Milestones

By Melissa August, Elizabeth L. Bland, Victoria Rainert, Deirdre Van Dyk, Rebecca Winters And Yi Zhou

--DIED. STEPHEN AMBROSE, 66, populist historian whose best-selling books, including 1992's Band of Brothers and 1994's D-Day, about the courage of citizen soldiers in World War II, drew a broad audience of readers to American history; of lung cancer; in Bay St. Louis, Miss. As a child in Whitewater, Wis., Ambrose was deeply impressed by returning veterans--the start of the unabashed hero worship later reflected in his books. A history teacher for much of his life, Ambrose was asked by Dwight Eisenhower in 1963 to write the President-general's biography. It wasn't until the 1990s that Ambrose became a prolific publishing phenomenon, with titles such as Undaunted Courage (1996) and Citizen Soldiers (1997). He wrote 36 books, but last year he was criticized for failing to properly quote another writer's words in some of them. Ambrose also served as a film consultant and founded a D-day museum in New Orleans.

RECORD BROKEN. By PAULA RADCLIFFE, 28, in the women's running time for a 26.2-mile race; at the Chicago Marathon. The Briton finished in 2 hr. 17 min. 18 sec., a full 1 min. 29 sec. faster than the previous mark.

CONVICTION OVERTURNED. Against ALEX KING, 13, and his brother DEREK, 14, in the beating death of their father last November; in Pensacola, Fla. The judge ruled that the boys' right to due process was denied because of the prosecution's "unusual and bizarre" decision to try another man for the same killing prior to their highly publicized trial. That defendant was acquitted.

ACQUITTED. former mayor of York, PA., CHARLIE ROBERTSON, 68, of the murder of Lillie Belle Allen, a black woman killed in that city's 1969 race riots; in York. Two other white men were convicted of second-degree murder in the case; six more had pleaded guilty earlier.

PLEADED GUILTY. SAMUEL WAKSAL, 54, Former chief executive of ImClone Systems, to insider-trading charges. Among them: telling his daughter to dump shares of his highflying biotech firm just before news broke that the FDA had rejected one of its cancer drugs. Waksal is trying to spare family members from prosecution. His plea might not help home diva Martha Stewart, also under investigation for improperly selling ImClone shares.

CONVICTED. IRA EINHORN, 62, fugitive hippie turned New Age guru, of first-degree murder, for the 1977 bludgeoning death of his girlfriend, Helen (Holly) Maddux; in Philadelphia. On the lam in Europe for more than 15 years, Einhorn tried to blame the cia when Maddux's mummified body was found stuffed in a steamer trunk in the couple's Philadelphia apartment in 1979; at trial, his attorney called the corpse "just a piece of circumstantial evidence." Einhorn got life.

--DIED. RAY CONNIFF, 85, bandleader, trombonist and composer of light music for the stereophonic set; in Los Angeles. Conniff's more than 100 recordings, including chart-topping hits 'S Wonderful! and Somewhere My Love, sold more than 70 million copies. His orchestra's unmistakable sound was a melange of instrumental and choral voicings replete with oooos, ahs and his signature da-da-das.

DIED. ALLEN WALKER READ, 96, Language sleuth who hunted down the origin of words, including the initials O.K., which, he discovered, first appeared as an abbreviation, "O.K.--all correct," in the Boston Morning Post on March 23, 1839, a time when initials and misspellings, like "oll korrect," were oll the rage.