1983. Regan served as governor from
1966-1974. In 2003 Lou Cannon authored "Governor Reagan."
(SFC, 10/7/99, p.C4)(WSJ, 10/7/03, p.D10)
1974 California state spending
under Gov. Reagan increased from $4.6 to $10.2 billion when he left
office.
(SSFC, 6/6/04, A27)
1974 California enacted a
community property law.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1974 Janet Gray Hayes was elected
mayor of San Jose by 1,660 votes. She defeated Bart Collins, a retired
police detective.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC, 9/2/99, p.A12)
1974 Marjorie Downing Wagner was
named the 3rd president of Sonoma State Univ.
(SFC, 7/11/97, p.E2)
1974 SF Mayor Joseph Alioto made
another bid for governor of California but the campaign stumbled under
allegations that he paid no income tax from 1970-1972. He lost the
Democratic primary to Jerry Brown. Also the DA held that Alioto was in
conflict of interest in arranging the family purchase of the Pacific
Far East Line, which owned $1.7 million in back rent to the city-owned
port.
(SFC, 1/30/98, p.A10)
1974 Jerry Brown was elected
California state governor over Houston Flournoy.
(SFC,10/29/97, p.A16)
1974 Jerry Brown as Sec. of State
wrote the Political Reform Act, which in part precluded public
officials from decisions in which they had a financial interest.
(SFC, 2/5/00, p.A19)
1974 Walnut Creek residents voted
to spend $6.75 million to acquire the bulk of Lime Ridge as open space
property. The land was acquired in 1975 and expanded in 1993.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A20)
1974 Gardner Kent, a resident at
the Star Mountain commune in Sonoma County, carted his family and a
number of strangers in a converted school bus across the US. This
marked the beginning of Green Tortoise Adventure Travel.
(SSFC, 8/22/04, p.D6)
1974 Ken Behring, a Florida land
developer, and his partners agreed to donate 2,052 acres near Danville
to the California state park system in exchange for the right to build
2,400 homes that became the Blackhawk community. The last 511-acre
parcel was transferred in 1999. In 1975 Dan Van Voorhis (1939-2005),
East Bay attorney, and Sandy Skaggs formed a new law firm to help
develop the Blackhawk project.
(SFC, 5/14/99, p.A21)(SFC, 3/17/05, p.B7)
1974 Harry Partch (b.1901),
California composer, instrument builder, philosopher and
multiculturalist, died. He held allegiance to just intonation and the
43 tone scale. His collection of instruments was deeded in 1990
to NY-based Dean Drummond, the director of NEWBAND, an
organization based on Partch's work.
(SFEM, 9/5/99, p.11)
1974 Louis M. Martini (79),
California vintner died. His son, Louis P. Martini (d.1998), took over
the vineyards and developed Merlot wine.
(SFC, 9/22/98, p.E2)
1974-1978 The average value of a California home rose
from $34,000 to $85,000.
(SFC, 5/20/98, p.A10)
1975 Feb 22, Daniel Alstadt (18),
an eagle scout and football player, killed his parents and sister and
paralyzed his brother with a hatchet in the San Carlos area of San
Diego and then set their house on fire. In 2000 Alstadt committed
suicide by hanging at Valley State Prison in Coalinga.
(SFEC, 5/28/00, p.C3)
1975 Apr 21, Members of the SLA
robbed the Carmichael Bank in suburban Sacramento, Ca. Myrna Opsahl, a
mother (42) of four, was shot dead. Patty Hearst drove the getaway car.
Emily Harris shot Opsahl with a 12-gauge shotgun. 4 SLA members were
arrested for the murder of Opsahl in 2002. Michael Bortin, William
Harris, Sara Jane Olson and Emily Montague all pleaded guilty. Fugitive
James Kilgore was arrested in South Africa Nov 8, 2002. In 2003
Montague was sentenced to 8 years, Harris to 7 years, Olson and Bortin
to 6 years. In 2004 Kilgore was sentenced to 4 ½ years. Kilgore
was paroled in 2009.
(SFC, 2/4/99, p.A8)(SFC, 1/23/01, p.A13)(SFC,
1/18/02, p.A22)(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A1)(SFC, 11/8/02, p.A1)(SFC, 11/9/02,
p.A1)(SFC, 2/15/03, p.A3)(SFC, 4/27/04, p.B1)(SFC, 5/11/09, p.B2)
1975 May 3, Gov. Jerry Brown of
California began a round of private meetings to resolve the issues
between the UFW, agribusiness, and the Teamsters Union.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.22)
1975 Jun 5, Gov. Jerry Brown of
California announced the new Agricultural Labor Relations Act. It was a
temporary truce in the struggle between the state’s farm workers
(UFW) led by Cesar Chavez and farmers. Chavez officially ended the
table grape, lettuce and wine boycott on Jan 31, 1978.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.22)(SFC, 1/31/03, p.E4)
1975 Jul 1, Cesar Chavez and sixty
supporters of the UFW embarked on a thousand-mile march across
California to rally the state’s farm workers.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.23)
1975 Jul 9, California’s Governor
Jerry Brown signed a bill that reduced the penalty for possession of
marijuana to a $100 fine. The bill was sponsored by Sen. George R.
Moscone and written with the help of attorney Leo Paoli (d.1997 at 65).
(SFC, 12/27/99,
p.A10)(www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/moscone/chap3.htm)
1975 Aug 21-22, In Los Angeles
Kathleen Ann Soliah (later known as Sarah Jane Olson) and other members
of the SLA placed 2 pipe bombs under parked police cars at an Int'l.
House of Pancakes on Sunset Blvd. They did not explode. Olson pleaded
guilty to 2 felony accounts in 2001.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.A3)(SFC, 1/23/01, p.A13)(SFC,
11/1/01, p.A1)
1975 Sep. 5, President Ford
escaped an attempt on his life by Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a disciple
of Charles Manson, in Sacramento, Calif.
(AP, 9/5/97)
1975 Sep 18, Police and FBI
arrested SLA members Patty Hearst, William and Emily Harris, Steven
Soliah and Wendy Yoshimura in SF. James Kilgore disappeared and later
surfaced a Univ. of Cape Town Prof. Charles William Pape. He was
arrested in 2002. Hearst was convicted of bank robbery and served over
22 months in federal prison. Pres. Carter commuted her sentence in
1979. Kathleen Ann Soliah remained a fugitive until 1999 when she was
picked up in St. Paul, Minn., under the name of Sara Jane Olson. She
was wanted for placing 2 pipe bombs under police cars in LA.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W23)(SFC, 2/4/99, p.A8)(SFC,
6/17/99, p.A1)(SFC, 5/11/09, p.B2)
1975 Sep 23, California’s Gov.
Jerry Brown signed the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA).
It imposed limits on attorney fees and capped jury awards in medical
malpractice suits for “noneconomic” damages to $250,000.
(SFC, 4/25/01, p.A7)(WSJ, 7/13/04,
p.D4)(http://tinyurl.com/m852rv)
1975 Sep, In San Bernadino County,
Ca., Lorrie Sue McClary (16) and her boyfriend were arrested for the
murder of Anna Mills (79), who had hired her and her boyfriend, Fred
Wilson (23). She later claimed that she pleaded guilty to protect her
boyfriend. McClary was sentenced 7 years to life and her boyfriend, who
testified against her, drew a 4 year sentence. In 1998 her request for
parole was denied by Gov. Wilson.
{California, Murder, USA, Teens amuck}
(SFC, 6/15/98,
p.A22)(www.feminist.com/news/vaw28.html)
1975 Nov 26, A federal jury in
Sacramento, Calif., found Lynette Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson,
guilty of trying to assassinate President Ford. [see Sep 5]
(HN, 11/26/98)(AP, 11/26/99)
1975 Fall, In Sacramento at the
offices of the Agricultural Labor Relations Bureau (ALRB),
Teamsters stormed in with charges of pro-UFW bias and ruffed up
agency officials.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.24)
1975 Dec 30, Tiger Woods, later
professional golfer, was born as Eldrick Woods in Cypress, California.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Woods)
1975 The Bolinas, Ca., based
Coastal Post began publishing news of Muir Beach, Stinson Beach,
Bolinas, Olema and Dog Town.
(SFC, 6/30/99, p.C2)
1975 The 62-story United
California Bank Tower in downtown LA was built by C.L. Peck Contractor.
(SFC, 12/26/98, p.A23)
1975 Gary Dahl, a California
advertising man, dreamed up the pet rock fad.
(SFC, 7/12/00, p.A16)
1975 Robert Hoffmann (d.1997 at
74), human potential movement pioneer, established the Quadrinity
Center in San Anselmo, Ca., to promote his holistic model of the human
being that included physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual
elements.
(SFC, 8/21/97, p.C4)
1975 California Assemblyman Willie
Brown won the narrow approval of a bill that decriminalized various sex
acts, including sodomy, by consenting adults.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1975 Cameron Hooker kidnapped a
20-year-old woman and kept her in his Red Bluff, Ca., home as a sex
slave for 7 years. The case was dubbed "The Girl in the Box" when it
was learned that hooker kept her in a box for 3 years under a bed he
shared with his wife. Hooker was prosecuted and found guilty in 1985.
(SSFC, 2/8/04, p.A28)
1975 The short-handled hoe ("el
cortito") was banished from California’s farm fields due to its
debilitating effect on worker’s health.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.28)
1975 The Wilder Ranch, formerly
Rancho Refugio, was sold to California state and became Wilder Ranch
State Park. It and the adjacent Gray Whale ranch north of Santa Cruz,
totaled 8,300 acres of coastal beach and country forest.
(Ind, 7/11/00,10A)
1975 Film director Francis Ford
Coppola purchased part of the Inglenook Winery in Napa County, Ca. He
purchased the rest in 1995.
