Milestones

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Ellin Martens, Coco Masters, Rebecca Myers

ARRESTED. Seventeen Canadian residents12 men ages 19 to 43 and five juveniles on terrorism charges in Toronto-area raids. Police seized three tons of the explosive fertilizer ammonium nitrate, allegedly intended for targets in southern Ontario.

SETTLED. By Wen Ho Lee, 66, U.S. nuclear scientist once suspected of, but never charged with, espionage; his suit against the U.S. government for allegedly violating his privacy by leaking reports that he was being investigated for spying for China; in Washington. The government will pay Lee $895,000 for legal fees and other costs. Separately, five news organizations agreed to pay Lee $750,000, ending proceedings against their reporters for not divulging sources.

DIED. Vince Welnick, 55, the last keyboardist for psychedelic-rock gurus the Grateful Dead; in Forestville, Calif. Formerly of the Tubes, he joined the Dead in 1990 and played with the group until it disbanded after lead guitarist Jerry Garcia's death in 1995. Welnick, who suffered from depression, is the band's fourth keyboardist to have died prematurely. Some fans believe the position was cursed.

DIED. James Conway, 78, co-founder of Mister Softee ice cream, cherished mobile purveyor of frozen delights; in Ocean City, N.J. Such was the ardor for the white trucks that when New York City officials tried to ban the familiar--to some, cloying--jingle, a public outcry forced them to back down. Launched in 1956, when Conway and his brother William drove a truck around Philadelphia giving away green ice cream on St. Patrick's Day, the company now has 600 trucks in 15 states.

DIED. Carolyn Shaw Bell, 85, dynamic Wellesley College economist credited with upping the number of women in economics and business by inspiring her students to enter those male-dominated fields and helping to produce what the New York Times in 1995 called the "Wellesley factor"; in Arlington, Va.

DIED. Robert Sterling, 88, hunky actor in low-profile 1940s MGM movies who shot to national fame as a ghost, below, with co-stars Anne Jeffreys, his off- and onscreen wife, and Leo G. Carroll, on the hugely popular 1950s TV sitcom Topper; in Brentwood, Calif. Sterling played George Kerby, who, with wife Marion, dies in a skiing accident, then returns to his former home where the spectral couple end up coaching new occupant Cosmo Topper--a cranky banker and the only person who can see the Kerbys--on how to enjoy life.

DIED. Raymond Davis Jr., 91, chemist who shared the 2002 Nobel Prize for Physics for his arduous experiments in the depths of mines in Ohio and South Dakota that proved the existence of neutrinos--tiny, elusive particles produced by nuclear reactions on the sun; on Long Island, N.Y.

DIED. Hugh Patterson Jr., 91, levelheaded publisher of the now defunct Arkansas Gazette who in 1957 stood against segregation in the face of racist mobs that, in defiance of a 1954 Supreme Court ruling, tried to block black students from matriculating at Little Rock's Central High School; in Little Rock, Ark. The paper suffered circulation and ad- revenue losses exceeding $1 million for its stance on the issue but later won two Pulitzer Prizes for its coverage of the federal-state confrontation.

DIED. Slim Aarons, 89, photographer of socialites, princes and stars who created for magazines, including LIFE and Town and Country, some of the most iconic images of the 20th century; in Montrose, N.Y. After serving as a combat photographer during World War II, Aarons determined to devote the rest of his career to chronicling, in his words, "attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places." Among the best-known images: Clark Gable, Van Heflin, Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart laughing conspiratorially in a 1957 photo called The Kings of Hollywood, left, which Smithsonian magazine called the "Mount Rushmore of stardom."