MILESTONES

STEPS DOWN. RICHARD HOLBROOKE, 54, Assistant Secretary of State; in Washington. The famously undiplomatic diplomat leaves office with a miracle on his resume: the Dayton peace accords, which, so far, have silenced the guns of the Balkans.

ACQUITTED. SNOOP DOGGY DOGG (CALVIN BROADUS), 24, rapper; on murder and related charges in the shooting death of a gang member; in Los Angeles. The jury deadlocked on a manslaughter charge.

HOSPITALIZED. ALIJA IZETBEGOVIC, 70, President of Bosnia; for heart trouble; in Sarajevo. Though stable, Izetbegovic may yet be replaced in the midst of a fragile peace.

DIED. CHARLIE FINLEY, 77, over-the-top owner of baseball's Kansas City and Oakland A's; known for innovations such as the designated hitter, nighttime World Series games and colored uniforms; of heart and vascular disease; in Chicago.

DIED. BROWNIE MCGHEE, 80, guitarist-singer; in Oakland, California. McGhee and harmonica player Sonny Terry brought the folk-flavored blues of the Carolina Piedmont to the world, influencing generations of rockers, folkies and bluesmen.

DIED. ELEANOR CLARK, 82, essay writer and novelist whose stylish books on Rome and Brittany used travel as a springboard for evocative explorations of culture and history; in Boston. She was the widow of the novelist Robert Penn Warren.

DIED. MORTON GOULD, 82, versatile composer; in Orlando, Florida. A child prodigy--Just Six was composed when he was just six--Gould drew heavily on American themes and music in pieces like Fall River Legend, the Lizzie Borden ballet for Agnes de Mille, and in compositions rooted in idioms as diverse as jazz, folk music and marching bands. He won a Pulitzer for Stringmusic, commissioned by the National Symphony.