Milestones

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Elizabeth L. Bland, Roy B. White, Rebecca Winters

RETIRING. FRED THOMPSON, 59, G.O.P. Senator from Tennessee who has acted in numerous films, including Cape Fear and In the Line of Fire; in Washington. "I simply do not have the heart for another six-year term," Thompson said.

DENIED. RUDOLPH GIULIANI, 57, ex-mayor of New York City; his request for joint custody of his children Andrew, 15, and Caroline, 12; in New York City. A state judge who will determine permanent custody in June said Giuliani had not spent sufficient time with his children.

CONVICTED. H. RAP BROWN, 58, 1960s radical, of killing a sheriff's deputy and wounding another in a 2000 shoot-out; in Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta. Brown, a Black Panther turned Muslim cleric known as Jamil Adullah al-Amin, could face execution or life imprisonment.

CAPTURED. BENJAMIN ARELLANO FELIX, 50, Mexico's biggest druglord; in Puebla, Mexico. He confirmed that his brother and partner, Ramon, 36, was killed in a February shootout. They ruled the Tijuana cartel, the top traffickers in Mexico's $30 billion drug trade.

DIED. HARLAN HOWARD, 74, country-music composer whose songs were recorded by Ray Charles, Patsy Cline, Waylon Jennings and Patty Loveless; of undisclosed causes; in Nashville, Tenn. Howard wrote more than 100 Top 10 hits, including Cline's signature I Fall to Pieces.

DIED. WARREN HARDING, 77, first rock climber to scale Yosemite's El Capitan, who opened the door to "big wall" climbing in the U.S.--nicknamed "Batso" for his batlike tendency to hang from cliffs; of liver failure; in Happy Valley, Calif.

DIED. SHELLEY MYDANS, 86, LIFE magazine war reporter who, with her photographer husband Carl, spent 21 months in a Japanese POW camp; in New York City. She wrote The Open City, a novel based on the experiences of Americans captured by the Japanese during World War II.

DIED. HUGH GLOSTER, 90, longtime president of Morehouse College who oversaw the historically black school's rapid expansion in the key post-civil rights era; in Decatur, Ga. In his 19-year tenure, enrollment and faculty doubled.

DIED. HOWARD CANNON, 90, World War II pilot turned Democratic Senator from Nevada who lost re-election in 1982 after Teamster members were accused--and later convicted--of offering him a bribe for helping to kill a bill deregulating the trucking industry; in Las Vegas. He insisted he was never approached for a quid pro quo, and he was never indicted.