(SFC, 3/30/01, Wba p.8)
1975 The New Almaden mine south of
San Jose, Ca., was closed. It had mined mercury for over 120 years. In
the 1980s it was placed on the state’s list of Superfund cleanup sites.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.A26)
1975 Dutch elm disease was first
found to have spread to California.
(SFC, 7/31/98, p.A21)
1975-1983 David Saxon (1920-2005) served as president
of the Univ. of California. He left in 1983 to serve as chairman of MIT
Corp. and served there until 1990.
(SFC, 12/9/05, p.B5)
1976 Jan 1, In California the
Moscone Act, which relaxed marijuana laws, went into effect.
(www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/moscone/summary.htm)
1976 Feb 15, In Los Angeles
Elizabeth McKeown (67) was beaten, raped and strangled. A young
homicide detective found her body 3 days later in a car trunk. In 2009
John Floyd Thomas Jr. (72), an insurance claims adjuster, was arrested
based on DNA evidence. A series of attacks stopped in 1978, the year
Thomas went to prison for the rape of a Pasadena woman.
(AP, 5/1/09)(SFC, 9/24/09, p.D3)
1976 Feb 26, A Los Angeles Grand
Jury indicted Kathleen Soliah on explosives and conspiracy charges.
(SFC, 1/23/01, p.A13)
1976 Mar 13, Adriana Gianturco was
appointed by Jerry Brown to serve as the chief of Caltrans and served
from this day to Jan 2, 1983. She slowed highway construction and
pushed the state to focus on mass transit options.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.A14)
1976 Mar 13, A jury convicted 4
Black Muslims for 3 murders and 4 assaults of a total of 23 Bay Area
crimes that included 14 murders. Jessie Lee Cooks, Larry Craig Green,
Manuel Moore and J.C.X. Simon were given life sentences.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W22)
1976 Mar 20, Newspaper heiress
Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for use of a firearm in
the San Francisco Hibernia Bank holdup. In Sept she was sentenced to 7
years in prison.
(AP, 3/20/97)(HN, 3/20/98)(SFC, 2/4/99, p.A8)
1976 May 24, In France 2
California wines won a tasting event over several French classics for
the 1st time. Stephen Spurrier, English owner of a wine shop and wine
school in Paris, held a competition tasting of French and American
wines. The best white wine was a 1973 Napa Valley Chardonnay from
Chateau Montelena. The best red wine was a 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon from
Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. Winemaker Miljenko Grgich created the Napa
Chardonnay that beat French wines in the legendary Paris Tasting. In
2005 George M. Taber authored “Judgement of Paris,” an account of the
1976 tasting.
(SFC, 5/29/96, ZZ1 p.4)(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.T8)(WSJ,
5/24/01, p.A20)(SFC, 6/16/05, p.F4)
1976 May 21, A bus on I-680 in
California crashed after crossing the Benicia-Martinez Bridge, plunged
21 feet, and rolled upside down. 28 Yuba City High School students and
one adult were killed. There were 22 survivors.
(SFC, 5/20/96, p.A-20)
1976 Jul 12, Edward Charles
Allaway, a campus janitor, killed 7 people in a library at California
State Univ. at Fullerton. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity
and was confined at a state mental hospital.
(SFC, 12/22/01,
p.A5)(www.spock.com/Edward-Charles-Allaway)
1976 Jul 15, School Children in
Chowchilla, CA. were kidnapped by 3 young men, Richard (22) and James
Schoenfeld (24) and Newhall Woods (24). The 26 children were herded
into a moving van that was buried in a quarry near Livermore, Ca. and
held for $5 million ransom. The children escaped after 16 hours and
their captors were captured within 2 weeks. The men were sentenced to
life in prison.
(SFC, 7/14/96, Z1 p.1)(AP, 7/15/97)
1976 Sep 17, The California
Supreme Court ruled that the Univ. of California’s special admissions
policy giving preference to minority applicants is unconstitutional.
Allan Bakke had claimed he was the victim of reverse discrimination
when he was denied admission to the UC Davis Medical School.
(SFC, 9/14/01, WB p.6)
1976 Sep 22, Workers began
dismantling Christo’s Running Fence in Marin.
(SFC, 9/21/01, WB p.5)
1976 Oct 29, A petition to rehear
the Bakke case was denied and UC Davis was ordered to admit Bakke.
Judge Stanley Mosk prohibited the Univ. of California from using racial
quotas in its admissions following a reverse discrimination suit
by Allan Bakke.
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.A9)(SFC, 10/26/01, WB p.7)
1976 Nov 2, Voters in California
rejected Prop. 14, an initiative that proposed to add to the state
constitution the funding provisions and rights of organizers (UFW) to
enter farm fields to talk to workers. Opposition to the initiative was
run by the Dolphin Group, an influential lobbying firm.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.28)
1976 Nov 4, Rose Vuich (49) of
Dinuba became the 1st woman elected to the state Senate.
(SFC, 11/2/01, WB p.6)
1976 Nov 22, Phillip Garrido
kidnapped Katie Hall in South Lake Tahoe and drove her to Reno, where
he raped her at a storage unit. Garrido was convicted in 1977 and
sentenced to 50 years in prison. He was paroled in 1988. In 1993 He
kidnapped Jaycee Lee Dugard (11) in South Lake Tahoe and kept her in
Antioch, Ca., until his arrest in 2009.
(SFC, 9/2/09, p.A15)
1976 Dec 8, The state Supreme
Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional. No executions had been
performed since 1967.
(SFC, 12/7/01, WB p.G9)
1976 In California Bulgarian
artist Christo Javacheff created his artwork "Running Fence," a
24.5-mile-long white nylon fence/curtain draped across Marin and Sonoma
counties. The fence cost $3 million and lasted for 2 weeks.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.A16)(SFC, 3/13/99, p.A24)
1976 The book "Splendid Survivors:
San Francisco's Downtown Architectural Heritage" was published.
(SFC, 7/4/03, p.E7)
1976 In California Jim Kepner
(d.1997 at 74), historian and gay-rights pioneer, co-founded the One
Institute, an educational outfit. He wrote for One magazine, the
nation’s first openly "homophile" publication. He created the Int’l.
Gay and Lesbian Archives and his early writings: "Rough News, Daring
Views" were to be published shortly after his death.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.C10)
1976 In California the Mendocino
Land Trust was founded to save property from development.
(SFC, 2/4/02, p.B1)
1976 California’s Gov. Brown
appointed Yoritada "Yori" Wada (d.1997 at 80), director of the SF
Buchanan YMCA, to the UC Board of Regents. Mr. Wada was the first Asian
American regent in the history of UC.
(SFC, 12/4/97, p.C8)
1976 California’s Supreme Court
legalized palimony in a 43-page decision won by Michelle Triola Marvin
against actor Lee Marvin.
(SFC, 11/26/99, p.D9)
1976 S.I. Hayakawa, former
president of SF State College, was elected to the US Senate.
(SFC, 2/2/98, p.A20)
1976 Rose Ann Vuich (d.2001 at 74)
of Dinuba, Ca., began serving as the state’s 1st female senator.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A15)
1976 Hamilton Air Force Base in
Novato, Ca., was decommissioned. The area was later approved for
development as a planned community, Hamilton Landing, with 950 homes in
6 neighborhoods set for completion in 2000.
(SFC, 11/4/98, Z1 p.4)(SFEC, 3/14/99, p.C4)
1976 California filed its first
enforcement action against Stauffer Chemicals, owners of the Iron
Mountain mine near Redding.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1976 Stauffer Chemical Co. sold
the Iron Mountain mine to Ted Armand, a Sacramento businessman, who
planned to use the tailings for fertilizers. Armand claimed that he was
not informed of any environmental issues.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1976 California appropriated
$250,000 to preserve the old Chinese detention center on Angel Island.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.7)
1976 Ravenswood Winery was founded
in Sonoma and went public in 1999. In 2001 it was sold to New York’s
Constellation Brands for $148 million.
(SFC, 4/12/01, p.B6)
1976 The Great American Smokeout,
organized by the American Cancer Society, was first held in California.
(SFEM, 7/14/96, p.32)
1976 The Tao House in Danville,
former residence of playwright Eugene O'Neill, was declared a national
historic site.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, Z1p.1)
1976 The Humboldt nuclear power
plant was shut down after an earthquake fault was discovered running
beneath it. In 1999 the California PUC was expected to approve the
decommissioning of the plant for 2002.
(SFC, 10/28/99, p.C4)
1976 An area of 420,000 acres in
California’s Joshua Tree National Monument was designated a national
wilderness area.
(Sp., 5/96, p.64)
1977 Jan 1, The California Public
Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act became effective. The
concept originated around 1974. The largest supporter of POBRA was the
ACLU. Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill into law.
(www.porac.org/POBR_ptrfr.htm)(SFC, 2/9/06, p.A1)
1977 Jan 28, Freddie Prinze, TV
star in "Chico and the Man," committed suicide with a .32 caliber
pistol. He was despondent and intoxicated with sedatives.
(SSFC, 8/19/01, Par p.5)
1977 Mar 12, The Commission on
Judicial Appointments confirmed Rose Elizabeth Bird (40) as
California’s 25th chief justice and the 1st woman to sit on the state’s
Supreme Court. She was sworn in on March 26.
(SFC, 3/8/02, p.G8)
1977 Mar 15, The state Health
Committee approved a bill by Assemblyman Willie Brown to allow
transsexuals to apply for and receive new birth certificates.
(SFC, 3/15/02, p.G8)
1977 Mar 17, Marin County
pharmacist Fred Mayer started the first Condom Day at UC Berkeley.
(SFC, 3/18/98, p.A16)
1977 Mar 26, Rose Bird (1936-1999)
was sworn in as Chief Justice of California. She had been confirmed on
March 12.
