Birthday. Mrs. William Howard Taft, widow of the late President and Chief Justice of the U. S.; age 77.

Engaged. Nicholas Ridgley du Pont, 22, brother of Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr.'s Ethel du Pont; to Genevieve Livingston Estes, 21, Jacksonville, Fla., debutante.

Married. Howard Earle Coffin, 63, industrialist (Southeastern Cottons, Inc., Sea Island Co., Hudson Motor Car Co., National Air Transport, Inc.), host to Presidents Coolidge and Hoover at his Georgia coast estate; to Gladys Baker, 39, Florida newspaper woman; her third husband; in Manhattan.

Left. By the late John Davison Rockefeller: an estate of $25,000,000, residue of a fortune which, but for gifts, might have reached $,.500,000,000. To John D. Rockefeller Jr. he left his personal effects. No bequests were made to friends or servants. Bulk of the estate, estimated at $10,000,000 after taxes, was left in trust to Mrs. Margaret Strong de Cuevas, daughter of the late Bessie Rockefeller Strong, oldest of Rockefeller's five children, and Prof. Charles Augustus Strong, now living in Fiesole, Italy. She is the wife of Marquis George de Cuevas, Spanish nobleman. They have two children. Elizabeth and John. Rockefeller's will explained that he had provided for his other children and grandchildren during his lifetime. First hearing the news, the de Cuevases said, "There must be some mistake." This week, preparing to depart for the U. S. they explained, "We have read about it in the newspapers. We are convinced now that the news actually is true."

Honored. Lieut. Richard T. Aldworth, U. S. Army Air Corps retired, now superintendent of Newark Airport; with the Distinguished Flying Cross. On Dec. 12, 1936, while flying over Long Island's Rockaway Beach, the engine of Aldworth's pursuit plane failed. At the cost of severe injuries to himself, he deliberately pancaked into the water to avoid endangering children on the beach.

Awarded. Benito Mussolini, 54, Premier of Italy, and his son-in-law Count Galeazzo Ciano, Italian Foreign Minister; by Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of Germany; first two decorations as Knight Grand Cross of Merit of the Order of the German Eagle.

Died. Jean Harlow, 26, platinum-blonde cinemactress; of cerebral edema (swelling of the brain), following acute uremia; in Hollywood's Good Samaritan Hospital. Christened Harlean Carpentier, reared in Kansas City, Jean Harlow became with Hell's Angels (1930), a top-rank star and the cinema's No. 1 symbol of sex appeal. She held her rank with Red Dust, Dinner at Eight, Blonde Bombshell, China Seas, Wife Versus Secretary, Libeled Lady, all made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Her first husband, with whom she eloped at 16, was Chicago Broker Charles McGrew, whom she divorced before she went to Hollywood. Her second was Producer Paul Bern, a suicide in 1932. Her third, Cameraman Hal Rosson, she divorced in 1934 for reading in bed. For the last two years her most regular Hollywood escort was Cinemactor William Powell. When she fell ill last fortnight, Jean Harlow was at work on Saratoga, with Clark Gable.

Died. Owen Cosby Philipps, Lord Kylsant of Carmarthen, 75, tallest (6 ft. 7 in.) member of the House of Lords; at his estate in Wales. Onetime head of 43 shipping companies operating 560 ships of 2,800,000 gross tons, he went to jail in 1931 for stating falsely the condition of his Royal Mail Steam Packet Co., was released in 1932 for good conduct, but with his health broken.

Died. Mrs. Aurelia McDearmon Caldwell Glass, wife of Virginia's Senator Carter Glass; of a heart ailment; in Lynchburg, Va.

Died. John Tobin Connery, 76, proprietor of Chicago's Edgewater Beach and Mississippi's Edgewater Gulf hotels; of heart disease; in Chicago.

Died. Sylvester Zeffarino Poli, 77, showman, sculptor, artist, founder of the chain of 18 Poli theatres in New England; of pneumonia; in Woodmont, Conn.

Died. John Robertson Dunlap, 80, retired founder of trade and scientific magazines (India Rubber World, Hardware, Engineering Magazine, Industrial Management, Industry Illustrated); in New York City.

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