MILESTONES

ENGAGED. ANDREA MITCHELL, 50, NBC News correspondent, and ALAN GREENSPAN, 70, Federal Reserve chairman; after 12 years of dating. Mitchell told the New York Times it was "rational exuberance" that led to Greenspan's proposal, alluding to a pronouncement by the Fed chairman that caused world stock markets to tumble. They plan to wed in the spring.

MARRIED. VACLAV HAVEL, 60, playwright President of the Czech Republic, and DAGMAR VESKRNOVA, mid-40s, a prominent Czech actress; at a municipal hall, in Prague. It is the second marriage for both. Havel is recovering from the removal of a malignant tumor and half his right lung.

RETIRING. MIGUEL INDURAIN, 32, Spanish cyclist who won the Tour de France five consecutive times.

SENTENCED. NGAWANG CHOEPHEL, 30, a Tibetan music scholar, to 18 years in prison by the Chinese government; for espionage. Choephel fled Tibet as a child but returned in 1995 to make a documentary about traditional music--only to be caught up in a crackdown.

DIED. TOWNES VAN ZANDT, 52, country singer whose dark recordings about life's losers included Pancho and Lefty (recorded by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard); of a heart attack; in Smyrna, Tennessee. Born to wealth, Van Zandt spent part of his teens institutionalized for manic depression. At one point he became so poor he subsisted on dog food. But his songs influenced generations of country and rock singers, from Neil Young to the Cowboy Junkies.

DIED. JACK NANCE, 53, actor, who starred in David Lynch cult classics, including the movie Eraserhead and the TV series Twin Peaks. Nance was found dead in his home in South Pasadena, California, a day after being hit on the head during a fight at a doughnut shop.

DIED. DR. WILLIAM B. WALSH, 76, founder of the first peacetime floating hospital, the S.S. Hope; in Maryland.

DIED. BARRY GRAY, 80, a radio talk-show pioneer who was a fixture on New York airwaves for a half-century; in New York City.

DIED. LEW AYRES, 88, actor; in Los Angeles. In a career spanning six decades, he starred in All Quiet on the Western Front, played opposite Greta Garbo and portrayed Dr. Kildare in the MGM film series. During World War II, Ayres provoked an outcry by declining combat duty. (He served as a medic and chaplain's aide.) Weathering the controversy, he went on to receive an Oscar nomination for his role in Johnny Belinda.

DIED. MARGRET E. REY, 90, co-creator, with her late husband Hans Augusto Rey, of Curious George, a children's-book series about a mischievous monkey; in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The diminutive Rey sometimes served as her husband's model for their famous creation, making faces and jumping from chair to chair. Said Rey: "My husband always called me curious. But then I think most people are."