(SFEC, 12/5/99, p.A18)
1977 Apr 12, The State Assembly
approved legislation to allow transsexuals to be issued new birth
certificates.
(SFC, 4/12/02, p.G6)
1977 Apr, The Domain Chandon
winery in Yountville made its debut.
(SFEC,12/28/97, p.A12)
1977 May 9, Patty Hearst was let
out of jail. [see May 10]
(MC, 5/9/02)
1977 May 10, Patti Hearst was
sentenced to 5 years’ probation for her role in the Symbionese
Liberation Army (SLA) crime spree May 16-17, 1974. She still faced a
7-year sentence for armed robbery.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.G7)
1977 May 17, The state Assembly
voted 54-23 to restore the death penalty. Gov. Jerry Brown pledged to
veto the bill. It had passed the Senate 29-10.
(SFC, 5/17/02, p.G8)(SFC, 7/11/97, p.A16)
1977 May 28, Gov. Brown vetoed
legislation that would have reinstated the death penalty.
(SFC, 5/24/02, p.G8)
1977 Aug 11, The California
legislature restored the death penalty.
(SFC, 5/17/02,
p.G8)(www.deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=48)
1977 Aug 19, Comedian Groucho Marx
died in Los Angeles at age 86. In 1996 Steven Stolier authored "Raised
Eyebrows." In 2000 Stefan Kanfer authored "Groucho: The Life and Times
of Julius Henry Marx." Simon Louvish authored "Monkey Business: The
Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers."
(SFC, 6/5/97, p.A26)(AP, 8/19/97)(WSJ, 5/12/00,
p.W8)(SFEC, 6/25/00, Par p.16)
1977 Oct 12, US Supreme Court
heard arguments in the "reverse discrimination" case of Allan Bakke
(35), a white student denied admission to U of California Med School.
(www.oyez.org/cases/1970-1979/1977/1977_76_811/)
1977 The US federal government
ordered General Electric to dismantle its nuclear reactor in
Pleasanton, Ca. Nuclear fuel research continued.
(SFC, 12/25/03, p.A8)
1977 California banned the
pesticide DBCP after men working at a San Joaquin County chemical plant
were found to be sterile. In 1979 the US EPA prohibited the use of DBCP
nationwide, but export remained legal.
(SFC, 9/25/08, p.B3)
1977 Rose Ann Vuich became
California’s 1st female state senator.
(SSFC, 10/10/04, p.E1)
1977 The Teamsters Union under
Frank Fitzsimmons gave up their efforts to sign up California farm
field workers and accepted the UFW Union as the union for field workers.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.6)
1977 In Eureka Eric Hollenbeck
acquired the old 1904 condemned power plant and started a logging and
sawmill business with $300. He began gathering old logging and
woodworking tools and developed what came to be the Blue Ox Museum. He
later took on at-risk students and planned a campus for 100 students by
fall, 2001.
(SFEC, 7/30/00, p.C10)
1977 Gene Benedetti (1919-2006)
purchased the Petaluma Cooperative Creamery in northern California and
turned it into Clover Stornetta Farms Inc. He and Lee Levinger hatched
the idea for Clo the Cow, an advertising mascot.
(SFC, 1/14/06, p.B5)
1977 Bill Niman (32) and Orville
Schell purchased 200 acres in Bolinas, Ca., to run cattle, starting
their Niman-Schell ranch. They operated under the assumption that meat
could be raised naturally, humanely and sustainably. The partners split
in 1997 and the business became known as the Niman Ranch. In 2007 Hilco
became the chief investor and in 2009 Niman withdrew from the
operations, which never turned a profit.
(SSFC, 2/22/09, p.A1)
1977 The famous 400-year-old
Jeffrey pine on Sentinel Dome in Yosemite, Ca., died due to a severe
drought. In 2003 the tree collapsed.
(SFC, 8/19/03, p.A1)
1977 In California the Marble Cone
fire burned 177,866 acres of trees and brush.
(SFC, 9/20/99, p.A22)
1978 Jan 31, Cesar Chavez
officially ended the United Farm Workers’ boycott of table grapes,
lettuce and wine.
(SFC, 1/31/03, p.E4)
1978 May 15, The US Supreme
Court’s Santa Clara Pueblo vs. Martinez decision held that tribal
enrollment issues are an Indian-only matter immune from outside
interference.
(SSFC, 4/20/08,
p.A11)(http://supreme.justia.com/us/436/49/)
1978 May 24, Gov. Jerry Brown
appointed Margaret J. Kemp (R) as judge of the Municipal Court in South
San Francisco. She became the 1st female judge in San Mateo County.
(SFC, 5/23/03, p.E8)
1978 Jun 6, California voters
overwhelmingly approved Proposition 13, the Jarvis-Gann amendment, a
primary ballot initiative calling for major cuts in property taxes. It
cut property taxes by 57%. It limited the taxing abilities of local
governments and many city services were reduced as a result. Key fiscal
responsibilities were shifted from counties to the state. Proposition
13 capped the increase in a home's taxable value at 2 percent a year
until it is sold. It also limits a homeowners property tax to 1 percent
of market value.
(AP, 6/6/97)(SFEC, 2/22/98, Z1 p.3)(SFC, 12/27/99,
p.A10)(AP, 7/3/05)
1978 Jun 6, California voters
approved a state constitutional amendment prohibiting any
administrative agency from declaring a state law unconstitutional.
(SSFC, 5/23/04, p.B5)
1978 Jun 28, The US Supreme Court
ordered the medical school at the University of California at Davis to
admit Allan Bakke, a white man who argued he had been a victim of
reverse racial discrimination. The US court’s Bakke decision allowed
universities to consider race in their decisions only if other factors
were equal. This was raised as an issue of reverse discrimination.
Justice Lewis Powell broke a 4-4 tie with the formulation that Davis’
program was unconstitutional, but that colleges and universities could
still use race as one of several factors to create a diverse student
body.
(WSJ, 7/18/96, p.A10)(AP, 6/28/97)(SFC, 6/27/98,
p.A16)
1978 Jul-Aug, In Shasta County
Darrell Rich of Cottonwood killed 3 women, Annette Edwards, Patricia
Moore and Linda Slavik and an 11-year-old girl, Annette Selix. Rich
threw Selix from a 105-foot bridge. He was convicted and sentenced to
die in 1981. In 2000 the US Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal
based on mental disorder. Rich ran out of appeals in 2000.
(SFC, 1/11/00, p.A4)(SFC, 3/7/00, p.A3)
1978 Aug 9, A California statewide
Teamsters warehouse workers strike began.
(SFC, 8/15/03, p.E9)
1978 Aug 31, Emily and William
Harris, founding members of the SLA, pleaded guilty to 4 charges
related to the 1974 kidnapping of Patty Hearst. On Oct 4 they were
sentenced to prison terms.
(SFC, 10/3/03,
p.E3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbionese_Liberation_Army)
1978 Sep 6, In California a fire
destroyed the 4,000-foot-long Island Mountain tunnel of the
Northwestern Pacific Railroad.
(SFEC, 9/7/97, Z1
p.1)(www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,929824)
1978 Sep 11, Kippi Vaught and
Rhonda Scheffler (17) were kidnapped from a shopping mall in
Sacramento. Their bodies were found 2 days later east of town. Gerald
Gallego (b.1946) and accomplice Charlene Williams (24) began a rape and
murder spree that left 9 women and one young man dead. Williams served
17 years in prison. Gallego was sentenced to death but was still alive
with appeals.
(www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/gallego.htm)(SFC,10/28/97,
p.A17)
1978 Sep 25, In Calif. 144 people
were killed when a Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) Boeing 727 and a
Cessna private plane collided over San Diego.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(AP, 9/25/97)
1978 Sep 28, Rosemary Cobbs (26),
a graduate student at USC in Los Angeles, was beaten and shot to death
by Stevie Lamar Fields (22). Williams had been out of prison for just 2
weeks when he went on a 3-week crime spree. In 2007 a federal appeals
court reinstated his death sentence.
(SFC, 9/11/07, p.D2)(http://tinyurl.com/2osxw8)
1978 Sep 29, Mary Vincent (15),
was raped, maimed and left for dead in a canyon near Modesto, Ca. She
lived and identified Lawrence Singleton as her assailant. He was
convicted but released after serving 8 years of a 14 year sentence. In
1997 he was arrested for the murder of woman, Roxanne Hayes, a
prostitute, in Tampa, Florida. A trial in Dec 1997 ended in a mistrial
and another was set for 1998. He was sentenced to death in 1998, but
died of cancer in 2001 in a Florida prison hospital.
(SFC, 2/20/96, p.A1,11)(SFC,12/11/97, p.A3)(SFC,
2/9/98, p.A22)(SFC, 1/1/02, p.A13)
1978 Nov 7, California voters
approved Proposition 7, a Briggs initiative, which greatly expanded the
kinds of cases in which the death penalty could be imposed. By 2003 the
prison population was 159,390 with and annual budget of $5.3 billion.
Proposition 6, a Briggs initiative calling to prevent gays and lesbians
from teaching in public schools, was defeated.
(SFC, 11/7/03,
p.A21)(www.rosebirdprocon.org/pop/DeathPen.htm)
1978 Nov 8, Jerry Brown was
re-elected as governor of California. Republican Mike Curb was elected
Lt. Gov. State voters rejected restrictions on gay and lesbian teachers
in the 1st statewide plebiscite on such an issue.
(SFC, 11/7/03, p.E3)
1978 Nov 8, Voters approved Prop.
8. It allowed lower assessments for property tax reductions for
homeowners during periods of lower values, and increases during periods
of higher values.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A1)
1978 Nov 18, California Rep. Leo
J. Ryan and four other people were killed in Jonestown, Guyana, by
members of the Peoples Temple while investigating the Jim Jones cult.
