Divorced. By Maria Callas, 47, tempestuous actress and opera diva: Giovanni Battista Meneghini, 75, Italian industrialist; after 22 years of marriage, the last twelve of which were spent in separation; in Brescia, Italy, following passage of a new Italian law allowing couples who have been legally separated for five years to divorce.

Divorced. Howard Hughes, 65, billionaire recluse; by Jean Peters, 44, former Hollywood actress; after 14 years of marriage, no children; in Hawthorne, Nev. They had lived apart for more than a year, legal grounds for divorce in Nevada. Following the couple's separation in 1969, Miss Peters commented: "This is not a decision reached in haste, and it is done only with the greatest of regret . . . Any property settlement will be resolved privately between us."

Died. Dr. Wendell M. Stanley, 66, Nobel-prizewinning biochemist; apparently of a heart attack; in Salamanca, Spain. As a researcher at Princeton's Rockefeller Institute, Stanley in 1935 was the first scientist to crystallize and identify a virus. He later organized Berkeley's internationally renowned virus laboratory, where he directed research that led to the isolation of the polio virus in 1953.

Died. Carlos Garcia, 74, President of the Philippines from 1957 to 1961; of a heart attack; in Manila. "There's nothing wrong with a civil servant providing for his future," claimed Garcia, who as Vice President willingly inherited the leadership of one of Asia's most graft-ridden countries when flamboyant Anti-Corruption Crusader Ramon Magsaysay was killed in a 1957 plane crash. Though Garcia had pledged an "all-out war" against graft, during his administration there were nearly 30,000 recorded cases of corruption in the Philippines--a fact used by Diosclado Macapagal to help unseat Garcia in the 1961 elections.

Died. Lord Reith, 81, architect of the British Broadcasting Corporation and first chairman of British Overseas Airways Corporation; of heart disease; in Edinburgh. The teetotaling son of a Scottish clergyman, John Reith left his job with an engineering firm to take charge of the BBC in 1922. He invested the BBC with his own strong sense of dignity by requiring unseen radio announcers to wear dinner jackets while reading the news. Reith resigned as BBC chief in 1938 to head Imperial Airways, which merged with another airline the following year to become BOAC. The dour Scot ran several ministries in the wartime governments of Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill.

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