Milestones

By Melissa August; Unmesh Kher; Nadia Mustafa; Kate Novack

INSTALLED. WILLIAM PRYOR JR., 41, Alabama attorney general; as a U.S. appeals-court judge; by President Bush, despite opposition by Senate Democrats, who objected to Pryor's comments and writings on abortion and homosexuality. Bush's second recess appointment this year follows the promotion of Mississippi federal Judge Charles Pickering Sr.

CONVICTED. THOMAS O'BRIEN, 68, Roman Catholic bishop and former head of Arizona's largest diocese; of leaving the scene of a fatal accident, after striking a pedestrian with his car; in Phoenix. Despite his testimony that he was unaware that he had hit a person, he faces up to 45 months in prison.

DIED. SPOT, 14, President Bush's springer spaniel; put to sleep; in Washington.

DIED. MARCO PANTANI, 34, flamboyant Italian cycling champion beset by allegations of performance-enhancing substance use; of an apparent drug overdose; in Rimini, Italy. Nicknamed Elefantino, or Dumbo, for his big ears, he won both the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, a rare feat, in 1998.

DIED. FRANK DEL OLMO, 55, Pulitzer prizewinning editor and columnist who covered Latino issues for the Los Angeles Times; of an apparent heart attack, after collapsing in his office; in Los Angeles. The L.A. native began his 34 years at the paper as an intern and rose to become the first Latino listed among the top editors on the masthead. He won a Pulitzer for a series on Southern California's Latino community in 1984 and an Emmy Award in 1975 for writing The Unwanted, a TV documentary on illegal immigration.

DIED. DORIS TROY, 67, the melodically ambitious singer of the 1963 hit Just One Look, whose beginnings as a choir girl in her father's Harlem church inspired the long-running musical Mama, I Want to Sing; of emphysema; in Las Vegas. Under her birth name, Doris Payne, she wrote most of her own material, bridging gospel, soul and rock. As Doris Troy (from Helen of Troy) she sang backup for bands like the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd.

DIED. SHIRLEY STRICKLAND DE LA HUNTY, 78, the first woman to win consecutive Olympic titles, in 1948, '52 and '56, including three gold medals in sprinting and hurdling for Australia; in Perth. Also a mother and nuclear physicist, she chased rabbits while growing up on her family farm but took up running seriously only a couple of years before her first Olympics in 1948.

DIED. JOSE LOPEZ PORTILLO, 83, who as President of Mexico from 1976 to 1982 led a free-spending, corruption-ridden oil boom that took the nation to the brink of economic collapse, setting off a global debt crisis; in Mexico City. An otherwise affable personality who spent early mornings practicing javelin throws and late evenings poring over literature, he was Mexico's Secretary of Finance before his election as President for a term so unpopular that he had to move to Europe for several years after he left office.

DIED. JAN MINER, 86, stage and film actress best known for her role as Madge, the manicurist in Palmolive commercials from 1966 to 1992; in Bethel, Conn. In the ads the wisecracking Madge would praise the gentleness of the dish detergent to a customer, who would invariably react in shock when informed that her hands were soaking in it.