Milestones

By Melissa August, Matthew Cooper, Rachel Dry, Daren Fonda, Ellin Martens, Benjamin Nugent, Julie Rawe and Josh Tyrangiel

BORN. To IMAN, 45, swan-necked Somali model; and DAVID BOWIE, 53, glamrock icon and Web entrepreneur; their first child together, a daughter, Alexandria Zahra Jones; in Los Angeles.

ARRESTED. BEI LING, 40, Boston-based Chinese poet and editor of Tendency, which publishes young Chinese writers and interviews with Western authors; while visiting Beijing. Days later, Bei's brother, writer HUANG FENG, was also arrested. Charges against them are unclear.

SENTENCED. GARY PAUL KARR, 52; to life in prison for extortion from atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair, missing since 1995 along with her son and granddaughter; in Austin, Texas. Trial testimony pointed to the trio's kidnapping, murder and dismemberment, but remains have never been found.

MATRICULATING. PRINCE WILLIAM, 18, heir to the heir to the British throne and towheaded teen pinup; to Scotland's St. Andrews University; to study art history after taking this year off to work and travel the world.

MARRIED. NEWT GINGRICH, 57, Republican firebrand, former House Speaker, and techie futurist; and CALLISTA BISEK, 34, a congressional aide with whom he had a longtime affair; in Alexandria, Va. It is his third marriage, her first.

DIED. ROBERT GILRUTH, 86, aeronautical engineer, rocket booster in the early days of the U.S. space program and director of the Johnson Space Center during the Apollo moon landings; in Charlottesville, Va. As director, he oversaw 25 manned space flights.

DIED. FRIEDA HARDIN, 103, Navy "yeomanette" in World War I who enlisted before women could vote and symbolized the strides of women in the military; in Livermore, Calif. In 1997 Hardin addressed 30,000 at Arlington National Cemetery, earning three standing ovations when she urged young women interested in military careers to "go for it."