Milestones

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Elizabeth L. Bland, Julie Rawe, Eric Roston and Roy B. White

RETIRING. MARGARET THATCHER, 76, Europe's first woman Prime Minister, who as Conservative leader of Britain earned the nickname "Iron Lady" for her battles against socialism and the labor unions; from the public lecture circuit; after suffering a series of small strokes; in London.

AILING. PAMELA ANDERSON, 34, TV actress; with hepatitis C, a potentially fatal but often treatable virus that attacks the liver; in Los Angeles. The former Baywatch star said she contracted it by sharing a tattoo needle with her rocker ex-husband Tommy Lee, whom she is battling for custody of their children. Lee's publicist denied he had the virus, saying Anderson was trying "to hurt Tommy and their two boys."

DIED. BRITTANIE CECIL, 13, eighth-grader struck in the head with a puck while watching a National Hockey League game, the first such fan fatality in the league's history; two days before her 14th birthday; in Columbus, Ohio. An artery to her brain was damaged, doctors later determined, when the puck caused her head to snap back.

DIED. WILLIAM CHOLL, 81, designer of the ubiquitous wooden sandal that, in the 1970s, enjoyed U.S. sales of $30 million a year; on the Isle of Man, Britain. Son of a founder of the Dr. Scholl's company, he spotted the sandal in Germany, reshaped it to flex the arch and added a leather strap. Consumers took care of the rest.

DIED. HERMAN TALMADGE, 88, cigar-chomping ex-U.S. Senator and Governor of Georgia who started as a staunch segregationist--he voted against the Civil Rights Act--but later supported issues important to blacks; in Hampton, Ga. The Democrat won respect for his fierce, effective grilling of Nixon witnesses while on the Senate Watergate Committee but lost his bid for a fifth term in 1980 after the Senate denounced him for financial improprieties.

DIED. JAMES F. BLAKE, 89, Montgomery, Ala., bus driver who ordered Rosa Parks to give up her seat to a white passenger on Dec. 1, 1955; in Montgomery. Parks' refusal and subsequent arrest led to the 1956 Supreme Court decision banning segregated transportation and helped spawn the civil rights movement.

DIED. PAUL RUNYAN, 93, tiny golf great of the 1930s known as "Little Poison" for his deadly short game, which helped him topple stronger, longer-driving opponents; in Palm Springs, Calif. His 50 tournament wins included two PGA championships, one of them a 1938 match-play victory over Sam Snead.