March 6, 1970: The Weather Underground Blow Themselves Up

March 6, 1970: Weather Underground members Diana Oughton, Ted Gold, Terry Robbins, Cathy Wilkerson, and Kathy Boudin are making bombs in a townhouse at 18 West 11th Street, in Greenwich Village in Lower Manhattan, when one detonates. Oughton, Gold, and Robbins are killed. Wilkerson and Boudin escaped unharmed.

The Weather Underground had previously been known as the Weathermen, for a line in Bob Dylan's song "Subterranean Homesick Blues": "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." They were a radical offshoot of Students for a Democratic Society.

They were making the bombs in order to kill U.S. Army soldiers and non-commissioned officers who would be attending an NCO dance at Fort Dix in Pemberton, New Jersey; and to randomly kill people in Butler Library at Columbia University, uptown. An FBI report stated that they had enough explosives to "level… both sides of the street." Fortunately, they were so incompetent, they never killed anybody but themselves.

Oughton was 28 years old. Gold and Robbins were 22. Wilkerson went on the run, finally surrendering in 1980, making a deal, and served 11 months in prison. Boudin remained at large until 1981, when she was arrested for her role in a Brink's armored car robbery in Nyack, New York, and served 22 years. She later taught at, of all places, Columbia. As of March 6, 2022, Wilkerson and Boudin are still alive. (UPDATE: Boudin died on May 1, 2022.)

It was Bernardine Dohrn who explained that the murder of Black Panther Fred Hampton, a few months earlier, had moved the Weather Underground to more radical action: "We felt that the murder of Fred required us to be more grave, more serious, more determined to raise the stakes and not just be the white people who wrung their hands when black people were being murdered."

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March 6, 1970 was a Friday.  Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 6 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the San Diego Rockets, 107-103 at Madison Square Garden. Dave DeBusschere led the champions-to-be by 30 points. Elvin Hayes had 33 points and 29 rebounds in a loss.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Boston Celtics, 150-134 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. In spite of the high score, the leading scorer in the game was Hal Greer of the Sixers with 30 points.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Detroit Pistons, 121-118 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 38 points. Dave Bing scored 42 in defeat.

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 105-100 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Jerry West scored 35 for the Lakers.

* The San Francisco Warriors beat the Phoenix Suns, 107-97 at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium (now named for music promoter Bill Graham).

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Cincinnati Royals, 126-122 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 4 games in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets beat the Pittsburgh Pipers, 104-103 at the Island Garden in Hempstead, New York.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Miami Floridians, 119-116 at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum) in Indianapolis. For the Pacers, Roger Brown had 31 points, and Mel Daniels had 18 points and 33 rebounds. For the Floridians, Donnie Freeman had 35 points.

* The Carolina Cougars beat the Dallas Chaparrals, 98-94 at the Moody Coliseum in Dallas.

* And the Los Angeles Stars beat the Kentucky Colonels, 126-106 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

There were 2 games in the NHL. The New York Rangers lost to the St. Louis Blues, 3-1 at the St. Louis Arena. And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Oakland Seals, 3-2 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.