Born. To Andre Courreges, 47, Paris couturier and Coqueline Barriere, 35, whom he married secretly in 1965: their first child, a girl; in Paris.

Died. Clinton Rossiter, 52, author and professor of American Institutions at Cornell University; of cardiac arrest; in Ithaca, N.Y. His books included Seedtime of the Republic (1953), The American Presidency (1956) and Marxism: The View From America (1960).

Died. Bjarni Benediktsson, 62, Iceland's Premier since 1963, who embraced social welfare at home and friendship for the U.S. in foreign affairs; with his wife and grandson when their summer home outside Reykjavik was destroyed by fire.

Died. Barnett Newman, 65, Maximus of the minimal (see ART).

Died. Robb Sagendorph, 69, editor-publisher of The Old Farmer's Almanac, oldest (178 years) continuous periodical in the U.S.; in Peterborough, N.H. A wealthy Bostonian by birth, a New England farmer by inclination, Sagendorph bought the modernized--and ailing --Almanac in 1939, restored its time-honored format, offering readers old-fashioned recipes, a listing of odd holidays and dates ("Abe Lincoln, conceived, May 7, 1808"), homey poetry, astronomy tables, a farmer's calendar of crop and other advice, as well as long-range weather predictions, which he insisted were more accurate (78.5%) than those of the U.S. Weather Bureau (65.5%). The old ways obviously struck a responsive chord in readers; circulation grew from 86,000 in 1939 to 1,300,000 today.

Died. Marjorie Rambeau, 80, character actress, whose career on stage and screen spanned almost 70 years; in Palm Springs, Calif. A child star at the turn of the century and a romantic lead into the 1920s, she later portrayed the archetypical dowager in scores of plays and films, most notably Any Number Can Play, The View from Pompey's Head and A Man Called Peter.

Died. Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, 85, great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, founder of the New York Central Railroad, who won his own fame as an international yachtsman and inventor of the game of contract bridge; of heart disease; in Newport, R.I. Though he was a shrewd and hard-working director of the family empire from 1914 to 1954, when he lost control of the Central in a bitter proxy fight, Vanderbilt became best known for his achievements as an America's Cup yachtsman, and card player. He introduced contract bridge to the world in 1925, saw it become history's most popular parlor game.

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