Today is Wednesday, Feb. 4, the 35th day of 2026. There are 330 days left in the year.

Today in history:

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

Also on this date:

In 1789, electors unanimously chose George Washington to be the first president of the United States.

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In 1801, John Marshall took office as chief justice of the United States, a position he would hold for 34 years.

In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a wartime conference at Yalta.

In 1976, more than 23,000 people died when a severe earthquake struck Guatemala with a magnitude of 7.5.

In 1997, a civil jury in Santa Monica, California, found O.J. Simpson liable for the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, ordering Simpson to pay $33.5 million to the victims’ families.

In 2004, Facebook had its beginnings as Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched “TheFacebook.”

In 2013, British scientists announced that skeletal remains they had discovered during an excavation beneath a Leicester, England parking lot were, beyond reasonable doubt, the remains of 15th century monarch King Richard III.

In 2023, the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean, saying it was equipped with high-tech gear for a military-linked aerial surveillance program. China denied the balloon was used for spying on sensitive North American military sites, insisting the flyover was an accident involving a weather balloon.

Today’s birthdays:

Former Argentine President Isabel Peron is 95.
Rock singer Alice Cooper is 78.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is 73.
Football Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor is 67.
Country singer Clint Black is 64.
Boxing Hall of Famer Oscar De La Hoya is 53.
Singer Natalie Imbruglia is 51.
Rapper Cam’ron is 50.
Singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw is 49.
Olympic gymnastics gold medalist Carly Patterson is 38.
Actor Edvin Ryding is 23.

Police arrested a driver after they say he fatally struck a pedestrian in St. Paul on Tuesday night.

Officers responded to Front Avenue and Grotto Street in the Como neighborhood shortly before 6:30 p.m. and found a man lying in the street with severe head injuries, according to Nikki Muehlhausen, a St. Paul police spokesperson.

St. Paul Fire Department medics pronounced the man dead at the scene.

Preliminary information suggests the driver, after striking the pedestrian, did a U-turn and parked on the other side of the street, Muehlhausen said. Officers found the man there. He was taken into custody on suspicion of criminal vehicular homicide.

The police department’s Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Unit is leading the investigation.

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Cottage Grove Elementary School was placed into a lockdown on Tuesday afternoon after a man with a butcher knife tried to get into the building.

Officers from the Cottage Grove Police Department responded just before noon to a report that someone was at the school waving a butcher knife and possibly intoxicated, police said in a statement posted on social media.

A caller told police that the man had been seen “driving erratically in the school’s parking lot,” police said.

“All students and staff of the school are safe,” police said. “The individual never went beyond the locked vestibule, and responding officers were able to safely apprehend the individual without incident.”

A 46-year-old Cottage Grove man was arrested within six minutes of the initial call. He was taken to the Washington County Jail in Stillwater.

“The safety of our students and staff is our absolute priority,” South Washington County Schools Superintendent Julie Nielsen wrote in a letter to families sent Tuesday night. “We are incredibly grateful for the swift response of our school team and the Cottage Grove Police Department.”

Nielsen credited “secured entryways provided by taxpayer support” with playing a critical role in keeping everyone safe.

“Please continue to support our work in staying vigilant and reporting potential issues immediately,” she wrote. “It takes all of us working together to ensure our communities are safe places to live and learn.”

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The activity heated up well in advance of Thursday’s NBA trade deadline.

The Timberwolves got involved by shipping Mike Conley to the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday afternoon, but it was far from the biggest move of the day. Four former all-stars were involved in three other trades on a busy day: James Harden, Darius Garland, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Nikola Vucevic.

Minnesota might not be done dealing before Thursday’s 2 p.m. CT deadline. The Wolves end of 3-team, 4-player deal on Tuesday involving Detroit and Chicago was largely money related. Moving Conley might be precursor to more moves.

In the meantime, here’s a rundown of what happened Tuesday:

Huerter moved to Detroit in Conley deal

The Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons got deeper Tuesday by agreeing to acquire Kevin Huerter from the Chicago Bulls as the centerpiece of a four-player, three-team deal, two people with knowledge of the trade told The Associated Press.