The killings were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide by 912
cult members. Greg Robinson, a SF Examiner photographer, Don Harris,
NBC correspondent, Bob Brown, NBC cameraman, and Patricia Parks, a
temple defector, were shot dead. The 914 suicides at Jonestown included
260 children. In 1982 John Jacobs and Tim Reiterman authored "Raven:
The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People."
(SFEM, 11/17/96, p.22)(AP, 11/18/97)(SFEC, 11/8/98,
p.A18)(SFC, 5/25/00, p.C2)
1978 Dec 1, The new Antioch Bridge
was dedicated and named after Senator John Nejedly of Contra Costa
County. In 1998 about 10,000 vehicles crossed it each day.
(SFC, 2/2/98, p.A16)
1978 Dec 15, The California
Supreme Court ruled that a huge, illuminated cross on the LA City Hall,
displayed during Christmas and Easter, violated a state ban of
governmental support of religion.
(SFC, 12/12/03, p.E2)
1978 Dec 31, John McFall
(1918-2006), an 11-term California Democrat, resigned from the US House
of Representatives. In October the House had reprimanded him and 2
other California Democratic colleagues, Edward Roybal and Charles
Wilson, for the questionable handling of money donated by South Korean
businessman Tongsun Park.
(SFC, 3/15/06, p.B7)
1978 Richard Crews, a
Harvard-trained California physician, founded the Columbia Pacific
University in Novato. The school was ordered to close in 1997 but
continued to operate under appeal.
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.A21)
1978 Safari West began as a
private wildlife sanctuary for breeding, education and research. In
1989 Peter Nancy Lang bought the 400-acre Sonoma, Ca., property and
later introduced tours and small-group excursions.
(SFEC, 9/3/00, p.T4)
1978 John Metzer started Metzer’s
Farms in the Gabilan foothills of Salinas, Ca. He initially sold balut
eggs, partially incubated duck eggs with fully formed embryos.
(SFC, 10/25/01, p.A17)
1978 Esther Wong (1917-2005) began
featuring punk rock music at her restaurant in LA’s Chinatown and Santa
Monica. Madame Wong’s in LA closed in 1985, but her Madame Wong’s West
in Santa Monica continued operating until 1991.
(SFC, 8/17/05, p.B7)
1978 California-based Mervyns
department store chain merged with Dayton Hudson Corp. (later Target
Corp.).
(WSJ, 9/4/08, p.B6)
1978 Gold was discovered in Lake
County, Ca., and Homestake Mining established its open pit McLaughlin
Mine. Ore ran out in 2002.
(SFC, 1/30/03, p.A13)
1978 Hundreds of fish near Iron
Mountain, Ca., died from mine pollutants.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1978 California’s Shasta Ski Bowl
was closed after an avalanche destroyed the main ski lift.
(SFC, 2/20/98, p.A21)
1978 In California elk were
reintroduced to Tomales Point with a herd of 10.
(SFEC, 4/20/97, p.C1)
1978 Amy Sue Seitz (2) was
kidnapped, raped, mutilated with pliers and murdered by Theodore Frank
in Ventura County, Ca. His diaries noted molestations over 20 years.
Frank was sentenced to death twice but died in prison of a heart attack
in 2001.
(SFC, 9/7/01, p.A26)
1979 Jan 12, Kenneth Bianchi, LA's
Hillside Strangler, was arrested in Bellingham, Wa. He and his cousin
Angelo Buono (d.2002 at 67) sexually assaulted and murdered as man as
13 young women (12-28) in 1977-1978, and dumping their bodies on
LA-area hillsides. Bianchi testified against Buono to escape the death
penalty. Buono was convicted on 9 of 10 murder counts and was sentenced
to life in prison
(SSFC, 9/22/02, p.A7)(SFC, 10/1/02, p.A17)
1979 Jan 17, Gov. Brown
named former Congresswoman Yvonne Brathwaite Burke to the
California Board of Regents. She was the 1st black person ever
appointed to the board.
(SFC, 1/16/04, p.E5)
1979 Jan 29, Brenda Spencer
(b.1962), a teenager in San Diego, shot up an elementary school,
killing 2 people and wounding 9. She told police she did it because, "I
don’t like Mondays."
(SFC, 3/6/01,
p.A4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Ann_Spencer)
1979 cJan, Farm workers in
California began a mass walkout in the UFW supported great lettuce
strike.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.34)
1979 Feb 1, Newspaper heiress
Patricia Hearst, whose prison sentence for bank robbery had been
commuted by President Jimmy Carter, left a federal prison at Pleasanton
near SF.
(AP, 2/1/99)(SFC, 2/4/99, p.A8)
1979 Feb 10, Rufino Contreras (28)
was shot and killed by ranch guards at the ranch of Mario Saikhon. His
family had worked on the ranch for years and he was entering to
confront strikebreakers.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.35)
1979 Mar 8, Cesar Chavez led some
5,000 striking farmworkers on a march through the streets of Salinas,
Ca.
(SFC, 2/05/04, p.E8)
1979 Mar 28, Michelle Triola
Marvin lost her palimony suit against actor Lee Marvin. She had sought
half of $3.6 million that Marvin earned during their 1964-1970
relationship. A judge awarded her $104,000 so that she could learn new
job skills. In 1981 a California State Court of Appeal rescinded the
award.
(SFC, 1/1/09,
p.B5)(http://law.jrank.org/pages/3295/Marvin-V-Marvin-Palimony-Suit-1979.html)
1979 Mar 29, Larry Singleton was
convicted by a San Diego jury on multiple counts for the 1978 rape and
mutilation of Mary Vincent. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He
was paroled in 1987.
(SFC, 1/1/02, p.A13)
1979 Apr 9, The 51st Academy
Awards were held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in LA. "Deer Hunter"
won as the best film. Jon Voight won as best actor in “Coming Home.”
Jane Fonda won as best actress in “Coming Home.” Lacy J. Dalton won the
Academy of Country Music’s Best New Female Vocalist Award.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/51st_Academy_Awards)(SFC, 7/7/96, DB
p.28)(SFC, 3/20/02, p.D1)
1979 May 1, May Day groundbreaking
ceremonies were held at the 22-acre Candlestick Point State Recreation
Area in SF, the state's 1st urban state park.
(SFC, 4/30/04, p.F5)
1979 May 19, The Regents of the
Univ. of California asked General Motors to stop doing business with
the police and military forces in South Africa.
(SFC, 5/14/04, p.F5)
1979 Jun 20, Robin Samsoe (12) was
kidnapped in Huntington Beach, Ca. Her dismembered and decomposing body
was found 12 days later in the Angeles National Forest. Rodney Alcala
was arrested and convicted of the slaying in 1980, but the sentence was
overturned. He was convicted again in 1986 but a judge faulted the
ruling in 2005 and a retrial was scheduled. Alcala pleaded innocent to
4 other sex-torture killings that dated back to 1977.
(SFC, 11/23/05, p.B3)(www.kleph.com/story/ruling.htm)
1979 Jun 24, Brenda Lynn Judd and
Sandra Colley were kidnapped in Reno, Nevada, by Gerald Gallego
(b.1946) and Charlene Williams. The bodies of Judd (14) and Colley (13)
were found in Dec 1999 in Lassen Ct., Ca. Gallego died in 2002 at age
56.
(www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/gallego.htm)(SFC,10/28/97,
p.A17)(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A3)(SFC, 7/20/02, p.A15)
1979 Aug 6, An earthquake centered
near Gilroy was measured at 5.7.
(SFC, 8/6/04, p.F2)
1979 Aug 27, California’s West
Coast Farms agreed to a 3-year pattern contract with the United Farm
Workers raising the minimum hourly wage.
(SFC, 8/27/04, p.F2)
1979 Sep 1, A Los Angeles court
ordered Clayton Moore (1914-1999), born as Jack Carlton Moore, to
stop wearing the Lone Ranger mask.
(http://tinyurl.com/2ngftg)(http://wapedia.mobi/en/Clayton_Moore)
1979 Sep 3, Steven Burns, graduate
of St. Ignatius High School, shot and killed Catina Salarno, his former
girl friend at the Univ. of the Pacific in Stockton. It was her first
day of college. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison with parole
eligible after 8 years.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, Z1 p.1)
1979 Sep 17, Gov. Jerry Brown
appointed Steven Lachs as California's 1st admittedly gay judge.
(www.aaronsgayinfo.com/timeline/time70.html)
1979 Nov 3, John McGinest was
killed by a shotgun blast in Long Beach, Ca. Thomas Goldstein (30), a
college student who lived nearby, was convicted of the murder following
the testimony of a jailhouse informant. Goldstein was freed in 2004
after judges and an appeal panel concluded he was wrongly convicted.
(SFC, 4/15/08, p.A4)
1979 Don E. Fehrenbacher, Stanford
history professor, published "The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in
American Law and Politics."
(SFC,12/18/97, p.C16)
1979 Construction began in the
Lompoc Valley for a $3.5 billion space shuttle port at Vandenberg Air
Base. It was finished in 1986 but never used. In 1992 the Air Force
turned it over to NASA, which sold it to Spaceport Systems Int’l.
(SFEC, 7/23/00, p.B7)
1979 The first Gilroy Garlic
Festival was held. It was founded by Rudolph Melone (d,1998 at 73),
president of Gavilan Community College, after he read about the garlic
festival in Arleux, France, which proclaimed itself the "Garlic Capital
of the World." In 1986 Richard Nicholls (1944-2005) took over as
executive director.
(SFC, 10/31/98, p.A24)(SSFC, 6/19/05, p.A24)
1979 The Los Angeles Angels, owned
by Gene Autry, won their first divisional championship.
