Milestones

By Ian Judson, Daniel S. Levy, Lina Lofaro, Belinda Luscombe, Barbara Maddux and Michele Orecklin

EXPELLED. SIX AMERICAN ACTIVISTS held in custody for six days for distributing pro-democracy leaflets; from Myanmar (formerly Burma). Twelve other foreigners were also released by the military regime. The 18 were originally sentenced to five years hard labor following a one-day trial.

KILLED. More than 20 BYSTANDERS; by a car bomb; in Omagh, Northern Ireland. The blast occurred last Saturday in a crowded shopping district on the 29th anniversary of British troop deployment in Northern Ireland. One of the worst acts of violence in the three-decade conflict, it took place 17 days before President Clinton's planned visit to the area.

DIED. THE REV. RAYMOND BROWN, 70, biblical scholar and author of more than 40 books who sought to illuminate the historical basis of the Gospels; in Redwood City, Calif.

DIED. BENNY WATERS, 96, jazz's ebullient elder statesman who toured with and taught some of the genre's greats; in Columbia, Md. A saxophonist, clarinetist and arranger, Waters was playing jazz before jazz was officially created. In the '20s and '30s he played nightclubs in New York City's Harlem with Benny Carter, among others, and was a member of the house band at the Apollo Theatre; but partly because of his legendary carousing, he never achieved the fame enjoyed by many of his colleagues. Blind from failed cataract surgery since 1992, he continued his hectic international touring schedule until this past June.

DIED. ROSE BLUMKIN, 104, Midwestern retailing maven who, as a non-English-speaking Russian immigrant, founded the Nebraska Furniture Mart in 1937 and fostered its growth into one of the nation's largest home-furnishings stores; in Omaha. Blumkin's aggressive marketing philosophy rested on underselling her competitors. Among her fans was Warren Buffett, who bought majority control of the Mart in 1983.