The Pistons got Huerter and Dario Saric — who was just acquired over the weekend by Chicago — from the Bulls. Chicago landed Mike Conley Jr. from Minnesota and Jaden Ivey from the Pistons, said the people, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the trade was still pending league approval.

Huerter is having one of the most well-rounded seasons of his career and would join a Detroit team aiming for a deep playoff run in the East. The Pistons don’t shoot many 3-pointers — they’re 27th in attempts and 28th in attempts per game entering Tuesday — but that could change with Huerter being added to a group that features constant deep threat Duncan Robinson, among others.

Huerter is averaging nearly 11 points this season and is set to become a free agent this summer.

Ivey spent parts of four seasons with the Pistons. He was dealing with the aftereffects of knee surgery entering the season and was averaging a career-low 8.2 points, getting only 16.8 minutes per game, another career low.

Harden gets his wish, again

Harden is headed to the Cleveland Cavaliers, with the Los Angeles Clippers agreeing to send the 11-time All-Star back to the Eastern Conference during his highest-scoring season in six years, a person with knowledge of the agreement told the Associated Press on Tuesday night.

ESPN was first to report the deal was finalized.

The Cavaliers are giving up point guard Darius Garland and a second-round pick, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade has not yet been approved by the NBA.

That approval could come by Wednesday, when the Cavaliers and Clippers face off in Inglewood, California.

Harden is averaging 25.4 points this season, his most since averaging 34.3 points in 2019-20. He’s been a huge part of the Clippers’ resurgence back into playoff — or, at least, play-in — contention after a dismal 6-21 start.

“He means a lot to our team and we’ve seen it the last three years,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said Monday night when stories began breaking indicating such a move was close. “Who wouldn’t want to have James Harden?”

Cleveland will become Harden’s sixth team. He played for Oklahoma City, then Houston, then Brooklyn, then Philadelphia and, since 2023, the Clippers.

For the Cavaliers, it seems to be a move for right now — pairing the 36-year-old Harden with another star guard in Donovan Mitchell. For the Clippers, it seems to be a move with an eye on the future — the 26-year-old Garland is a two-time All-Star, averaging 18 points and 6.9 assists this season for Cleveland.

Harden opted out of the final year of his contract last summer with the Clippers to sign a new deal that would have been worth $81.5 million for this season and the 2026-27 campaign. Next year is at his option, which basically meant he was on a one-year contract anyway.

Another Bulls deal

The Boston Celtics are adding some frontline depth for the playoff run, agreeing Tuesday to acquire Nikola Vucevic from the Chicago Bulls for guard Anfernee Simons, a person with knowledge of the pending trade told the Associated Press.

There is a package of second-round draft capital also involved in the trade, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal is still pending the required league approval.

The 35-year-old Vucevic is joining his fourth team after stints with Philadelphia, Orlando and the Bulls. He has averaged 16.9 points and 9.0 rebounds this season, roughly matching his career marks of 17.2 points and 10.4 rebounds per game.

Simons was with the Celtics for just this season, after coming to Boston in the trade last summer that sent Jrue Holiday to Portland. He averaged 14.2 points this season for the Celtics, who entered Tuesday tied with New York for second in the Eastern Conference despite being without Jayson Tatum all season while he recovers from a torn Achilles.

Jazz make a move to acquire a star

Jaren Jackson Jr. was traded to the Utah Jazz in an eight-player, three-draft-pick deal with the rebuilding Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

Jackson, Jock Landale, John Konchar and Vince Williams Jr. were sent to Utah in exchange for Georges Niang, Kyle Anderson, Walter Clayton Jr. and Taylor Hendricks. The NBA approved the trade less than 48 hours ahead of the Thursday afternoon trade deadline.

Also included in the deal: three first-round picks for Memphis, which has been engaged in talks about trading star guard Ja Morant as well. For now, the Grizzlies — who already had built a sizable haul of looming first-round picks even before this move — decided to part with Jackson, a former defensive player of the year.

Jackson averaged 19.2 points and 5.8 rebounds per game this season for Memphis, the team that drafted him No. 4 overall in 2018. He was a two-time All-Star for the Grizzlies, the 2023 defensive player of the year, a two-time blocked shot champion and a three-time all-defensive team pick.

— Information from the Associated Press was used in this report

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