Community Corner
Five Things You Should Know Today: June 16
The jig was up for a Minnesota fugitive on this day in 1999.
- We’ll see something today that we haven’t seen in a while: the sun. The National Weather Service says skies will be partly sunny, with a high near 77 and light breezes. (Let’s not talk about the predicted rain on Friday.)
- The nice weather is good news for the , scheduled from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Oakdale Fire Department headquarters, 5000 Hadley Ave. N. Lunch is free, and residents can also jump in a bounce castle, get a free massage and experience the Parks and Recreation Department’s new activity van, equipped with Xbox, Wii and Kinect systems.
- The first roller coaster in the United States opened on this day in 1884 at Coney Island, N.Y. The coaster, known as a “switchback railway,” cost a nickel to ride and traveled about 6 mph. It was an instant success, and by the turn of the century, hundreds more roller coasters had sprung up around the country.
- The No. 1 song on the Billboard charts in on this day in 1980: “Funkytown” by Lipps Inc., the product of Minneapolis native Steve Greenberg. Greenberg enlisted local musicians to record the song, including former Miss Black Minnesota Cynthia Johnson.
- And Kathleen Soliah’s life on the lam came to an end on this day in 1999. Soliah, a fugitive from justice for 25 years, was found living in St. Paul under the name Sara Jane Olson. She was a former member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the group that kidnapped Patty Hearst, and was wanted for bombing two police cars. Soliah pleaded guilty to possessing explosives with intent to murder and served seven years in a California prison before being released on parole and returning to Minnesota.
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