(SFC, 10/3/98, p.A14)
1979 The California state park
system purchased land from Irvine, Ca., for $32.3 million, which became
the Crystal Cove State Park.
(SSFC, 6/4/06, p.G7)
1979 The US Geological Survey
installed an array of seismic monitors in the Geysers region of
northern California. Since 1960 small earthquakes in the region had
increased due to geothermal development.
(SSFC, 6/8/03, p.A1)
1979 Boris Naumoff, owner of a
Twin Peaks liquor store in SF, was murdered. Robert Massie was
convicted but the ruling was overturned in 1985. He was sentenced to
death for the murder in 1989. He was dubbed "The Killer Who Wants to
Die," for requesting his death, but changed his mind. He was also once
on death row for a 1965 murder of a San Gabriel woman, but was paroled
in 1978, when the state’s death penalty law was struck down. His death
sentence was upheld in 1998.
(SFC, 12/1/98, p.A20)
1980 Jan 23, A rolling earthquake
hit northern California and measured 5.5 in Contra Costa. It destroyed
25,000 gallons of wine at the Livermore winery of Wente Brothers. A
leak of radioactive tritium was reported from the weapons lab at
Livermore.
(SFC, 1/21/05, p.F2)
1980 Feb 13, David Janssen,
television and film actor, died in Malibu, California, from a heart
attack. He was born as David Harold Meyer on March 27, 1931 in Naponee,
Nebraska. He is best known for his starring role as Dr. Richard Kimble
in the hit television series “The Fugitive” (1963–1967).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Janssen)
1980 Mar 5, The California coast
Channel Islands National Park was established. It included San Miguel,
Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa and Santa Barbara. Complete protection
was completed by 1997.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, Z1
p.1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Islands_National_Park)
1980 Mar, Steven Stayner,
kidnapped in 1972 and sexually abused for 7 years by Kenneth Parnell,
escaped and was reunited with his family. A 1989 NBC miniseries "I Know
My First Name Is Steven" told his story. He was killed in a motorcycle
crash in 1989.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A13)(SFC, 7/29/99, p.A7)
1980 Apr 22, California health
officials released a report documenting a high incidence of malignant
melanoma at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.
(SFC, 4/22/05, p.F2)
1980 Apr, Karen Twiggs and Stacey
Redican of Citrus Heights, both 17, disappeared from a mall near
Sacramento. They were found dead from beatings 3 months later near
Lovelock, Nev. Gerald Gallego, the "sex slave killer," was later
arrested, charged and convicted for the murders. His sentence was
overturned in 1997 because of misleading jury instructions. He was
still imprisoned for other murders.
(SFC, 9/5/97, p.A24)(SFC,10/28/97, p.A17)
1980 May 25, A pair of
earthquakes, measuring 6 on the Richter scale, struck near Mammoth
Lakes, Ca.
(SFC, 5/20/05, p.F3)
1980 May 26, Stephen Wayne
Anderson (26) shot and killed Elizabeth Lyman (81) during a robbery in
her home. Anderson was convicted and sentenced to death. He spent years
on death row and wrote a number of award-winning plays, books and
poems. H was executed for Jan 29, 2002.
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.A3)(SFC, 1/30/02, p.A13)
1980 Jun 2, The California State
Senate voted 30-0 to pass a bill prohibiting the destruction of any pet
through instructions left in an owner’s will.
(SFC, 5/27/05, p.F5)
1980 Jun 2, The California State
Fish and Game Commission approved a captive-breeding plan to save the
vanishing California condor from extinction.
(SFC, 5/27/05, p.F5)
1980 Jun 7, Linda Aguilar (21) was
kidnapped by Gerald Gallego and Charlene Williams. Her body was found 2
weeks later in Gold Beach, Ore.
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A17)
1980 Jun 9, Comedian Richard Pryor
suffered almost fatal burns at his San Fernando Valley, Calif., home
when a mixture of "free-base" cocaine exploded.
(AP, 6/9/97)
1980 Jun 17, Gov. Jerry Brown
signed legislation to save the dog Sido, who was condemned to die in
his owner’s will.
(SFC, 6/17/05, p.F2)
1980 Jun 24, Angela Davis,
Communist party vice presidential candidate, launched her drive to get
102,00 signatures to get her party on the November ballot in California.
(SFC, 6/24/05, p.F2)
1980 Jul 17, Virginia Mochel (34)
of West Sacramento was kidnapped by Gerald Gallego and Charlene
Williams. Her body was later found in nearby Clarksburg (Yolo County).
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A17)
1980 Aug 10, Melvin Carter, serial
rapist, was arrested in Palo Alto after terrorizing more than 100
women. He was freed in 1997.
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A13)
1980 Aug 26, California state
officials place all of Santa Clara Valley under quarantine due to the
Mediterranean fruit fly invasion.
(SFC, 8/26/05, p.F2)
1980 Aug 27, Homestake Mining of
San Francisco announced the discovery of a gold deposit, valued at $630
million, in Napa County, north of Lake Berryessa.
(SFC, 8/26/05, p.F2)
1980 Aug, Fernando Caro (30) shot
and killed Mary Booher (15) and Mark Hatcher (15) as they were riding
their bicycles in Fresno Ct. Caro shot and wounded another 2 men later
that night. Caro was sentenced to death for the murders. A 1999 appeals
court ruled that possible brain damage in Caro, from pesticides and
head beatings, should been investigated. The appeal was upheld in 2002.
(SFC, 2/20/02, p.A5)
1980 Sep 5, In Fresno, Ca., Billy
Ray Hamilton and his girlfriend Connie Barbo killed Bryon Schletewitz
(27), Josephine Rocha (17) and Douglas White (18), employees at Fran’s
Market, on directions from Clarence Ray Allen. Allen, incarcerated at
Folsom Prison for murder, had ordered the murder of Schletewitz for
testifying against him during his 1997 trial for the murder of Mary Sue
Kitts (17). Clarence Ray Allen (76) was executed by lethal injection on
January 17, 2006 at San Quentin State Prison in California.
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.B3)(SFC, 1/13/06,
p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Ray_Allen)
1980 Sep 26, The California state
Water Resources Control Board released a plan for safeguarding Lake
Tahoe by barring development on 7,100 lots.
(SFC, 9/23/05, p.F3)
1980 Oct 23, The California
Supreme Court upheld the state’s death penalty.
(SFC, 10/21/05, p.F6)
1980 Oct 29, It was reported that
some 70 California hospitals had received marijuana cigarettes from the
federal government to launch a 4-year test on the drug’s anti-nausea
effects in cancer patients.
(SFC, 10/28/05, p.F2)
1980 Nov 2, Mary-Beth Sowers and
Craig Miller disappeared from a Sacramento mall. They were later found
shot to death. Gerald Gallego, the "sex slave killer," was later
arrested, charged and convicted for the murders.
(SFC, 9/5/97, p.A24)
1980 Nov 13, Lee Taylor (46) of
Bellflower, Ca., was killed when his rocket-powered boat broke up
during a test run on Lake Tahoe.
(SSFC, 2/19/06,
p.B7)(www.lesliefield.com/personalities/lee_taylor_tributes.htm)
1980 Nov 16, In California a rock
slide near Yosemite Falls killed at least 3 people and injured 6 others.
(SFC, 11/18/05, p.F2)
1980 Nov 17, Gerald Gallego and
Charlene Williams were arrested in Omaha, Nebraska on murder charges
for crimes in Nevada and California.
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A17)
1980 Dec 1, SF Assemblyman Willie
Brown was elected speaker of the California Assembly.
(SFC, 11/25/05, p.F2)
1980 Dec 19, Pres. Jimmy Carter
signed legislation to protect Lake Tahoe.
(SFC, 12/16/05, p.F2)
1980 Dec 19, James Milton Allen
was shot and killed in Sacramento by addicts ransacking his home.
Donald Cronk was later convicted and sentenced to life.
(SFC, 1/6/03, p.A1)
1980 Dec 20, John Riggins (18), a
freshman at UC Davis and Sabrina Gonsalves (18) went missing. Their
bodies were found 2 days later with their throats slit. The case went
cold but was picked up by reporter Joel Davis in 2000. His efforts led
to a cold DNA hit in 2002 that implicated Richard Hirschfield, a
suspected child molester. In 2005 Joel Davis authored “Justice Waits.”
(www.justicewaits.com)(SFCM, 3/26/06, p.7)
1980 Dec 21, It was reported that
the deadly red tide had given Northern California one of its worst
seasons of paralytic shellfish poisoning in years.
(SFC, 12/16/05, p.F2)
1980 Dec 23, California Attorney
Gen. George Deukmajian filed a petition to change the terms of the Buck
Charitable Trust that gives $20 million a year to Marin organizations.
The petition argued that other counties were more in need of the money.
(SFC, 12/23/05, p.F2)
1980 Dec 24, California Gov. Jerry
Brown declared a state of emergency in Alameda and Santa Clara counties
because of the Mediterranean fruit fly infestation.
(SFC, 12/23/05, p.F2)
1980 John Weaver (d.2002) authored
"Los Angeles: The Enormous Village."
(SFC, 12/7/02, p.A25)
1980 PBS aired the documentary
“The Battle of Westlands” co-produced by Carol MonPere (1934-2006). It
highlighted the struggle of family farms in the Central Valley of
California as large agricultural corporations moved in.
(SFC, 4/4/06, p.B5)
1980 The Crystal Cathedral,
designed by Philip Johnson, was completed in Garden Grove, Orange
County, Ca., at a final cost of $17 million. The church originally
began in 1955 as the Garden Grove Community Church under the Reverend
Robert H. Schuller and his wife, Arvella. In 2009 the church under
financial turmoil planned to sell $65 million of its Orange county
property to pay off debt.
