MILESTONES

SIGNED. EMMITT SMITH, 27, running back; to the Dallas Cowboys. The eight-year, $48 million contract includes a record $15 million signing bonus.

ACQUITTED. DEBRA L. MEEKS, 41, Air Force major; of sodomy; in San Antonio, Texas. Accused of having a two-year live-in relationship with civilian Pamela Dillard, Meeks refused to state her sexual orientation throughout the trial. Her lawyers argued that the case violated the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy for homosexuals.

EXONERATED. DIETRICH BONHOEFFER, influential Lutheran theologian hanged in 1945 for high treason against Germany; by a Berlin court, which ruled that a 1946 law nullifying Nazi-era judgments formally overturned the death sentence an SS tribunal had imposed. Bonhoeffer, whose writings held up the suffering Christ as a model of submission to God's will, had denounced Hitler as the "anti-Christ." He died at 39, one month before Germany surrendered.

KIDNAPPED. MAMORU KONNO, 56, Japanese president of a subsidiary of electronics giant Sanyo; in Tijuana, Mexico. Konno was abducted at gunpoint as he left an employee baseball game. Kidnappers demanded a $2 million ransom.

DIED. TOM MEES, 46, ESPN sportscaster; by accidental drowning; in Southington, Connecticut. Although police were unable to confirm it, initial reports were that Mees jumped into a neighbor's pool to rescue his four-year-old daughter. His wife told police that Mees could not swim.

DIED. RAY FULLER, 60, co-developer of the antidepressant drug Prozac; of leukemia; in Greenwood, Indiana.

DIED. MEL TAYLOR, 62, drummer for the Ventures, who were known for the theme of TV's Hawaii Five-O; of lung cancer; in Los Angeles. The Ventures' classic Surf Rider was featured in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction.

DIED. RICHARD UPTON, 81, ex-speaker of the New Hampshire house of representatives, who engineered the first-in-the-nation presidential primary; in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

DIED. RAFAEL KUBELIK, 82, Bohemian-born maestro; in Lucerne, Switzerland. Son of renowned violinist Jan Kubelik, he became, at 27, chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague. Seeking artistic freedom, he left Czechoslovakia when it went communist in 1948. Over the years he led the Chicago Symphony and Munich's Bavarian Radio Symphony.

DIED. VANGELIA GUSHTEROVA, 84, who was known as "Vanga," a prophet venerated by politicians and peasants; in Rupite, Bulgaria. By her account, Vanga was hurled more than a mile by a storm at age 12--which left her blind but may have opened up worlds hidden and future. She dreamed in 1941 of an "ancient horseman" who foretold the Nazi march into the Balkans.