Milestones

By Sean Gregory; Unmesh Kher; Kate Novack; Aatish Taseer

RECOVERING. COLIN POWELL, 66, Secretary of State; after a two-hour operation to remove a cancerous prostate; in Washington. A State Department spokesman said doctors expect him to make a full recovery.

APPOINTED. JOHN THAIN, 48, president of investment bank Goldman Sachs; as chief executive of the beleaguered New York Stock Exchange; in New York City. Thain, a well-regarded technocrat, will take over the CEO post from interim chairman and chief executive John Reed, who will remain chairman under a new structure that splits the chairman and CEO jobs. Both were held by Dick Grasso, who resigned in September in the wake of protests over his hefty pay package.

GRANTED. Unsupervised visits with his parents for JOHN HINCKLEY JR., 48, who has been in a psychiatric hospital since 1982, when he was acquitted by reason of insanity for his attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan; in Washington.

CHARGED. MICHAEL JACKSON, 45, eccentric pop star; with seven counts involving a lewd and lascivious act upon a child and two counts of administering an "intoxicating agent," in connection with allegations that he molested a cancer-stricken boy, now 14, in February and March; in Santa Maria, Calif. Jackson could face more than 20 years in prison if convicted on all counts of molestation.

CHARGED. GEORGE RYAN, 69, ex-Republican Governor of Illinois who was nominated this year for the Nobel Peace Prize for commuting the sentences of the state's death-row prisoners to life because of his doubts about the death penalty; on 18 criminal counts of racketeering conspiracy, mail and tax fraud and making false statements, in what prosecutors allege was a "pattern of corruption" during 12 years of his political career; in Chicago.

CONVICTED. LEE BOYD MALVO, 18, suspect in last fall's D.C.-area sniper shootings that left 10 people dead; on all three counts with which he was charged, including capital murder and terrorism, making him eligible for the death penalty; in Chesapeake, Va.

DIED. JEANNE CRAIN, 78, wholesome film and TV actress who co-starred in such films as A Letter to Three Wives and Cheaper by the Dozen and was nominated for an Oscar for her starring role in 1949's Pinky, in which she portrayed a black woman passing for white; of a heart attack; in Santa Barbara, Calif.

DIED. OTTO GRAHAM, 82, Hall of Fame quarterback for the Cleveland Browns during the team's Golden Age, from 1946 to 1955; of a heart aneurysm; in Sarasota, Fla. He set a state record at birth, weighing in at 14 lbs. 12 oz., and went on to outsized contributions on the football field, passing for 23,584 yds. and 174 touchdowns and leading the Browns to an astonishing 10 championship games in his 10 seasons with the team.

DIED. WILLIAM ROTH JR., 82, former Republican Senator of Delaware from 1971 to 2001 best known as the architect of a popular tax-sheltered retirement account; of heart failure; in Washington. A budget watchdog who once discovered that the Defense Department was paying $9,600 for a wrench and $640 for a toilet seat, he co-sponsored the 1981 Kemp-Roth tax cuts that became a centerpiece of Reaganomics. His Roth IRA first became available in 1998, allowing people to make tax-free withdrawals for retirement, education or first-time home purchases.