(SSFC, 2/1/09, p.B4)
1980 A California state law,
section 987(a) of the Civil Code, was passed that made it a crime to
alter, deface or destroy a work of fine art in that it was detrimental
to the artist’s reputation.
(SFC, 8/2/00, p.A18)
1980 California lawmakers approved
the construction of a Peripheral Canal to siphon water from the
Sacramento River to the California Aqueduct. Voters rejected the idea
in 1982.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1980 In Daly City PG&E workers
first complained to the US EPA about chemicals uncovered during
construction at the Martin Service Center.
(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.A14)
1980 California voters approved a
constitutional amendment (Shield Law) to protect journalists from being
held in contempt for refusing to disclose unpublished information or a
confidential news source.
(SFC, 11/2/99, p.A1)
1980 A California 1918 state law,
that granted women and children time-and-a-half for working over 8
hours and double time for work over 12 hours, was extended to include
men.
(SFC, 1/7/98, p.A19)
1980 Robert Graham, a California
millionaire, opened a sperm bank, The Repository for Germinal Choice,
to make sperm available from Nobel laureate types. It closed in 1999
after yielding 215 children. In 2005 David Plotz authored “The Genius
Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank.”
(SSFC, 6/12/05, p.B6)(WSJ, 7/5/05, p.D7)
1980 The five 60-foot radio
astronomy dishes at Stanford Univ., Ca., went idle.
(SSFC, 8/14/05, p.A19)
1980 In California Ellen
Strauss (d.2001 at 75) and Phyllis Faber founded the Marin Agricultural
Land Trust to prevent urban sprawl. It was the 1st private, non-profit
organization of its kind in the US. It bought development rights from
farmers but allowed the farmers to continue working their farms and
passing them on to heirs as long as the land remained agricultural.
(SFC, 12/3/02, p.A21)
1980 Donald Kennedy (b.1931) was
appointed president of Stanford Univ. after serving for a time as head
of the FDA (1977-1979). He resigned in 1992 in the wake of accusations
that the Univ. had padded its accounts and received extra government
money. In 1997 he published "Academic Duty," in which he proposed a
number of hypothetical situations to explore conflicts.
(SFEC,11/2/97, BR
p.6)(www.stanford.edu/home/stanford/history/leader.html#Kennedy)
1980 A 53-acre facility for
recycling was opened in San Leandro, Ca. In 1996 it brought in $ 3 mil.
of new sorting equipment and was the state’s largest recycling facility.
(SFC, 10/18/96, A22)
1980 The Channel Islands National
Park, off the California coast at Ventura, was established. It included
San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa and Santa Barbara and
totaled 250,000 acres. Complete protection was completed by 1997.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, Z1 p.1)(SFEC, 4/26/98, p.T11)
1980 Blufford Hayes Jr. killed
Vinod Patel, a motel manager in Stockton, Ca., during a robbery that
netted $23 and some cigarettes. Hayes was convicted and sentenced to
death. The sentence was upheld by a federal appeals court in 2002.
(SFC, 8/27/02, p.A4)
1981 Jan 6, California’s Gov.
Jerry Brown led some 500 fruit pickers in Santa Clara County to help
strip backyard fruit in the campaign against the Mediterranean fruit
fly.
(SFC, 1/6/06, p.F2)
1981 Jan 8, Resorts around Lake
Tahoe offered limited skiing and businesses suffered from a late start
in the skiing season. It was the latest start since the 1976-77 drought.
(SFC, 1/6/06, p.F2)
1981 Jan 8, Terri Winchell (17)
was beaten, raped and stabbed to death in San Joaquin County, Ca.
Michael Morales (31) was convicted in the murder and was slated for
execution in 2006. Morales said he was enlisted by his cousin, Ricky
Ortega, who had learned that Winchell was having an affair with
Ortega’s male lover. Morales' original execution date of February 21,
2006, was postponed as a result of two court-appointed
anesthesiologists withdrawing from the procedure.
(SFC, 1/28/06, p.B2)(SFC, 2/7/06,
p.B3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Morales)
1981 Mar 31, The 53rd Academy
Awards were held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, one day after the
attempted assassination of Pres. Reagan.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.D1)
1981 Mar, Fernando Belmontes (19)
killed Steacy McConnell (19) during a robbery in Victor, just east of
Lodi, Ca. He hit her 15-20 times with an iron dumbbell. In 2006 the US
Supreme Court reinstated his death sentence.
(SFC, 11/14/06, p.B3)
1981 Apr 11, Glenna Sharp (36),
her 2 children John (15) and Tina (13), and friend Dana Wingate (17),
were brutally slain in cabin #28 of the Keddie Resort in Plumas County.
(SSFC, 6/10/01, p.A21)
1981 Apr 30, William Eugene Cox
and Annika Oestberg Deasy (27) robbed and killed Joseph Torre (58), a
restaurant owner, in Stockton. A few days later they killed Sgt.
Richard Helbush and stole his patrol car. They were both caught and
sentenced to long jail terms. Cox later hanged himself in jail. In 1999
Sweden called for the transfer of Deasy to Sweden under the 1983
Strasbourg Treaty, which provided for prisoner transfers.
(SFC, 11/9/99, p.A13)
1981 May 18, William Saroyan
(b.1908), American writer, died in Fresno, Ca. He wrote some 60 books
that included: "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" (1934),
"The Human Comedy," which became a 1943 film, and the 1939 play "The
Time of Your Life."
(HFA, ‘96, p.36)(SFC, 5/23/96, p.A1)(WUD, 1994,
p.1269)(HN, 8/31/00)(SFC, 4/1/02, p.A11)
1981 Jun 5, The US Federal Centers
for Disease Control published the first report of a mysterious outbreak
of a sometimes fatal pneumonia among gay men. Dr. Michael Gottlieb of
UCLA and Dr. Joel Weisman (1943-2009) reported 5 cases of a rare
pneumonia among gay men in LA. The disease was initially called gay
related immune deficiency (GRID). The syndrome was named Acquired
Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in 1982. Within 10 years the disease
killed 110,000 Americans. People infected with HIV came to be defined
as having AIDS when their immune system became so weak that they got
one of 26 specific illnesses including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,
pneumonia, brain infections and some other cancers.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.B2)(AP, 6/5/02)(SSFC, 6/4/06,
p.A1)(Econ, 6/3/06, p.24)(SFC, 7/24/09, p.D5)
1981 Jun, Sylvia Edgren (48) of
Monterey, Ca., was raped and murdered. In 2001 DNA evidence linked
Michael Adams (44) to the murder.
(SFC, 1/20/01,
p.A17)(https://coldhit.doj.ca.gov/dna/news5.htm)
1981 Jul 1, The "Wonderland
Murders" took place at 4763 Wonderland in the Hollywood Hills. Ronald
Launius, William Deverell, Barbara Richardson and Joy Miller were
murdered. The killings were said to have occurred in retaliation for a
drug robbery 2 nights earlier. Federal prosecutors unveiled in
indictment in 2000 against Eddie Nash, a former nightclub owner,
Gregory DeWitt Diles, his bodyguard, and porn star John Curtis Holmes.
Holmes (d.1988) was later released. Holmes died in 1988 of an
AIDS-related illness. In 2003 the film "Wonderland" starred Val Kilmer
as Holmes.
(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.B5)(ST, 10/17/03, p.22H)
1981 Jul 27, Adam Walsh (6)
disappeared from a Hollywood mall. Fishermen discovered his severed
head 2 weeks later in a canal 120 miles away. In 2008 police named
Ottis Toole, who had died in prison in 1996, as the murderer. The Adam
Walsh Act of 2006 obliged states to make their sex offender registries
public.
(SFC, 12/17/08, p.A7)(Econ, 8/8/09, p.9)
1981 Aug 27, Rene Soto clubbed to
death Anselmo Covarrubias in LA County. Maria Suarez (21), a battered
"sex slave" to Covarrubias and witness to the murder, was convicted of
first-degree murder and sent to prison. In 2002 Gov. Davis rejected a
recommended parole for Suarez. In 2003 Gov. Davis issued a parole.
Suarez was released in 2004.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.A20)(SFC, 6/22/02, p.A1)(SSFC,
4/6/03, p.A12)(SFC, 5/26/04, p.A1)
1981 Sep 3, California Gov. Jerry
Brown signed a law making Martin Luther King’s birthday a state
holiday. The legislation was the result of 4 years of efforts by
students at Oakland Tech High School.
(SFC, 7/16/08, p.E1)(http://tinyurl.com/5lc58v)
1981 Sep 12, Ginger Fleischli (20)
was murdered in a Laguna Beach apartment shared by David Leitch and
Thomas Thompson. Thompson was convicted of the murder and sentenced to
death based on an added rape charge that was never proven. Evidence
later showed that Leitch may have committed the murder. Thompson was
executed at San Quentin Jul 14, 1998.
(SFC, 7/11/97, p.A1,16)(SFC, 7/14/98, p.A1)
1981 Nov 12, The Double Eagle V
landed in California 84 hours and 31 minutes following its Nov 10
launch in Japan. It was the 1st balloon to cross the Pacific ocean.
Rocky Aoki (1938-2008), founder of the Benihana steakhouse (1964), was
part of the crew.
(http://www.benihana.com/ballooning_history.asp)(SFC, 7/12/08, p.B5)
1981 Nov 16, Actor William Holden
was found dead in his apartment in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 63.
(AP, 11/1697)
1981 Nov 18, In Los Angeles
Kazuyoshi Miura and his wife (28), visitors from Japan, were shot in a
downtown parking lot. His wife went into a coma and later died in
Japan. In 1985 Miura was arrested on suspicion of assaulting his wife
for insurance money and in 1994 he was convicted of murder. In 1998 a
Japanese high court overturned the sentence. In 2008 Miura was arrested
in Saipan. He was extradited to the US and committed suicide by hanging
on Oct 10, 4 days prior to arraignment on murder conspiracy charges. He
was 61.
