Milestones

DIED. Tage Erlander, 84, Prime Minister of Sweden from 1946 to 1969, the longest premiership ever in a modern Western democracy; of heart disease and pneumonia; in Huddinge, Sweden. A little-known former encyclopedia editor and Cabinet member, Erlander barely squeaked through his election to the top post of Sweden's long-dominant Social Democratic Party but gradually won critics over with his astute leadership and folksy style. He led his nation into a period of economic boom and toward achievement of full employment and cradle-to-grave welfare -- goals that his successors found more elusive in a less robust economy.