MILESTONES

AWARDED. To GRADY CARTER, 66, ex-smoker and survivor of lung cancer; a landmark $750,000 in a liability suit against Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co.; in Jacksonville, Florida. Said Carter, a smoker for 44 years: "Somebody needed to take these people on."

INAUGURATED. BORIS YELTSIN, 65, for a second term; in Moscow. Aides said Yeltsin, whose speech seemed slurred as he took the oath of office, will now take an extended vacation.

DIED. JAMES WHITMAN MCLAMORE, 70, co-founder of Burger King, who helped develop the Whopper; of cancer; in Coral Gables, Florida.

DIED. HERBERT HUNCKE, 81, hustler and hooligan who gave the Beats their name and William S. Burroughs his first fix; in New York City. He was a character in the works of his cronies Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac.

DIED. ELLA COLLINS, 82, civil rights activist and half-sister of Malcolm X who took over the Organization of Afro-American Unity in the wake of Malcolm's assassination; in Boston.

DIED. SIR FRANK WHITTLE, 89, engineer who in the 1930s developed the first jet engine for Britain, just as Hans J.P. von Ohain independently built one for Germany; in Columbia, Maryland.

DIED. ROSE HAMBURGER, 105, racetrack fixture and handicapper for the New York Post; in New York City. Her seven-month stint at the Post earned her a cameo on The Late Show with David Letterman and the moniker "Gamblin' Rose."

DIED. MARY THOMPSON, 120, indefatigable centenarian who reportedly "always kept her .22 in her bra"; in Orlando, Florida. The daughter of former slaves, Thompson never had a birth certificate, but the Social Security Administration traced her birth back to 1876. Until last week, that made her the oldest living American.