(SSFC, 2/24/08, p.B3)(SFC, 10/15/08, p.B4)
1981 Nov 29, Actress Natalie Wood
(b.1938) drowned off Santa Catalina, Calif. In 2001 Suzanne Finstad
authored "Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood." In 2004 Gavin
Lambert authored "Natalie Wood: A Life."
(AP, 11/29/97)(SSFC, 7/22/01, DB p.62)(SSFC,
1/25/04, p.M2)
1981 Dec 15, In Garden Grove
market owner Packawan Wattanaporn was found strangled to death and
Quach Nguyen was stabbed to death. Jaturun Siripongs was later
convicted for the crime and faced the death penalty in 1998. He
admitted to the robbery but not the killings. A late restraining order
on his execution was issued just before his execution pending a full
hearing on a clemency issue. He was executed Feb 9.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A1,9)(SFC, 11/17/98, p.A1)(SFC,
2/9/99, p.A1)
1981 J.S. Holliday, director of
the Oakland Museum, published "The World Rushed In," a history of the
California Gold Rush. The journal of William Swain (d.1904 at age 83)
was used as a basis.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB p.39)(SFC, 8/22/98, p.A13)(SFC,
8/27/98, p.A9)
1981 The rock group Metallica was
formed by Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield in the suburbs of LA.
(SFEC,11/16/97, DB p.42)
1981 Lili Lakich and Richard
Jenkins founded the Museum of Neon Art (MONA) in Los Angeles. 501 W.
Olympic Blvd. www.neonmona.org
(SFEC, 8/13/00, p.T6)
1981 The volunteer Northern
California Book Reviewers (BABRA) group began a Northern California
Book Awards program. Fred Cody, owner of Cody’s bookstore in Berkeley,
was one of the co-founders.
(SFC, 4/15/06, p.E3)
1981 Gov. Jerry Brown appointed
Allen Broussard (1929-1996) to the state Supreme Court. He was the 2nd
black jurist following Wiley Manuel (d.1981). In 1982 Broussard
was elected to a 12-year term.
(SFC, 11/6/96, p.B4)
1981 The Tahoe Regional Planning
Agency put a moratorium on new housing around the Lake Tahoe to
maintain water quality.
(SFC, 1/8/02, p.A3)
1981 In Los Angeles, Ca., Stanley
"Tookie" Williams was convicted in the 1979 killing of 4 people and
sentenced to death. The co-founder of the Crips street gang (1971), who
denied the murders, took up writing for children while in prison and
created the Internet Project for Street Peace. In 2000 a member of the
Swiss parliament nominated him for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. A TV
film on Williams, "Redemption," was scheduled to air in 2004. In 2005
he received a “President’s Call to Service Award.”
(SFEC, 11/19/00, p.C2)(SFC, 2/13/04, p.A25)(SFC,
8/6/05, p.A2)
1981 The Dollar company,
personified in SF by the downtown Robert Dollar Building, was sold to
the Daon Corp. of Vancouver.
(SFC, 9/30/97, p.A21)
1981 Scharffenberger Cellars in
Mendocino, Ca., was founded by John Scharffenberger. He sold the winery
to Veuve Cliquot of France in 1996 and went into the chocolate business.
(SFEM,10/26/97, p.21)
1981 There were some 63 dairy
farms in Marin County, Ca., down from 200 in 1950.
(SFEC, 2/13/00, p.D1)
1981 Erich Allyn
Schmidt-Till (18) was shot and killed in his Riverside, Ca.,
apartment during a drug robbery. In 1982 Lee Perry Farmer was convicted
of the murder and sentenced to death. It was later revealed that
Charles Huffman committed the murder. Huffman was convicted of burglary
but acquitted for murder. Farmer was retried in 1999 and convicted on
lesser charges.
(SFC, 1/18/99, p.A17)
1981 Jack Harris, developer and
owner of large cattle ranches in Coalinga, Ca., died.
(SFC, 8/22/03, p.A23)
1981 Ward F. Weaver Jr., a trucker
from Oregon, clubbed to death a stranded motorist and raped and
strangled the man’s fiancé before dumping her body in Oroville,
Ca. Weaver was convicted and sentenced to 42 years in prison for
another crime involving rape and murder.
(SFC, 8/26/02, p.A3)
1981-1995 Patrick Aherne, northern California
painter, created his work "Treod River," an 8-by-12-foot diptych, an
accretion of small gestures and stuttering revisions.
(SFC, 2/19/98, p.E1)
1982 Jan 3, A small plane crashed
into the peak of White Mountain in northern California. Donnie Priest
(10), the only survivor, was rescued 5 days later but lost both legs
due to frostbite. His mother and stepfather were killed in the crash.
(SSFC, 11/25/07, p.A1)
1982 Jan 6, Truck driver William
G. Bonin was convicted in Los Angeles of being the "freeway killer" who
had murdered 14 young men and boys.
(AP, 1/6/02)
1982 Mar 5, John Belushi
(33), comedian (Sat Night Live), was found dead of a drug overdose at
the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Strip, a rented bungalow in Hollywood.
(SFEC, 3/16/97, Z1 p.4)(AP,
3/5/98)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0000004/)
1982 Mar 31, In California an
avalanche at the Alpine Meadows ski resort killed 7 people. In 2009
Jennifer Woodlief authored “A Wall of White: The True Story of Heroism
and Survival in the Face of a Deadly Avalanche.”
(http://tinyurl.com/7gjkf)(SFC, 2/27/09, p.F4)
1982 Apr 22, Robert Maurice Bloom
(18) killed his father, stepmother and stepsister in a savage murder
spree in southern California. He was convicted and sentenced to death
until appellate attorneys uncovered documents that he was mentally ill
and likely did not understand the consequences of his actions. Bloom
was ordered released in 1997 pending a new trial.
(SFC,12/25/97, p.A22)(http://tinyurl.com/34nse2)
1982 Jul 2, Larry Walters
(1949-1993), a Los Angeles truck driver, flew 16,000 feet into the air
with 42 helium balloons attached to a lawn chair. Walters surprised an
airline pilot, who radioed the control tower that he had just passed a
guy in a lawn chair with a gun. The weapon was to shoot balloons and
descend. Walters paid a $1,500 penalty for violating air traffic rules.
Eleven years later, he committed suicide at age 44.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Walters)(SFC,
7/3/02, p.A17)(AP, 7/10/07)
1982 Jul 2, A bomb exploded
in the hands of Prof. Diogenes Angelakos (d.1997 at 77) in Berkeley. It
was later attributed to the Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski.
(SFEC,11/9/97, Z1 p.4)
1982 Oct 19, Carmaker John
DeLorean was arrested in Los Angeles and charged in a 24-million-dollar
cocaine scheme aimed at salvaging his bankrupt sports car
company. He was tried and acquitted.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1982 Oct, Betty Ford, former first
lady, founded the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage for drug-treatment
after admitting her own problems with substance abuse.
(SFEC,12/797, Par p.2)
1982 Nov, Bill Honig was elected
as the state superintendent of schools over incumbent Wilson Riles.
(SFC, 4/3/99, p.A17)
1982 In southern California John
Visciotti (26) shot and killed co-worker Timothy Dykstra (22) and
wounded Michael Wolbert. Visciotti’s murder conviction was upheld but
his death sentence was reversed due to a defense lawyer’s incompetence.
In 2002 a penalty-phase retrial was ordered. The Supreme Court
reinstated his death penalty.
(SFC, 4/25/02, p.A6)(SFC, 11/5/02, p.A4)
1982 Robert F. Craig (d.2000 at
65), Greg Carmack and Jerry Hyde founded the West Hollywood gay
magazine "Frontiers."
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.D5)
1982 The Oakland Raiders football
team under Al Davis moved to Los Angeles.
(SFC, 10/1/96, p.A24)
1982 USF played in the NCAA
basketball tournament. Team members included Hal Perry, Bill Russell,
and K.C. Jones.
(SFC, 3/12/98, p.A1)
1982 "The Play," a five-lateral
scramble was run by the Univ. of California football team.
(SFC, 1/18/96, p.A19)
1982 Henry Mello (1924-2004), Ca.
state senator from Watsonville, co-authored the Mello-Roos Act, a
financing mechanism that allows localities or schools to impose an
additional tax for a special purpose. He later became known as the
“king of pork.”
(SFC, 9/8/04, p.B7)
1982 Sherman Block (d.1998 at 74)
was appointed the Sheriff of LA County. He was the elected and served 4
terms.
(SFC, 10/29/98, p.D2)
1982 The State Dept. of
Agriculture set up the Pest Detection Emergency Protection division to
combat the invasion of the Mediterranean fruit fly.
(SFEC, 7/11/99, p.D4)
1982 California law required car
owners to get their vehicles' emissions systems inspected every other
year.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)
1982 Voters rejected a statewide
gun ban measure.
(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A5)
1982 The 2nd trial of Juan Corona
cost $5 million. He was convicted of killing 25 farmworkers.
(SFC, 2/25/99, p.A13)
1982 The California state
governor’s mansion on the American River, built by the Reagan’s in 1967
for $1.3 million, was sold.
(SSFC, 12/30/01, p.A25)(Econ, 2/25/06, p.34)
1982 The Redwood City Almanac, a
weekly newspaper, was purchased by Bob Distefano (1934-1996). He served
as the paper’s reporter, editor and publisher until he died.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.A17)
1982 In Sonoma the Gloria Ferrer
Champagne Caves opened. It was owned by the Spanish Freixenet S.A.
