MILESTONES

BORN. To NANCY KERRIGAN, 27, ex-Olympian figure skater, and JERRY SOLOMON, 42, her husband-manager; their first child, Matthew; in Boston.

ENGAGED. JOHN KASICH, 44, House Budget chairman, to KAREN WALDBILLIG, 32, a communications consultant.

NOMINATED. ANDREW CUOMO, 39, son of New York's ex-Governor Mario, as Housing Secretary; ALEXIS HERMAN, 49, White House aide, as Labor Secretary; FEDERICO PENA, 49, the Transportation chief, as Energy Secretary; and RODNEY SLATER, 41, Federal Highway Administrator, to replace Pena; by President Clinton; in Washington.

RECOVERING. DAVE THOMAS, 64, Wendy's founder and pitchman; from quadruple heart-bypass surgery following an apparent heart attack.

DIED. EVAN HUNZIKER, 26, the troubled U.S. youth released by North Korea last month after he swam into the country; by suicide; in Tacoma, Washington.

DIED. CARL SAGAN, 62, scientist and eloquent popularizer of astronomy whose lectures, books and TV appearances brought the majesty of the universe to ordinary earthlings; of pneumonia after a two-year battle with bone-marrow disease; in Seattle. Sagan's mantra of "billions and billions" of stars from his award-winning 1980 PBS series Cosmos became both the object of parody and popular shorthand for the vastness of the universe. The show attracted a global audience of more than 500 million people in 60 countries. A prolific writer, Sagan won a Pulitzer Prize in 1978 for The Dragons of Eden, a book on the evolution of human intelligence. An unabashed popularizer, Sagan believed in the existence of extraterrestrial life and in humankind's need to colonize the universe. Said he: "We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers."

DIED. QUENTIN BELL, 86, British artist, author and noted biographer of his novelist aunt, Virginia Woolf; in Firle, England. Born into a Bloomsbury family, he became a chronicler of the famed intellectual group that included his aunt as well as E.M. Forster and Duncan Grant.

DIED. HARRY KEMELMAN, 88, author of the popular Rabbi Small mystery series; in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Beginning with Friday the Rabbi Slept Late, his tales won praise for their masterly mix of sleuthing and Judaica.

DIED. LAURENS VAN DER POST, 90, South African-born conservationist acclaimed for his books on Africa; in London. Best-selling author of The Lost World of the Kalahari (1958), he was Prince Charles' guide to alternative life-styles and non-Christian religions.

DIED. IRVING CAESAR, 101, Tin Pan Alley lyricist whose words to Tea for Two, Swanee and many other popular tunes have become a treasured part of the musical lexicon; in New York City.