MILESTONES

ENGAGED. JACKIE COLLINS, 53, empress of the trash read; and fiftyish shopping-mall magnate FRANK CALCAGNINI. The wedding will be the third time around for the author.

SENTENCED. MEL REYNOLDS, 43, Democratic Congressman; to five years in prison, four for sex with an underage campaign worker, one for covering it up; in Chicago.

HOSPITALIZED. CHARLES KURALT, 61, retired TV commentator; for chest pains; in New York City. The former On the Road-ster is scheduled for heart-bypass surgery.

HOSPITALIZED. CHARLES VAN DOREN, 69, charismatic academic felled by the 1950s TV scandal recounted in the 1994 film Quiz Show; in stable condition after collapsing from an undisclosed illness; in Hartford, Connecticut.

DIED. ALISON STEELE, 58, disc jockey; of cancer; in New York City. "Come fly with me" was Steele's classic invitation, first sighed in the '60s in a voice marinated in smoke and sophistication--a suggestion so appealing to New York insomniacs that the "Nightbird" became one of the first women in the country to work as a rock 'n' roll deejay. She was also the first female recipient of Billboard's "FM Personality of the Year" and an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

DIED. DICK STEINBERG, 60, general manager of football's New York Jets, who stood out for his lack of interest in standing out while engineering championship teams for the L.A. Rams and the New England Patriots and struggling to jump-start the Jets; from stomach cancer; in Rockville Centre, New York.

DIED. BESSIE DELANY, 104, co-author with her sister Sadie, 106, of Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, a wry account of their lives as African Americans, from Jim Crow to justice--now a Broadway hit; in Mount Vernon, New York.