it was 20 years ago today

Maria Grigorievna Rasputin, daughter of Czarist Russia’s night-unkillable “mad monk,” dies in her Silver Lake duplex. She was 77.

* A topaz ’77 Mercedes 280SE with bamboo leather interior, sunroof and stereo could be yours for $18,250.

* The state banks the biggest cash surplus in its history--more than $1.86 billion. The surplus is “the product of a year of inflation and economic growth in the state which far outstripped attempts to predict . . . revenues and expenditures,” says Controller Ken Cory.