(SFEC,12/28/97, p.A12)
1982 A tailings dam at the closed
Gambonini Mercury Mine near Tomales Bay broke and flooded nearby Walker
Creek with mine tailings.
(SFEC, 1/9/00, p.C10)
1982 The New Melones Dam on the
Stanislaus River was completed.
(SFC, 2/21/01, p.A11)
1983 Feb 17, Denise Denofrio was
found strangled to death in a car in Fairfield. Alan Hall was convicted
in the case of voluntary manslaughter in July. In 1997 Hall claimed
that a suspected friend of Denofrio lured him into having sex and then
severed his penis with a knife and escaped. Hall later admitted that he
made up the story and had maimed himself.
(SFC,12/10/97, p.A17,20)(SFC,12/13/97, p.A7)
1983 Mar 3, Peter Ivers (b.1946),
American musician, was found bludgeoned to death in his Los Angeles
apartment. In 2008 Josh Frank authored “In heaven Everything Is Fine:
The Unsolved Life of Peter Ivers and the Lost History of New Wave
Theater.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Ivers)(SFC,
8/29/08, p.E1)
1983 Mar 10, Dorka Lisker (66) was
stabbed to death at her Sherman Oaks, Ca., home. Her son Bruce, age 17
at the time of the murder, was convicted of her murder in 1985 and was
sentenced to life in prison. Lisker confessed to the murder in prison,
but said he only did so in hopes of getting parole. In 2009 he was
freed on bail after a judge overturned his conviction due to false
evidence and sloppy defense work. Prosecutors decided not to retry him.
(SFC, 8/14/09, p.D4)(SFC, 9/23/09, p.D5)
1983 Apr 4, Leo J. Trombatore was
appointed by George Deukmejian to serve as the chief of Caltrans and
served from this day to Dec 30, 1987.
(SFEC, 1/31/99, p.A14)
1983 Apr 12, Gerald Gallego was
found guilty of murder at his trial in Martinez. The jury later
recommended the death penalty. Gallego still faced another trial in
Nevada. Charlene Williams, his former accomplice and mother of his
child, testified against Gallego.
(SFC,10/28/97, p.A17)
1983 Apr 27, In San Diego, Ca.,
Philip Buell, age 33 months, died from injuries of a fall while under
the care of Ken Marsh. In 1984 Marsh was convicted of murder. He was
freed in 2004, after spending 21 years in prison, before it was proven
that he had been wrongfully convicted. In 2005 state prosecutors ruled
that he should be compensated $756,000 for the time spent in prison.
(SFC, 12/10/05,
p.B2)(http://freekenmarsh.com/declarations.html)
1983 May 2, A 6.4 earthquake
injured 94 people in Coalinga, Ca., and caused an estimated $10 million
in damages.
(http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/events/1983_05_02.php)
1983 May 29, Richard Jackson,
actor (Ryan Meyers-Saved by the Bell), was born in Redlands, CA.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1983 Jun 2, Kevin Cooper escaped
from the state prison in Chino, Ca., where he was serving time for
burglary.
(SFEC, 7/23/00, p.B3)
1983 Jun 4, In Chino Hills, Ca.,
Douglas and Peggy Ryen and their 10-year old daughter, Jessica, were
killed in the master bedroom of their home. Christopher Hughes (11), a
neighbor, was also killed. Joshua Ryen (8) survived despite serious
wounds. Kevin Cooper, who escaped from Chino prison on June 2, was
arrested 47 days later and was convicted for the murders in 1985 and
faced execution. Cooper claimed he was innocent and called for DNA
testing of the evidence in 2000. In 2003 an execution date of Feb 10,
2004, was set for Cooper. Cooper won a last minute reprieve on Feb 9
pending a re-examination of the case. In 2005 a federal judge upheld
his death penalty.
(SFC, 12/18/03, p.A21)(SFC, 2/11/04,
p.A4)(www.savekevincooper.org/background.html)
1983 Jul 1, Buckminster Fuller
(87), visionary and inventor, died in LA. He dubbed our planet
"Spaceship Earth." He was the creator of the geodesic dome and the
dymaxion motor car. He founded the World Game Institute to help solve
global problems through deployment of military resources.
(SFC, 4/10/96, p.D-3)(SFC, 4/15/96, D-1)(NH, 7/96,
p.10)(MC, 7/1/02)
1983 Aug 17, Ira Gershwin (86),
lyricist, died in Beverly Hills, Ca.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1983 Oct 29, LA police officers
Arthur Soo Hoo and William Wong were killed when a vehicle rammed their
car. In 2003 Faustino Villareal, a passenger in the ramming car, was
arrested.
(SFC, 7/22/03, p.A19)
1983 Cheryl Sellers (24) was
convicted of 1st degree murder for the shooting of her husband, who had
beaten and abused her for the 4 years of their marriage. In 2002 Gov.
Davis granted her parole.
(SFC, 4/11/02, p.A16)
1983 The Strawberry Music Festival
began at Camp Mather in Yosemite. It became a premier Bluegrass event
held on the Labor Day and Memorial Day weekends.
(SFEC, 7/4/99, Z1p.5)
1983 In San Luis Obispo business
owners closed the downtown streets on Thursday evenings for block
parties that grew into a weekly marketing event.
(SSFC, 10/20/02, p.C8)
1983 California’s Warm Springs
Dam, begun in 1975, was completed by the US Army Corps of Engineers. It
extended 9 miles on Dry Creek and 4 miles on Warm Springs Creek. The
dam created Lake Sonoma in Sonoma County and allowed the county to grow.
(SFC, 10/20/96, Z1 p.4)(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.T6)(SFC,
1/21/06, p.B1)
1983 Jim and Marie Petcoff founded
the Computer Museum of America at La Mesa in San Diego County. It was
later relocated to Coleman College.
(SFC, 8/5/97, p.A20)
1983 Eric Schramm discovered the
presence of matsutake mushrooms in Mendocino County.
(SFEC, 12/15/96, p.A16)
1983 The EPA put the Iron Mountain
mine in Northern California on the federal Superfund list.
(SFEC,11/2/97, p.A13)
1983 Legislative policy required
urban water suppliers to make plans the for conservation and recycling
of water.
(SFC, 3/5/01, p.A23)
1983 Judge Broussard supported the
state’s right to protect the environment by restricting diversions from
lakes and streams. He also wrote the court’s decision requiring proof
of intent to kill in most death penalty cases.
(SFC, 11/6/96, p.B4)
1983 The state put the PG&E
property in Daly City near Geneva and Bayshore on its Superfund list
named after the federal program for toxic waste cleanup.
(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.A14)
1983 Charles Rothenberg (Charley
Charles) was sentenced to 13 years in state prison for setting his
6-year old son on fire at a Southern California motel. He tried to kill
the boy because he feared that his ex-wife would permanently separate
him from his son. He served less than 7 years. In 2007 he was sentenced
to 25 years to life for two subsequent weapons convictions.
(SFC, 6/8/96, p.A17)(SFC, 6/16/01, p.A1)(SFC,
4/5/07, p.B3)
1983 Willie Earl Green was
conviction in the murder of Denise "Dee Dee" Walker (25), in a South
Los Angeles crack house. Green insisted on his innocence and was
released in 2008 after a judge found that Green had not received a fair
trial. The former chauffeur from Canton, Miss., said he was proud of
his achievements in prison, including earning an associates degree and
teaching math to fellow inmates at San Quentin.
(AP, 3/24/08)
1983 A high school reform law
required students to take either one year of a foreign language or
visual or performing arts courses.
(SFC, 5/13/02, p.A9)
1983 The Mendocino Brewing Co.
became the 1st Brewpub in California and only the 2nd in the nation to
open since Prohibition.
(SSFC, 6/24/01, p.T10)
1983 Wavy Gravy (Hugh Romney)
founded Camp Winnarainbow, a summer camp for kids, in Mendocino County.
(WSJ, 7/27/99, p.A21)
1983 Dianne and Jim Clapp bought
500 acres in Shasta County that became the nucleus for a wild horse
sanctuary.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.T5)
1983 Michael Stusser discovered
enzyme baths at a Zen monastery in Japan. He returned to California and
in the late 80s opened an enzyme bath establishment in Freestone,
Sonoma, Ct.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, p.T5)
1983 Felix Smith, biologist for
the US Fish and Wildlife Service, discovered the first selenium
deformed birds at the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge in Merced
County.
(WSJ, 11/18/98, p.CA3)
1983 A tanker ship sank and
exploded west of the Golden Gate Bridge.
(SFC,11/22/97, p.D4)
1983 In San Diego County two
8-year-old boys were killed near Tierrasanta when a live shell they
found exploded . Their subdivision was built on the former testing
ground of Camp Elliott Marine base.
(SFEC, 8/29/99, p.A1)
1983 Rose Briones, the last direct
descendent of Gregorio Briones, died. She left behind a trunk filled
with her family history in a one-room schoolhouse just north of Bolinas.
(SFC, 5/26/97, p.A11)
1983 Phillip Burton, US
Representative, died. In 1995 John Jacobs (d.2000 at 49) authored "A
Rage for Justice: The Passion and Politics of Phillip Burton."
(SFC, 5/25/00, p.C2)
1983 LA police officer Paul Verna
was killed by Kenneth Earl Gay. Gay was convicted and received the
death penalty but a new trial was called in 1998 due to poor
representation by attorney Daye Shinn.
(SFC, 12/25/98, p.A23)
1983 Ross Macdonald, crime fiction
writer, died. He wrote 18 Lew Archer detective novels over 25 years. In
1999 Tom Nolan authored "Ross Macdonald, A Biography."
(SFEC, 3/28/99, BR p.1)
1983 Dennis Wilson, a founding
member of the Beach Boys, died in a swimming accident.
(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.D8)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = California
Go to 1984